Houzz Logo Print
scottybarron

Roomba Girl

9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

She arrived yesterday & I'm in love. There was a bit of a learning curve. My living room & kitchen is Spanish tile & I have numerous throw rugs spread about. Roomba Girl got tangled up in them so I took some clear packing tape & taped the edges down for her.

Then I think she became overwhelmed & she high tailed it to the staircase going to the basement. I think she wanted to pass herself away. She didn't fall down but does get stuck trying to back track of the staircase.

I had to empty her dust bin 9 times. But for daily use, once should be enough.

Unfortunatly I wasn't able to get my full enjoyment outta her. She ran outta gas & returned to her charging station & clocked out for the day.

The manual said she needs a 12 hour charge before using but I was too excited to wait, but she's off & running this morning.

Whats nice is she goes under all my furniture. A feat I rarely tackled with my upright vacuum. The dogs are amazed by her & don't pay her much attention.

The downstairs looks amazing. Max, my German Shepherd is blowing his summer coat for his thick winter coat & there is dog fur everywhere 24/7. She has her work cut out for her.

Comments (27)

  • 9 years ago

    Good grief. I just emptied the dust bin after running Roomba Girl in the basement & she caught a live mosquito!!!! And I don't like mosquitos!!

  • 9 years ago

    I am happy you are pleased with your Roomba. They are so helpful when a person is almost unable to do their own cleaning because of pain. My Izzi, the red Pomeranian just ignores mine too. That is good yours fits under your furniture. It is bad if it goes under and then gets stuck! You have a better model than I do. Mine just keeps going till it runs down and then has to be charged. One of mine only takes two hours to charge. I use it upstairs. Good Luck with yours. I am pleased with mine.

    Sue

    Pawprint thanked Marilyn Sue
  • Related Discussions

    Ibot Roomba

    Q

    Comments (11)
    We have a Scooba. This is what you can expect in the future. We've had one of these for a few years and, in general, we like it. We only use it for our kitchen. At the beginning of 2008 the battery went bad and I contacted iRobot about it because the new ones are $70.00 and I felt it was too expensive considering the length of time we had the unit. Well, the one they sent me (free except for me shipping the old one back - which I appreciated) just died. I called them again to see if they would give me a reduced price on a new one. Nope. Replace it since it only lasted two years? Nope. Trash can! We will be cleaning our floor by hand from now on. $35.00 a year for maintenance is too high, especially when you consider the exorbitant cost of the cleaning fluid, and the initial cost of the robot. Over the long haul these are a ripoff. I guess I've learned my lesson. Now I have to find someone that will buy all our cleaner...
    ...See More

    bought too soon

    Q

    Comments (1)
    Yeah, good stuff today! I wish we had a wall where a TV could actually work for us. I need to show DH the home theatre system if that is what he is looking for.
    ...See More

    ebay daily deal

    Q

    Comments (8)
    Ours is named Rickroll (by our kids). I bet the neighbors wonder when they hear me calling Rickroll if he is stuck somewhere (windows open in warm weather). I guess I should stop the calling him before they cart me away.... I really can't imagine going back to not having him. I absolutely hate feeling grit underfoot and used to sweep more times a day that I could count. He has saved me countless hours. It is funny, but we never considered naming him a girl's name at all. I have heard of others naming theirs too, but Martha is the first female name I have heard ;)
    ...See More

    I'm in love with Lavina

    Q

    Comments (11)
    Oh claybabe, you will love this. Lavina came with Ermator, a huge vacuum that attached to Lavina with two Hepa filters. Lavina left dust on the floor, but very little in the air. Most of it was sucked up by Ermator, and deposited into a trash bag. It was still a lot of work, but 2 days with this pair saved us at least 40 hours work. Last night I told dh that sometimes it's a good thing that there are only 2 days in a weekend.
    ...See More
  • 9 years ago

    I've gotten enough fur from hard to get places to make a hat, coat & gloves!

  • 9 years ago

    Aren't these automatic vacuums amazing. Reminds me of the TV show the Jetsons. Mine is made by Neato, I believe it has a larger dust bin than the Roomba and also has the ability to get into corners. It will also remember where it left off if it runs out of power and will do return when it recharges itself. Gotta love it!

    Pawprint thanked Babs Fla
  • 9 years ago

    Son gifted me with a Neato vacuum, and I absolutely love it.

    Pawprint, enjoy!!!!


    Pawprint thanked glenda_al
  • 9 years ago

    Wow, those things are expensive!

    Pawprint thanked User
  • 9 years ago

    DH bought me one a few years ago and was so enamored with it that he ran it all the time. Needless to say, I got out of the habit of vacuuming. When it died, I don't know who was the saddest but I still forget that I have to vacuum. ;)

    Pawprint thanked chessey35
  • 9 years ago

    Named mine Robbie! I just love watching it. Amazing when he returns to base to recharge, then after recharging goes right to where it left off to finish vacuuming.


    Love how good it gets under my bed.

    Pawprint thanked glenda_al
  • 9 years ago

    Does using one of these mean you don't have to vacuum anymore?? If that's the case....I might have to consider.

    Pawprint thanked sjerin
  • 9 years ago

    I have a roomba and I love it. I bought it through Hammacher Schlemmer so it has a lifetime warranty.

    Pawprint thanked Chi
  • 9 years ago

    Sjerin, maybe if you don't have any pets or children and your house is pretty clean it could replace a vacuum, but with 4 cats I still have to give it a regular vacuum every once in a while. But it's great for maintaining and certainly cuts down on regular vacuuming significantly.

    Pawprint thanked Chi
  • 9 years ago

    No, you probably still need a real vacuum if you have stairs. Or a garage. I'd love to set Roomba Girl wild in the garage but her dust bin isn't big enough. Still need a shop vac for garage.

    I'm still on a learning curve as it gets stuck in all the same places. I've put a couple small boxes where Roomba Girl always gets stuck.

    She is the exact height of the fridge door and it really gets wedged in tight.

    I wish it would beep when the dust bin is full. It flashes a blue light, but if I'm not watching it just keeps going.

    I can't set it to run overnight yet because it keeps getting stuck on odd places. It loves my front door. Goes right there & stops, won't turn around. And it loves spending time under my bakers rack. I think Roomba Girl is hungry.

    I also think Roomba Girl is union because she clocks out after 1 hour and returns to the docking station.

  • 9 years ago

    My Neato came with strips, to stop it from going places and getting stuck OR if you do not need a room vacuumed, you just put a strip in the doorway and it turns around.

    Pawprint thanked glenda_al
  • 9 years ago

    Cleaning under the bed is one of my favorite things mine does. It got stuck once or twice under the dining room table. I had my husband put 1/4 inch lifters on each leg and now it not a problem any more.

    Pawprint thanked Babs Fla
  • 9 years ago

    Glenda, I like what I hear about yours. I'm thinking about getting one for the downstairs now that we have frequent visits by the dog that my two sprites rescued a few months ago. He's a hairy little beast of 'unknown provenance'.

    Between my cat and the hairy one, there seems to be four times as much animal hair.....how does that happen?

    Pawprint thanked rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
  • 9 years ago

    I am interested . I like the idea of the strips to prevent it going in certain areas . What are the strips made of and do they have to be replaced ? Will they go into different rooms or stay in one ? If I turn it loose in the den will it go into the kitchen and dining room etc. What about from tile to carpet ? There's a lot of new brands I was just looking recently and I had no idea there were so many and a big spread in price . I would consider size of the dirt bin very important and how long to charge along with the ability to block it from certain areas and especially the returning to home base. Will need some comparison charts. I might have found what I want for Christmas . We like to buy things for the house as well as each other . This year with the costs of the house repairs we will skip personal gifts .

    Pawprint thanked ravencajun Zone 8b TX
  • 9 years ago

    Mine doesn't have strips. It's a little black box that holds 2 D batteries. I put it in a doorway and Roomba Girl won't go there. Lately I put the black box at the top of the stairway to the basement so she just stays away from the staircase all together.

    Raven, it will go anywhere it has access to. If u put her in the den & leave the door open she will definitely find her way out & most likely will never find her way back.

    Its a basic computer program. Go forward. If it can't, it stops, tries a different angle or backs up & heads off in a different direction.

    Roomba Girl goes back & forth between my living room, kitchen & dining room. Depending on what blocks her and if she goes right or left & sometimes a 90 degree rotation will take her to a different room.

    I also put lifters under my couch so she can freely clean under there.

    She transitions flawlessly between tile & throw rugs, but I had to use clear packing tape & tape all the edges of each throw rug down because she was getting snagged.

    Roomba Girl is also color blind & I've read many reviews documenting this. She can see white & wont bump it. But I have black iron legs on my coffee & end tables which she bangs the hell out of. (No damage) just puts her in a different direction.

    I will admit NONE of the robot vacuums come with a large dust tray, but some like the Bissel are a little larger.

    They really are for daily maintenance. With my German Shepherd & beagle I run Roomba Girl in the morning & evening & clean the dust bin while she charges.

    Also, there are a TON of robot vacuums to choose from. As low as $79.99. But you won't get a remote control or docking station. You manually plug them in to charge. Or you can spend $1,000. Depends on what your looking for.

    The top end ones are almost silent & give you lots of options on how you want it to clean. Such as zig zag, random or back & forth.

    Mine was a lightning 6 hour deal only for Amazon prime. I wouldn't have even considered it if the price wasn't 1/2 off.

    I like the daily maintenance on pet hair & not dragging the Dyson out and using the attachment tools for hard to reach places all the time. Call me lazy, but my downstairs has been pet hair free for 2 days with little effort.

    If you have Amazon Prime, I'd suggest starting with a cheaper model, and if you don't like it send it back. Make sure to say did NOT function as described or you will be charged a restocking fee. Then order the next brand up.

    Roomba Girl will run 90 minutes in my basement that is all lenolium with no rugs. Then her union advisor tells her to clock out & return to charging station.

    Upstairs maybe 50 minutes because getting stuck wears out her battery faster & she's picking up more dirt & using the battery to constantly go around things & change course. It takes 4 hours for a full charge.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    When I want my Rosie to clean only the bedrooms, for instance, I block the end of the hallway out to our living areas with a rolled up rug, a hamper, a bed pillow, or whatever. Rosie's docking station is in our spare bedroom, so she can clean all the bedrooms then go back to her home. She came with some no-cross strips, but they wouldn't lay flat for me so I don't use them.

    Pawprint thanked littlebug zone 5 Missouri
  • 9 years ago

    Mine came in a roll, and you cut the strips to size wherever you want them. Have one in front of the bathrooms so Robbie won't go in there, and if I have my deck doors open, I have strips there, so it won't go out there.


    The strips are very convenient. You can order more if you need extra.

    Pawprint thanked glenda_al
  • 9 years ago

    I'm just going to say that referring to a vacuum cleaner as a female is a bit sexist...

    Pawprint thanked nycefarm
  • 9 years ago

    My DH got me one for Christmas, and I initially thought it was a stupid gadget. Well I love my Roomba. We named her Cinderella and she keeps the dog hair under control. I use her on the main floor and run her when I leave in the morning. When I come home it looks like a maid had been there. Yay!

    Pawprint thanked Lily Spider
  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Our Roombas came with two "block-like" pieces (I really can't remember what they looked like.) You sat them in the spot that you didn't want the Roomba to go past and they sent out a beam that it wouldn't go through - basically a virtual wall. Worked very well

    Pawprint thanked chessey35
  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nycefarm, I'm sorry if I offended you.

    My Roomba Girl HAS to be female. I don't have to ask her 10 times to do something, she doesn't ignore me, watch football all weekend, put me down and beat on me.

    She does the BEST vacuuming job I've ever experienced... (when she's not on her union smoke break).

    (Sorry if that sounds like I'm slamming men, but I've had some doozies in my life). I'm sure there are good men out there, but their either straight or married!!!!

  • 9 years ago

    Machinery, equipment, ships, many inanimate objects, etc, have traditionally been referred to in English as females when a gender is needed. It's by convention, nothing is meant by it.


    In many European languages, nouns have genders (often following little logic) and so a given one could be a he, she, or it. In French, a vacuum cleaner is masculine but in German it's feminine.



    Pawprint thanked Elmer J Fudd
  • 9 years ago

    I always refer to my Roomba has he. He does not have a name. No man has ever cleaned for me.

    Sue

    Pawprint thanked Marilyn Sue
  • 9 years ago

    I loved loved loved my Roomba! Then it stopped working, and we sent it back to be fixed. We got a new one back (probably refurbished) but it never cleaned as well as that first one. We still used it every day (and yes, it would get caught under the kitchen table like a pinball, what a racket LOL!). Eventually it stopped charging but by then we had so little carpet we never ordered a new battery. I believe we ended up giving it away.

    Dances.

    Pawprint thanked dances_in_garden