Two years ago I had bought a knock-off. A DeeBot, for less than $200. I had read all the reviews, and it's still Amazon's top pick. When it was new it ran for about an hour and a half. It went all over the place in a random fashion, and the house always looked pretty good. I scheduled it to run once a day, and it did that without any problems.
Well. None of these devices like getting stuck, or running over cords, and then don't like level changes. There's a drop down between the studio and the rest of the house, and although the Deebot could get INTO the studio, it couldn't get OUT, or back to its charging station. I didn't want it sucking up stray bits of fabric on the floor, or blowing things off the design wall, so I blocked off the studio the best way I knew how - with a roll of wrapping paper jammed in front of the door. I knew it was there, but visitors often tripped over it.
Over time, the Deebot ran less and less, and this spring it dropped down to 45 minutes a run, which wasn't enough to get the whole house clean on one charge. By June it was running even less than that.
So I did some research. I could get a Roomba that would map the house as it vacuumed. It would only run for 45 minutes, but when the battery ran down, it would go charge itself and then finish the job. It would also show me a map of what it cleaned, which I thought was pretty neat. Of course, it was 3 times the cost of the DeeBot, but the Deebot wasn't getting the job done.
And about Millie's food bowls...
So how does it CLEAN?
I set the thing to start after I leave for work so I don't have to be around when it vacuums. I get an alert every day after the Roomba has finished a job - and it does indeed map my house. It takes 2-1/2 hours to do the whole thing, and WOW, does it clean. I can feel the difference when I walk around barefoot in the kitchen, and even on the carpets. The Deebot used to push onion skins around instead of picking them up (it has only one brush underneath), but the Roomba sucks them right up (it has two brushes that push things to the middle.)
I've set up the Deebot in the studio, and I'll run it when I need it, so it will all work very well.
Seriously, I tell folks I have these and they ask, "Do those things really work?" Heck yes, they work. And then they say, "Oh but they are so expensive." Well, not really. (How much is your time worth? $20 an hour? If it takes you an hour to vacuum your house every week, a Deebot will pay for itself in 10 weeks....) Think about it. I haven't had to vacuum my house in almost two years. The house always looks good and - I - don't have to do any work, and that, folks, is a WIN!
PS, if you've read this far, please read the comments too.
10 comments:
I recall when you purchased the Deebot that there was a question on the website (Amazon?) asking how many cats could sit on top of it and the 'official' answer came back that it could accommodate three kittens or one adult cat (or something like that)! So ... enquiring minds wanna know: do the Roomba people have a sense of humour too? And how many cats can sit on top of it while it works?
Megan
Sydney, Australia
We have two - one upstairs and one downstairs. They're just old enough that they don't map the house but they clean the heck out of the floors. Amazing how much stuff they pick up. And you are so right about the payback in time savings (not to mention our backs and such).
oh noes, now mum is thinking about this again. She hates to clean and she can see that you have carpet which gets clean.
I have a knock off, but haven't used it in a long time, the brush fell off and I haven't put it back yet. It worked really well, but there were some spots on my hardwood floors that were made worse because it kept working at the slight damages and wood fillers.
My husband bought a Roomba maybe a year ago. I love it and hate it. To use it all the cords have to be unplugged and put out of the way. Major hassle. We have a lot of furniture that it can get under, but when it hits the wall and lifts up to turn and gets stuck. It got stuck under the bed (king-sized, of course) and was almost impossible to get out. But it does a wonderful job otherwise. I think I want the kind like you have where it makes a map and you can tell it where to go.
I'd heard that the maps end up part of some database? Lynne, you would be up on the privacy issues, I assume. And how do you find it with cords and getting stuck u dear things? I bought a knockoff after you bought your first one - my cat is WAY sheddier than Millie, trust me - but it kept getting stuck everywhere, so I gave it to my daughter, but every time you get a new one, I start to get hopeful again..,,,
Hi Allison,
Well yeah, I see the maps on my iPhone when I get an alert the thing is done cleaning. But I run a private VPN on all my remote devices, and I have location tracking disabled on everything, so I should be good. As for the cords, there are only two places where the vacuums would run over them, so I bought those cord covers from the hardware store and cut them to length. Now the vacuums run right over them without any trouble. I also don't have throw rugs, so that works for me. Basically I read all the critiques, all the reviews and all the "Top Picks" from everything I could find. I read about all the places it could get stuck, and I don't have any of those in my house. The DeeBot is STILL Amazon's Top Pick, and it's still a good deal. My DeeBot used to get stuck trying to hump the legs of my dining room table (It's an antique Duncan Phyffe style table with curved legs. It would get stuck because my chairs are pushed up against the table and over the legs.) The DeeBot was just short enough to fit under the cross supports of the chair legs, and get stuck on top of the curved leg. I was always rescuing it. The Roomba is just a tiny bit taller, so it can't fit under the chair in that way, so I don't have that problem. If I want the vacuum to clean under the table, I just move all the chairs one day and let it have at it. Really, though, I've figured out how to arrange stuff so the vacuum DOESN'T get stuck, otherwise I couldn't let it go while I am at work. Every day I get home and the Roomba is at the charging station. That was not always the case with the DeeBot, which would occasionally wander around the house for half an hour "searching for mommy." And I don't expect it to be perfect. If something is very ground into the carpet, the vacuum won't pick it up - but my upright vac didn't pick that stuff up either. It's the reason why I bought the cheap one first - I wanted to see if it would live up to the hype. It did, but I was also willing to make the appropriate adjustments to ensure success.
Thanks for the helpful info, Lynne! Maybe a Roomba would not get stuck under me chairs too! And cord covers sound like a good idea.
I'm going to do this!
I've thought about getting one of these for a few years. Now that retirement is imminent, it may be a moot point. Or not. One thing often I've wondered, usually while cleaning one up, is - with cats, how does it handle fur balls, especially (sorry for the ick factor on this!) the fresh ones?
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