anyone got a cleaning robot?
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,525
Likes: 1
From: Savannah, GA, USA
anyone got a cleaning robot?
i saw something like this in lowes:
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122
do they work or are they just a gimic?
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122
do they work or are they just a gimic?
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 2,490
Likes: 0
From: denver
i have a 570
my house is all mex tile, craft furniture, (4)dogs (6)cats, little clutter. two rooms a 'gate' between them. fair amount of activity in the house and we are not to careful so it gets dirty fast. recent complaints after the addition of the forth dog, things went over top so thus the roomba. the roomba is not for everyone and its performance is different than expected.
good
-the roomba has good coverage, it seems to emulate a random path you would do it you were cleaning. it gets under things with success that you would think a problem.
-in the second room i have a pile of network cables and the roomba dosnt seem to get tangled up in them.
-where i run the thingy every day (maybe twice) the house is clean. this in reference to a previous life where clumps of pet fur rolled around. it seems the everyday volume adds up to the previous weekly amount expected.
-if a furniture leg is not that narrow it will slow down before the hit.
-i think the roomba would work on carpet, maybe better than tile but cant speak for this first hand.
-its noise level is not that bad, typically it will run >35minuites in one room.
-buy from irobot.com direct may get you a 30day warranty and or free shipping. you will want the warranty because this thing is not for everyone.
the bad:
-it is not a vacuum cleaner, it has rotating brushes. lots of moving parts and more dog hair get cought in the moving parts than in the brushes. whatever
-it must be cleaned after every use and sometimes twice per cleaning. you have to remove and clean all those brushed which is a pain. it helps to have compressed air to remove the dust, clean the filter. so the roomba works well in the lab, not so well on a house floor.
-the roomba will get stuck / wedged on / in between things, often several times in one spot. given this it is fair to say the thingy is not totally automated. we run it while getting ready for work so we can ck up on it time to time.
-its software is bad in some areas: no pause button and if you stop it (or it stops on its own accord due to jam) the roomba seems not to resume with the same knowledge. sometimes the remote locks up the mess. if the roomba gets wedged between things it dosnt beep continuous, you have to go looking for it. it feel it would only take one phone call to india to fix these errors.
-the roomba will sometimes return to its charging pad itself. possibly the middle wheel, its a 3 wheel device, gets clogged with hair and makes its driving effort sorta like a DUI charge, so it cant steer into the charging pad.
-the roomba will seldom find the second room. possible there is sooo much dirt in the first it dont have enough charge or it gets clogged up with dirt / hair.
-never had it happen yet, if anyone of the cats throw up on the floor the roomba will not play well with this. you have to verify the floor is clear of this type of thing before starting. to use the automatic start timer on the roomba is a gamble.
my house is all mex tile, craft furniture, (4)dogs (6)cats, little clutter. two rooms a 'gate' between them. fair amount of activity in the house and we are not to careful so it gets dirty fast. recent complaints after the addition of the forth dog, things went over top so thus the roomba. the roomba is not for everyone and its performance is different than expected.
good
-the roomba has good coverage, it seems to emulate a random path you would do it you were cleaning. it gets under things with success that you would think a problem.
-in the second room i have a pile of network cables and the roomba dosnt seem to get tangled up in them.
-where i run the thingy every day (maybe twice) the house is clean. this in reference to a previous life where clumps of pet fur rolled around. it seems the everyday volume adds up to the previous weekly amount expected.
-if a furniture leg is not that narrow it will slow down before the hit.
-i think the roomba would work on carpet, maybe better than tile but cant speak for this first hand.
-its noise level is not that bad, typically it will run >35minuites in one room.
-buy from irobot.com direct may get you a 30day warranty and or free shipping. you will want the warranty because this thing is not for everyone.
the bad:
-it is not a vacuum cleaner, it has rotating brushes. lots of moving parts and more dog hair get cought in the moving parts than in the brushes. whatever
-it must be cleaned after every use and sometimes twice per cleaning. you have to remove and clean all those brushed which is a pain. it helps to have compressed air to remove the dust, clean the filter. so the roomba works well in the lab, not so well on a house floor.
-the roomba will get stuck / wedged on / in between things, often several times in one spot. given this it is fair to say the thingy is not totally automated. we run it while getting ready for work so we can ck up on it time to time.
-its software is bad in some areas: no pause button and if you stop it (or it stops on its own accord due to jam) the roomba seems not to resume with the same knowledge. sometimes the remote locks up the mess. if the roomba gets wedged between things it dosnt beep continuous, you have to go looking for it. it feel it would only take one phone call to india to fix these errors.
-the roomba will sometimes return to its charging pad itself. possibly the middle wheel, its a 3 wheel device, gets clogged with hair and makes its driving effort sorta like a DUI charge, so it cant steer into the charging pad.
-the roomba will seldom find the second room. possible there is sooo much dirt in the first it dont have enough charge or it gets clogged up with dirt / hair.
-never had it happen yet, if anyone of the cats throw up on the floor the roomba will not play well with this. you have to verify the floor is clear of this type of thing before starting. to use the automatic start timer on the roomba is a gamble.
Registered User
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 9,409
Likes: 0
From: Calgary
If it weren't so expensive still I'd take a risk on the roomba.
I can foresee this working well in the future though, having a small fleet of these floor cleaning robots that clean multiple rooms. Having a floor plan of your house laid in to the a single computer guiding them as well, so the computer can determine high traffic areas, monitor how full of dirt the robots are, etc.
I can foresee this working well in the future though, having a small fleet of these floor cleaning robots that clean multiple rooms. Having a floor plan of your house laid in to the a single computer guiding them as well, so the computer can determine high traffic areas, monitor how full of dirt the robots are, etc.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 2,490
Likes: 0
From: denver
Trending Topics
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,560
Likes: 1
From: Albuquerque, NM
we had several, and returned all three before giving up and getting another regular vacuum cleaner. our whole house is tile and we have rugs in lots of places. if the rug is too tall for the front bumper to clear the edge of the rug, the rug will not get cleaned. If your rug is black (or any other very dark color) the Roomba will freak out and it won't know what to do. Tech support says this is because it interprets a black surface as no surface at all, so it avoids it (to keep it from falling down stairs). in the end, the cleaner mechanism worked very well (I feel) while the scheduler, virtual walls, vacuum AI, and auto-dock feature sucked. I was really disappointed; this was a product that I really wanted to like.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post