Hi Steve. I don't have animal hair problems but I'm curious to know just how good this robot is? We have timber floors through the house with carpets just in the bedrooms.
I vacuum the bedroom carpets but use an Enjo mop on the timber floors (dry mop to pick up dust and the wet version to mop the floors).
If this worked, I could pop it on and save me the "dry" part of the equation. Often the only reason I have to use the "wet" Enjo mop is because I'm too lazy to get the dust up and I'm wondering if this type of thing could do that part of it for me.
Also, how noisy is this thing? And I notice it can sense the top of a set of stairs, so I assume it would maybe not travel over the join where the timber and carpet meets, but I'm wondering about that too.
Hi Wylie,
I have timber floors throughout as well and a bit of lino. Works wonders, the amount of dust and hair it picks up is incredible. It also has a sensor inside that detects particularly dirty areas and will go over these spots more until they're clean. I also have a rug in the living room for the dog to sit on (ie. covered in hair) and it cleans this perfectly as well.
Cats were wary of it at first but are used to it now and just walk out of the way when it approaches. Some days it seems to be gunning for my black siamese cross! My German Shepherd was scared of it the first day (he's a wuss), but now is fascinated by it and often follows it around the house.
The big selling point for me is that it takes no effort on my part. There's no way I'd be pulling out the Dyson every day, but with Roomba I press the button every morning while I'm getting ready for work for a daily clean up. When my house is cleaned once a fortnight they still drag out the dyson (cos they're sceptical of the Roomba and the Dyson for that matter
) and mop the wood floors. You can also get another version from iRobot that
washes and dries the floor as well as vacuum. But I don't believe that version is available in Aust, so you'd have to order from US (see thread on GST and imports
)
Added benefit is that it goes under the furniture and bed which whilst in theory can be reached by a regular vacuum, usually isn't.
I was surprised with the noise. I was expecting a massive sound, but it's not too bad at all, probably a little quieter than a regular vacuum cleaner - obviously it can't be silent as with any vacuum. I wouldn't have it going in the room while I'm watching TV, I just set the invisible wall for it to stay in the other half of the house if I was doing something and didn't want to be bothered. Though now I think if it, even if it was in the room while you're watching TV it's not that bad, you'd probably just turn the volume up a bit.
It can sense the difference between stairs and joins between floor types and rooms, so has no problem travelling over eg. from my timber floor onto the lino, or over the wooden lip that leads onto the bathroom tiles.
Only issues I've experienced: my coffee table is just the right height for the Roomba to occasionally wedge half under if it hits it at the wrong angle. Also, I don't mind it at all, but because it picks up so much (or perhaps because I have pets?) dirt/hair, once I've used it twice I usually empty the catchment and clean the brushes - a process that takes all of 2 mins. But then you're saving what - 30 mins(?) by not vacuuming the whole house so I don't understand people that complain about that task. It's actually quite satisfying to me to see every other day how much it picks up and see what would have been flying around my house.
One of those robots would rock ... do they pick up peanuts? I'm on perpetual peanut patrol now the baby can scoot around a fair bit. After Christmas and birthday season he eats lolly wrappers and bits of wrapping paper and stickytape that I missed and the vacuum doesn't pick up. Not sure a robot would survive a toddler though ...
The cat very helpfully brings mice inside to eat the peanuts. She shows off and plays with them for ages and they get away ...
Haven't tried peanuts or lolly wrappers specifically, but yes it does pick up small items. Sticky tape may pose an issue, not sure?
