Hey, I consider carpet cleaning as a form of home repair, sooo
..................

Anyone use a Roomba vacuum? A little robot frisbee looking thing that is
supposed to be automatic.

Likes/dislikes? Pros/Cons?

Steve

I have a customer that uses one and loves it. She uses it on a ceramic tile
floor that is about 500 square feet.

AZ Craig


"SteveB" wrote in message
news:BQ0Nb.1486$AA6.1070@fed1read03...
Hey, I consider carpet cleaning as a form of home repair, sooo
.................

Anyone use a Roomba vacuum? A little robot frisbee looking thing that is
supposed to be automatic.

Likes/dislikes? Pros/Cons?

Steve

Is this unit a real vacuum or a "sweeper"? Anyone know?

cm wrote:

I have a customer that uses one and loves it. She uses it on a ceramic tile
floor that is about 500 square feet.

AZ Craig


"SteveB" wrote in message
news:BQ0Nb.1486$AA6.1070@fed1read03...

Hey, I consider carpet cleaning as a form of home repair, sooo
.................

Anyone use a Roomba vacuum? A little robot frisbee looking thing that is
supposed to be automatic.

Likes/dislikes? Pros/Cons?

Steve

Its a real vacuum cleaner sweeper. It's very novel but it would never take the
place of normal weekly vaccuuming.

HA HA Budys Here wrote:

Its a real vacuum cleaner sweeper. It's very novel but it would
never take the place of normal weekly vaccuuming.

To look at it, it seems like there's no room for the dirt. No bag,
no canister, nothing.

8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~

"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson
*************************************************
http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/
http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/

In article , said...
HA HA Budys Here wrote:

Its a real vacuum cleaner sweeper. It's very novel but it would
never take the place of normal weekly vaccuuming.

To look at it, it seems like there's no room for the dirt. No bag,
no canister, nothing.

There's room. You just have to empty it a lot.

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 17:21:39 -0800, "SteveB"
wrote:

Hey, I consider carpet cleaning as a form of home repair, sooo
.................

Anyone use a Roomba vacuum? A little robot frisbee looking thing that is
supposed to be automatic.

Likes/dislikes? Pros/Cons?

Steve

I bought one for my mom last year. She has health problems and can no
longer do anything strenuous like vacuuming. That little thing is
awesome! It won't replace a real vacuum cleaner, but the house can
now go for several weeks before I or one of my sisters needs to go
over and take out the real vacuum.

It has a beater bar and suction. There's also a small rotating brush
that sticks out the sides to pick up dirt next to walls and corners.
It does an incredible job on hard floors, something that normal
vacuums have a hard time with.

There's nothing to using it...just punch a button S, M, L depending on
the room size, it plays some musical beeps and then takes off. It
doesn't sense dirt, it just has some type of preprogrammed pattern
that lets it roam around and eventually it does cover everything.
It has a number of sensors so it will NOT commit suicide by going over
stairs or balconies and it rarely gets itself stuck. If it does get
stuck it'll turn off and beep every so often until you come and rescue
it.
If you don't want it to leave a certain area and there's no door to
lock it in all you need to do is put up a "virtual wall" sensor. It's
just a little silver thing you set on the floor and the Roomba won't
go past it. One was included with it.

It has a very large powerful battery that lasts a long time.
Typically it'll do one level per charge. The charger is intelligent
where you can just leave it plugged in.

Construction of the unit is great. It's heavy and nothing feels cheap
or flimsy.

Complaints:
Dirt cup is very small...this thing picks up an amazing amount of dirt
and it needs to be emptied at least twice per level. After cleaning
the house a couple of times there's also a filter on the cup that
needs to be removed and washed. The dirt cup is easily accessible and
takes about 1 second to remove.

It doesn't like fringe used on throw rugs. The fringe will get pulled
up into the beater bar causing the Roomba to get stuck. After a few
seconds it'll turn the beater bar off and try to back its way out. If
it can't free itself it'll shut down and beep for help until you
untangle it.

Overall it works great and I don't think I need to mention the
coolness/fun factor

George

"cxTurbo" wrote in message
Overall it works great and I don't think I need to mention the
coolness/fun factor

Good review, thanks. How does it handle changes in elevation? We have
several rooms that are hardwood floors with area rugs. The vacuum would
need to ride up about a 3/8" edge to go from the wood to the carpet. Will
it handle that?

Joe F.

Good review, thanks. How does it handle changes in elevation? We have
several rooms that are hardwood floors with area rugs. The vacuum would
need to ride up about a 3/8" edge to go from the wood to the carpet. Will
it handle that?

Joe F.

It should make it. It wont do deep pile carpets though.

"Joe" wrote in message
It should make it. It wont do deep pile carpets though.

Tx.
Joe F.

Consumer Reports just gave a short review the current issue. Bottom line:
'The Roomba cleans uncluttered bare floors, but even some cheap vacuums
outperform it on both floors and carpets." Other highlights: has problems
getting back up on area rugs and took 25 minutes (as opposed to a manual 3
minutes) to clean an 8 X 8 room. Battery lasts for about 90 minutes before
recharge is necessary.
--
Peace,
BobJ

"rb608" wrote in message
...

"Joe" wrote in message
It should make it. It wont do deep pile carpets though.

Tx.
Joe F.

'The Roomba cleans uncluttered bare floors, but even some cheap vacuums
outperform it on both floors and carpets." Other highlights: has problems
getting back up on area rugs and took 25 minutes (as opposed to a manual 3
minutes) to clean an 8 X 8 room. Battery lasts for about 90 minutes before
recharge is necessary.
--
Peace,
BobJ

Well, that's not too bad... and it may not do windows but if it can blow up a
doll I can finally replace the G.F!

We have one here, battery life sucks, but besides that they're pretty cool!
works great and is quite a show if you're really bored. lol, Seriously, if
the carpets are really bad, it won't do it with out a long time involved,
but for normal cleaning it's pretty good. Some pros are that it comes with
"virtual walls" 2 little sensor things that will send out a signal to stop
it if you want to keep it in a particular area of the house, or if there's a
certain piece of furniture it gets stuck under or something though we don't
have anything like that, it does just fine with out furniture. Also, if it
does get stuck it will keep beeping to let you know where it is as well as
if the battery dies in the middle of use it will keep beeping until you get
it, I don't know if it will eventually stop or what we haven't let it go
that long after it stopped moving. Only bad side I see to it is you have to
take it all apart every 8 to 10 uses and clean the axles and all moving
parts, but that's not a big job either.
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:BQ0Nb.1486$AA6.1070@fed1read03...
Hey, I consider carpet cleaning as a form of home repair, sooo
.................

Anyone use a Roomba vacuum? A little robot frisbee looking thing that is
supposed to be automatic.

Likes/dislikes? Pros/Cons?

Steve

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:45:27 GMT, "rb608"
wrote:


"cxTurbo" wrote in message
Overall it works great and I don't think I need to mention the
coolness/fun factor

Good review, thanks. How does it handle changes in elevation? We have
several rooms that are hardwood floors with area rugs. The vacuum would
need to ride up about a 3/8" edge to go from the wood to the carpet. Will
it handle that?

Joe F.

Doesn't have any problems going from kitchen or bathroom tile to
carpet. The most challenging spot in the house is from the ceramic
around the fire place to the deep pile carpet and so far it hasn't had
any problems there either.

Someone mentioned it doesn't work on deep pile carpet....not true.
The living room, dining room and hallway has fairly deep pile
sculptured carpet and it has no problems with it. It does put more of
a drain on the battery though. Shag would probably pose a problem but
I doubt there's anyone on the face of the earth that would still have
that in their house

Like I said, it won't take the place of a regular vacuum cleaner but
it does a good job at maintaining the house. From what I've read on
Epinions, people that have shedding pets love it.

My suggestion is to buy one locally. When it first came out I was
going to purchase it through mail order but in the back of my head I
thought it may end up being an expensive gimmick. When Bed, Bath and
Beyond got them in stock I picked it up knowing I wouldn't have to go
through any return hassles and expensive shipping if it turned out to
be a piece of junk.
If you go that route and decide you don't like it, just throw it in
the box and take it back.

George

I recently went out and bought a Eureka vacuum on CR recommendation. I
struggled to put the darn thing together by the pictures (no words at all if
I recall correctly), happily walked into the living room, and discovered it
just would NOT suck up sand. Not at all. I had sand on the rug, a cheap
imitation oriental with very low pile, because it had just snowed. I
watched the sand jump around as I rolled over it and happily settle back
down.

Bottom line: don't necessarily believe Consumer Reports!

I've had a Roomba since July. I've learned the hard way what it can and
can't do--to the point that I had to send one back and get a free
replacement.

It absolutely cannot deal with rug fringe. I've tried folding, taping,
rolling, rug fringes, but it eats them every time, and messes itself up when
it does.

But it is absolutely great on hardwood floors, and I TOTALLY disagree with
the CR assessment. I have a multiple cat household AND a long haired
collie. I run the Roomba in a different room daily. It does a wonderful
job on pet hair and picks up kitty litter just great. It does not do edges
as well, so once in awhile I get ambitious and break out the old electrolux
and get picky.

Yes it takes a long time, but who cares? I bought a back up battery and a
fast charger. I can keep the little bugger running all day long that way.
This is time I now have to myself, even if I could ultimately do it faster
than the Roomba.

Yes, you do have to take the brushes off & clean them periodically, but it
is not hard.

If you have lots of hardwood floors, I recommend it!

"Marilyn and Bob" wrote in message
...
Consumer Reports just gave a short review the current issue. Bottom line:
'The Roomba cleans uncluttered bare floors, but even some cheap vacuums
outperform it on both floors and carpets." Other highlights: has problems
getting back up on area rugs and took 25 minutes (as opposed to a manual 3
minutes) to clean an 8 X 8 room. Battery lasts for about 90 minutes
before
recharge is necessary.
--
Peace,
BobJ

"rb608" wrote in message
...

"Joe" wrote in message
It should make it. It wont do deep pile carpets though.

Tx.
Joe F.

"Betsy" -0 wrote in message
news

Bottom line: don't necessarily believe Consumer Reports!

So true.


I've had a Roomba since July. ...snip
But it is absolutely great on hardwood floors, and I TOTALLY disagree with
the CR assessment.

I have flagstone floors. Believe me, they are not smooth. I wonder if the
Roomba could handle them. Probably not??

My foyer is flagstone, and is not really flat, but not as irregular as some
flagstone I've seen (it's cut in rectangles, not free form). I use the
Roomba there with fine results.

"Roy" wrote in message
...

"Betsy" -0 wrote in message
news

Bottom line: don't necessarily believe Consumer Reports!

So true.


I've had a Roomba since July. ...snip
But it is absolutely great on hardwood floors, and I TOTALLY disagree
with
the CR assessment.

I have flagstone floors. Believe me, they are not smooth. I wonder if
the
Roomba could handle them. Probably not??

Could I get you to look at the charger? Is it 110 only or is it a
110-230? I´m considering buying one but since they charge over twice
as much here I am considering getting someone in US to buy me one and
have it sent here (Denmark).

Anders


"Betsy" -0 wrote in message ...
I recently went out and bought a Eureka vacuum on CR recommendation.

Use a 120 -240 transformer its low amp and will be cheap.

cxTurbo wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:45:27 GMT, "rb608"
wrote:


"cxTurbo" wrote in message

Overall it works great and I don't think I need to mention the
coolness/fun factor

Good review, thanks. How does it handle changes in elevation? We have
several rooms that are hardwood floors with area rugs. The vacuum would
need to ride up about a 3/8" edge to go from the wood to the carpet. Will
it handle that?

Joe F.


Doesn't have any problems going from kitchen or bathroom tile to
carpet. The most challenging spot in the house is from the ceramic
around the fire place to the deep pile carpet and so far it hasn't had
any problems there either.

Someone mentioned it doesn't work on deep pile carpet....not true.
The living room, dining room and hallway has fairly deep pile
sculptured carpet and it has no problems with it. It does put more of
a drain on the battery though. Shag would probably pose a problem but
I doubt there's anyone on the face of the earth that would still have
that in their house


Hold on. We were looking at carpet a week ago and found out that shag is coming back. UGH.

Like I said, it won't take the place of a regular vacuum cleaner but
it does a good job at maintaining the house. From what I've read on
Epinions, people that have shedding pets love it.

My suggestion is to buy one locally. When it first came out I was
going to purchase it through mail order but in the back of my head I
thought it may end up being an expensive gimmick. When Bed, Bath and
Beyond got them in stock I picked it up knowing I wouldn't have to go
through any return hassles and expensive shipping if it turned out to
be a piece of junk.

There are three versions shown on the Roomba web site. Which one does
your experience recommended?

If you go that route and decide you don't like it, just throw it in
the box and take it back.

George