Back in the Agora Happy item, jep asked me about my Roomba.

What is it?  http://www.roombavac.com will answer most of
your questions, but briefly:  it is a robotic floor sweeper
with limited vacuum-cleaning capabilities.  And it is very,
very convenient if you can work within its limitations and
take care of its needs.

What it looks like:

It's a circular affair about 13 inches in diameter and a bit
less than 3 inches high (measured standing on carpet).  It
has two drive wheels and a front caster, a set of counter-
rotating brush/impeller things underneath, and a bumper in
the front.  On the top are 3 membrane switches (with green
LED illumination) and a tricolor LED indicator.  On the
right rear is the main power switch and a dual charging
jack.  The front is a hemi-circular bumper, familiar to
anyone who's ever watched a maze-running robot.  The debris
bin pops out the back.  The color scheme is light gray body,
dark gray bumper.

What it does:

It can pick up small debris and an impressive amount of dust.
It runs really well on hard floors, though it tends to chase
round bits of debris (like unpopped popcorn) over the floor
for a while before it finally grabs them.  It can cope with
short and medium pile carpets, though it runs slower on them
and appears to deplete its battery faster.

It runs completely unattended.  It finds its way around
furniture using a combination of its bumper and IR sensors
along the sides.  It makes a noise like a kid's electric
scooter.  It is supposed to be able to sense stairs and
avoid falling off (it has IR sensors beneath the bumper and
a switch which detects weight on the wheels), but I have
not tested this.  It shuts off when you pick it up.

On a large, uninterrupted section of carpet, it leaves a
fascinating set of patterns.  It starts by tracing a spiral
from the point where it's activated, and when it traverses
a large section it will often halt and go into spiral mode.
In other modes it follows walls, finds its way around
obstacles like table legs and corners of furniture, and
plays bumper cars in narrow passageways.  The lines, arcs
and snail-shell spirals look like some modern art.

It seems to find a pretty impressive amount of dirt to pick
up, even on brand new carpet.  You will want to empty the
little debris bin on the back at least once per room.

It can and will clean under any furniture high enough from
the floor to let it get underneath.  Watching the Roomba
dive under a couch or bed is great fun.

Watching the Roomba, period, can be great fun.  For a
device that's supposed to save time, it's a great waste
of time for the first couple of weeks!

The kit I bought includes an infrared "invisible wall"
barrier to keep the Roomba from going outside the room
you want cleaned, but I have not bothered to put batteries
into it yet.

What it can't do:

It can't cope with deep-pile carpets; it bogs down on them.
It can't handle carpets or throw rugs with exposed tassels;
you can sweep rooms with these, but you have to fold the
tassels underneath before you start.  It doesn't seem to
cope with cables or wires of any sort very well.  Small
objects are a problem, and should be picked up before
turning the Roomba loose.

It can't clean more than 2-3 rooms before it needs to be
charged, and charging with the included charger takes many
hours.  You can buy extra batteries (they snap in and out
of the bottom) and an external charger, but that's $$$.

It can't cope with certain things on the floor.  If you have
a desk, table or chair with splayed tubular legs which sink
into the carpet, the Roomba can high-center itself on the
horizontal tubing and get stuck.

Long, stringy debris is a particular problem, because it gets
wrapped around the brushes and binds them.  Long hair is
especially difficult.  Things which wrap around the brush
axles bog the brush motor down, and cause the unit to
malfunction; it appears to interpret a stalled brush as a
signal to leave an impenetrable area, and too much of this
situation makes the unit shut down and wait for human
intervention.  You can clean the brushes by removing a wire
guard, but un-binding the axles requires a screwdriver.  If
you are afraid of fixing things mechanical, The Roomba Is
Not For You.  On the other hand, the process goes quickly
after the first time.

Is this $200 appliance/toy worth it:

I'd have to say so, especially if you can get 20% off the
list price using a Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon.  My floors
are cleaner than they've been in ages, and with a lot less
time and effort on my part.  The Roomba's requirements make
it psychologically easier to neaten things like cables and
other small things on the floor.  Plus, it's cute.

And when someone makes a ladybug skin for it, it'll be
*irresistable*.  Get one before everybody has one.

9 responses total.

You've not started work on a ladybug skin for it, russ?

Re #1:  Sorry, polymers aren't my strong suit.

I found a downside to the Roomba charger:  it doesn't seem
to know when to quit (or when not to start).  If you have
a blink in the power when the charger is connected to a
fully-charged battery, it starts again and runs for a very
long time; the battery becomes quite warm.  I don't know
if this damages the battery or not, but it can't be good.

Unplugging the charger once the cycle is done seems advisable,
at least until the Roomba folks get a clue and power the
charger's smarts off the battery during power blinks so it
doesn't get amnesia.

Roombas are down near the $100 mark, or were, around Christmas
this year.  Has anyone else given them a try?  I thought, given
we have a lot of tile, Pergo flooring, and short pile rugs,
a Roomba might be good for getting the dust that inevitably
accumulates.  We have a fairly "open" layout for kitchen, dining,
and living rooms, so a Roomba could probably go all over the place
if it wanted.

I think Russ Cage (russ) got one.  Haven't heard a long-term report.

(Hint, Scott:  Look at the author of this item.)

So, what's the long-term report, Russ?  :)

Now that Scott has taken the hint and asked the right person... ;-)

The long-term report is the same as the short-term report.
It has run every time I've asked it to, and does a pretty good
job of picking up dust, lint and small particles from both tile
floors and medium-pile carpet.  It's cruising around my bedroom
as I write this.

It does not get into crevices well, so you'll have to use a
regular vacuum with a crevice tool to get those.  It does
outside corners well, but inside corners are a lost cause.
And it just can't handle cords, tassels or other tangly stuff.

I still have a complaint about its charger, and it really needs
some kind of holder to keep it out of the way when not in use.
(It could go under some furniture, but that would leave the
charger cord out to get tangled up in the brushes if it went
under there while cleaning.)

But I use it a lot more than I use my regular vacuum, in no small
part because I can turn it loose and go do something else.

I'd say the answer to Kent's question is, "No."  I'm guessing he'll be
the second person (on grex) to get one, so I'll be looking forward to
his report.  :)

Roombas do sound interesting and potentially helpful.  I almost bought
one at Xmas but they didn't have both models in stock, so even though I
could compare the demo models I couldn't buy the more-expensive model,
if I wanted.  I decided to wait until store stocks are replenished.

That bit about the charger needing hours to recharge the batteries
sounds the most problematic.

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