Roomba: convenience or just a con?

guncollector

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 10, 2001
Messages
838
Location
Bay Area - California
Okay,

My wife just informed me that last night she ordered the Roomba Robotic Floor Vacuum (with 2 rapid chargers and 2 virtual walls)--from HSN, nonetheless!

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Now, I'm a "gadget" guy, but somehow this Roomba raises my antenna a bit. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

Now my question is: Does anyone have any experience with this thing? Does it actually work and provide the convenience it promises, or did we just get "conned" out of $221.90+?

TIA for any/all replies.
 

GJW

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
2,030
Location
Bay Area, CA
Bought one for the wife (Hey, she asked for it).
The thing really works but the collection cup is very small and the brushes aren't very aggressive.
For a low pile carpet that you're going to Roomba regularly it works great.
For a deeper pile or for not-so-regular vacuuming it's probably not got the power/capacity to do a good job.
It also doesn't like going over cords or thresholds.
Any uneven surface tends to trip its own hazard sensor which halts operation.
 

BlindedByTheLite

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 6, 2003
Messages
2,170
Location
Bangor, Maine
i agree with GJW.

a friend of mine got one and i find it works pretty good for the carpeting in the apartments. which is kind of a smooth/nappy tightly woven carpet.

but for the shag type rug he threw down over the tile in his bathroom it can barely pick up shaving cream, heh.

(i also think it's too slow)

i haven't ran into it tripping its sensor on things yet tho. but that's pretty funny.

i think it's a pretty decent piece of equipment tho. you can just drop it in a room and it'll do its thing.
 

tinyE

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 19, 2003
Messages
51
Location
WestCentral OH
Even though I have one, I'm still on the fence regarding it.

It's movement somewhat fascinates me, so the time that I should be spending doing something else, I just spend watching it.

It clearly moves on an algorithm, but the actual floor coverage turns out to be somewhat random. For this reason, I don't think that it is a feasible solution as the only cleaning method, but running it frequently means that it will eventually cover the entire floor.

When it runs into something, it makes a little turn and trys again; and will keep making little turns until it gets around the obstacle. Sometimes it will find a wall and run the wall for a distance until it hits the next wall or decides to change direction.

It really does pick up stuff, and when I run it, I'm always embarrassed by how much dirt is on the floor. The dirt container is small, so I just set it for the shortest time setting and empty it frequently.

Now if I could just find the energy to turn it on /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

All in all, I'd say it is interesting and can do some light cleaning -- in addition to cleaning with a regular vac.
 
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