By Pat Woods
Like other homeowners, husband Rob and I like clean floors but hate vacuuming. Our knee joints rebel at cleaning under beds and heavy sofas. We don’t have to–Roomba Rhonda, our vacuuming robot cheerfully cleans floors for us!
Pat’s robot family includes (from left), Roomba, Dirt Dog, Scooba
U.S. manufactured Roomba is the greatest invention since email. Our robots are welcome family member. Unlike a dog, Rhonda doesn’t need walking or vet services. And she does not bark, bite or make messes. Quite the contrary—Rhonda cleans up after us!
My hubby loves Rhonda. “The engineering and programming is incredible!” he said. “This robot is smarter than some engineers I formerly worked with. And Rhonda doesn’t call in sick, take maternity leave, vacation or smoke breaks.”
Intelligent Roombas are engineered to interact with their environment. Because every room is different and changes frequently, sensors enable robots to maneuver around furniture, objects, people or pets. Powerful vacuum and counter-rotating brushes pull out dirt, dust and pet hair.
Rhonda gets out dirt we didn’t know existed. She deftly maneuvers like a miniature all-terrain vehicle over ceramic tile, plush carpet, linoleum, bound carpet mats and plastic chair mats. “Virtual walls” keep the robot in designated areas. Wouldn’t this be great for grandkids?
Rhonda is user friendly–no computer skills needed. We simply press the power and clean buttons and she takes off. To focus on dirty spots, we press “Spot.” Rhonda cleans until her dirt detection sensor says it’s done. Despite her round shape, Rhonda does a good job in corners, closets and under tables, desks and chairs.
Busy working people like Roomba scheduler models that can be programmed to clean when owners are gone, and then return to the charger on their own.
Caveats: Owners must keep robot batteries charged, empty dirt bins and clean filters. Before we turn on our robots, we pick up little objects that have fallen and move small decorative items off the floor. We kept our regular vacuum—Roombas do a great job on floors but cannot vacuum bookcases or furniture.
For his birthday, I gave Rob Dirt Dog, a garage, patio, deck and workshop floor sweeping robot. Rob beamed as he sat on a stool reading the newspaper while “Rex” robot darted around cleaning the garage floor. Rex is the electric train Rob never got as a kid. The robot’s 4-inch height enables him clean under work benches, automobiles and golf cars.
Because we needed a new floor scrubber after Rob injured his leg, we ordered a joint Christmas gift. Scooba Sam washes, scrubs and dries our ceramic tile floors while we read or watch TV.
Sam preps, washes, scrubs and squeegees hard-surface floors. The round, 13-pound robot deftly cleans under cabinet edges, tables and chairs using a Scooba Clorox/water solution, a vinegar/water solution, or plain water. Virtual walls keep Scooba in the designated area.
“I could never get 700-square–feet of ceramic tile this clean with a mop!” said a smiling Rob. “This dream machine picks up an incredible amount of dust, dirt, grime and fuzz—and it stays off the carpet. Scooba’s engineering is incredible!”
Although Scooba’s $300 – $450 price sounds high, it costs less than hiring a cleaning person. Our robot investment is a fraction of a weekly cleaning service for a year.
Our robots are much-loved family members who cheerfully work for us and play a happy tune when turned on. Robot wrangler Rob built a 3-tier charging station for our robot family.
Buy floor-cleaning robots from www.iRobot.com, Fry’s Electronics, Costco, Target, Sears, Kohl’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond — or call 800-727-9077. U.S.-based iRobot’s tech support is very helpful. Read robot reviews and get where-to-buy tips at www.roombareview.com. iRobot also makes pool and gutter-cleaning robots.
I want one!
This sounds like a dream.
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These totally remind me of the Jetsons! Jane would have loved it!
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We have wood floors and they show every little bit of dust. I would to have one of these floor cleaners. Yay for technology!
That does sound like the perfect house guest – can it do the ironing too?
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I saw one in an episode of NCIS … it had cleaned the crime scene before the agents arrived … and continued to do so while they were investigating.
Soon we’ll put chips in them and then they’ll come on command. We dont’ need dogs anymore to lick up the food. Come robot… Sit robot…
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Oh, I want one of these, perfect for my Arizona tile floors.
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Many thanks for the informative article. My wife’s calling me for dinner So I need to run off without having reading as much as I’d like. But I put your blog on my RSS feed so that I can read a lot more.
So amazing how far technology has come over the years. With all the new and interesting technology available, some things still have to be cared for in a more deliberate method. Floor cleaning is an area that requires deep cleaning on a regular basis. The timing depends on the traffic and the type of area. Tile and grout is the perfect surface for an automatic vacuum – what a great tool! – but deep cleaning for floors, still needs to be done by a professional.
I have one of the Irobots that are for pet hair. I love it. It comes with two bins and works great. I can even schedule it to come on at certain times of the week. I think with these you have to buy the more expensive ones with more features to make it worthwhile.
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This is awesome, i run a cleaning company and wonder if this kind of stuff really works or is just a complete gimmick to remove the rich from their hand earned money, i would love to see one of these in action and see the result compared to what a human can do in the same time scale…
go shannon, great product
I think other website owners should take this internet site as an example , very clean and superb user pleasant design .
Note to self: Buy cleaning robots.
On a more serious note, this is absolutely awesome, and a wonderful write-up. Thanks for sharing
Oh, I want one of these, perfect for my Arizona tile floors.
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I would also need to have such robot for my house. That would be a great help for me as a busy man. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! This is so great! I think this is only seen on movies but here, it is for real. I want these robots, too. I’m sure my kids will love them so much. Very great!
They look great, haha it reminds me of the Discmans design.