We’ve looked at the tea leaves, stared at the stars and consulted the cards, and that means we can see the future. On Prime Day, there will be a lot of robot vacuums among the Amazon Prime Day deals. We don't really have psychic powers; it's that robot vacuum cleaners were among the Prime Day deals last year, and the year before, and the year before that.
So should you buy a robot vacuum cleaner on Prime Day? The short answer is yes, but the longer answer is a slightly less certain yes. There are definitely some great deals to be had, but that doesn’t mean every deal is going to be a great one.
Read on to weigh up the facts then, bookmark our Amazon Prime Day vacuum cleaner deals hub for easy access to some of the best deals on robot vacuums before, during and after the 2-day shopping extravaganza.
Why should you buy a robot vacuum cleaner on Prime Day?
Robot vacuums are the perfect product to get people excited about a sales event: with decent discounts they’re what’s called “doorbusters”, deals that’ll have people flocking to the shop. They’re big ticket, high tech, high margin products, and that last bit means there’s lots of room to cut prices. If you look at the average robot vacuum’s price history going back six months or so, it’s like looking at a particularly violent rollercoaster.
That’s particularly true of less well-known brands, whose average selling price is often in a different postcode to the recommended retail price: that “40% off” sticker is a great way to draw attention to your particular robot when you don’t have your rivals’ marketing muscle.
So how do you bag a bargain bot? Here’s our hard-won wisdom.
1. Sign up for Prime
If you’re not a Prime subscriber, you’ll need to become one. You can get a free trial if either never shopped with Amazon before or you haven’t been a Prime member for 12 months.
2. Do your homework
Don’t let the “SALE!” stickers tell you what to buy; spend a bit of time reading reviews of the best robot vacuums and decide what it is you want to get a Prime Day deal on. If you know your Roombas from your Roborocks and your Sharks from your Samsungs then you’re really well placed to pounce on the best deals when they arrive.
3. Be realistic
You’re very, very unlikely to get a fantastic Prime Day deal on a robot vacuum cleaner that only launched a fortnight ago. If you’re willing to get something a bit less cutting-edge, that’s where you’ll find the really big discounts.
4. Be flexible
There are lots of different models out there, and the QRX43 you want might not get as good a discount as the QRX34 you hadn’t considered. Rather than focus on model numbers, focus instead on specifications. What are the deal-breakers for you? Must it work with Alexa? Do you want one with its own self-cleaning bin? Does it need to navigate around dog toys and dropped socks?
5. Consult a camel
Of all our top tips, this is the toppest. Whenever you’re looking at an amazing deal on Amazon, copy the address from your web browser’s address bar and paste it into the search bar on CamelCamelCamel.com – or enter the full product name instead. This tells you the Amazon price history, in some cases going back years. But it’s the last couple of months we’re interested in.
The image immediately above this section is a pre-Prime Day example: one of our current best buys, the Neato D10, on Amazon UK. As you can see, the price when we checked in was £448.23.
Now let's do our best CSI impression.
Computer! Enhance!
Look at that dotted green line. That’s the lowest price recently, and it’s just £299. If we were betting types, we’d bet that the price will return to £299 for Prime Day.
What CamelCamelCamel does so brilliantly is let you see not just what a product costs, but how much that cost varies – so if you bought a £599 vacuum back in March, you’d have been pretty miffed to see it drop £200 in April, May and June. And on Prime Day you’ll be able to see how the Prime Day price compares to previous price cuts or whether it’s wise to wait a little longer for a deeper discount.
6. Summon a spy
For all its joys, CamelCamelCamel can only tell you what the price has been on Amazon. There’s another bit of information you need to know, and that’s what the price is everywhere else. That’s because many firms co-ordinate price cuts among multiple retailers, so what might seem like a Prime Day bargain is just a price cut available everywhere. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good deal. It just means you don’t need to panic-buy for fear of missing out.
There are multiple options here. We find Google Shopping to be the least useful: our preferred options are PriceSpy and Pricerunner, which have a lot of up to date data from a wide range of retailers.
7. Think beyond the Prime box
If you have your heart set on a particular product, you won’t accept an alternative and a Prime Day deal doesn’t pop up, put it through the price checkers we just mentioned – and if that doesn’t find you a deal, check out the manufacturer’s website. For example, at the time of writing Samsung is doing a deal on its Jet Bot AI+: trade in your old Samsung kitchen or cleaning appliance and you can get up to £300 off the price. Samsung also regularly offers money-off deals that don’t need you to sell them your old fridge.
8. Read the reviews again
Before you hit that Buy Now button, make sure you've read as many of the customer reviews as you can bear – and definitely make sure you've read our robot vacuum reviews. It's very easy to get caught up in the excitement of big sales events and end up buying something that just isn't right for you.
9. Pay without pain
When you’ve bagged a bargain bot, don’t undo all your good work by paying interest on your purchase. Interest rates are incredibly high right now so if you’re buying over time, make sure your credit is interest-free or your could wipe out your entire saving.
