On 8/5/2017 10:58 AM, Unquestionably Confused wrote:
On 8/5/2017 10:46 AM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 8/4/17 10:12 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in
:


[snip]
so on. I'm wondering how well Roomba would do with the fine dust that
escapes my air filter
too, and settles out of the air hours later, or with the stuff that I
miss with the broom.


It would work great for that, if you didn't move stuff around a lot.
Unfortunately, they are easily confused.




How so, Mike? I don't own one but I always thought they cleaned in a
randomized pattern - just take off and go until they sense/touch and
object and then alter course until the next obstruction.

Correct. unless they travel in a straight line for 15', then they change
direction, obstacle or no obstacle.

The latest top end models are no longer random, they map the room and
cover every spot like some of the competitors so.

The mapping of the room may just be something that iRobot is offering to
compete. The beauty to the random vacuuming is that if something gets
dropped after the fact or if it pushes debris out of the way it may get
it on one of the random passes later on. With maping IIRC the any spot
on the floor only gets covered once per cycle. If it mushed something
out of reach it will try again on the next scheduled day.

We have not used a conventional vacuum cleaner on our tile floors in
over 9 years. The Roomba,ours is random coverage, does a great job if
you let it run often, especially with a pet or kids.



In any case given their limitations on larger debris, I would think the
OP would be better off just making a fast pass with a floor vacuum tool
attached to a shop vac or dust collection system. By the time he's
picked up all the little bits, he's near done anyway. At a couple
hundred for a Roomba, he can buy some nice hardwoods or another tool. ;-)



Actually you need to think several hundred to get a decent Roomba. The
upper end ones are neat $1K. Ours IIRC was about $5~6 hundred.