Really? A robotic vaccum!

 

The iRobot Roomba is readily available in Canada: Costco, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond and the list goes on. A friend's parents have the top-of-the-line model and a home with a floor which is mostly open. There are not a lot of places to trap a Roomba. They love it. I maps out the floor plan and saves the info in memory, it tracks straight and then, like a lawn mower, it rotates around and makes its second pass beside the first with just the right amount of overlap. When it is done, it parks itself and is automatically recharged and emptied of dust.

Our kids and their partners, knowing how well the iRobot Roomba is working our for our friend, bought us one for Christmas. (I knew there was a reason I hated Christmas gifts.)

First, it is not the top-of-the-line model. You turn it on and it wanders about the floor somewhat randomly. At times it seems to shows flashes of brilliance but generally this is an intelligence challenged robot. It will run until its battery get low and then it will head back to its recharging station. That is kinda neat, I must admit. The unit is not emptied automatically but that is no big deal. It is easy to empty.

Still, I would not give our iRobot a pat on its robotic head and tell it that it did a great job. I will admit our home is the problem. One of our beds is too low to the floor, the iRobot gets jammed under the bed. One of our dining room cabinets has a maze of wooden legs and the iRobot manages to get lost in a 2X4 spot and cannot find its way out. When we use it to vaccum the kitchen floor, we must first remove all the chairs and stools from the room. I could pass a manual vaccum over the floor in the time spent moving furniture.

Robotic vaccum cleaners are kinda cool but they need to be fitted into an environment designed with their needs in mind.

Am I happy with ours. Surprise, surprise, we are delighted with it. It was a gift; a gift from our family. Its whirring hum as it skoots about cleaning the floor says, "Love."