Considering a Roomba

Prob not get this model, tho.

don't do it

lots of achewood lols

vacuum your shit on your own

i had one a few years ago, it was shit and didn't pick up anything. they probably have improved.

Wife has been talking about roomba for years. I asked her if she'd rather have an iPod or a Roomba for xmas and w/no hesitation the answer was ROOMBA. She vacuums like once a year so it's not like it's going to save her any labor. I think she's got visions of our cats playing cowboys and roombians.

Rover the Roomba is currently exploring my home. Greta the cat isn't particular disturbed, but Maggie is trying to nap with one eye open for Rover in case he comes by.

Her ears are continually triangulating Rover's position.

My new Roomba Will Smith is currently going to town on the living room. This thing is fucking awesome.

Oh my god I have always wanted to build a robot of Will Smith and now I don't have to. Thank you.

It's said iRobot on the box so naming him that just seemed appropriate. I'll tell you what, Will Smith can clean!

i think it can beat Mike Tyson

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/05/roomba-movements.jpg

if they can make a roomba that does stairs ill be all over it

slinky roomba

Will Smith went nuts on the apt today and cleaned for like three hours. It was awesome. I love having a robot. If only he could do my laundry. That would be amazing.

would a Roomba be good company, amusing? A cheerful little guy to have around? I think so. Looks like he's not so good at getting right to the edges though.

thread is lacking the best roomba video

I like how it deposits the kittens at various stops like some sort of bus.

considering a roomba

would like

I would need a cat to drive it

considering obama

got a 20% off coupon for bed bath and beyond

temptation

considering a

http://www.laventure.net/tourist/rhumba.jpg

so are these things small enough to bring home on the bus?

this might actually sway me.

apparently they don't really get your room clean

Isn't it like the size of a frisbee?? Can't be that big a deal to carry, surely?

ok this one blogger says they don't work: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2009/06/long-exposure-shot-of-a-roomba-cleaning-a-room-i-owned

Definately small enough to get home on the bus. I considered one for a bit and decided It woould not be worth it without a cat to confuse with it. However when I was looking for them there are quite a lot of second hand ones on ebay and refurb ones on places like overstock.com.

i meant with the packaging and everything.
lots of people give them good reviews.

someone said it picked up so much dirt at first she had to empty the bin every 20 min. but after the initial deep clean, it was fine.

re: kitten riding videos: has anyone noticed the amount of vitriol spewed up on stuff like this on youtube lately? anyone who posts a video of this sort with possibility of animals getting harmed is immediately equated with a poodle-raper of the worst degree, it's really odd

so are these things small enough to bring home on the bus?

oh yeah. But I also saw a lady in the ID get off the bus with a 32" flat panel tv!

woah!

One of the hazards of taking the bus to Costco...

http://twitter.com/petterihiisila/status/5205145862 !

Accidentally vacuumed up a dog turd earlier this year. It took hours to clean up.

I love Roomba though. My folks have it, and are fortunate enough to have housetrained pets.

Perkele! Lihaperäpukamat!

sorry, wrong thread

I got one from Woot! a few months ago. The cats hate it; it makes me laugh. I love how it says "uh oh!" when it gets stuck.

um... what's lihaperäpukamat ?

This is the one I think I want. Not for my shop or deck, though. Just for my house. I'm industrial-grade filthy.

Looks like he's not so good at getting right to the edges though.

― rainy, Saturday, May 9, 2009 12:06 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

From what I've seen and read, when it encounters an obstruction, little brushes whip out and whisk the dirt away from the edge and into the area where it can be sucked up.

The one I want has the added bonus of being called "Dirt Dog." If/when I get it, I will name it ODB or similar.

The little side brushes are always there, whirling away. They get right up against the edges of walls and things and sweep everything toward the main brushes. I've named mine "Mo", after the little scrubbing dude in Wall-E.

I have a Dirt Dog! It works well but sadly we can't be bothered to run it very often, which is kind of Step 1.

IMPORTANT QUESTION: Will a Roomba (in particular the Dirt Dog) be able to make it over the molding between two rooms? The molding looks like this

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/19/19f1d216-7e18-40bd-b1b4-a48269bb4ab2_300.jpg

I have one. My experiences:

1) It cleans stuff up well. Would never replace it with a full-on vacuum but I imagine you already know that.
2) It never docks by itself - it tends to get stuck in shit and beep there until it quits. The most common place it does this is on those...what are they called?...undersides of doorways that keep airflow from passing through. Those things. Also: under the couch.
3) You need to regularly clean it, which isn't too much of a chore considering it just involves sliding off a compartment and dumping the dust into the trash bin. Sometimes the spinner-things need to be taken out to get strings/fabrics uncoiled from, but this all takes less than 2 minutes.

Otherwise turning it on every time I leave the house leaves the house pretty clean and leads to a better sense of ~well-being~ when coming home, especially considering my previous habits of letting gunk pile up until the weekend and THEN cleaning it all at once.

Otherwise turning it on every time I leave the house leaves the house pretty clean and leads to a better sense of ~well-being~ when coming home, especially considering my previous habits of letting gunk pile up until the weekend and THEN cleaning it all at once.

OTM

Ok here's the truth -- I am terrible at cleaning. Not only do I hate doing it, but I only do it when enough funk/gunk has accumulated to make cleaning satisfying. Is the Roomba for me? I hate cleaning.

I'm with Lechera

L, I hate cleaning and I do a pretty poor job of it, and I think the Roomba mitigates those issues quite a lot.

I haven't read the whole thread bc my laziness extends to all aspects of my life, not just cleaning...but do you need a lot of open areas for it to work properly? Our house is kinda pokey, not a lot of open floor space.

They have a very small turning radius. And they're like those robots that hit a wall and turn around. They're smart about knowing areas they've already covered, apparently. And they sense dirt and stick around places that are very dirty.

I am #1 vacuuming and cleaning hater, and I love my Roomba. Instead of vacuuming 3x a year (I know, yuck) it gets done once or twice a week (I know it's a robot but you have to pick all your shoes and books and etc up off the floor so it doesn't act stupid). IMO it does as fine a job as any vacuum I've ever owned, in fact far better because it actually gets used. Plus I like owning a robot.

Only SCARY OH SHIT situation I had w/the Roomba was I had accidentally left the door to my patio open. I had been cleaning the bathroom and when I went back to the living room, the Roomba was about to drive off my second story patio. I grabbed it as it was 1/3rd off the ledge. So the stupid advice c/o the person who learns everything the hard way is keep doors to the outside closed when you use it.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0p4u5yLm21qa2ng8o1_500.png

May I also note that I get made fun of a lot by everyone who's ever come to my house about owning a Roomba.

I may need to consider one of these.

Hahahaha xp re the knife!

Abb, Roombas have edge sensors, that keep them from diving down stairs!

IDK it seriously looked like it was just about to make a leap for it.

Not that I am questioning your evaluation of the situation or your reaction - if my precious Roomba were about to leap, I'd go after it, too.

I honestly had thought they were kinda silly up til now...but now I'm thinking, hmm not so silly

Holy hell no!

I thought they might be sort of a toy - just some gadget, kinda handy, but mostly novel - but no, it is a really great appliance.

ilx needs to sponsor an informercial imo

Abbott your Roomba endorsement is helping. When you say everything has to be picked up off the floor, does that include animals?

thanks to SNL, whenever I think of roombas, I now think of hoombas, human roombas -- its that thing, where you put a midget on a skateboard, and roll him around picking up garbage.

I have never witnessed an animal trying to obstruct a Roomba or vice versa, they tend to get out of one another's way.
Pathetic admission: when I am setting up the Roomba sometimes I just take the stuff off the floor, put it on the bed, and then put it back on the floor after the Roomba has done its thing.
It's really nice not to have to vacuum but still have dirt/hair/crumb-free floors.

That does sound appealing.

How does it handle relatively large amts of wiry dog hair?

If you do it regularly, it handles dog hair like a charm! If you wait weeks and weeks, it has a hard time handling the glut of dog hair but still does a pretty good job. You have to empty the little bin every time and take out the rollers/back wheel to pick out the dog hair, though, or it gets jammed up w/dog hair.

OTOH it means that dog hair is no longer covering your house.

That would be a huge plus, and a primary reason I am considering a robot.

Ours died just out of warranty.

rip

heavens a little cleaner now

in the distance, a faint beeping...

Ours died just out of warranty.

― Spencer Chow, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 4:59 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Roomba people are on level with Amazon with replacing your shit for almost menial defects. My dad has replaced his - get this - 6 times! For free.

Yes, iRobot's customer service is great and their replacement and upgrade policies and practices are, too. When my died sucking up the cats' water they replaced it w/ a factory refurb for a reasonable cost - definitely not free, but far less than brand new. I think they do a trade-up program, too, but not sure.

lol @ roomba drowning

sorry

but still...

aiy, maybe it wasn't free but I know he's done it enough times that he had no qualms with doing it.... 5 more times.

But maybe that speaks to the reliability of Roombas. I know a lot of the time he talked of having difficulty with the things failing to just initiate and move.

Much like myself with a real vacuum.

Given my feelings I can't really blame the little robot for not wanting to vacuum.

IMO the only way the roomba could be better is if it looked like this:
http://www.ohgizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/walle_mo.jpg

FOREIGN CONTAMINANT

if it looked like Mo I would have one already

<3 <3

Why no DJ Roomba?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62KJUWAT5-8

wish that clip had Andy singing DMB from the same ep

<3 dj roomba

But maybe that speaks to the reliability of Roombas. I know a lot of the time he talked of having difficulty with the things failing to just initiate and move.

I don't want to be a TOTAL Stan re Roombas, but my impression is that they're pretty high quality. I feared it would be a Ronco quality machine, but except for the drowning incident, mine has been 100% satisfactory. YMMV tho.

Very important - would one of these works for a 2000+sq foot loft with hardwood floors?

I don't think so? Ours came with the literature recommending it for up to three rooms. We live in a standard 1970s suburban pos house with small rooms, and it does our living, dining and kitchen area very satisfactorily. This is about a 3-year-old model, I think, so newer ones may have a bigger range.

They are really, really good, though. When we had a cat, I could conventional-vacuum the (carpeted) living room thoroughly, and then run the Roomba right afterwards and it would still pick up a ton of cat hair.

mine rules but the cats won't go near it

Surprised this isn't posted here:
https://twitter.com/SelfAwareROOMBA

yes admrl - ours was best in the 1800 sqft wood-floored loft. It would occasionally run out of juice too far away from the base to make it successfully back for a recharge, but it did fine cleaning the space.

i don't think i could ever think of a roomba w/o thinking of breaking bad

you mean Parks & Rec

I Love My Roomba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRbWeEVtcDc

vacuums being swept away

Most Roombas are manufactured in Vietnam, so the company faced new import fees under President Trump's trade regime. In its bankruptcy filing, the company says it owes U.S. Customs and Border Protection $3.4 million in unpaid tariffs.

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/15/nx-s1-5644772/tariffs-roomba-irobot-bankruptcy