If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.
Not only do I have a robot that will clean up after me, but I also have a new pet. I can't help but treat EZ as a real living thing. I present the following as evidence that I am nuts.
Tonight, I picked up the few random items in my bedroom (couple rugs and the trashcan) and then set EZ loose. It was my first experiment with him on hard floors.
First, he vacuumed the area behind the door, and then he zoomed off under the dresser. I was pretty happy with this decision. "Good," I told him. "Stay under there for awhile. The last time I really cleaned well underneath there was... July."
I came back to the living room to watch the third period of the Wings game. I could hear EZ bonking around in the bedroom, whirring productively. Suddenly, the whirring got louder and I heard a couple of particularly loud bonks near the doorway.
"EZ?" I called, sitting up and leaning so I could see the hallway. "You okay in there?"
One more bonk as if in response and then he was rattling around again, humming away. I smiled and relaxed back into the couch. "Okay, just checkin' on you." I paused and added, "You make sure and stay put this time!"
I later got up and went to the bathroom, glancing into my bedroom while EZ zoomed around. I bent down by a spot that used to be particularly dusty and ran my fingers over it, pleased to find it dust-free. My mom called, from where she was reading, "Is it doing a good job?"
"Yeah," I replied, and watched EZ for a moment more. "But I feel like I have to leave the light on."
The Serious Roomba Review
Okay, so some of you might be wondering whether EZ does his job, or whether I am just in love with the idea of a little round robot zooming around my house.
I have the most basic of models, the 400. It doesn't do anything except vacuum. It doesn't have dirt detector, it doesn't have a home base to which it can return when it is done working (instead, it just sings to me and then I have to go round it up to plug it in), I have no virtual walls (a rolled-up area rug works just as well), no remote, no nothing.
And it is awesome. AWESOME. It does exactly what it was built to do, and it does a better job than I ever did, that's for damn sure.
My problem is dust and hair. I don't have dirt problems. I don't have pet dander (our dogs don't shed). I just have dust and my own hair. Yeah, I'M the one that sheds, not the pets. And the Roomba does a FANTASTIC job with this. I don't know what it would be like for someone who has high traffic areas or anything, but I think it ROCKS.
I have emptied the bin after each room it has vacuumed (you don't have to, but I wanted to see how much junk was on my floors) and been AMAZED at the amount of dust and hair in there. Actually, I was pretty disgusted. I keep my place pretty clean, including vacuuming and sweeping, but dudes. YIKES.
It's got this little tiny brush that whips out from its side to clean the very sides of your rug, where the floor meets the wall. My upright vacuum can't do this. My Dirt Devil hand-held can't do this. My Roomba can. My Roomba can also vacuum underneath my furniture. And have you ever tried to change the bag, or the filter, or the rubber bands on a normal vacuum? Oh my God, it is a production and a half.
The only thing that kind of sucks about the Roomba is that you have to keep the brushes clean, but honestly, I have a TON of hair on my floors, and it only took me the last three minutes of the hockey game to clean the brushes of the hair. Roomba helpfully provides you with a cleaning tool that has this little razor blade thing that is specifically meant to help you cut through hair that is wrapped around the brush. It also does exactly what it is supposed to do.
I personally do not think you need the top-of-the-line model. You already have a robot doing your cleaning for you. Do you really need the auto clean feature? Your lazy ass is so lazy that you can't even go over to the cleaning robot and press the button?
Someone on the Roomba's website left my model a review saying that it sucked because the battery died after about a year and the replacement battery cost half as much as a brand new Roomba.
I think if you have a robot doing work that you do not want to do, you should shut the hell up.
Tonight, I picked up the few random items in my bedroom (couple rugs and the trashcan) and then set EZ loose. It was my first experiment with him on hard floors.
First, he vacuumed the area behind the door, and then he zoomed off under the dresser. I was pretty happy with this decision. "Good," I told him. "Stay under there for awhile. The last time I really cleaned well underneath there was... July."
I came back to the living room to watch the third period of the Wings game. I could hear EZ bonking around in the bedroom, whirring productively. Suddenly, the whirring got louder and I heard a couple of particularly loud bonks near the doorway.
"EZ?" I called, sitting up and leaning so I could see the hallway. "You okay in there?"
One more bonk as if in response and then he was rattling around again, humming away. I smiled and relaxed back into the couch. "Okay, just checkin' on you." I paused and added, "You make sure and stay put this time!"
I later got up and went to the bathroom, glancing into my bedroom while EZ zoomed around. I bent down by a spot that used to be particularly dusty and ran my fingers over it, pleased to find it dust-free. My mom called, from where she was reading, "Is it doing a good job?"
"Yeah," I replied, and watched EZ for a moment more. "But I feel like I have to leave the light on."
The Serious Roomba Review
Okay, so some of you might be wondering whether EZ does his job, or whether I am just in love with the idea of a little round robot zooming around my house.
I have the most basic of models, the 400. It doesn't do anything except vacuum. It doesn't have dirt detector, it doesn't have a home base to which it can return when it is done working (instead, it just sings to me and then I have to go round it up to plug it in), I have no virtual walls (a rolled-up area rug works just as well), no remote, no nothing.
And it is awesome. AWESOME. It does exactly what it was built to do, and it does a better job than I ever did, that's for damn sure.
My problem is dust and hair. I don't have dirt problems. I don't have pet dander (our dogs don't shed). I just have dust and my own hair. Yeah, I'M the one that sheds, not the pets. And the Roomba does a FANTASTIC job with this. I don't know what it would be like for someone who has high traffic areas or anything, but I think it ROCKS.
I have emptied the bin after each room it has vacuumed (you don't have to, but I wanted to see how much junk was on my floors) and been AMAZED at the amount of dust and hair in there. Actually, I was pretty disgusted. I keep my place pretty clean, including vacuuming and sweeping, but dudes. YIKES.
It's got this little tiny brush that whips out from its side to clean the very sides of your rug, where the floor meets the wall. My upright vacuum can't do this. My Dirt Devil hand-held can't do this. My Roomba can. My Roomba can also vacuum underneath my furniture. And have you ever tried to change the bag, or the filter, or the rubber bands on a normal vacuum? Oh my God, it is a production and a half.
The only thing that kind of sucks about the Roomba is that you have to keep the brushes clean, but honestly, I have a TON of hair on my floors, and it only took me the last three minutes of the hockey game to clean the brushes of the hair. Roomba helpfully provides you with a cleaning tool that has this little razor blade thing that is specifically meant to help you cut through hair that is wrapped around the brush. It also does exactly what it is supposed to do.
I personally do not think you need the top-of-the-line model. You already have a robot doing your cleaning for you. Do you really need the auto clean feature? Your lazy ass is so lazy that you can't even go over to the cleaning robot and press the button?
Someone on the Roomba's website left my model a review saying that it sucked because the battery died after about a year and the replacement battery cost half as much as a brand new Roomba.
I think if you have a robot doing work that you do not want to do, you should shut the hell up.