My Wyze vacuum consistently stops at any HVAC floor vent it encounters while making its first pass around a room. If I catch it before it goes into sleep mode, I can click “continue” on the app and I will finish cleaning. If not, eventually it turns off and must be carried back to the charging station and start clearing all over.
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Welcome to the Wyze community @takoeninger76!
The robot vacuum may think that the vent is an overhang so it stops. It’s also possible that it gets stuck on it. Would creating a virtual wall around the vent solve this issue?
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Out of curiosity, what color and size are the floor vents? I have standard white ones on hardwood floors and it rumbles over them without a problem.
I tried a virtual wall but it didn’t seem to work. I may have tried to be too precise with it, so I will try again.
Every vent in the house is metal construction, and medium tan color. The ones that cause the trouble are all 4"x10" nominal size. There are some that are 2"x10", but they don’t seem to cause any problems.
My vents are larger and also tan color and it goes over them fine, maybe it’s because mine all have angled louvers to reflect the light beam.
Mine also have angled louvers. @takoeninger76 do your vents have angled louvers? If not, it could possibly be looking at the drop into the vent?
Yes, they have angled louvers. I was wondering the same thing, does the vacuum think it is about to tumble.
I have the same issue with my 4x10 tan floor vents. It isn’t consistent however. It seems to be fine if it has a clear path to run over the vent without any maneuvers, However, if it has to change speed or direction, it just gives up and stops. Vents have angled louvers, so it shouldn’t see it as a black hole drop into the abyss.
Using virtual walls isn’t a solution for me since it’ll just fail all over again when the map is reset (so it can do another floor in the house). At this point I’ve been placing a thick book or other obstruction over the vent on scheduled cleanings (not a great solution).
For right now, I also put an object if sort over the vent. I hope Wyze fixes this soon, because remembering to block AND unblock the vents defeats the purpose of having a robot with AI. It’s supposed to be home automation after all.
I had the same issue with a floor return vent. It is probably triggering the “cliff” sensor. Draw a virtual wall around the vent, and you’re good to go.
I have the same issue with a white 4x10 vent. The funny thing is I have other vents the same size but tan and they cause no issue. They are on the wood floor and the white one is on the carpet so not sure if it is a carpet issue or white color issue. I will have to try and saw out the white one for a tan one and see if I have the same problem. Our solution is before it runs at night we put the plant on top of the vent. not the most elegant solution, but better than it stopping 5 min into cleaning after we went to bed. IMG_5016|375x500
I put some speaker grill cloth over one of the floor vents where the vac has consistently stopped (and then gone offline?? which makes no sense as the wifi signal is fine per my testing with a signal meter)). The good news is that the speaker grill cloth resolved the issue and I’m far more likely to just leave that in place vs putting an object over the vent as it allows air flow.
I had expected, per all the speculation about the stop to be due to the “cliff” sensor that the vac would just go around the vent (since the grill cloth is black). However, it just went right over the vent instead. So I’m not seeing an obvious issue with the “cliff” sensor avoiding black areas as the issue.
I’d much rather see the programming resolve the issue, but this works for me for now.
It’s earlier to draw a virtual wall around the floor vent. Then you don’t have to worry about the cloth getting tangled up in the vac.
If glad that drawing a virtual wall works better for you. I was just sharing another option that others might find useful.
Speaker grill cloth works better for me as I can then reset the map to bounce the vac between floors without concern. I’ve never had the speaker grill cloth get tangled up in the vac since unlike clothing cloths, it is designed to let air flow through it. So it doesn’t impact my heating/cooling and looks fine to leave in place until Wyze solves their sensor issue.