Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 95 posts

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

#61

Post by kgc »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #8
DiabloD3 wrote: post #4

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?

Most people are really bad at vacuuming regularly. A robo-vac buys you more time between required vacuums. If you're happy to vacuum weekly and are already, don't buy one (seriously), but if like me you don't recall the last time you manually vacuumed then buy a $300 Xiaomi Mi and let it do your chore for you. Plus I've found that they get into places which people ignore (e.g. under the bed, bottom of the closet) and…

It doesn't seem to be available in the US?

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

#62

Post by oliwarner »

Bullshit.

Headline should read, "Chap selling super expensive robot vacuum cleaners that take ten times as long as humans, and need just as much supervision, claims they're not irrelevant, really good Christmas present. Honest."

I'd believe that 20% of the world's new robots are vacuum cleaners though.

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

#64

Post by animal531 »

Loic wrote: post #60
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…

We have a maid. She is nice, we pay her fairly and she can also vacuum clean the stairs. She has the keys of the house, so, she can also clean take care of the plants when our vacations are not overlapping. She can also wash the floor. 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 t…

You remind me of The Fifth Element, when the main bad guy starts choking on a piece of fruit and doesn't have a back slapping robot among his legion of other robots.

The other side of the coin is also in security, people by nature make your house less secured (albeit based on your relationship with them, the area, country and so forth).

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

#65

Post by mulletbum »

rm999 wrote: post #16
adinambiar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a Moores Law for cleaning robot since they are upgrading too fast that many people don't want to buy it too early.

I feel the opposite. I bought a Roomba 650 almost exactly four years ago (one of the best purchases I've ever made) for about 350 dollars after a bed bath and beyond coupon. With a little bit of maintenance it still runs every day exactly as well as it did the day I bought it. The 650 is the robovacuum Sweethome recommends and has recommended for years ( http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-robot-vacuum ). The newest…

I own a 880 and 760 and I could not be happier with both of them. I had the 760 for over a year, but it couldn't properly do my entire upstairs (its rather large). So I moved it to my two room downstairs and bought the 880. With the 880 it comes with lighthouses that signal the roomba to know to do each room separately. I can not be happier. The 880 was a great upgrade too, the brushes are easier than ever to clear and maintain (basically you don't have to).

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

#66

Post by mulletbum »

stevekemp wrote: post #29
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?

A human can do a better job, but they are actually pretty good. I had one about five years ago, and so long as I pressed the "clean" button every day when I left my flat it was good enough that I only manually cleaned every two weeks or so. My place was ideal though, all on one floor, with no steps, and polished wooden floorboards + thin carpets only. I expect modern ones are better in terms of suction, battery life,…

The newest model, which I don't suggest, will schedule, but if you have a large space it will actually vacuum, charge, and vacuum some more till its algorithm thinks the entire room should be done.

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

#67

Post by mulletbum »

tinix wrote: post #49
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.

I think he wanted it to clean up around the cat litter box, which I would say is not a smart endeavor when you are confirming there isn't soft shit laying around said box.

Just as you said too, roombas come with an Infrared wall, basically to make a barrier between something. They also have a "hub" you can by, which if you sat between feeding bowls puts a ring around them the roomba wont cross.

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

#68

Post by izacus »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #4

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?

It's a tool like a dishwasher - dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes as well as you do manually either and still needs preparation. But it does save you a lot of time.

Same with a Roomba - I basically just quickly check a room to see if there's anything lying on the ground, throw it in there and come back in a hour. Clean and in meantime I can actually do my work or something more fun.

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

#69

Post by pinaceae »

Have one, relegated to cleaning the garage. Just too much issues in a household with toddler stuff lying around (toys).

I'd pay serious money for a real cleaning robot though. Not a little disc but something that can navigate stairs, clean higher surfaces. Currently paying humans to do it. They have access to my house, etc.

Once that cleaner robot really exists, imagine the extensions to it. Give it some other sensors and you have a fire alarm and firefighter. Even overall security. Close the doors behind you. Turn off something you forgot.

Rather than put chips in every item and automate everything I'd rather have one big thing to automate my (legacy) house. Easier to upgrade, fix plus I'd have a fully functioning house if the logic fails.

Looking at Japan, they seem to lead in this area. Can't wait.

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

#70

Post by mulletbum »

phmagic wrote: post #26

Dominating the robot vacuum market has never been irobots problem. They still haven't figured out what's next. This is a similar story to Fitbit and GoPro, once you've own the market you're after, then what?

Floor mopping with the Braava, which they are already breaking into. Gutter cleaning with Looj, pool cleaning with Mirra.

Then on to lawn mowing. They have figured this out already, just none of them have as much name recognition as the roomba.

Post reply on HN