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I do not own one, and I don't see the point of owning one until they can clean as well as a real vacuum. Can someone explain to me the draw?
Ah, they mean 20 percent of the vacuums sold this year. Since a vacuum is not something that gets replaced each year (or every 5 years even?), it will take quite a while for robots to reach 20 percent of all existing vacuums, if ever. Anecdotally the only person I know who owns a roomba used to work for iRobot.
If we assume a fixed lifetime of n years for vacuums, it will take at most n years to get to 20%. If we assumed a half-life of n years, then robot vacuums will only ever approach 20% asymptotically and won't ever reach it. (We could get over 20% if robot vacuums have a longer lifespan than regular vacuums. I'm tempted to write a simulation over different failure curves but I really have better things to do.)
Ah, they mean 20 percent of the vacuums sold this year. Since a vacuum is not something that gets replaced each year (or every 5 years even?), it will take quite a while for robots to reach 20 percent of all existing vacuums, if ever. Anecdotally the only person I know who owns a roomba used to work for iRobot.
[1] https://business.highbeam.com/industry-reports/equipment/hou...
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?
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 simp…
And whether the insect like rules are on purpose or not, the fact remains that after 7 days there's still a huge dust ball on my kitchen floor that the irobot continually fails to find.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 simp…
I think you misread my first point. It's not about a clean flat. It's that normal obstacles like lamp bases, chair legs and wires for bedside lamps, etc. cause the irobot huge difficulty. It got stuck on my lamp base and scratched it badly. Nobody wants to have the light house things guarding every article as they're unsightly, costly and require battery changes. And whether the insect like rules are on purpose or no…
I just put cables on the table or stuck them behind something so the robot won't find them. Haven't had any problems with leg chairs or lamp posts yet.
Regarding the dust ball on the kitchen floor: that's what the Spot-cleaning-feature is for. Or just lift the robot and put it on the dust ball where you press "Start".
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?
On low? People do this? I've asked at shops about the low setting and they say it's for doing the curtains, which isn't anything I've ever done (or the walls and ceilings for that matter). I've only ever wanted high and maybe high x3.
I had one of the early 400 series and it was problematic: it required a lot of picking up and it would get entangled on cords, carpet fringes, anything loose. It also would get stuck and the brushes would get jammed up with hair. So while it vacuumed ok, it required so much picking up and fiddling with that we gradually stopped using it.
The new 805 we got at Costco (a bargain too) looks similar overall but everything is different in detail. The new rollers don't get tangled, it doesn't get caught on cords or fringes, it slows down and approaches walls cautiously instead of just crashing into them, and the algorithms for getting unstuck are effective. Now we have it set to run unattended twice a week and the house is cleaner than it has been for years.
I recommend the 800 series (or up I guess) over the 650 that Sweethome liked because it has the new rollers and bin so it picks up better and needs much less hair removal and other fiddling around.
I bought one a few years back. It just gets pinned under the two pieces of furniture that have a clearance that closely match its height. I've googled and googled but there seems to be no way to solve it other than super glueing some sort of makeshift horn on it and praying it doesn't crack off. It sits in the corner now because I'm not sure what to do about it. It was a whimsical good time for a while but ultimately…
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…
Oh, and a good thing, this is another person we trust to take care of the house in emergency when we are not here, she lives 500m from our house, we cultivate social relationships at the "village" level. This makes a nice smile and short conversation when we meet here and there.
So, for us, no robots, but for a reason not exactly the same as your reasons. We prefer to trust people.
Imagine a world where everything is automated, you just use stuff which are autonomously delivered to your door and you work from home, you order your pizza with an app, etc.. You are alone.