KalorikHome Pure Air SmartVac, Gray

DO NOT BUY FROM KALORIK! IF THEY EVER GET BACK TO YOU- THEY TELL YOU LIES THEY WILL REFUND YOU AND YOU NEVER RECEIVE A REFUND! THEY HAVE TERRIBLE PRODUCTS AND TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!! BEWARE!! DO NOT EVER BUY FROM THEM!!

The media could not be loaded.  ******************WATCH MY QUICK DEMO VIDEO in my photo/video gallery. It does what it’s suppose to and reasonably well at that. It gets a little clumsy when returning to the base, but it eventually manages to find it’s “home”. More on the performance below.******************Currently, the price is not available at the time/date of this review. Earlier, the price point was listed as: $299.99 with no discount/coupon being offered by the seller at the time. This review rating does not take into consideration the current price point – given there isn’t any (at the moment) – as well as historical pricing since market trends/values, as well as any price adjustment, is made at the sole discretion of the seller and is prone to fluctuate.I’ve never heard of the Kalorik brand up until this point. However it does appear to be (somewhat) reputable among big business, so I wouldn’t write it off as a nameless brand just yet. The overall build quality is very reasonable and in my opinion very much in line with other big brand units. The external hardware looks and feels great and has a reasonable weight to it – in large part likely due to the battery. I prefer the heavier weight so that it’s not easily flipped. It’s also suppose to have a stairwell safety feature however I’m not inclined to test the integrity of their claim… for obvious reasons.I managed to pair this unit with the app. You need to download the “KalorikHome” app. What I noticed about the app is that it seems to run off the universally acclaimed “Smart Life” app/framework (at its core.) “Smart Life” is a universally popular/compatible app for a large majority of third party and well known smart home products and appliances. This leads me to believe that you may have the option to pair this vacuum unit directly to the “Smart Life” app, however this isn’t verified and I would recommend using it only as backup.More on the app: Although I managed to pair this vacuum unit fine with the “KalorikHome” app, I ran into a small snag. I wasn’t able to pair it using the “EZ mode” as per instruction (this is a common issue) as such I alternated the vacuum unit into “AP mode” where it wirelessly broadcasts it’s on wifi signal in order to “find/discover” the unit using the app. After switching to “AP mode” I was able to pair the unit just fine and now I can control it via any mobile device with the “KalorikHome” app installed.NOTE: When placing the vacuum into “pairing mode” (EZ mode/AP mode) be sure to hold the main (and only) button on the vacuum down until you hear TWO door chimes and the button turns purple and pulsates quick (EZ mode.) Otherwise, hold the button down until you hear about THREE door chime sounds and the light indicator is purple but blinks a little slowly (AP Mode.) While the instructions make reference to this, they left a few details out. Also be sure that the unit is ON first, you’ll need to flip a power switch on the underside of the unit first. Then press the main button on top. You’re welcome *wink*.After pairing the unit with the app, you should be able to find an icon of your vacuum unit and most of the controls are very straight forward – not going to go into it. What I like most is how simple and intuitive everything is. I had no problem figuring it out from there. Also each time the vacuum operates around your home it automatically maps out your home as it goes, and displays a visual of all the mapped out areas right in the app. So after several uses you should have a good portion of your home mapped out. It all seems automatic which is great.I also managed to get this linked up to my Google Home assistant. I would highly recommend linking it if you have a Google (or Alexa) home assistant at home. And well, if you don’t, then consider getting one. See last two thumbnails in my gallery, it shows my Google Home Assistant showing the controls for the vacuum robot. Of course, once linked to your assistant, you can voice command your little vacuum robot friend. Example: “Start Vacuuming”, “Return Vacuum to base”, “Show me vacuum controls”, etc.. You can also create “smart scenes”, scheduling based on weather/time/date, custom voice commands, etc. via the app. All the good stuff!Vacuum itself seems to work fine, however I didn’t see any visible roller brush on the underside which concerns me a little. Although I’ve had mixed results with many roller brushes using other units on hardwood floors. So I’ll reserve any judgement until I see it effectively in ush.It’s a little clumsy looking for the base to recharge, however it may be in small part due to the fact that it hasn’t fully mapped out my floor yet, or it may need to constantly recalibrate in order to find a proper line of sight… perhaps even both. In any case, it finds it eventually, but it’s a small journey getting there.I was surprising, my little vacuum friend managed to climb over a blanket left on the floor – in spite of the fact the instructions explicitly does not recommend it. Really impressed so far with what I see. Any issues moving forward and I’ll try and remember to update this post.Now… If only my robot friend can grab me a drink, wouldn’t that be great?

The media could not be loaded.  Well, let's start with the good. This little robot vacuum is reasonably good at picking up dust and smaller pieces of dirt, not so much larger pieces of debris though. After one session the dust cup was jam packed with dust and dirt even though I had recently vacuumed. The battery life is also quite good. On the default suction power you get about an hour's worth of operation out of it. However, if you activate the high suction the battery drains like a son of a gun. It only lasts about a quarter of the time on high suction, so only really useful for spot or small area cleaning.You can start it just by pressing the Auto button on top, use the remote (takes 2xAAA batteries, not included), or use the "KalorikHome" app by connecting the vacuum to your wifi network (only support 2.4ghz). You get pretty much all of the functionality via the remote, there's no much of a benefit to using the app aside from setting schedules or activating the vacuum when you aren't home.App setup was a bit cumbersome. They make you scroll through about 100 of their different smart home appliances to find the wifi vacuum, and connecting it to my wifi network took about 5 times before it finally took. At that point you can also hook it up to Alexa app and just yell at alexa to start vacuuming which is kind of funny.It all sounds pretty decent so far, so what's the downside? Well, this vacuum is DUMB. It doesn't learn from it mistakes, it just keeps trying the same thing and bumping into the same object. It has this neat feature in the app where it records a map of the places it has cleaned so far. When I first saw this I thought it was the vacuum keeping track of where it has been so it could easily find its way back to the charging dock by retracing its steps. The problem is, this map is not at all accurate and I don't think it uses it for this purpose at all.The first time I used it, I just activated Auto mode which has it randomly patrol around your house until it gets to 20% battery, at which point it stops vacuuming and starts trying to find its way home. It did reasonable coverage of the main floor, I would say it hit about 80% of the floor space that it could vacuum. Not terrible for an automatic setting with no direction, although I noticed it getting stuck a lot and going over the same areas many times, while just doing one pass over others.So after about 50 minutes of vacuuming it hit 20% battery and proudly announced it was going home to charge. When it did this, it was only about 12 feet away from the charging station, but there was a table and chairs in between it and the charger. It then spent the next 25 minutes banging against walls and chair legs in the same ~5 square foot area. The most infuriating thing about watching it was when it finally freed itself from the place it was stuck, it would stop, then turn around and repeat the process. You would think that it would be able to retrace its steps, or if not that it would give up after doing the same escape pattern like 40 times.Somehow, miraculously it eventually got out of that little area... then proceeded to stroll by the charging station and start doing it in another corner of the house. After 30 minutes of trying to find the dock, it gave up. So I told it to dock again, and then finally, about 20 minutes later it found its way back to the charger. So yes, starting from 10 feet away from the dock the robot vac took 50 minutes to eventually dock itself. The battery barely drains when it's doing this because it stops vacuuming and is only driving around (now I know why they trigger this at 20% battery).So really you have to babysit this thing. You can't really trust it to vacuum when you're at work and find its way back to the charger. It also got stuck on a throw rug a few times which required me to nudge it. The remote control and app have manual controls so you can drive the vacuum yourself. Maybe if you have a kid you can let them pretend it's a remote control car and it'll get them to vacuum for you?The reason this baffled me so much was because about 13 years ago I owned a Roomba robot vac, which was one of the original ones that had no smart features whatsoever... and that thing never got stuck, and always found its way back to the base station quickly. And it learned from its mistakes and didn't repeat them 40 times hoping for an alternate outcome.These vacuums should be getting smarter, not dumber!

- I have a total of 3 vacuum robots that I purchased on my own over the years. And this robot from Kalorik would be somewhere in the middle. The best ones, in my opinion, are still the irobot brand which I had 2 of them. One of them I had for about 10 years now and still going strong (only need to replace the wheel tread and battery). The other brand I got for about 4 years and still doing good. And so I do have confidence that this vacuum robot from Kalorik would last quite some time if you maintain it properly. Time will tell.- What I like about this robot over the irobots that I have is that it’s a much slimmer profile, which can go under a low clearance surface much better than the irobot. For my specific situation, I had a bed frame with the center support beam that is a bit slanted on both ends, but the middle section is low to the ground. The irobot would go in on the slanted end but would get stuck when trying to get out on the middle section (since the beam is lower). And the problem is the part where the irobot hit is the little protruding sensor glass and so if I keep letting it run under the bed, it would damage the sensor glass on the top. This Kalorik has absolutely no problem at all since it’s lower and doesn’t have anything protruding on top like the irobot. Now the floor underneath my bed is free from lint and dust. This is AWESOME!- The stair sensor worked great. I had the Kalorik on the 2nd floor and ran everyday and never had any problem with the stairs at all. In fact, I was so used to it that I took it for granted and almost missed that part when I’m writing this review. It works just like other brand name robot vacuum cleaners. NOTE: My stair and the floor is hardwood and so it’s easier for the sensor to detect the stairs. If you have a darker colour floor/stair, then please test it a couple times to make sure it works.- I have yet to find the perfect robot vacuum. There are pros and cons to each model. For this Kalorik, the biggest disadvantage is the lack of any virtual walls or barriers. There are spots, or some sections on my floor that I do not want the robot to hit, or to avoid completely. For other robot models, there are things such as virtual walls or barriers to indicate to the robot NOT to go near the area. Unfortunately, the Kalorik doesn’t have any. It has bump detection, or large object detection, but there’s no way for me to tell the Kalorik to avoid specific areas. The wifi mapping in the app is good, letting you know where it’s been, but it doesn’t have any function such as telling it to avoid this/that area based on the mapping it created when vacuuming. For me, if they have some type of virtual wall or barriers, whether in app or physical pieces, this would be the perfect robot for me.- Overall, while the performance is good and I like it, the lack of any virtual wall or barriers is not the best for my applications. Furthermore, the price of $300 (at the time of order) is quite steep when considering the brand name irobot often goes on sale for similar or slightly more expensive than this.

I have tried a few new products from this brand, Kalorik recently (such as Air Fryers and a Blender which I really likked) and this listing caught my eye when I first saw it as I was also hoping for good things from this product based on my prior experince with their small kitchen appliances. I also want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this product, being that this is my households first ever "ROBO-Vac" (cue the Skynet theme!). It actual use, it works quite well and it has more than exceeded my initial expections. But, when I first acquired this product a few weeks ago, the original listing price was set at $299.99 (which seemed sort of reasonable), but at the time of me writing this, the price has skryrocketed to $412+!? and above and only from Third Party Sellers? This has really put a damper on my overall opinion of this now, but here is what I think about this outside of the pricing issue...This is a very interesting product. As I have never tried out one of these kinds of products before I spent some initial time going over it. It has good overall build quality and seems more than durable enough for its intended use. As I don't have any other reference, I am not sure if this device has the optimal arrangement for brushes or not? I briefly tested its ability to navigate over low pile carpet and it can, but its really not meant for any real use on carpeted areas and this is strictly best suited to areas with hardwards, laminates, ceramic or other tiles and linoleum floors.In my actual use with this it has performed quite well so far. It took a bit of time for the unit to properly map out its surroundings as it navigating back to the charging base was a bit of clunky affair. In my experience with it over 2 weeks or so, it does a fairly good job at picking up loose grit, crumbs and short hairs over the areas of my kitchen floor, dinete and into the family rooms which are all open concept and connect with one another. The maker claims running times of 40 to 60 minutes, but I can only verify actual use of between 35 to 45 minutes at most in my case (still reasonable in my opinion).I am generally very wary of Third Party Smart Apps (ie: Privacy and Data collection issues). From what I can see the Kalorik App appears to makes use of "Smart Life" framework, which has been around for some time and has a pretty good track record. It can also be used for many kinds of Smart enabled features such as Lighting, HVAC control, Security, etc. I actually don't make use of the "Smart Life" App in my household, but during the last few weeks, I found that its intuitive and seems to work fine. However there is also a handheld remote for those of you who are also iffy about using 3rd party apps, but you should also be able to pair this with Google Assistant or Alexa if you make use of either of those in your home.Overall, I like this. I went in with low expectations and this has exceeded them since it has confirmed that "Robot Vacs" can actually work reasonably well in the right scenario. However I also want to note I feel its a bit on the noisy side and it can really sometimes get in the way if you activate it while you are actually trying to use the rooms in question. I feel this is something that is best used when you are away...whether at work or out shopping. I also have to caution that this type of system may not be for everyone and the initial excitement of wanting to get a "new cool gadget" could actually end up with a case of "buyers remorse". This is a device that is probably best suited for someone who feels that they don't have enough hours in the day to get things done. If you have lots of spare time on your hands, you can do a better job of cleaning with your own two hands.At the original listing price of $299.99 from the Original Seller, I feel this is fairly good good value and reasonable. I do NOT feel that this item is worth the $412+ from Third Party Sellers. I assume this is just a temporary sitatution with the original seller somehow being out of inventory? Hopefully this will change in the near future. At $299.99, I can recommend this and I would give it a solid 4 out of 5...but at $421+, I can only rate this at 3 at best. This is really becoming a crowded market over the last year or two and there is honestly a ton of competition out there on Amazon and other places to compare with. I recommend that you seek out the best value that meets your specific needs.

Being as I am a super-busy person and also HATE housework (who doesn’t?), I’m always on the lookout for ways to make the chore of house-cleaning easier and less time-consuming. So, when I saw the Kalorik Home Ionic Pure Air Robot Vacuum on offer, I was excited to see if it could work for me. At the time of ordering the Kalorik robot vacuum, I had been using one of the less expensive Shark robot vacuums without a mapping system and its disorderly way of cleaning was a bit stressful, to be honest, so I was intrigued by the mapping system on this vacuum and hoped that it would take some of the frustration out of daily cleanings.The Kalorik robot vacuum comes with a dock and a remote…it also has an app, which kinda makes me roll my eyes, but some people prefer apps to remotes, so it’s nice that you get a choice here. The remote does require 2 AAA batteries that are not included. The vacuum is equipped with a 2600 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery and fully charges in about 3 hours time. It’s diameter is approximately 12.5”, so it’s small enough to clean your home without becoming too much of an obstacle. It’s also just over 3” high, so it’s able to get under a lot of places like my sofa, chairs, and bed, which I find very helpful. There is some minor assembly with this vacuum, but you simply snap on the brushes and that’s it. The vacuum seems to be of robust build…it has a good tactile weight to it and that plastic it is made of seems pretty durable. Likewise, the dock is also of sturdy build. One thing that concerned me upon my first look at this vacuum is that it makes use of a two-brush system…most robot vacuums I am familiar with use a three-brush system: two side brushes that sweep dirt towards the middle and a middle brush that basically collects that dirt to be suctioned off of the floor. The brushes on this vacuum have much longer bristles than I am used to and stick out from under the vacuum quite a bit. Due to their length, I felt that they might not have the strength to pick up a lot of debris. The debris is collected inside a bagless dust-cup which may need to be emptied a few times during the cleaning process as it doesn’t have a very large capacity, but then, most robot vacuums have small dust-cups because they are small vacuums. This vacuum is also outfitted with a floor sensor that is supposed to prevent it from falling down stairs.The remote is easy to use and gives you the ability to control the vacuum’s basic functions…this makes it easier than having to constantly bend to push buttons on the vacuum itself. For even more functionality, including setting the vacuum up with voice control, you’re going to want to install the app. Just remember, if you want to use Alexa with the Kalorik robot vacuum, you need to also enable the appropriate skill on your Alexa account first. The Kalorik app is clean and intuitive…besides giving you the ability to control the basic functions of your vacuum, it allows you to schedule cleanings for certain times, take a look at the mapping system to see where the vacuum has cleaned, and use voice controls. Curiously, although this vacuum has a mapping system, the app does not give you the ability to set specific areas of your home for cleaning.Kalorik claims that, once charged, this vacuum will clean for 40 - 60 minutes depending upon the settings and I found the 40 minute estimate to be closer to my experience with this vacuum. The Kalorik cleans easily accessible dirt, debris, and hair very well, but it doesn’t have enough suction to pull these things out of rugs and carpets. It does a really good job of picking up dirt, debris and hair from my hardware and linoleum floors, though. Despite having a mapping system, I didn’t see much rhyme or reason to the way this vacuum cleans…it will often go over the same areas it already cleaned and it sometimes has trouble finding its own dock, even though the dock has been in the same place since I first set it up. You also need to ensure that the room you have it cleaning in is free of obstacles like toys and cords etc. because it will get caught up in these things. One of the good things about this vacuum is that it will alert you when it runs into trouble and needs help getting out of a jam. Lol. But the problem with that being, I like to set my robot vacuum to clean while no one is home during the day and there doesn’t seem to be a way to check on such things via the app. I’m also a little skeptical about this ionic air cleaning function…Kalorik doesn’t give you a whole lot of details about it and there are no filters or anything of that nature, so I guess you just have to go on faith and believe that this ionic cleaning feature is helping to clean minute particles in the air.So, do I recommend the Kalorik Home Ionic Pure Air Robot Vacuum? Well, maybe if you have only hard floors in your home. But really, for a penny under $300, I expected a lot more. The Shark robot vacuum I have was about $100 less than this, and though it doesn’t have a mapping system, I find it’s just as organised as the Kalorik, has very similar functionality, and it has much better suction. When it comes right down to it, I wouldn’t buy this vacuum for myself. I hope this review has helped you in your vacuum comparison shopping! Happy cleaning!