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iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

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Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#41

Post by Bombthecat »

planetjones wrote: post #38

Buying an irobot was one of the worst consumer decisions I ever made. It can only work with extreme supervision otherwise it mounts and scratches lamp bases, gets tangled in cords or assaults plants. What's the point of having it if you have to make the whole apartment inert before letting it loose. Worse still it never seemed to learn and would often finish its job leaving huge parts of the floor untouched. And even…

I'm in the same boat.

Not an irobot but something similar. Luckily it was only 120€.

This thing eats everything. Socks. Cloths, papers. Cables, anything on the floor stops, breaks, halts that thing. It really needs some kind of sensor to detect stuff like that before it gets any kind of useful.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#42

Post by danudey »

DougN7 wrote: post #28

I have a roomba and never use it :( The tiny compartment that holds the dirt is too small. And I'm constantly having to dig out my wife and daughter's hair. Granted, it's 5+ years old - maybe they've improved. But in my experience it just doesn't have the strength and capacity to be something other than a conversation starter. Oh, and it keeps getting stuck in the living room...

Roombas aren't for deep cleaning; they're basically for the light cleaning (crumbs in the kitchen, tufts of pet hair). Newer models are easier to maintain (no brush to cut hair off), but you're still expected to do a proper deep clean (with a more powerful vacuum) regularly.

Also, newer ones are automated, so you come home every day, empty the canister, and that's your floors cleaned.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#43

Post by danmaz74 »

planetjones wrote: post #38

Buying an irobot was one of the worst consumer decisions I ever made. It can only work with extreme supervision otherwise it mounts and scratches lamp bases, gets tangled in cords or assaults plants. What's the point of having it if you have to make the whole apartment inert before letting it loose. Worse still it never seemed to learn and would often finish its job leaving huge parts of the floor untouched. And even…

Anybody has experience with robot vacuums with ultrasonic sensors? They should be much better at avoiding obstacles. I also guess/hope that recent "mapping" models would be much better at coverage.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#44

Post by [deleted] »

greenshackle2 wrote: post #27

More like 5%. Let's say there's one vacuum for every 20 people (household of 4 or so, 1/2 households who can afford it own one, 1/2 households can afford it), that's 350 millions vacuums. They've sold 14 millions robot vacuums to date, let's say 25% are broken/not in use, that's 10 millions. 10/350 is 3%. According to some web page I just googled, IRobot has 60-65% market share, so accounting for competitors that's 5…

[deleted]

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#46

Post by cel1ne »

planetjones wrote: post #38

Buying an irobot was one of the worst consumer decisions I ever made. It can only work with extreme supervision otherwise it mounts and scratches lamp bases, gets tangled in cords or assaults plants. What's the point of having it if you have to make the whole apartment inert before letting it loose. Worse still it never seemed to learn and would often finish its job leaving huge parts of the floor untouched. And even…

> What's the point of having it if you have to make the whole apartment inert before letting it loose.

I actually find that beneficial. Takes me a couple of minutes and ensure that I clean up more often.

> Worse still it never seemed to learn and would often finish its job leaving huge parts of the floor untouched.

That is on purpose. Different than other robots, Roombas don't learn a floor-plan, but follow some simple, "insect-like" rules. (Travel along if you find a wall, turn around if you hit something, etc.)

It uses the length of stretches that it can drive in a straight line, to get an estimate of the room size, which it will use to adjust the runtime of it's cleaning program.

This behaviour ensures that Roomba adapts well to different rooms. It doesn't clean the entire floor in one go, but over some runs it will eventually reach everything.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#47

Post by Derbasti »

Buying a neato was one of the best things we did last year. Yes, it gets stuck under furniture ever now and then. Yes, it will freak out if you leave stuff lying on the ground. Yes, it won't get into every corner. Yes, it really only has 20W of power, and can thus only clean superficially. But it vacuums twice a week, without supervision. And it even vacuums under the bed.

I'd say this has had a similar impact on our life as a dishwasher.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#48

Post by astrange »

wfunction wrote: post #19

Question: how good are Roombas at actually cleaning? With an actual vacuum, I can turn it high or low, or press it harder or easier, or stick it at weird angles to make it clean. How good are Roombas in comparison?

They're pretty decent, but you can't leave anything on the floor. Cables will get eaten, and anything expensive will get scratched as it constantly runs itself into it.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#49

Post by tinix »

jimjimjim wrote: post #32

won't use one until someone includes a deep-learning image recognition module to stop it spreading a track of cat shit all over the room

Does your cat poop randomly everywhere? Or in one area? We had a Neato and it came with magnetic boundary tape, which worked rather well. I believe other brands have a similar concept with IR beams and such, which aren't as nice as the magnetic boundaries.

Re: iRobot says robot vacuums now represent 20% of worldwide vacuum market

#50

Post by tinix »

walrus01 wrote: post #33
jimjimjim wrote: post #32

won't use one until someone includes a deep-learning image recognition module to stop it spreading a track of cat shit all over the room

I read a truly disturbing story last month involving a roomba, a puppy, diarrhea and a light beige carpet. Imagine 8 hours of unattended shit smearing.

Yep, we still ran our robot vacuum at a previous house even though it was hard wood floor (helps with pet dander and such) and there were definitely a few incidences of it running over cat throw up while we weren't home. The brushes actually clean it up rather well, but it still gets all over the vacuum, and leaves wet throw-up streaks all over the floor, it's horrible... but not as bad as diarrhea, and carpet.... good god.
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