What Reddit says about Tapo

“Tapo RV30... It's good, app is solid (I'm also running a dozen tapo cameras with it) It docks and dumps and it goes for 3 weeks in our house before needing an empty. We have good mesh wifi around the house so there's are no dead spots. I would buy and recommend.”

“i’ve been very pleased with my definitely-not-the-best tapo rv30. we still have cleaners come every two weeks, but it does a good enough job.”

“I have the Tapo Link RV30 max plus and its brilliant! Ive got long hair, plus long haired cats.. it does the trick! Never any problems, had for 5 months now. Oh and it mops too which i made useful for small areas.”

“I also own a tapo RV30 Max PLUS. let me share my experience with it. Yes it does clean. The proof? check the dust bag, u will see how much dirt it collects. And i tell u, it definitely does the job. But that does not mean it does a 100% clean job. In fact, perhaps maybne 80-90% The remainder? places out of reach either vertically, or behind obstacles, you have to do a manual spot clean. I don't mind doing the manual spot clean. You should treat the robot as merely an assistant cleaner that gets most of the cleaning done, leaving u little cleaning left to do. As for mapping issue, i found that the times when it gets lost is usually when you mess around with the dock station. if you move that dock station after mapping, u will mess up it's navigation, then the only way to fix that is to delete the map and make a new one, to make it scan the map from scratch, then it will work fine again. Navigation is good, if u add the obstacle no go zones properly. or, u will run into issues where it gets stuck. Another thing i did was use the room cleaning. Then set an order, so the last place it cleans is somewhere i know it will have a 95% chance of getting to the dock station without getting lost. through trial and error i figured how. When doing the mapping, i suggest set room partitions. Why? so you can make the last place it cleans, somewhere where it can easily navigate to the dock station for it's last stop. This for me was the solution to prevent it getting lost on the way back to dock. The mopping for this model i do not recommend. Because the result u will simply leave a trail of dirty stains. Think of it as if a dog was dragging it's behind on the floor. basically that's what that is like. The mopping is not good. just use it only for vacuum only. Do mop manually. It's possible to do vacuum, then a manual mop, then do the robot mop. But honestly i just skip the robot mop, not worth the effort since i already manual. for my unit around 8+ months in (but less than a year), 1 of the hindges cracked. and the filter flap is also broke. it's under rma, though not sure if they will replace or charge me. pending. they said 14 working days to wait for them to inspect, then i have to go collect. you can arrange courier, but u have to pay for that. instead i dropped it off at the servicing center myself. i don't use carpets, but from what i see i doubt it's good for carpets. one thing to be wary for these iots is their software update lifespan. when they no longer provide firmware or security patches, i suggest u set them on a vlan with no internet. i was told it's possible to run the robot vacuum without the internet supposedly. this issue isn't specific to tapo, but a lot of iots also have this issue where they become security risks unless u lock it down. the good thing is, luckily i did not spend too much on this, since i got it at a heavily discounted price.”

“I've had one for four months and it cannot seem to do it job. That one time hasn't been able to clean the house without having to have my help. It gets stuck or it forgets where it is and cannot find the base station I've moved the bay station around I've moved my router I've tried everything. The software is total garbage. I don't know what else to say do not buy one of these piece pieces of shit”

“I have the RV20 mop plus. The main issue i face is that the map will get corrupted after every 4-5 months. Been using the RV20 for 15 months now. Whenever the map corrupts, the robot will not be able to detect the base station and the room partitions will be useable. Initially, i had to remap the whole house to solve the problem until i found out that you can actually backup your map so that if the map corrupts, you can just restore the original map back. The other problem started after 6 months whereby one of the side brush's motor was making loud noises. had the motor replace under warranty. I only uses the RV20's vacuum function only and it gets the job done. For the price i paid (USD 150), i can't complain. My auto update is also activated.”

“I have to restore the map after every use. Google AI had me clean all sensors... even pulled the front bumper off to get behind it. I read about the 'ghosting' effect... which is where if it runs into trouble on thick rugs etc the wheels spin and it thinks it's ahead of where it really is. I did full factory resets. I turned off auto map updating. I prevent it from getting to problem areas such as kids bedrooms by physically closing doors. The virtual barriers are useless... just completely ignores them... more accurately it thinks it's somewhere else on the map. The area it cleans is flat and wooden without any tricky obstacles. If you delete the map and have it map the area again it does a perfect job mapping the house. The new map is always spot on. But after one room clean or whole clean the map has completely changed, sometimes doubling in size. If I don't reset the map every use it will never complete a clean or find the base again. So I also can't recommend it. Worked brilliantly for about 1yr then started playing up.”

“Yes, I also use the restore map workaround. I restore the map on a weekly basis. The floor map continuously updates as the robo vac cleans, but it complicates and confuses itself, to the point that it cannot find the docking station when its a few meters away.”