Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion Helpful Tips Vacuum Cleaning - my little helper

My cleaner was too expensive to have come round every week, so I changed her to fortnightly, and went out and bought an IRobot.

It is brilliant. I press the button and it starts cleaning the room. I head off, and when I come back home, it has self docked and recharged itself.

It really does do a good job of picking up the dirt.

It's not cheap (in Australia), and with an extended warranty, cost me close to $600. Still, I'm saving money by only getting my cleaner in fortnightly, and there is always a lot of dog hair to be picked up.

I haven't had it long enough to comment on reliability, but this is the 5th version, so hopefully it will be OK.

I don't hold shares in the company or have any affilliation with it in any way, apart from owning an IROBOT

James

http://www.roomba.com.au/

Can you use it on carpet or rugs?

Hi Wendy,

Yes, it works well on my carpet and rug, but I don't have the really thick stuff.

Because it spends around 45 minutes doing one room, it is quite thorough, and does a great job of sucking up all the dirt and dog hair.

Hey Jimmy

We had a bit of a discussion about the Roomba in another thread, you might want to search on it

we have two of them, bought the cheap "Red" one first, and liked it a lot, so also bought the more expensive model

even have the floor model for the kitchen, so that makes three

but over time have to say that I am disappointed by their reliability, they are always breaking down, so lately have been using our Oreck more often, that way I know for sure that it will get done, very frustrating to come back after walking the dogs, to find the Roomba got stuck 30 seconds after starting!

Is there a version that does washing up and ironing too?
And is it strong enough for me to stand on top of holding a mop, so we can vacuum and mop at the same time?

Only joking; but how long do they take to recharge, to be able to do a 45 minute vacuum?

Cheers

What I need is Molly Weasley's spell book from Harry Potter . . . she always has the dishes washing themselves and the potatoes chopping themselves . . . *sigh* I love fantasy books

Thanks Dow,

I did wonder about the reliability.

So far mine is going OK, but it isn't very old!

What a good idea! I'm sure you could stand on it, with your mop, but I don't think it would go very far.

It sits in its dock for around 3 to 4 hours charging away.

Yes, there are some that do stand on them!

Roomba Rider

Ours will often not finish the upstairs area before the battery runs out, that was part of our rationale in getting two of them. The deluxe one is supposed to be able to find it's way back to the dock when it completes its "mission" but usually we have to go hunt for it, to find where where it either ran out of charge or got stuck somewhere (the cheaper Red one does better in that regard, because it is actually not as tall, and lighter so it can maneuver better)

I think one of the most impressive aspects of how they work is when they get to the stairs, they never fall down, the sensors work really well to avoid that. And when I first ordered ours, I thought it was probably going to be a big mistake, expecting the dogs to go nuts when they first saw it running around. But it hasn't been a problem at all, the sound it makes doesn't trigger their barking, which was a surprise, (because just about everything else does!) And if it bumps into them, they just move out of the way, they don't try to attack it or anything, which was definitely a relief

barngoddes,, I just have to add a nonsequiter that my 1 year old daughter likes to point at the pics of your baby and say 'ba! ba!' and smile. She gets excited to see other babies, even on the interwebs, heheh!