Samsung Navibot S SR8980

Doesn't live up to claims – Not happy. Something that was supposed to clean my house has just made the biggest mess ever. The product is meant to have a sensor so that it doesn't tip over on the edge of stairs. It fell over the stairs, bounced down and took a chunk out of the wall. Usually the cleaning is hit and miss, it sometimes gets caught on cords and rugs which I was told wouldn't happen, but I could live with that. After today though it's going in the bin.  Show details

Does the job – Have two dogs and 3 kids, a lot of hair, soil and other park associated dirt. I leave in the morning turn on my Samsung and get home to clean floors. First couple of times got stuck on cords and light rug, however once removed no problems. I'm happy, and my wife loves me more.  Show details

Good at first, but then downhill fast – Our "Charlie" was great at first. Having an indoor cat, and myself with medium length hair, "Charlie" was programmed to go out 3 times per week, Monday, Wednesday & Friday while I was out of the house. After a month or so, Id come home to find it, dead, in the middle of the floor, with no obstructions or other issues. I would clean the brushes… Read more

after each run. Then "Charlie" got under the TV cabinet and decided to snack on the wires and cords, pulling an electric warmer off the cabinet, smashing it and putting Melt all over the wall. Needless to say I was furious. Descriptions say they're cord sensitive and wont do such things. After calming down, I allowed "Charlie" to have one more chance, but alas, when I returned home that evening, "Charlie" was not on the base, just chillin in the middle of the room, and hadn't gone far quite obviously. Now just a rather expensive floor decoration that I do not recommend to visitors (who always ask).

Faulty – Been back 4 times within warranty for battery problems and faults. Now its out of warranty samsung wont repair even though it has not had 2 yrs of yse as its spent so long in repairs. Not happy . When the product is working its great. However is it worth the money for something that doesnt work?

We like it, but there is a lot of room for improvement! – We are re-writing this review as after 6 month of having this cleaner vacuum we have been disappointed the most with functionality of it e.g. Stopping in the middle of cleaning and the middle of a room without any reason. So, the room remains not vacuumed. Full Bin light is on even when it had been emptied. It is good for sweeping the floor and… Read more

picking the dog hair. We programmed it once and off it goes every day sweeping the floor when we are not there. However later when we wanted to take Saturday and Sunday off the auto clean, it's still goes off in those days even though they are not showing on the display screen. It is skinny and gets under the furniture and beds. Its cycle is very systematic, so it is pretty thorough, as compared to iRobot that we had before and it used to miss spots most of the time. It is relatively quiet, Romba was noisier. Remote control is a handy tool too. We are not too happy with it, and thinking about returning it.

A lot of good features that I like about this vacuum however there are some things that can be improved:

- ability to roll over elevated things, e.g. one of our rooms has a higher threshold than normal. iRobot (Romba) used to go over it no problems at all, but not this one

- The 2 L bin gets clogged at the bin neck and never gets completely full, as lights come on saying that it full, but it is not.

- Recharge station is too big, requires one meter plus for it to work properly. For a small house it is real issue to find extra space for accommodate it

- Sometimes its unable to get back on recharge station and gets stack on it without actually being connected to power.

Would be nice if it worked properly too. It's a bit frustrating to see its stopped by not apparent reason.

In August 2018 we returned this product as it started malfunctioning way too often.

I love this little beauty – I love this little fella. It cleans so well that my timber floors shine. It even decides that it could do better so it goes back to base to empty and recharge then goes back to work to clean again all by itself. I have a very big house with all polished timber floors and two indoor dogs that shed heaps. No problem for my robot.

Definitely worth the money the best vacum I hav come across – Every1 should own one of these my house is always so clean I hav carpet throughout most of my house and omg this works wonders, I even hav pets inside and it dose a great job of picking up pet hair, I highly recommend this robot vacum to any one looking to get a robo bac

it does reduce time spent vacuuming, worth the outlay – Apart from light mats, it goes around most things, if you do a quick look around b4 setting it off. Good experience with out of warranty service too. You still need a vacuum for corners so it's an extra, but certainly keeps down the dust and dog hair. i would buy again

Time Saver – It's great. You do have to watch it a little that it doesn't get caught under something or hook onto a power cord, but geez, it's pretty awesome. We have kids and so our floors are never completely clear, but I figure it has to work it out because they're always going to be that way. I'm careful with tiny toys or bits of lego etc, but the larger… Read more

toys it will just bump into, push around for a bit and then move on. I have owned it for 3 weeks now and haven't gotten my big Dyson out once. :)

It doesnt work, in so many levels – I really tried for weeks. Created ramps between transitions, cleaned up the floors, stuffed up all tight places for it not to get caught. Not a single time during 30+ runs, did it return to charging station, if all possible reasons for getting stuck were eliminated it started giving "I'm stuck" error in the middle of the hardwood floor. Definite… Read more

no-buy! If you can, I suggest you wait mid 2015 to get Tyson 360, seems to be like a next level in automated vacuuming. design + auto dust emptying concept everything else

Samsung Navibot S – Well where do I start. Sick of the hair from two fluffy cats (British Blue and Short Haired Chinchilla) accumulating along the the walls and floors. Decided to get a robotic vacuum cleaner but concerned that our house was a major challenge to any algorithm. Samsung seems to be a favourite brand in the house (TV, Fridge,) so I had a look… Read more

at the options. High level of "logic" control with three forward and two rear censors and a ceiling camera looked promising. Convinced the Minister for Finance and War to go shopping. Ended up with a Samsung Navibot S because of the self emptying capability.

Coma home and plugged it in to charge. Waited. Waited. Waited. Then away it went. Cats stalked the unit around the house. Unit scanned the ceiling. Cats left the house. Unit cleaned the house incredibly well

Worked for two hours. Emptied twice. Learnt where the furniture was. Got stuck on weird things but they were remedied quickly. Amazing how it learnt where obstacles where. No problems in finding the recharging station and went back to where it had started. Sitting on the docking station primed for its next adventure.

Honestly it did a better job than I expected. Minister for War and Finance is delighted. Cats are suspicious. It went places I thought it would miss. Missed some corners that will be dealt with using the Dyson. Scheduled for daily sorties.

Pricey but worth the money for the intelligence and capacity to return to base, empty and venture out again which is a major bonus in a large house. Would struggle with a lot of carpet. We have polished board throughout with Persian rugs which it seems to handle.

Samsung 1. Cats 0. Duration and ability to empty at station Pricey

Samsung navibot S – Great Vacuum, but, you have to have everything off the floor, i feel these vacuums are good if you have not much furniture, i would never go out and leave as it gets stuck on some of my furniture. if your floor not square it doesn't do all of it if it has to go around stuff it will usually miss parts of your floor and it cant always find its way… Read more

back to port...it also can have trouble getting back on the port and will get stuck. would i buy another one NO>

More effort than a normal Vacuum – Easy to set up out of the box but that's about it. This is not a fire and forget Vacuum, it needs constant attention it gets stuck easily, misses large parts of our lounge area, repeatedly cleans the same spot. The battery lasts less than an hour. It hasn't once made it back to base with out getting lost or stuck (on one occasion it actually got… Read more

stuck trying to vacuum it's own base!!). The areas it does manage to clean it cleans well.

We have a fair sized 4x2 with wooden floors and a couple of rugs.

But really for the price 100% not worth it and we are taking it back as it does not work as advertised.

Over priced does not work as advertised.

Great gizmo, labour saving ... but needs supervision – I have a Golden Labrador dog and my house requires vacuumed every day. If i did not have a dog i would NOT have this unit. Regardless of the minor negatives (listed below) it's a good unit which on the whole works well & YES i would recommend it, but if you’re thinking of buying one ... go in eyes open knowing the potential pit falls and to be… Read more

honest you don't know if it's for you and your home until you try it.

This is a great labour saving gizmo, but don't be fooled it is not a manual vacuum replacement.

All robotic vacuums need supervision, I’ve owned a few but there is not many self-emptying robot vacuum cleaners out there to compare to which have local service centre support (well none that i know of).

The sales rep guaranteed it would handle a wooden floor to tiled floor transition about 12mm in height... but it could not travel up the 12mm step height difference which was very disappointing considering we have 4 room entrances with this height step difference. So we now have to manually move it into the rooms it can't get into.

You HAVE TO robot proof your house,

i.e. no cables, clothing, window blind cords, kids toys, towels, etc., lying about the floor.

Even things like bed sheets touching the floor will jam the unit.

Due to the ergonomic curved shape of this unit (top & bottom) looks good ... but due to this it is more prone to get wedged tight under & ride up to get stuck.

Items this unit gets stuck on / in / under:

1. it's own docking base - yes that’s right! When cleaning up to it's base the wedge shape poses a challenge.

2. Low shelves it gets wedged & jammed under and can't get out.

3. >=12mm steps - Can’t drive up the step difference.

4. Deep pile rugs - wedged on in such a way the 2 drive wheels don't make contact traction to the floor.

5. Ikea chairs wooden base (POÄNG) - rides up and on and can't get off.

6. Curtains - if get behind inside the curtain (fabric or net) it thinks it is surrounded by objects and stops.

7. Pedestal Fan base - Similar to the docking base.

8. Kitchen chairs - thinks it is surrounded and stops in the middle of the 4 legs, gets in but can’t get out.

Positives:

The base station is a good design and easy to empty & clean the filters.

The base station also has a comb to get all the hairs and fluff out of the roller brush.

The robot & base seems robust and well designed.

You get two "no go" sensors / virtual walls, which is useful if you don’t want it going where it’s not wanted. It works relatively well, quiet, robust, filters easy to clean, local replacement parts available. Expensive. Needs supervision. Alarm too quiet. Gets stuck in, on & under things quite often.

Review update – After 4 months of using the Navibot, I must say I am still as happy as I was since I first got it. Still beats manual vacuuming. Sure it gets stuck here and there but I am quite sure it is one of the better robot vacuum units around. Self emptying really helps. The extended warranty purchase gives me ease of mind. No regrets. Smart mapping. Self emptying. Gets stuck sometimes and needs to be 'rescued' Show reply

Review is actually of SR8980 which is similar to this product – I have the Samsung SR8980 which is similar to this model but has a bigger footprint with dust bin. Not happy with this cleaner at all. Misses whole areas of floor - might be hall or kitchen. Doesn't seem to have any idea about room layout. It also gets caught under our lounge suite. Not once but keeps doing it. I have tried putting up an… Read more

electronic barrier (which comes with cleaner but to no avail)

I thought from speaking with salesperson that it got the layout of area and cleaned accordingly. Goes back to charger without cleaning all floor area even though it isn't flat or full. I find it a waste of time. Might as well just mop or vacuum by hand. Does a reasonable job where it cleans gets caught under my furniture. Doesn't clean all areas. Seems to clean so much then goes back to charger even though it is not flat.

Blind as a Bat – What is good it cleans itself but hell this thing is annoying it stuck every day and run in to things also its cleaning ability isn't as advertised. Misses a lot and cant do corners well. It also cant take a long time to dock itself again and when it stuck the wheels make serious noise before stopping. Cleans itself Expensive and navigation is bad

Worth every cent!! – We have a large 4 bedroom home with jarrah floors in all the entertaining areas and carpet in the bedrooms, the SR8980 has exceeded our expectations. My husband was dubious at first, but it goes from timber floor onto our rugs with ease, it navigates around the home and returns to the docking station the empty itself and to charge. We both work… Read more ·  1

full time and with two kids this has saved us some valuable time. We leave the chairs up in the dinning room and it cleans under the table. Empties itself

Amazing!!! So happy with this Robot Vacuum! – We have had robot vacuum cleaners for about 6 or 7 years, as our house is all hardwood floors (4 bedrooms and fairly spread out). We have recently upgraded to a Samsung SR8980 and it is Amazing!! You can schedule it to start at different times on different days - it is sooooo quiet and takes itself back to the charging unit where it recharges… Read more

AND empties its dustbin - which means all I have to do all week to clean the floors is once a week empty the larger dustbin in the charging station. It is the best!!!!

Was a little nervous buying this one as there was only negative or no reviews on it. We have had robot vacuum cleaners for years - and yes they struggle with navigation - even this one. But the whole point is that they clean the floors while you are busy doing other things, and over the course of a week they end up covering everywhere if you run them every day. And because they can get into places that a normal vacuum can't like under the bed it helps prevent dust build up. At the end of the day this robot is so quiet and self sufficient that I don't really need to worry about the floors any more - which is nice. :) Quiet, Scheduling Function, Self Emptying of Dustbin Sometimes struggles to redock and can take a while

Expensive toy – A reviewer of one of the SR8980's less expensive siblings correctly made the point that you shouldn't expect any of the battery driven robotic vacuums to be a full substitute for a "proper" vacuum. I don't think they are intended to be. However, for the price at which they are sold - in particular, the Samsung SR 8980 - they should have redeeming… Read more

qualities that make up for the difference.

The 8980 is the current top of the range unit from Samsung. It is advertised as a self-emptying, self-charging robotic vacuum that will navigate itself around the room and, optimistically, around the house. When it runs out of battery power or the container fills up, it will find its way back to the wall unit, dock, empty its container and recharge before returning to its last position and continuing its task.

Well, yes.

Given the proviso in my first paragraph, it does actually pick up light dust, hairs and quite a lot of carpet fluff, so is reasonably effective from that point of view. The noise level is remarkably low except when docked and the emptying cyclone kicks in for 3 or 3 minutes: then it is pretty raucous. The tiny container on the robot seems too small but actually fits the profile, because the battery will run down before the container fills up - so docking fulfills two functions simultaneously. The docking container is easily big enough for quite a few runs before it needs emptying. So, within its accepted limitations, the robot does actually collect dust, and does transfer the dirt into the base container.

If this was all there is to it, I could give the machine a higher rating. However, the steep price is there for a reason: the self-navigating, self docking, programmable facilities. And it's here that the robot disappoints, and disappoints greatly.

A whole host of sensors live in the unit: cameras scan the room ceilings to map the task, sensors stop it crashing into chairs, desks etc, and it can even prevent itself from falling down stairs. That is, according to the advertising spiel.

It doesn't actually work out like that, though.

Although on leaving the base unit it starts well, going to and fro across a room, it will soon be deflected from its paralleled tracks and then it starts to lose track of the bits left behind. The idea is that it remembers the parts that have been bypassed, and returns to "do" them on subsequent passes - but, unless the room is fairly bare of furnishings it seems to exhibit a form of electronic alzheimers and rapidly loses the plot. I have to confess that this impression may be a bit unfair, because it all too often got stuck under furniture or at the edges of carpets and had to be moved and re-set in a slightly different position - often several times in a matter of seconds. However, one can make too many excuses: it's the end result that matters and, frankly, the 8980 makes a good blonde navigator. Oops!

Two "virtual walls" are supplied: these little boxes send out a beam which the unit won't cross. Problem is, it can and will bump into the boxes first, pushing the beam completely off line.

Unfortunately the robot doesn't perform much better when it gets hungry: it makes repeated attempts to find and dock with the base station but nine times out of ten ends up either turning round in circles or crashing into and over the lead-in ramp. Both scenarios leave scuff marks on the carpet.

I suspect that the design is intended to cope mainly with tiles and wooden floors, for an add-on is supplied which clips onto the front of the base unit for use on carpets. Without this additional ramp, the robot never gets off the base because its rear slides down into the carpet and it stalls . More re-setting....

The add-on ramp does allow it to start away from the base - but seems to prevent it returning and docking properly. Time after time the robot made repeated attempts to get onto the ramp but kept sliding sideways and either getting stuck or continuing in circles. Yet more re-setting....

The stylish, sloping-top edges also contribute to the problem of the thing jamming under low furniture. Other robots which have flat tops are less prone to this because they can't *begin* to go under the item. A sloped top acts like a wedge.

To sum up, a nicely made, stylish robotic vacuum that falls well short of its advertised capabilities. In the short time that I had it, only once did it manage to cover a room (hallway, in fact) and return to base for a "drink" - and that was with a helping push to centre it on finals.

The Samsung Australia website doesn't inspire confidence, either: prior to buying the unit I tried to download its manual but the site didn't allow it. I did a workaround, but the .pdf file wasn't readable. After purchase I tried to register it online - but the site refused to accept that such a model exists.

After a week of trying to get around its lack of navigational nous I returned it to Harvey Norman where, to their credit, they gave me a full refund. Perhaps a few more weeks of shifting the furniture, closing doors, adjusting carpets and rugs and replacing the virtual walls might have made the experience better, but I doubt it and by then even the most tolerant store would not have accepted a return.

Not recommended. Style, quiet Blonde's navigational ability, expensive