So, anyone got an iRobot Roomba or other robot vacuum cleaner?
Soldato
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I have a Roomba and Scooba and while I agree the pathing does appear to be somewhat random, I am extremely happy with the performance of them.
I believe the answer is simply because they cover that much floor space zooming about, eventually every area gets covered.
If you watch them work they seem like they'll never do a good job, however if close the door to the room and forget it, when you return later the floor is clean and it's sat on it's base station charging.
The pathing may be somewhat random and unstructured, but it covers the floors very well. That should be pretty obvious from the reviews.
How can it do whole floor cleaning with the random path it takes? Or can't it? Seems a bit pointless if can't do a whole floor in my mind. I'd want to set it to do a clean every monday, wednesday and friday while at work and leave it to do the whole floor.
Do some Googling or read some reviews... they have been out for years so all these are hardly new questions, and I state how it performs in the OP.
Soldato
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I don't think you fully get how these work. They don't work the same way as you would use a normal vacuum cleaner, in a methodical pattern.
They go over and over the carpet loads of times and will eventually cover the entire area (that's how my Roomba works anyway). It might go over one part of the carpet 10 times and another 5 times but the entire area will get covered - eventually.
If the area isn't too big mind, if it is you will need to open / close doors or use a sensor.
Soldato
From my experience with the Roomba 650 that will randomly travel until it touches an obstacle, it does cover the majority, if not the entire floor. As touched upon by others, the premise of robotic vacuum cleaners is that they're run on a more frequent basis than a manual vacuum cleaner.
Where mapping helps is the robot is more efficient, covering a greater area in the same or even less time - also you'll find the robot is less likely to get stuck. I've mentioned before that the Roomba 650 would occasionally get stuck between four chair legs and a lot of the battery would be spent on trying to get free.
Here's a good video showing what I mean. You'll see the Roomba spent a lot of time in the room at the top of the video.
Where mapping helps is the robot is more efficient, covering a greater area in the same or even less time - also you'll find the robot is less likely to get stuck. I've mentioned before that the Roomba 650 would occasionally get stuck between four chair legs and a lot of the battery would be spent on trying to get free.
Here's a good video showing what I mean. You'll see the Roomba spent a lot of time in the room at the top of the video.
Out of interest those of you that have robotic vacuum cleaners. how do you deal with the multiple floors "issue". Do you have multiple vacuum cleaners (either two robotic or one robotic and one normal), or do you move it and the docking station up and downstairs on certain days?
Soldato
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One robot, put it into whichever room needs cleaning with the base and set it going.
Man of Honour
this is the big issue I have with the whole thing, i'd love a roomba or two but downstairs has three levels as does upstairs. I'd either be constantly swapping them around (which sort of defetes the point) or buy 6... need something that can climb a 2 inch step..
Caporegime
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get rid of the 2 inch step (ramp) or level the floor off?
Soldato
That seems a pretty excessive solution just to allow him to buy a robot vacuum!
Caporegime
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more excessive than buying 6 robot vacuums?
obviously the smart thing to do would be just to lift it up and place it where it needs to be then wait until it's done then rinse and repeat. however he doesn't want to do that.
Man of Honour
have been trying to work out how feasible it would be to do so, but honestly not sure... shame to bury 100 year old tiles for laziness sake
You can't beat physics. Either move them manually, or buy multiple Roombas...
I agree. Disable the cliff detection and start it off at the top of the floor and let it work its way down!
LOL.
Intrerestingly enough, I couldn't get the cliff sensors to disable. I tape-covered them and just kept getting the error warning.
Soldato
We use our solely downstairs. The base station is installed in the kitchen/diner and doesn't move. We hoover manually upstairs. When we no longer have stair gates and the finally have landing carpet (Its been removed during renovations), we might look at installing one upstairs as well.
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Soldato
Planning on getting the Neato D85 after recent reading.
Hoping it's as good at navigating around as I'd like. I'm a bit confused how it'll navigate our downstairs and not lose itself.
Also how are these things with small door mats?
Hoping it's as good at navigating around as I'd like. I'm a bit confused how it'll navigate our downstairs and not lose itself.
Also how are these things with small door mats?
Soldato
I have found the D85 to be excellent at navigation. Has never got stuck, dealing with dining room table, chairs, childrens toys, mats, shoes and bags with no issue. I know you're really supposed to clear the floor first, but wanted to see how it handled things on occasion.
It's never had a problem with the two mats we have down, but they are quite thin and rubber backed. But it also has never had a problem with my sons play mat in the lounge which is quite thick and can move around quite easily.
This is our floorplan. Obviously ignore the garage but it covers the lounge, hall, downstairs toilet and breakfast kitchen. We have a magnetic floor strip across the utility room door to stop it from entering there. 6ft dining room table and 5 chairs in the right side of the breakfast kitchen.
