What is it?
It is not a dog, nor a cat, it’s a Roomba! We bought the pet version at Costco and Scott immediately named it Wall-E. It is partly like having a house-elf and partly like having a not-so-bright horseshoe crab whizzing around the place.
My Roomba Review:
Is it just sweeping? No, it is vacuuming.
Does it do a good job? Yes, it is surprisingly thorough.
Does it need bags? No, you need to shake out its dirt-catching-bin after every run and comb any fuzzies out of its brushes periodically.
How do the animals like it?
- Gracie identified it as an animal and play bows to it and follows it around.
- Rob identified it as a vacuum cleaner and behaves just like he does with the conventional type – he heads outside until it goes away.
- Our cats are not taking rides on it yet, but they don’t seem afraid of it either.
Is it worth the money? YES, as Scott says, “Dust bunnies never sleep.”
I used to Swiffer every day and vacuum once or twice a week and we still had dust-bunnies blowing around like tumbleweeds in a Western Movie. Now I can run the Roomba every day and dust and do whatever while it is vacuuming. I can’t believe how well it handles furniture, the kitchen table and chairs, under the dressers, around the bed, no problem.
The only thing that trips it up are these bentwood IKEA chairs. It keeps thinking they are thresholds and tries to bash its way up and over each “leg”. Scott wanted to take those for his smoking lounge anyway, so I’ll replace them with chairs that have straight legs that are at least 3.5 inches off the ground. Yup, the little guy is worth swapping out chairs for.
It vacuums the throw rugs in front of the doors and doesn’t get tangled in them and even has a “cliff sensor” to keep from falling down stairs. Now he can’t clean around clutter and rat’s nests of cords but that just forces us to get that kind of stuff under control. You can bet I am making sure that the new cabinets in the kitchen all have a kick plate high enough so it can clean under them easily. Today I moved the troublesome IKEA chairs into the office and closed that door, then pressed the “clean” button on top and left with Rob & Gracie to do some errands. When I got home an hour or so later, it had finished cleaning and plugged itself into its dock for charging. Amazing!
Frankly, I’d rather have a house-elf but this will work for now. iRobot has received good reviews on their various Roomba models so I don’t anticipate any problems. They also get positive reviews for maintenance and repair but I am hoping it lasts a good long time before needing either.
Click here to see Roomba on Amazon, it is cheaper at Costco).
Click here to see the official website: iRobot: Roomba Robots.
Inga Duncan Thornell 