Originally published at: I've had this cheap robo-vacuum for a month — it sucks (in a good way) | Boing Boing
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it sucks (in a good way)
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My mom got us a Roomba last Christmas (not last last Christmas, the last real Christmas; I don’t remember what year that was). It is something we would never have gotten for ourselves as Mrs Peas and I are fastidious cleaners and never thought anything could top good ol’ elbow grease. Dear lord, were we wrong. We have hardwood floors throughout and within 24 hours they were cleaner than I had ever seen them and all the little nooks under sofas, around table legs and edges of trim were just astonishingly clean. I will never live without one of these again.
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“The suction mouth does not entangle the hair.” Good to know.
It’s actually a vacuum with no sweeper brushes! (Other than the side brush, that is.) Compared to a Roomba which is a sweeper with an added tiny dust vacuum port. I am curious how the performance compares. Not curious enough to drop a hundred bucks, though. Neat.
@noahdjango - for me, the discount appears as a “coupon” check box under the price, where if you check it, it takes $50 off the price.
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yeah, I saw that, too.
the vacuum port is right on the edge of the machine and it has a little 3 legged propeller made presumably out of rubber or the like which spins by the port, weed whip style, and grabs hair etc. I trust this design more than the regular rotating brush because A) the brush gets clogged and needs cleaning sometimes and if you don’t, the clog can stop the rotation and burn out the rubber belt that drives it. B) the brush needs to be held on either side, which means the brush and vacuum port can never reach the edge of the machine and ergo, neither your floor at the wall, which is exactly where pet hair accumulates the most. with an upright, you need to switch to the hose to do edges. with a roomba etc (from what I hear) you just never get a good edge, and their brush is not great for pet hair.
seriously thinking about copping this model. my German Shepherd’s undercoat is like a second layer of carpet sometimes. this style of vacuum seems like the solution, assuming it works. all the reviews are favorable, including many pet owners, but who knows if they’re accurate. still tempted.
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A data point.
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dope!
bookmarked.
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I think you click Next to Coupon on the product page.
Personally, I like to vacuum. I’m sometimes thought about getting one just to see if the cat would ride it.
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oh.
duh : )
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Yeah, but did we really need to see Mark’s dirt?
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I bought a secondhand one on Gumtree for $20 and then paid the same for postage. I’ve got a 65 metre vinyl floor in a facility to oversee. The sewing group can’t help leaving pins and needles about for the dance groups to discover. They seem to escape the brooms and industrial vac. Thought I would set the robovac to work with a neodymium magnet attached. Bingo. Captures errant pins and does a hell of a job picking up dust, hair, and fluff that you never knew was there. Amusing to watch - like one of those bumpem toys from when you were kids. Verdict: Buy one with confidence. Mine was originally a cheapie from ALDI.
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That’s what I intend to re-purpose my old Roomba to do! Someday.
I stopped using it as a vacuum 'cause it couldn’t keep up with the continuous shedding of my Tervuren Sheppard/Husky cross, and the semi-annual-all-at-once shedding of my Border Collie. Spent more time cutting hair off the roller that if I just vacuumed myself.
Also, I found having a Roomba just forced me to keep my house less cluttered. The thing has a canny ability to find shoe laces, discarded dish rags sitting next to the bin, etc. Mine once ate 1/2 a small rug when it grabbed hold of a loose thread.
But it’s a robot, so it’s cool.
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I don’t really think a robot vac can really replace a good manual vacuum cleaner, especially if you have pets (we do not). We have a Neato D5 and have been using it for a couple of years now and it works great. I mean it does what I want it to do, take the top dirt off the carpet and clean up the dirties from the hardwood. It is a smart vac and maps the room via lidar. You can set virtual walls in the app and it will charge and resume cleaning if it runs out of battery.
On the other hand we replaced our old Dyson DC40 with a Shark Apex (and also replaced a crappy cordless Electrolux stick vac with a Shark Vertex). I could vacuum a room with the Dyson and then go over it with the Shark Apex and I’d still be sucking up a ton a stuff. It’s amazing how much that thing gets out of carpet and rugs. The down side is it’s heavy. The Vertex is a sort of cordless version, kind of like the Dyson cordless. It works really good as well, but with most of the weight in your hand and not on the head it doesn’t have that deep down pull the Apex has. For all those complaining about pet hair: Shark Zero M Long Human HAIR TESTS vs Dyson Shark Anti Tangle Brush Roll - YouTube *
*I don’t work for Shark or own stock in them. Our 2 year old went through a serious phase of watching Vacuum Wars while doing his business. His tests seem realistic and the Apex & Vertex have been good units.
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