Tried several different combinations For some tests I used the Rustic Residence (RR) in Windenburg, the other one is called "Newcrest Starter" (NS) and was made by "SimsOnlineCom" on the Gallery. The Newcrest Starter is the current home in my current save.
Each of the below test are new saves, except where noted.
- RR No Mods: Broken bathroom sink, produced garbage and puddle, Robot vacuum took 3 tries to find the garbage, cleaning animation played, mess was not removed.
- RR Full Mod Complement: Broken Toilet, produced garbage and puddle, Robot Vacuum that was upgraded was able to find and move to both garbage and puddle, no cleaning animation played, no mess removed.
- NS No Mods: Kitchen Sink, produced puddle, no garbage. Removed island countertops, still produced no garbage. Bathroom Sink, produced puddle, did produce garbage. Vacuum cycle was started around 20 times, it did not find the garage once, even after moving both the garbage and vacuum to different spots.
- NS Smarter Vacuum mod only: (Follow up of NS No Mods test) Vacuum found garbage two rooms away immediately, pathed to it, no cleaning animation played, no mess removed.
- NS, New Save, Full Mod Complement: Kitchen sink produced puddle, no garbage. Removed island countertops, still produced no garbage, vacuum pathed to puddle, no cleaning animation, no mess removed. Bathroom Sink produced puddle, no garbage, vacuum pathed to puddle, no cleaning animation, no mess removed. Toilet produced puddle, produced no garbage, Vacuum pathed to puddle, no cleaning animation, no mess removed. Placed new bathroom sink in the middle of large area in the main room, produced puddle and garbage, vacuum pathed to both, no cleaning animation, no mess removed. Stove produced garbage, vacuumed pathed to it, no animation, no mess removed.
- RR No Mods, game repaired through Origin: Vacuum cycle started 10 times, garbage was moved several times. Vacuum only succeeded in finding the garbage after upgrading with Turbo-Charge. Took so long that first puddle dried up. Vacuum eventually pathed to garbage, cleaning animation played, and mess was not removed. Vacuum upgraded additionally with waterproofing. Vacuum took the scenic route for the second puddle I created, played cleaning animation, and the puddle remained.
In relation to the garbage thing, I'll try some more testing in my main game for that later today. I feel like the area allowances for the garbage piles to spawn has changed (the amount of space around the object for it to spawn), but I may just be mis-remembering it, I would swear that I have repaired things in the past in smaller quarters and gotten garbage to spawn.