Test robot vacuum cleaner KÄRCHER RC 4.000

Before us is an unusual “complicated” design. There is a charging station where the control panel is located and which has a compartment for a dust bag. There is a robot itself, which is recharged from the station and before recharging necessarily empties its plastic container. Vacuum suction takes the debris into the dust bag. The procedure lasts a minute, after which the robot is charged. Depending on the situation, the charge lasts from 10 to 20 minutes.

The test was conducted by Polina STRIZHAK

ACHIEVEMENTS: easy operation, self-unloading of debris at the base station, convenient light indication system, really low noise level when cleaning, compactness and excellent maneuverability, the possibility of long-term or permanent cleaning, “intelligent” ability to detect dirt, soft bumper, the ability to overcome low obstacles.

RESTRICTIONS: no side brush, a paper bag for garbage without a hygienic closing system, not thought-out mounting of the bag-dust collector. No “virtual wall” motion limiter. Low noise level when emptying the dust canister does not allow you to sleep during this process.

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURER: Germany.

POWER: station: the maximum power consumption of 600 watts.

NOISE LEVEL: 54-60 dB.

FILTER: a filter bag in the base station, a micro filter to protect the motor station, a washable flat filter in the robot itself.

CONTROL AND INDICATION: on the station: button “on” and “off” on the dial./off.”The button can be found on the right side of the screen, the button to return the robot to the station, the button to select the duration of cleaning, the indicators of the selected duration of cleaning 3/6/9 hours , the button “quiet cleaning”, the indicator of quiet cleaning program, the indicator of the need to change the dustbag. Graphics of the buttons and indicators. On the body of the robot: “on” button./off.”robot, red and green light indicators. Automatics: 4 sensors for height difference detection, dirt floor sensors, infrared navigation system, contact sensors for obstacle detection.

CHARGE TIME: 10 to 20 minutes.

BATTERY: nickel-metal hydride, 1.7 Ah capacity.

CLEANING TIME: 20 to 60 minutes autonomy time, then the robot recharges the battery and continues cleaning in the selected program .

CONSTRUCTION: charging station: cord length adjustment device, cord length 2 m, dust bag compartment. Robot vacuum cleaner body: 2 big and 2 small wheels, spring-loaded suspension of the wheels, built-in plastic trash bin 0,2 l, removable round brush-roll, rubber bumper around the body to protect the furniture.

COMPLETE: station, robot, filtering paper changeable dust bag 2 liters.

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: none.

DIMENSIONS: robot is 285×100 mm, and the station is 500x250x230 mm.

WEIGHT: robot – 2 kg, station – 5.8 kg.

WARRANTY: 2 years.

WORK LIFE: 10 YEARS.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

The robot does not have the usual for many “colleagues” programs based on compliance with a certain algorithm of movement – in a circle, zigzagging, along the wall, the spiral, etc.p. The robot has 4 movement programs in its memory. It automatically chooses the programs according to the degree of dirt on the floor, based on the indicators of the dirt sensors built into the waste container.

PROGRAMS

3, 6 or 9 hour cleaning intervals user selectable : 3 hours for 45m², 6 hours for 45-90m², 9 hours for 90-120m².

Default program – continuous cleaning.

Cleaning capacity – 15 m²/hour.

Movement programs the robot chooses – automatically :

Random speed 20 cm/sec . For lightly soiled surfaces.

The slow passage through the dirty area. For specific areas with the usual level of dirt.

Slow back-and-forth through contaminated area. For specific areas with higher levels of pollution.

Slow star-shaped diverging rays through contaminated area. For very dirty, large areas.

CONTROL ERGONOMICS

Control panel at the station

Generally understandable and simple, it is enough to refer once to the instructions. No fancy displays, just a button and indicator lights next to the robot. Cleaning time – 3, 6 or 9 hours – selectable by pressing the “cleaning time” button once, twice or thrice. It is impossible to make a mistake, because the light indicators next to it light up: 3,6 or 9.

Continuous mode by default, indicated by the indicator light with the infinity symbol – the figure of eight upside down. It runs for 8 hours after pressing the quiet button, recharges itself and empties the garbage can with reduced noise level. If necessary, you can press the “return to base” button and the robot will come to recharge and unload the dust canister.

Indication on the body of the vacuum cleaner.

The 2 lights – red and green – can blink quickly or slowly to alert you to problems or robot actions: needing to charge, searching for a base, getting stuck or dirty.

Audible signals. Intense long beep when the robot turns on. No voice prompts.

Remote control. There is no. But we didn’t feel the need for it.

Timer settings. This model has no possibility of programming the cleaning for some time ahead. But there is a program of continuous cleaning, that is, the robot can clean and recharge even around the clock 7 days a week.

CLEANING QUALITY

Living conditions: apartment with 2 rooms 18 and 15 square meters, kitchen 13 square meters, hallway 8 square meters. This is a “barrier-free environment”, where the difference in thresholds is not more than 1 cm the robot should be able to overcome such thresholds . The toilet and bathroom are separated by a high threshold, so excluded from the testing area. No fluffy carpets, the floor is hardwood rooms , tile hallway , linoleum kitchen . The only carpet is in the common hallway. It’s 0.8 cm high, the pile is 0.5 cm, and it’s VERY dirty. Pets: “medium furry” cat.

Running with obstacles

Thresholds. This model has no problem with overcoming small projections according to the manual, hard – up to 1 cm, soft – up to 2 cm . We checked it out. It walks over cables, thresholds, etc.p. obstacles. If the height difference is not more than 10 cm, he can move down, but can not climb up. For example, our bathroom is a little “up,” with a 6 cm threshold. After it finished cleaning there, the robot went down into the hallway.

Under furniture. Thanks to its compact size and low height only 10 cm , the robot can easily get under low furniture and clean between the legs of chairs in a limited space from 4 sides. Apparently, the obstacle detection sensors work great, as the vacuum cleaner easily finds its way out of the trap, which is so often a chair or coffee table for a robot.

Garbage is swept up by the brush-shaft and sucked into the tank. The brush is almost half the length of other models, therefore sweeping a smaller area. No loss in cleaning quality, but the robot takes longer to clean, according to its cleaning capacity of 15 m²/hour. The manufacturer recommends closing the doors when cleaning the rooms. This is a good tip, because the robot moves “at random” and “accidentally” leaves the room without cleaning it properly. When the door is closed, it navigates better and goes through all areas several times.

We checked the words of the instructions: “The dirtier the floor, the more the robot cleans it”. Scattered flour a meter away from the robot, which was already cleaning an almost clean floor. When the robot went toward the flour stain, we took a picture of its actions. After hitting the spot from the side and removing a small part of it, the robot moved back a few centimeters and then moved back to the spot at a different angle. Removed half the flour this time, moved away again, changed the angle again and moved on to the dirt. In four short passes, in about 20 seconds no trace of a tablespoon of flour sifted through a sieve was left.

Cleaning the mats is a tricky challenge for the robot, because it has no small area to clean intensively. So, the robot has to detect if the floor is very dirty by itself, using sensors. But here’s the trouble: it is EQUALLY dirty, there are no spots and landmarks, there is only ingrained sand all over the surface. First, the robot simply ran over the mat and moved on – to clean the hallway.

Meeting the mat again, he suddenly became interested in it and began to move in and out, just like in the flour story. So he smells prey! Sand sprinkled in the tank. After cleaning the carpet for a minute or two, the robot went to the station to deliver the garbage. And we took the mat, shook it… There was almost no sand left. But, of course, this is just an experiment, such dirty mats are better cleaned with a regular powerful vacuum cleaner. Note that this robot can according to the manual clean carpets with pile height up to 2 cm.

The weak point of this model – cleaning in the corners. They are not worked out, because there is no side brush in the shape of mill wings . Usually, it gets dust out of corners that a round-shaped robot can’t get into, at least a little.

NOISE LEVEL

And this robot is pretty quiet: you can do chores, talk, and listen to music. It only makes noise when the tank is being emptied – just like a big vacuum cleaner, since it sucks the garbage out of the tank into the filter bucket. When you press the “silent cleaning” button, the noise is reduced for 8 hours.

It does this by reducing the suction power: the process goes a little slower. “By ear” there is a difference, but not so much as to turn the robot on at night, as indicated by the icon-symbol on the control panel. Note that we did not spend the night cleaning: only a person with very strong nerves can fall asleep while the robot is running, and certainly when the vacuum cleaner “gives” garbage – even on silent mode – will wake up and he.

SEARCHING BASE

At the end of each cleaning cycle according to the instructions – up to 60 minutes, here – 50 minutes , the robot returns to the base to recharge. The robot must pick up the signal of the charging station. In 8 out of 10 cases it returned without any problem. You won’t believe it, the first 2 times we thought the robot just got lost in the apartment.

Indeed, it is difficult to catch the IR signal from the station if you install the base, for example, in a far room. By moving the base closer to the door of the back room, we made it easier for the robot to get “home” all the time.

DESIGN ERGONOMICS

Dust Collectors. There are two: a small plastic one – in the body of the vacuum cleaner, and a large, 2-liter – replaceable paper bag, placed in the compartment of the charging station. Apparently, this combination of developers wanted to “kill two birds with one stone”: to keep the minimum size of the robot, so it can get into more places, and increase the size of the dustbin. If a disposable bag with a dusting gate had been used instead of a paper bag, the solution would have been flawless.

Changing the paper waste bag is a simple matter, but unpleasant. It is elementary to pull out and install, but there is no system to attach the bag, between its entrance hole and the hole in the base from which the debris enters, there is a gap, so a little dust gets past the bag, into its compartment.

In addition, there is no dust locking valve, as a result, disposal of the bag is not too hygienic. Changeable bags are sold in kits of 5 pieces + a microfilter protecting the station’s motor. Cost of the set 496 Dollars. On average one bag lasts 3 months.

I got a kefir bag lid 2 cm in diameter in the reservoir once. Apparently, it was partly the reason for the clogging and inability to properly dump the garbage into the station. The robot started beeping, we had to open the dustbin. It’s easy: Just push the big wheels and pull the tabs on the lid.

Cleaning brushes and other parts. The wheels hardly ever get dirty. The round shaft brush wraps pet hair and fur around itself and can be cleaned by detaching it from the body. You have to use scissors or a chopstick to pull out what’s stuck. Do not have to do it often: most of the debris is sucked into the garbage can.

Changing/cleaning the filters. The flat filter in the robot can be rinsed under running water. The filter located in the base is replaceable after using 5 filter bags, the manufacturer claims that it does not need to be cleaned. But it gets dirty quickly and badly – at least the dust buildup has to be removed.

Extra convenience. This model has no “tricks”, such as a microfiber cloth that collects fine dust, or a “virtual wall” which restricts the robot’s movements. Not to say that these are serious drawbacks. As the test with scattered flour on the floor showed, the robot perfectly collects it without a napkin: Sufficient suction power.