Hi All,
Got a Robot Vacuum from walmart about 6 months ago, Great unit does a good job cleaning, mapped awesome.
BUT.
The first few cleanings of the house with standard suction, no issues to do the ~ 800sqft in one go with ~25% battery left. But now it cant even get through half of the house before having to return to the base station to charge.
We dont run it that often (once maybe every 10 days), its always “fully” charged when we start it, but it really seems like that its not even close to charged after sitting.
What gives???
It appears to let the battery discharge somewhat while still saying 100%. I’ve not had a chance to verify this, but I have noticed that after 7 days if I don’t do the shorter run downstairs the night before it is not able to finish the upstairs. However, it is no where near as extreme as your case.
Try running it a bit the night before to force a recharge, see if it makes better progress the next day. Also, make sure the contacts are clean (isopropyl alcohol).
Let us know how it goes.
2 Likes
Thats kinda crazy that it doesnt keep a topped off charge or report the actual battery level.
When sitting fully charged should lights be fully on or should they be amber?
Pulsing amber when charging. Full on white, “fully charged”. Lithium batteries don’t like to be kept at 100% at all times. I’ve not done any tests on the charger circuit yet to see what this one in particular does.
I’ve occasionally seen it fail to dock in a way that it reports charging but doesn’t actually charge, if it was smarter it would notice that it wasn’t making progress. It must have just enough of a connection that can run the electronics, but not enough to force current into the battery. I vaguely remember the lights blinking amber quickly in this state, so does it realize or not, I’m not sure, it is suppose to re-dock if doesn’t attach to the charger correctly.