I have been discussing robots quite regularly at EPJ and the manner in which they are likely to be used to replace workers priced out of the market because of hikes in minimum wage laws. So I guess, it was only a matter of time before I would buy one for myself.
I have, now, done this in the form of an iRobot Roomba 880 vacuum cleaner.
I have a cleaning lady that comes in once a week, but depending on how many people I have coming over during the week and outside weather conditions, sometimes the place could use a good going over a couple of days before the cleaning lady arrives.
As far as me personally pulling out the vacuum to vacuum myself, there is more of a chance that I am going to devote the remainder of my life looking for the real killer of Nicole Simpson.
Enter Roomba.
The Roomba arrived Tuesday and I tested it out yesterday. I used it on a carpet in my bedroom and in other hardwood floor areas with rugs. My opinion after the work out after I gave the machine:
It's absolutely amazing,
The Roomba has some type of software built in so it "figures out" the lay out of a room and "remembers" where it has been so that it vacuums in something of a crisscross manner. It is able to get nooks and corner, go around chairs. At one point it disappeared and I wasn't sure where it was, but soon figured out it was deep under a couch, where I doubt the area had been vacuumed in years.
I actually left for a couple of hours, while the thing continued to vacuum, and came back to find the entire place vacuumed to immaculate condition and that the Roomba had re-docked itself at the charging station.
It also has an a scheduling system that allows you to preset up to seven times per week for Roomba to vacuum, so you can be away at work and come home to a freshly vacuumed place. Pretty awesome.
-RW
The Roomba is pretty amazing. I had one several years ago, and there was a downside. The beater bar eventually gets wrapped with hair, sooner if you have pets. The Roomba itself eventually needs to be cleaned. The next major advance for the Roomba is when it becomes self-cleaning.
ReplyDeleteGood for you RW! It's the push toward automation that turned the corner for my business!
ReplyDelete$700 might seem like a lot at first, but when you start to factor in the time/labor savings, for most the payback is within a year...for some(depending on the value of their time) the payback might be 1 week...lol!
I agree. These Robots are amazing and iRobot is a fantastic company. We had to return a bad brush engine in one of our 2 robots and we had a brand new one almost immediately for free, even though we were technically off our warranty for 3 weeks at the time. In about 6 months of me telling everyone how great they were, every member of my family and 2 other friends all had one, and felt the same way I did about how great these robots are. Sweeping up Dog hair is a thing of the past!
ReplyDeleteI have cats, and this thing changed my life. No more sweeping or vacuuming. Hit the button before work and I come home to immaculate floors. It is probably one of my favorite purchases ever due to the instant gain in productivity. Looking forward to voice activated robots!
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