Room(ba) with a (re)view

last edited November 19:

Laziness: another favorite personal attribute. We all like labor-saving devices or, even better, labor-avoiding devices. Unlike Martha Stewart's, our family does not have a full-time (or part-time) cleaning staff, and seemingly would rather earn a living, go to school or do other more 'important' things (sleep, watch TV, eat), than clean house. So 'we' (well, I did ask my daughter if we should get one, and she said, "Yes, Yes!") just bought an iRobot® Roomba® Discovery SE vacuum cleaner (on sale, of course). An unadvertised 'feature' of this device is that it does not work well with a floor full of clutter. Yes, that is a feature. What other gadget do you know of that can get your teenager to pick up their room, just to try it out? For this, I nominate it as the 'must have' invention of the year or perhaps of the decade (it was introduced in 2002). You can guess where this is going,we like the Roomba® and you will too. We've only used it in one bedroom, just a few times. Here are my first impressions:

Setup: Like everyone else, I think instruction manuals are mostly to be opened only as a last resort though I did take a peek inside the very short user's man... er, pamphlet, so that I understood the basic operating features and to make sure I was not going to do something horribly, expensively, wrong. To summarize: Install battery, Plug in and charge (3-16 hours), Remove potential hazards, Push 'Clean'. Here's what came with ours, Clockwise from upper left: wall mount, remote control, home station, rapid charger, two virtual walls, internal battery, Roomba®, two replacement filters (one is already installed), not shown: cleaning comb, printed materials and packaging:

First use: Our first experience with Roomba® was an entertaining 40 minutes of watching the automaton do its thing. It (this creature clearly needs a name, but its 'It' until we come up with one) made a fair amount of noise reminiscent of a battery-operated R/C model car (noise and smoothness definitely should be improved). Moving and bumping around in its 'intelligient' programmed way, our Roomba® got into trouble just once, when one of its brushes became badly entangled in a length of string. The poor thing had to 'abandon its mission' and call for help. Other than making the floor items disappear (I don't know where they went, but I didn't look into the closet) my daughter did not even so much as sweep the room. So not surprisingly, though the room appeared superficially clean, Roomba® collected a bin-full of hair, sand, bits of paper, dust bunnies, and both identifiable and mystery crud. This was a most satisfying result, as it helped to justify the purchase (I'm willing to admit that I haven't outgrown toys, they've just gotten more expensive -- this is a great 'toy' that literally sucks). I've read that, collecting a lot of dirt initially is common, but the volume of dirt should/will decline dramatically with each successive use. Update: After a half dozen uses, the volume of dirt seems to have leveled out at about a tablespoon of grey powder dust, plus a few bits of new stuff. One small suggestion: perhaps you should say "Look honey, see how well this cleans" instead of, "Wow [or other profane expletive], this room was really filthy". It successfully navigated the hardwood floor and over the rug edges and onto the area rug, in-between the nightstand, shoe rack, laundry hamper, floor lamp, under the bed and also under the TV stand and chair, and did not get trapped in the piles of appliance cords messily un-arranged near the wall. Clearly, though, the less furniture and other obstacles, the better, as It has to work its way around each item by trial and error. We closed the door, so It couldn't escape since we did not have two alkaline D-cells to set up a 'virtual wall' unit's infrared barrier. We also tried out the rather large infrared remote control and found that seems to work best when aimed at and from the forward quadrant (I've heard that some users use the remote for chasing their pets -- haha, but shame on you). At the end of its work shift, Roomba® obediently returned to its home station for an overnight electronic recharge.

And then: The second time we used Roomba® it did get caught in a lamp cord, and I realized its a really good idea to lift these off the floor and tuck, tie or tape them out of reach. The manual also cautions to do this with drapery cords and other potential hazards. I did not photograph, weigh or otherwise quantitatively assess the amount of dirt collected (a suggestion for some other blogger to do so) and the volume collected this time was definitely reduced but still It collected a small handful, an awful lot considering that the room had been cleaned just one day previously. This time, there was very little sand or hair and no larger bits, proof, I submit, that the first cleaning was fairly thorough and reasonably efficient. The dirt clearly had a different composition than earlier, consisting of mostly dust and a finer greyish powdery residue. I suspect that the latter could be dead skin cells (oh yuck, why did you have to tell me that). In any case there was a fair amount of whatever. The third time It again collected mostly dust and greyish powder, perhaps only a tablespoon. I suspect from now on It will just suck up less and less of more of the same. For It's fourth run, now confident that It would not get into trouble, I left the room and closed the door as the entertainment value (for me) is gone. I plan on letting It exercise every day at first, then every other day, and then maybe just once a week. Oh yes, we'll let It go into other rooms too, but of course they'll need to be properly 'prepped' first. Update: In the living room, It had some difficulty transitioning from vinyl tile to deep pile especially when obstacles were simultaneously involved. Since it works best on smooth floors, perhaps well just let it do the bedrooms.

More info: Several different Roomba® models are available on the website, ranging from $149 to $349 and differing mostly in the (somewhat costly) extra features. For example, the low end model still does the basic robotic cleaning job and (assuming it has the same underlying mechanics and electronics) would be the one to buy if you are on a really tight budget, while the top end sports a different look and many other features and accessories and can be programmed to run at specific times. But rather than buy it directly from the website, it may pay you to shop around; we got our upper middle-ish Discovery SE model on sale at an awesome price close to the low end price (from woot.com where they make regular appearances), and I actually feel better that it only cleans when I intentionally start it. There is also a Scooba® robot which wet mops your floor (not for wood, of course), and the Dirt Dog™ for your workshop. I haven't investigated those, but they appear to be based on the same technology. I did not find an automotive version which I herewith dub "Aye Car-Roomba", with apologies to Bart Simpson. I'd buy one of those. You heard it here first.

A few more words: If you ever need to ship your Roomba® somewhere, the original packaging is ideal. I recommend you keep the original box at least until the one year warranty is up. Inside the box, all parts and accessories, even the printed material has its own custom-molded place in a protective styrofoam insert. The Roomba® seems to be ruggedly built of good quality materials. We shall see how long they last, but my thinking is that because they are so popular and have been in use and production for a while, the worst design errors and production glitches surely must have been fixed by now. I would not recommend buying an early (or used) unit (for this reason and the lack of a warranty), unless you happen to get it for, well, almost nil. They are powerful enough to motor about remarkably quickly and bump convincingly into things with enough force that their momentum nudges about lighter objects such as wastebaskets. (Maybe the next generation of robots will be able to lift up and clean underneath static objects.) I would take this aggressiveness into consideration before using one in a room full of antique furnishings, or anything fragile or valuable that might fall or be damaged, but with your basic Target, IKEA® or JCPenney quality -- i.e., your normal sturdy everyday stuff, its fine. Emptying the dirt bin after (every) use is easy, just push a large button and slide the bin back carefully. After shaking the bin out, you also need to slide out and clean the filter. I used a regular vacuum's hose and soft brush to make sure the filter was clean, and though there is a comb-like accessory to help remove stuff from the rotating brushes, I just pulled on the hair and threads that were caught. So far, maintenance is no worse than for a regular vacuum, but you do need to inspect/perform maintenance after each use. This is another area that will likely evolve and improve over time. Remember, this is the first generation of mass-market autonomous household appliances (I'm not sure if these qualify as robots, quite yet).

Final thoughts: I found that there is an officially welcomed hacking community dedicated to improving these devices and using them inside and outside of their original domain. Oh and one more suggestion: Men, its OK to get one for yourself but DO NOT get this for your wife this giftmas. Think man, how will it sound when your wife tells her friends and your in-laws that you got her a vacuum cleaner? Hope you like sleeping on the couch. On the other hand, I think its fine for a wife to get one for her man... He'll think of it as another way cool gadget. So, however you manage it, get one and lets roomba.