For the first week that I ran the Ecovacs Deebot M81 Pro, I kept finding it knocked off its base, its battery uncharged. It was aggravating, and mystifying. What could be happening? I’ve been testing robot vacuums for months by plugging them into this one location. After a day of observation, I figured out the problem. My eight-month-old son was crawling over to the botvac, and turning it on and off by slapping the glowing blue button.

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