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July 5, 2006 Life With A Roomba . . . Roomba does a great job of in-between big-vac cleaning, keeping our floors clean and carpets "brushed up" looking . . .
Roomba Discovery (www.iRobot.com, $279.95) is one of several models of intelligent robotic floor vacuum cleaners promising to lighten your work load and free up time for other activities. Since its introduction in 2002, more than two million Roombas have been sold, so there are many people using this robot that moves around, under its own control, vacuuming the floor and carpets as it goes. We decided to try the Roomba and found that it does a surprisingly good job. Read on. We like Roomba’s autonomy, i.e. we put it down in the area to be cleaned, power it up, and it vacuums while we have some coffee or do other work. Roomba does the work we used to do with our upright vacuum cleaner. Occasionally Roomba gets stuck under a cabinet, but it can usually free itself by wiggling a little, backing up and repeating the cycle. If it gets really stuck, it beeps pathetically, waiting for someone to free it (a gentle nudge with your foot does it). Roomba (some people name theirs) has a side brush that spins horizontally, sweeping dust and dirt from the crack between the floors and walls. Our big floor vacuum can’t do that--missing that space by a half-inch. We don’t have to worry about Roomba falling down the stairs or falling off the step into the sunken living room because it has IR (infra-red) sensors that monitor the floor, sense the step or drop-off and stop the robot, back it up and turn it away to carry on in a different direction. Roomba also has a wall sensor that keeps it tracking along the wall, maximizing the effectiveness of the side brush. It does a cute little wiggle as it hugs the wall. Rhumba - Roomba –get it? Where else can you get your floor vacuumed and be entertained at the same time?
When Roomba’s front bumpers hit an object, it goes off in a different direction. If some extra dirt particles hit Roomba’s dirt sensors, it does a little circular pattern of extra cleaning in that area. The overall pattern is random, but iRobot Company calculates that in an average room Roomba will vacuum each area four times during its cleaning cycle. In addition to the side brushes, two counter rotating brushes beneath the unit sweep dirt, dust and lint into the dirt bin. And a vacuum system sucks up smaller dirt particles. Roomba has three cleaning modes: standard cleans for an appropriate time period based on the size of the area it judges it’s cleaning; max cleans until the battery charge runs out; and spot mode cleans a three-foot diameter circle. The included rechargeable battery pack takes about three hours to fully charge, and a full charge runs Roomba for up to two hours, depending on the surface it’s cleaning. For our carpeted floors, we get closer to a one-hour run time. Bare floors use less energy, so run time will be longer. The life span of the battery pack is about 500 charge/discharge cycles. As Roomba rambles around, it bumps into furniture and the like and turns away. We were concerned that all this bumping would eventually damage our furniture, but so far (6 months), it has not. We even called Roomba support, and their response was that this has not been a problem reported by customers. Roomba itself, however, is showing signs of scrapes and bruises from its under-counter encounters. Roomba does a good job of vacuuming, but an annoying aspect is cleaning out the dirt bin. The bin pops off the back of the unit, but dust bunnies tend to stick inside its small cavity, and you really need a small brush similar to a bottle brush to effectively clean it. You also have to clean the air filter, but simple shaking doesn’t do it, so you’ll need a stiff brush. No brushes are provided, but a comb for cleaning out hairs and such that get caught in the rotating brushes is included.
Packaged with the Roomba Discovery model are two IR Virtual Walls, which are small battery-operated devices that emit an IR beam that Roomba senses and turns away, limiting the area it cleans. If you buy a model that doesn’t include Virtual Walls, any items can be placed wherever you want Roomba to stop (a piece of scrap board works). A charging docking station was also included; it emits another IR beam that Roomba senses when its batteries are low, causing it to go to the station, dock itself and recharge. A wall hanger unit for storing and recharging your Roomba was also included. The Roomba looks like a small flying saucer roaming around the floor. It measures about 13.5 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high. Included in our configuration is a remote control for driving the robot to its cleaning destination and starting or pausing its operation. One of the other models of Roomba includes a programable remote control for scheduling cleaning chores; another model includes a developers kit for writing your own robotic programs for your little cleaner. Cool. Our overall impression is that Roomba does a great job of in-between big-vac cleaning, keeping our floors clean and carpets "brushed up" looking. Although there’s 30-day money-back satisfaction guarantee, we are hanging on to ours, thank you. |
