By Heather Wardell
Do you love having clean floors, but hate vacuuming? Would you do so many more interesting things if you didn't have to spend hours cleaning the house? Well, Roomba, iRobot Corporation's vacuuming robot is ready, willing, and able to help you discover your free time again.
At least, I hoped it would be. It really did seem too good to be true. Could a device that looks like an overgrown Frisbee really vacuum my house without any guidance, and do a good job while doing it?
The Roomba line
Since the Roomba isn't particularly cheap, I did quite a bit of research into its stability and functionality before deciding to take the plunge and buy one. On the sites I found, there didn't seem to be a middle ground; people either loved Roomba, and thought it did an excellent job, or they thought it was a waste of money. With this in mind, I decided to make sure that I bought my Roomba from a place where I would be able to return it if the need arose.
The current Roomba line consists of four robots: Roomba Red, one just named Roomba (with slightly more features than Roomba Red), the white Roomba Discovery, and the silver Roomba Discovery SE. All four promise the same level of cleaning satisfaction, but the accessories that are included are slightly different.
"When Roomba first arrived, the cats were most definitely unimpressed."
Roombas come with at least one virtual wall unit, which allows you to block Roomba from entering a particular area; the red one comes with only one, and the other Roomba models come with two. As well, the Discovery and Discovery SE include a Home Base unit, which Roomba can find automatically when its battery is running low. Figure A shows a top-down view of Roomba on its charger, waiting for the call to duty.
FIGURE A
Roomba can stay on its charger whenever it's not in use. (click for larger image)
After a great deal of deliberation and discussion, my husband and I decided on the Discovery, which runs about $250, depending on where you buy it. It has two virtual walls, and the Home Base, but doesn't have the wall-mounted charger that the Discovery SE includes. As most of the walls of my condo are either mirrored or covered in pictures, the lack of a wall-mounted charger wasn't a big deal.
With great excitement, we unpacked Roomba. The manuals were clear and easy to understand, and we set Roomba up and placed it ceremoniously onto its charger. Given that the final decision to buy Roomba was rather last minute on that particular day, it didn't make it home with us until about 11:00PM, and it needed to be charged for three hours before its first use. I did consider getting up at 2:00AM to try it out, but my husband was concerned that our neighbours might have an issue with vacuuming at that hour. Some people!
