Brand |
ILIFE |
---|---|
Model Name |
FBA_ILIFEA4S01 |
Special Feature |
Self-charging, Remote Control, deep clean on thin carpet |
Color |
Iron Gray |
Product Dimensions |
12.99"L x 12.6"W x 2.99"H |
Included Components |
Battery |
Filter Type |
Sponge |
Battery Life |
120 minutes |
Voltage |
14.4 Volts |
Capacity |
0.45 Liters |
Power Source |
Battery Powered, Corded Electric |
Are Batteries Included |
Yes |
Control Method |
Remote |
Compatible Devices |
Amazon Echo |
Form Factor |
Robotic |
Item Weight |
4.9 pounds |
Manufacturer |
ILIFE |
ASIN |
B01N9P4NH5 |
Country of Origin |
China |
Item model number |
FBA_ILIFEA4S01 |
Batteries |
1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
Customer Reviews |
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Best Sellers Rank |
#95,057 in Home & Kitchen (See Top 100 in Home & Kitchen) #104 in Robotic Vacuums |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer |
No |
Specific instructions for use |
dual action, hard floor, carpet |
Volume |
37800 Cubic Centimeters |
Assembly required |
No |
Number of pieces |
1 |
Warranty Description |
12 months warranty for the robot. |
Batteries required |
No |
MAECENAS IACULIS
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It’s what you see –
UPDATED REVIEW from late Dec., 2019 –Yes, Rambot has been going strong for nearly 3 years! He’s actually cleaning my floors right now while I see whether there’s a newer model that compels me to replace him. So far, I don’t see anything worth buying that will do much more than him. Mechanically and electronically, everything works like it did the first week. He’s a bit dirtier but he loves a good bath!Seriously, for a cheap robot vacuum, this is a great deal. It’s whisper quiet on a medium rug and only a little noisier on wood. It picks up cat hair like nobody’s business, and gets dust, dirt and sand, too. It does love to suck up cords, cat toys and hair ties but any vaccuum would. You have to scan the floor for little debris like that before you let it run. I have only two wishes:* He tries to go under things that are nearly his own height and he gets stuck. That makes it hard to turn him on and leave the house, because he’ll obviously never finish his job. It would be nice if he worked with the magnetic boundaries.* The dust bin fills quickly and is a bit messy to clean. I have 2 cats and I had no idea how much hair they shed until I got Rambot! But the hair collects quickly so I need to remember to clean the dust bin after every accuum. Things tend to go flying around just a bit when you pull out the dust bin and roller bar.But that’s it, which is saying something or a piece of tech that’s nearly 3 years old. Great product!INITIAL REVIEW from April, 2017 –My son ridiculed me when I bought this. He has been asking me to buy a “real”; vacuum cleaner to use in his room but we have a very small house and no place to store a full-size vacuum, so I bought this iLife after doing a lot of research. We have no traditional carpet in our house. We have tiled kitchens and bathrooms and hardwood with throw rugs and area rugs in every room. We live by the beach and we’re always tracking in sand and none of us remember to remove our shoes at that door. Plus my two teenagers are pretty bad housekeepers and we have a cat that comes in & out of the house so we almost always have dirt and dust on the floor.He didn’t think this vacuum would be any better than the $30 stick vacuum that I bought a few months ago to use on the area rugs. But it is so much better! It even works better than sweeping the hardwood floors. My son named him Rambot (silent “T”). I usually close off the bedrooms and bathroom to force Rambot to stay in the kitchen, living room, hallway and entry. Even then, Rambot works for 2-1/2+ hours before going home. He does a great job of getting along edges and even okay with corners. You’ll go nuts if you try to figure out the path/pattern he follows to complete the house. It’s very random and I really don’t understand how he can be sure he reaches every nook before going home — but he does!I have a couple thin area rugs in the kitchen and hallway that Rambot does clean. It usually flips up the edges as it moves over them but once it’s on the rug it does fine and hasn’t gotten jammed yet. It goes over the bound edges of my other thin area rugs without issue. It also cleans the knobby seagrass rug in my bedroom but I’ve stopped using it there because it actually pulls up the fibers and is ruining the rug after just one use (it’s a cheap rug, I guess I’m not too surprised).A couple tips before you vacuum:* Just like with a full-size vac, pick up small bits of paper, strings, hair ties, cords lying on the floor or any other small objects that could get wrapped around the roller.* The first couple times you let the vac get under furniture, you’ll be shocked at what it picks up. You’ll have to empty the dust cartridge multiple times before it’s done cleaning* Don’t worry about whether it’ll get to a certain spot. It will — it will just take a while!I haven’t used the remote control much, because I tend to turn Ramot on then either go to bed or leave the house. I have used the “Home” button a couple times, and it works well.All in all, I’m thrilled at this purchase. My floors have never been cleaner!
Jack ChuJack Chu –
The media could not be loaded. There is always endless cleaning when you have kids in the household. We own quite a few high-end manual vacuum cleaner such as Dyson DC24 and V6 but it’s too much work for the wife to do the vacuuming frequently. I did some research on Amazon and decide to purchase this ILIFE A4s vacuum robot cleaner to offload some work form wife so she can spend more time with kids. The reason we picked A4s over the V series, which includes mopping feature is because we have thin carpets in our place and a stronger suction power is needed.ILIFE A4s is the upgraded version of the popular ILIFE A4. It mainly added features such as mini-room cleaning mode, tangle-free bearing system, a better battery life and also it can be shipped to California. Dimension and appearance wise it’s identical to A4. The package contains ILIFE A4s vacuum robot cleaner, remove control, charger base, power adapter, cleaning brush, 2 extra robot side brushes, 1 extra HEPA filter, and user manual. It’s very nice that ILIFE included additional side brushes and HEPA filter as those need to be replaced over time. ILIFE A4s has an ON/OFF switch on the side and a single button on top of the unit to activate/stop the robot. Most advance controls are accessible through the included remote. ILIFE A4s has a large dust bin (less maunal clean up) and can be easily removed from main body for cleaning up.CONTROLILIFE A4s goes into automatic cleaning mode if I press the button on top of the unit and it stops cleaning if I press it again. Long press the button will make the robot move into SLEEP mode, where the lights are off to conserve battery. Advance controls are available on the remote. There is a LCD screen on top of the remote to display current time and the scheduled cleaning time for the robot. The buttons on the remote are: “CLEAN”, to start/stop automatic cleaning for the robot; “Directional Keys”, to manual control robot movement and to adjust settings; “MAX”, to activate MAX suction power, which is 1000PA. “PLAN” “CLOCK”, are used to adjust scheduled and current time; “Home”, to request robot return to charger base; “EDGE”, to request robot to start edge cleaning mode; “SPOT”, to request robot to start spot cleaning mode.CLEANING MODEThere are 3 main operating modes – AUTO, EDGE, and SPOT. AUTO cleaning mode uses a random algorithm and it doesn’t have an idea of house floor plan as ILIFE A4s doesn’t have “eyes” like NEATO robots. However, it works pretty well in small place like mine. My place is roughly 1200 sq feet and A4s is smart enough to navigate from room to room and pick up most dirt. EDGE mode works well along the wall and even stair rails in my place. SPOT cleaning is a great feature for carpet as most dirty places on carpet requires several iterations to clean up.CLEANING POWER/ NAVIGATIONThere are cliff sensors on ILIFE A4s so it won’t fall off stairs. ILIFE A4s also tries slow down when it senses an obstruction in front. It works pretty well and I only occasionally see it charges into furniture. My place is mainly thin carpet with some tiles and hardwood. ILIFE A4s has no problem crossing different types of floors as it can climb over small height. On tile and hardwood, it works fairly well and cleans up most dirt even close to edge. I would say it’s probably better than my average manual work for edge cleaning unless I try really hard (It’s not easy to use a regular vacuum to clean up edge. I always had to use extra accessories but I got lazy sometimes). On carpet, it does a fair job. It does pick up most hairs/ trash from carpet but I usually have to manually control it with MAX mode to do some deep cleaning for difficult spots. The tangle-free design works pretty well and it goes over my wires without getting stuck. The robot is smart enough to find a way in and out between chair legs. It does take a while to get out of small confined space because it uses a random algorithm to try to find a way out.BATTERY LIFEILIFE A4s will automatically try to return to its charging base when battery is low. However, I do have to follow the recommendation in manual otherwise it would get lost before it reaches the base. The charger base needs an open area with 1M clearance on the side and 2M clearance in front. My ILIFE A4s is able to clean roughly 2 hours per charge in normal mode (not MAX).Overall I really like this ILIFE A4s a lot and it does a decent job cleaning my place. Function-wise I have no complain as the unit is at a very good price point. However, somehow the package I received has a very heavy molding smell inside and even in the robots. I tried to let it sit a few days but the smell is still there. It might be just my bad luck though.
trbizwiz –
The media could not be loaded. This is an early review from about a weeks worth of use. But I do regularly update reviews with pertinent changes.Let me preface with, I am an owner of a Neato Robot Vac for the last 4 years. It is the original XV series. I’ve liked it, but it had its bugs. The error message ‘put my dust bin back in’…..UGH!!!!! That drove me crazy for the last 3.5 years. But the Neato did a good enough job, that I dealt with it.We have 4 kids, so we stay busy and have little time for cleaning. Having 4 kids means we have substantial need for regular cleaning. I installed a central Vac for regular deep cleaning, but still find the need for daily robot Vacuum cleaning services. I like the robot to clean once and sometimes twice per day and we deep clean with the central Vac a few times per week. My stay at home wife, and amazing mother to our 4 children, and I share these duties, so I have an appreciation for the time and effort that goes in to floor cleaning.The Neato got a weird error a few weeks ago. It started saying the dust bin need to be cleaned. This completely disabled it, no matter how I cleaned the dust bin and surrounding chamber. So I started shopping for robot vacs.I have tried to add a second Neato for a while, but each one failed to be as effective as our original. So I really did not consider another Neato. I looked at several other brands, and I was a little put off by the iLife.I figured it is too in-expensive to be effective.I haven’t heard of the brand.How will it clean?Finally I was intrigued by pretty good reviews, and a low profile for cleaning the under stuff. Though it won’t go under our couch. But I’ll be modifying the couch, it just needs to be raised an inch.iLife wont vacuum in straight lines, If that bothers your OCD, I would look elsewhere. But I have found iLife to completely clean my floors in whatever random pattern it chooses. So if clean floors are your top goal, I can say I am pleased so far. If I were to sit and watch the little Vac clean, it may just drive me crazy watching it go all over the place, so I just set it and forget it.So iLife it is.I ordered it and had it all set up in minutes. The manual said charge overnight. So I planned to do that. However I set a schedule and got everything programmed. After about an hour of charging it started cleaning the house for some reason. Maybe one of my curious minions decided to play with the new toy.Anyway, I was pleased with how quiet it was. Yet it still seemed to clean everything off our tile floor. I was a little disappointed that you must press the button for max suction each time it runs, in order to get max suction. Because we are often not at home while it is working. But after a week of running, on mostly standard suction, I can say my floors are always clean. We live in south FL. There is sand everywhere. So in addition to 4 children under age 12, we have the sand issue to deal with. If you don’t vacuum at least once per day, you will get sand on your bare feet while walking around our home. For the last week I can walk around my house barefoot and my feet stay clean. I love it!! One of my compulsions, is tactile issues. The feel of gritty sand on my feet drives me a little nutty, unless I’m st the beach. Having cl an, sand free flooring eases that compulsion for me. It’s actually a bigger priority than watching this vacuum travel in straight lines.The iLife does require some maintenance. You’ll need to clean the brush, especially if anyone in your household has long hair. You’ll need to clean the filters as well. But these tasks are simple and relatively quick. The brush cleaning is tool-less. The filter does require a small screw driver. (Edit: 5/22, you don’t need a tool. Removal of the screw is unnecessary)I do really like the filter set up. It’s three stages. It has a silk screen that keeps most large debris out of the main filter. I’ll assume this is going to greatly extend the pleated paper filter life. It then has a secondary foam filter and finally a pleated paper filter. After 5 days the silk and foam filters benefited from cleaning, but the pleated paper filter still looked great. I did Vac it with the central Vac, since I had the filter all apart.The dust bin always has a pleasing amount of debris after each vacuuming so we know it’s doing a great job, clean feet not withstanding.It has gotten stuck a few times. Twice on a loose draw string from low hanging clothing in the closet, and once under a piece of furniture. It does seem to navigate well around obstacles. Though it seems to find darker furniture more difficult to see.It does not vacuum in long straight lines, like the Neato. But it does vacuum for nearly 2 hours. Neato was at maybe 45 minutes with fresh batteries. Neato was much louder and heavier.We end up with clean floors, and tile does not show Vac lines, so I don’t really care which path it takes. Just git ‘er clean!!ILife is quiet, but even on high suction it is much quieter on carpet, as evidenced by my video.Time will tell how iLife holds up. But for daily vacuuming, and clean feet, I think it is an exceptional value thus far.I would love a wifi and Alexa enabled version.”Hey Alexa, clean the living room”. Now that would be the bombdigity!!!!Update: 7-26-17:After a couple of months of fairly successful use, I found the robot unresponsive. I messed with it and cleaned everything. It would beep at me on the base, but refused to move. I contacted the manufacturer through their email. I let them know exactly what it was doing. Come to find out, the power switch on the side can accidentally get bumped to the off position. Ill blame one of my smaller minions! But it just as easily could have bumped into something and got switched off. So if you find your little bot a has stopped working, obviously check the power switch first! I feel a little silly, but I suppose it could happen to others.(I paid for iLife with my own money, he was not given to me in exchange for anything, and no one has since contacted me with any sort of offer)—————————————Update 3-5-19I still use this vacuum every day. it has proven to be the most reliable robot vacuum I have owned, and the rest of the robots were much more expensive. I guess simplicity is the key to reliability with this little guy. He does not have fancy sensors, or mapping. He does not vacuum in straights lines, or have any plan or logic. But at the end of the day the floors are pretty clean, and he just keeps working. He almost always makes it back to his charger, though we have learned what cant be left out. He is still working with the original battery as well. Also I think I mentioned this earlier, but his on off switch on the side, can be easily bumped to the off position. So if it seems he has stopped working, always check that first. I have had mine bumped off at least 5 times, and my wife thought he was broken. I flipped the switch back on, and back to work he goes.
DT –
To start, this is a great robo-vacuum. I can’t even remember how long ago I bought it, maybe five years ago. It has worked great. We’re still on the original brushes and battery after running nearly daily for the life of ownership. It’s not the most powerful robo-vacuum on the market and it doesn’t do great if there is a large step up from hardwood floor to carpet (>0.5″), but for the cost and lifespan, this thing has more than paid for itself with time saved vacuuming.To note, we have a dog and two young kids. The vacuum runs daily and its bin is filled to the max daily. Point is, it gets a workout and keeps on going. PS – my son (2 years old) loves casing this thing around – great distraction.Cons/maintenance:- Minor – but – the on/off button on the top of the vacuum is ever so slightly taller than the rest of the unit resulting in the button getting bumped as it passes under some furniture causing the unit to turn itself off. This happens once a week or so.- As noted above, this vacuum seems to have issues with hardwood floor to carpet transitions. It’ll drive off the edge of the carpet no problem but the front bumper doesn’t have the ground clearance to let the unit drive up onto the carpet. We have padding under our carpets so they are taller than usual area rugs (~0.5″).- maintenance item: clean the sensors! I clean the sensors weekly and it seems to resolve some of the nuisance faults. Be sure to get all of them as there are a number that are hidden/hard to reach.- maintenance item: clean the main roller brush, including take the little square rubber mount off the one end to clean the metal spindle. That thing gets super wound with hair causing brush faults.The only “major” issue I’ve had is that one of the internal bearings seized a few weeks back (again, after 5 years of use). The bearing is located on the main brush drive so it sees all the fine dust that gets kicked up when running. It’s a common bearing size that any DIY-er can source from Grainger (Part # 35JA77). So if you randomly start getting four beep faults (brush fault), check that bearing. $6 later and it’s back to running like new.And not to sound like an old high school shop teacher, but read the manual. Every light and beep the thing makes is telling you something. Makes diagnosing faults much easier/faster and saves you frustration.Overall, definitely worth the cost.December 2023 – still going strong. I think we’re 8 years in at this point and it still works as intended. My son has thrown it and tried to ride it a few times and it keeps going. We did have one of the sweeper motors fail about a month ago but $10 later in Amazon, some soldering, and back in business! Truly the mechanic’s special! Love it! Why spend $1,000 on a Roomba when you can spend $99 on this?!?!Get it!
Herp –
This little dude is awesome!He was a Christmas present, so still very new, but the first week has been so much fun – if he keeps up this level of performance, I’ll be over the moon. Very easy to set up and program using his remote; the step-by-step instructions are good and make it quick and simple to get him charged up and programmed. The first charge took several hours (instructions recommend overnight), then the little guy is up and running. You can either program him to run at a certain time every day, or manually tell him to start cleaning using either the big button on his top or the remote. Starting him up using the remote is especially nice when you’re tired and stiff at the end of the day…no bending to the ground to push a button.This is my first robot vacuum, so take the following pros and cons with a grain of salt. I had done a lot of research on less-expensive Roomba alternatives but this wasn’t one I had considered. I guess I was leery of Chinese-made knockoff Roombas? Unless something changes dramatically with his performance, I was totally wrong. With my house and cleaning needs, this little round dude has exceeded all my expectations and deserves to be better-known. Here are the good points:1. Excellent on laminate, wood, tile, etc. I live near the coast and feel like there’s grit on my floors CONSTANTLY…but not with this guy on patrol. The floor feels outstanding under bare feet now, better than using an upright Dirt Devil or similar small vacuum.2. Excellent on tight-woven or short pile rugs. I have a couple of runners. He keeps them clean and has no trouble rolling onto them.3. Crosses thresholds really well. His wheels are big and he’s got enough “oomph” to cross from the kitchen to the dining room easily.4. QUIET. Again, first robot vac so I have no other experience, but he is MUCH quieter than even my little Bissel and Dirt Devil uprights. If he’s running downstairs, I can’t hear him when I’m upstairs, and vice versa. If the heat is running, you can’t hear him the next room over. He goes about his business and doesn’t make a big noise about it.5. Has yet to fall down the stairs. His cliff sensor seems really good.6. The bin is really easy to remove and dump; you can remove and replace it without picking him up. I can’t speak to the capacity of the bin, but now that he’s running every day, the house is so clean that he’s not picking much up each time. Maybe if I had furry pets…?7. He gets the job done. He gets the room clean. I don’t think he has any fancy “room mapping” technology, but everything seems to get clean nonetheless.8. Does a good job navigating around legs of things – he works his way around table and chair legs, sucking up the bits of crud that are attracted to those spots.9. Does a great job on the edges of a room. Once he finds a straight edge, he’ll follow it the whole way, cleaning along the entire wall.10. If he gets into trouble, he shuts himself off. So far he’s gotten wedged under an inconveniently-sized chair, and choked on a sock. He won’t keep struggling until he hurts himself.11. He’s short. He gets underneath things I didn’t expect him to fit under. Check his height dimensions to make sure you won’t be disappointed, but so far there’s VERY little in my house that he doesn’t scoot underneath easily.Are there cons? I guess I could find a few.1. Limited programming options compared to fancier, more expensive models. He comes on at the same time each day…every day.2. Changing his schedule involves a little more button-mashing than I expected, but the instructions do walk you through it – not really a negative in my opinion, just worth noting.3. Limited room mapping so he’s maybe not as hyper-efficient as a pricier model. He usually doesn’t miss part of a room (he’s VERY thorough, sometimes to a fault), but if he does, he might move on and get obsessed with the next room instead. He has the potential to overclean some areas or underclean others, but a) he runs every day so if he misses a cobweb today, he’ll get it tomorrow and b) you should set him to run while you’re away, so you don’t feel tempted to judge his cleaning pattern.4. Sometimes he can’t find his way back to the charging station in time. In these situations, or if he gets stuck or eats something he shouldn’t, you’ll have to find him when you get home and stick him back on the dock. He’ll be charged up and ready to roll by the next day.5. He occasionally tries to hump the base of my floor lamp. Not sure how else to describe it, but that’s what he does. Sometimes he figures it out on his own and goes back to cleaning. Sometimes he needs an intervention. Hmm.Overall, I’m super impressed. He’s like our new family member; I put googly eyes on him and we think he’s hysterical, zooming around eating dust. His “cons” aren’t even close to dealbreakers, but just par for the course with a less-expensive model of vacuum…and the “pros” are a lot more numerous anyway. If you’re looking to get your first robot vacuum and aren’t sure which one to pick, this would be a really good choice.
Dr. Cary –
#What kind of user/person am I? I will note some of my usual behaviors while using this vacuum so that you can know what may or may not apply to you in my review:-I do have a powerful regular manually-operated Dyson vacuum that I use for big messes. I do use it a lot less now that I have this iLife, but I do not think this robot vacuum completely replaces the Dyson.-I clean this iLife vacuum after each and every day that I use it (which is around twice a week). If you are the kind of person that does let the recommended maintenance go by the wayside, I cannot speak to how it runs when you stop being diligent in maintaining it. After each cleaning, I will examine the brush roll for any hair that is wrapping around the brush and cut away as needed as well as emptying the bin. This takes less than 2 minutes for me to do each time.-Though this does have scheduling features, I never use it. My life schedule is pretty crazy, so I prefer to just start the robot whenever I want it to run by myself.-When I run the robot, I do try to spend a few minutes to set it up for success. That is, I take small items such as toys off the floor that it may run into. I pick up large items that may obstruct access to tight spaces I want cleaned (i.e. kid toy bins on the floor that may block access to the floor underneath the couch that I want cleaned). I take charging cables that it may get caught on off the floor. I would also close off areas of the house I do not think need to be cleaned by the robot (e.g. bathrooms, some closets, areas I just recently cleaned, etc.)-I live in a condo with the ground floor mostly consisting of short, standard carpet (3/4 of total floor area) with the area of the kitchen being tile (1/4 of total floor area). I base this robot cleaner on the ground floor, but do occasionally take it to the second floor where it is all carpet (except for bathrooms which is tile, but I do not let the vacuum go in to the bathrooms).-We are also frequented by a long-haired, hypoallergenic dog when family often visits.#How does this compare to regular human-operated vacuums?-No, this will not replace your regular manually-operated vacuum. However, I definitely use my regular vacuum a LOT less by running this robot vacuum regularly. Also, now when I do use my regular vacuum, I notice that I am a lot faster. This may be because the robot is already doing a great job or I feel less need to be as thorough when I do vacuum myself.-In some ways, this is better than vacuuming myself. This vacuum easily gets areas of the floor under my furniture (i.e. couch, coffee table, chairs, etc.), which is something I skip on doing because of my laziness when I vacuum manually anyways. I definitely vacuum a LOT less manually by using this nifty robot.#How well does it clean?-This is probably the question most of you are asking. I can say that it picks up most of the stuff I see with my naked eye that I want picked up before cleaning, and the cleaning bin is always pretty full of a bunch of junk I didn’t even know was on my floors.-As above, it does not replace a full regular vacuum.#What is its algorithm for cleaning?-Note that the algorithm that this vacuum uses is of the random trial-and-error “bump-and-redirect” variety instead of the perfectionist and orderly straight-line variety that is found in more expensive robovacs. This means that it moves somewhat randomly: it can go and clean one corner of the room for a few seconds then move all the way to another corner of the room before going back to clean another part of the first corner. This does not bother me, but it can bother others in two scenarios:1. If you are the type that will watch the robot clean for hours, it may drive you crazy that it seems to be doing it less efficiently than a human would vacuum. However, if you leave it alone to do its thing and run for an hour or so, I think it does generally get most of the floor as clean and as much as possible. I am usually away from home or sleeping on a different floor when it is running. If you run it while at home, you have to be prepared that when you sit stationary for an hour, the robot will inevitably come and make several passes around your area.2. If you have a lot of expensive things on the floor that you do not want to get lightly bumped (e.g the wooden legs of an antique chair), this may also bother you. However, the bump is VERY light and does not cause damage on anything I see..#Good features of note:-Good Battery: As other users have noted, I found that the regular battery life for this is usually a little over 2 hours.-Pretty Quiet: I think it is pretty quiet on its regular mode. Obviously, it is a little louder on the higher power cleaning mode. However, I found that either way, it definitely does not bother me when it is running. I barely notice it is running when it is on the default cleaning power mode. Other reviewers note that this robot cleaner is one of the quietest ones out there when testing it against others. Having seen my friends’ other robot vacuums, I certainly believe this one to be one of the quieter ones.-Will it fall down the stairs?: No, I have not had trouble with it falling down the stairs when it vacuums my second floor. It consistently and always knows when to stop at the edge before anything bad happens.-Remote Control: This comes with remote control, which not all robots reportedly do.-Easy to Set-Up and Use: I am pretty much an out-of-the-box user for this vacuum. I installed it using the quick user/start guide and just let it run. I did not play with any of the fancy settings. It was super easy to set up, and then I just let it do it’s thing.-How does it compare to others?: The design and features of the iLife A4s seem pretty similar to the lauded RoboVac11 in the same price-range.#Downsides?-I consider this an entry-level robot vacuum. Don’t expect this to be a Roomba with all those advanced features like wifi connectivity through iPhone apps.-I will note that rarely it will try to power through things like cords and cause things to fall.-If your house has a LOT of different rooms or the floors are very big, then this robot may not be for you as it can miss rooms completely or get trapped in some rooms before returning to its base to charge. However, I imagine this is the case for most robot vacuums in general.#Summary-I think this is a good value for something that is often priced 2 to 3 times as much as this one is selling for. It definitely saves me time and enhances my life.
Aims –
The media could not be loaded. I am in love with George that is the name we gave to our iLife vacuum. My living room and dining room and kitchen are quite large and we have an open floor plan alone with all tile no carpet. And 3 dogs 3 cats and a child who is always making messes and I have multiple sclerosis. I run him every morning and so far he has been a life changer I run him on Max clean on that mode he will be a little louder but that is not very loud at all he goes under the entertainment center under the dog bed where I would have to move it to clean under it he just zips right under and does a better job then I could. He also goes into the pantry where the littler boxes are and picks up all the cat littler. There is no method to his madness he just goes where ever for about 2 hours. Like he will be in the kitchen and go around where ever next thing you know he is in the dining room then the darts under the dog bed and goes into the hallway. Then back to the kitchen then at the front door then in the pantry he just zooms around all over no certain pattern then after 2 hours he goes to bed to recharge for tomorrow. While he is sleeping I empty his trash can and since I and my daughter have long hair I use the tool and get all of the hair out that wraps around the brushes and clean the filter. Of course every day it is les and less because there is not as much to pickup since he has cleaned it the day before but there is still a lot I can’t believe we are not all bald. My floor have never been so clean. He picks up as much as I would have gotten up with my shark navigator lift away for hard floors and let me tell you that vacuum is a beast it has been the best upright vacuum I have ever owned. And my new friend George is cleaning my floors better then I would if I did it myself with my shark. He is so quiet you could run him at night and not wake up the lightest sleeper. I have always wanted a robot vacuum. But I could never afford one but George was priced way lower and had good reviews so I grabbed it. I am amazed at for his price he was that he is so good at his job. I say thank God I found him. He makes my life so much easier and my house so much cleaner. I have more time to spend with my family. And that is truly what I needed. My MS leg pain has not been as bad as it would normally be. Even my husband was skeptical about spending the money to get him. But he is sure glad we did. We are a happier family. I can’t say enough good things about George. I will tell anyone who is reading this if you are looking for a robot vacuum you can’t go wrong with this one. It will knock your socks off and you will not regret it. Do yourself a favor and get an ilifeA4 that will be a purchase you will not regret.Update on George my ilife March 28,2018Well it is still going strong he has gotten a tiny bit louder I think in the max cleaning mode and has gotten stuck on a few things of course that was my fault for not picking everything up. I run him daily and dump the dirt bin daily he even goes in to the laundry room after I clean the litter boxes and picks up any and all the cat litter I have spilt. And by using him every single day the dust in my house along with dog and cat hair is so much better. My husband said that once he has to be laid to rest (my ilife) that we will get another one. This is after he told me that he never wanted to get one of these vacuums. Now I want the one that ilife makes that mops the floor too. My advice to you is don’t wait another day and do yourself a favor and get one you will NOT regret it.
Drew Patterson –
I held off for a LONG time purchasing a robotic vacuum thinking it was a waste of money. This vacuum has blown me away with its ease of use, features, and runtime. Delivery unfortunately was delayed due to “weather” with UPS but hey.. it’s UPS. Setup is super simple, set down the base, plug it in and charge until the Unit lights up green. Set the daily timer as well as the current time and thats it!. Before first use I decided to vacuum as well as I could just to see how well this little guy works.I turned on the vacuum and the first thing I noticed was just how quiet this thing is. With the TV on you can hear it, but it’s not bothersome at all. Even more impressive is just how well it cleans. I live in a studio apartment with nothing but hardwood floors the biggest pet peeve is walking barefoot and always feeling some type of grit on your feet. No matter how much I swept and mopped I always felt it. The speed at which this guy cleans is super impressive, watching the little bristles on the front really get in the corners and lift everything up really showed I made a great purchase. Below is a list of the features and benefits of the iLife A4S.Price – Even at $200, this little guy is WAY cheaper than most other robotic vacuums on the market.Noise – Super quiet, barely noticeable with any ambient noise in the background. I was even able to sleep with it running. (Note the MAX mode is about twice as loud and is audible. Also any “black” colored items isn’t picked up by the sensors so it will lightly tap those surfaces. If you have white baseboards or lighter colored objects like your feet, it will sense and avoid touching.)Speed – While the vacuum on auto mode will clean until the battery is low, it cleaned my small studio apartment in about an hour this includes bathroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom (about 700 Sq ft.)Battery life – On normal mode (auto) it gets about 2 hours and 20 minutes on a full charge and is all you need for hardwood surfaces. Max mode gets you just over 1 hour and 30 to 45 minutes depending on the carpet thickness. Charging takes about an hour.Ease of Use – The most simplistic unboxing and setup ever! I had it out of the box and ready to go in less than a minute! 3 steps, Unbox, attach power to base, and set vacuum on the base to charge till green. That’s it!Cleanliness – The most impressive thing on this list! The filtration is amazing, prefilter, foam filter, then HEPA filter. The cleanup is crazy quick! One button on the back lets you slide out the pan, hold it over the trash can, dump out and wipe! Again, the easiest vacuum to clean ever. It also includes one set of replacement filters. I just come home, grab it and toss out the dirt and wipe the filter.Movement – This guy is about 3 inches tall and the first thing I wondered is if it would get around well with random stuff like barstools, chairs, lampsetc. As soon as it got inbetween (tight fit) the barstools without issue I stopped worrying.Allergens – The HEPA filter is rock solid and the GF commented first thing after it was running that it wasn’t bothering her allergies at all. Usually when one of us vacuums she’s sneezing constantly.Pet friendly – 3 Cats, SO much hair is picked up by this vacuum! It’s so quiet and moves around the cats without even touching them. If you have pets I wouldn’t worry, that being said if your pets are “accident” prone I would avoid a robotic vacuum as this can spread fecal matter alllll around your house for 2 hours while you’re away.After doing my own first run with a vacuum thinking I got everything, this little guy picked up a whole full pan of dirt, hair, and other stuff lodged places I didn’t even see! After the first cycle the first and most important thing I noticed walking around barefoot. ZERO grit feeling. If you’re thinking of buying this vacuum I can say without a doubt this is a no brainer purchase. I have zero issues or cons to the A4S and highly recommend it!
Dominique –
it not the most advanced robot vacuum it just does it job well enough ,I had the same robot vac and it lasted 7 years that why I bought the same machine from ILIFE
Wes –
House: 4 rooms/1100 SF/all hard floors with a few short-fabric area rugsThis is probably the best $200 we’ve ever spent. The iLife A4S, or “Ralph” (as my girlfriend and I call him), does everything as described without any problems.We just recently moved into a new home that has no carpet — all finished stone-tile floors, which is what we wanted. I gutted and rebuilt homes in New Orleans after Katrina, so I can tell you firsthand that carpet is the dirtiest thing you can put in a house. With hard floors, you can see and feel (with bare feet) how frequently dust accumulates and how easily dirt gets tracked inside, creating a need to vacuum at least or twice a day. Since vacuuming every day is nearly impossible for a working couple, our only option was a robot.I spent about two weeks researching the top brands on Amazon. My girlfriend really wanted a Roomba, but I didn’t want to shell out $500 for a damn vacuum. I wanted a robot that had a solid battery life, could recharge itself, could handle transitioning from floors to rugs and could be programmed to run when no one is home during the day. After some intense comparing and contrasting of the runner-up brands, I was sold on the iLife by the many stellar reviews it had.My biggest worry was that it wouldn’t return to its base to recharge. This was a problem I read about in the reviews for nearly every brand I looked at; however, Ralph has not once failed to rebase himself. I purchased the A4S about 10 days ago, and he has flawlessly worked about two shifts a day since then. The manual submits the charging base should be placed against a wall and have 1 meter of free space on each side and 2 meters in front. It wasn’t hard to find a spot that met those specs.The dust bin filled up after his first clean of the entire house, but now it can hold about 2-3 days worth of dirt, though I try to empty the bin and clean it out every other day. Ralph also has a remote that allows you to control him manually. You can drive him wherever you want if there’s a certain spot you need to clean immediately.He can clean almost the entire house on a single charge, which lasts about 2 hours. Suction force seems adequate for the task, definitely more powerful than my handheld dust-buster. Some people say the higher-end robots are smart enough to learn and remember the layout of an area. I can’t tell if the A4S has that capability.A few times, Ralph has accidentally tried to eat something he wasn’t supposed to — my girlfriend’s bra (which she left on the floor), the tassels on the edge of a small kitchen rug, and a thick shag-like bathroom rug. We replaced the kitchen rug with one that has no tassels, and we simply pick up the thick bathroom rugs whenever Ralph decides to venture into that area of the house. The bra strap got wrapped around one of Ralph’s wheels, but I was able to easily free it after a few minutes of work.When he does get tangled on something, he automatically works to free himself. Most of the time, he successfully frees himself, but when he can’t he’ll stop his motor and let off a few beeps as if crying for help.PROS:- Long battery life (about 2 hours)- Recharges itself when battery is low- Programmable: You can schedule it to go to work at a certain time each day- Can handle multiple rooms- Easily transitions from hard floors to short carpet- Multiple modes: Can select auto clean, spot clean, and edge clean (vacuums along the baseboards)- Large capacity dust bin- IR remote control allows for manual driving of the robot- Good suction force- AffordableCONS:- Remote is IR, so you need line of sight to use it, meaning you can’t control him from another room or from behind a wall. Not sure if any robots use RF remotes, but for my personal setup this is not really a downfall- Some of the parts feel a bit fragile as if they could break during a fall- Can only be programmed with one schedule. Can’t program multiple shifts a day.