Ok, I'm a little later on this than I had originally planned, but here goes...
Background:iRobot released
the first automatic vacuum in the US a few years back. I remember hearing about it and knowing that this was something I wanted to have for my use. Part of this is because I do not like housework, and part of it is because I love gadgets. It really has nothing to do with wanting to clean the floors well while saving time for myself - but that's a pretty neat side benefit. I never did own one of these though, and from what I've heard it's not to big a deal that I didn't. These first issue robot vacuums were like many first issue products and had their fair share of "personality" from what I hear.
More recently, they released the new "Discovery" line of roomba robots. These were basically Roomba 2.0 and were all identical for the most part. The differences being color and accessories that were sold along with them.
The Roomba Red is the bottom of this pile in price, and has the only other change from the rest of the discovery line. There is a missing mode button on it for the "Max" mode. Apparently this functionality can be had simply by using one of the remote accessories. I have not tested this, but do not doubt the validity of the claims from those who have.
I had the perfect opportunity to buy one of these this year as I want more than anything to help my wife have more time. She was working a tremendous amount and felt horrible that she wasn't keeping the house as clean as she wanted (me, I thought she was doing better than needed - but that's another blog entry). With this product I could give her the ability to vacuum without having to take the time to vacuum. It is truly the closest I imagine we can currently come to giving the gift of time, save perhaps a
robot lawn mower (again, another topic).
I had decided on this gift a couple of month before Christmas, but my wife is the financially responsible one so she handles our banks accounts. This meant I couldn't actually buy one until right before Christmas - the "blackout" date we set where neither of us was allowed to look at what was being spent where. Unfortunately this precluded me from a couple of small sales and deals that went by - but I was still able to get it for a pretty decent deal from Sears. I also got the extended warranty from Sears as I have had a couple of those from different retailers in the past that were well worth it.
Onto the review:
Opening the box we were greeted with a nice round red, relatively heavy thing. I think I was expecting it to be smaller and lighter than it actually was for some reason. I had even brought it home from Sears and still felt it should have been smaller and lighter than it was. This is not to say that it is to big or heavy, it's a pretty good size and has almost no weight. I think I had been thinking it would be closer to a Frisbee for some reason. As it is it's about the size of the part of an upright that is actually on the floor, the part with the brushes, brush motor, and wheels. It's probably about that heavy as well. It is very easy to pick up and carry in one hand.
It was packaged quite well and I think it would have survived shipping with no problems at all. There was a small manual that should appeal very nicely to the average consumer that wants to buy something and have it just work. There was also a cleaning tool, and a spare replacement filter. As with any other vacuum on the market most of the profit over time for the unit is probably from the filters (bags for the ones that have those instead) as opposed to the sale of the unit itself. An enterprising person or avid DIYer would probably be able to easily make new filters for the unit using the plastic frame from an old one to save money.
We had to start by charging the unit for at least 16 hours. The charge indicator light showed green after about 4 to 6, but we stuck with the instructions to be safe. The cord is lengthy enough to reach outlets behind objects with no trouble. There is an AC-DC converter built-in to the cord that increases the bulk, but it is not overly huge (as I've heard the one for the XBOX 360
is...). I would put it at around the same size as one for a notebook computer.
The next day we decided to try it out. I had done some serious reading on the unit so I had an idea what we needed to do. Additionally, the instructions gave tips as well. Basically, we needed to pick up before using, just like you would have to for a regular vacuum really. We also needed to watch it the first couple times it did a room. Not actively watch the entire process, but check in on it occasionally and make sure it hadn't gotten stuck.
We picked the bedroom. It's a decently sized room with little to nothing on the floor to being with. We closed off the closet and picked a small garbage can up off the floor. We then put it in the middle of the room, hit power, hit start, and got onto the bed. We watched the vacuum for a few minutes as it did a couple of patterns, and then we fired up the TV. The vacuum was quiet enough that we could watch TV with it running in the same room. We did have to run it loud, but not much louder than we have to when a train goes by. (We live in a condo with train tracks less than a full block away...)
The vacuum went for around an hour and a half, most of it's battery life. When it was done it made a "cheering" sound to indicate "mission successful" and that the room was clean. When it gets stuck or has trouble it makes a "sad" sound to indicate it needs help. We took the back off to empty the dustbin and it was quite full. We decided in the future to leave the bathroom door closed and do it as a separate room, but more on that later. Emptying the dustbin was very straight-forward, remove and dump. We also removed the filter and tapped the dust off of it. About every 3 or 4 times we run it we also use the provided tool to comb the brushes and cut anything wrapped around the brush or beater (threads/hair). We sometimes do this more such as after doing the bathroom.
It had been quite awhile since under the dresser or nightstand had been done - so we decided to try it on a room that had been vacuumed more recently next. We did the living room. Armed with the knowledge of how the bedroom went we sectioned off the room and cleared the floor. We started the vacuum and kept track of it. We discovered it occasionally got stuck under the loveseat to where it couldn't back out (we have since solved this - but I digress). When it got stuck we would free it and hit the button to get it to continue and it would jump right back into cleaning the floor. Again it took around an hour and a half. There were a couple of times it would get a blue light on the top, the noise level would increase slightly, and it would hang out in one particular area. This meant that its sensors detected more particulate than normal. Exactly what this baseline is and how it is determined I do not know, but it apparently can tell when the floor is especially dirty. At the end of the run the dustbin was again quite full. This may be partially explained by the fact that our old vacuum was in a state of dyeing.
At this point we decided the vacuum was a success and were ready to sell it to our friends and family.
Parting thoughts:
We have learned how to better use the vacuum over the last month and a half. We run it almost every night in one room or another. We have the house sectioned off into 7 or 8 days, about 10 areas. We keep a chart on the fridge dry-erase board so we know what has been done lately and what hasn't. Even now on a new filter and after weeks of use the dust bin still comes out pretty full after the vacuum runs. It may seem to take longer, but we can do the whole house by the end of the week only investing about 45-60 minutes of our time vacuuming. (Actually clearing the floor and restoring stuff after as well as cleaning the unit.) We have some rooms we can start on our way out the door and others we run during dinner. The filters are quite reasonable at around $5 each after shipping (packs of 6) They last anywhere from 1-3 months depending on the environment they are used in and the frequency of vacuuming.
Some say the roomba cannot replace your regular vacuum, but it has replaced ours. It easily has the power of an average upright and the versatility is much more than any regular vacuum on the market. We have a dirt devil for the stairs and our floors are doing quite well.
If you have a large house and want to do away with vacuuming you'll need a couple of them. If you want it to be hands free you'll need a few. The best value can be had by manually starting it in a room, charging it back up (there is a rapid charger available) and then manually starting it in another. This will also give the best overall coverage. When money is no object one of these in each room with a scheduler base station will make it so you only have to "empty the garbage" every day and clean the unit every week depending on the room. Everyone's needs will probably be somewhere in-between these two extremes. The more square and empty the room the better it will get it clean. Rooms that are separated by a doorway are usually best done as two separate rooms. Rooms that are side by side and only have a half-length wall may be done as one, but results will vary. The invisible wall is difficult to learn as there is absolutely no indication of where the massive beam is going, physical barriers work best.
There is a module you can get now to feed your own programs into the roomba. My initial thought was that this was great, but my follow-on cautionary thought was performance. Part of why the robot does such a good job is repetition. It goes over every spot in the room multiple times. Programming it to follow a specific path loses this and could result in rooms getting less clean. I do hope to get that module sometime in the future though, it would have its uses... ;)
