May I introduce...

[akk]

R2!

It's doing my vacuuming for me from now on.

But a little bit of context first. I live on 120 squaremeters on one floor together with two relatives. Out of us three, I'm the only one fit enough to regularly do strenuous housework. (The others are 96 years old or have osteoporosis, respectively). I'm allergic against dust (more precisely dust mite feces, but let's not be more anal retentive than usual) and pollen (mostly grasses, with rye being my "favorite"). During pollen season (starting in February, ending in November - except when we have a warm winter, then there's no break at all), the recommendation for people like me is daily (!) vacuuming of all rooms (!!), and twice a day if you have symptoms and feel weak and out of breath (!!!).
I also work full time, commuting a total of 1.5 hours a day and I'm sad to say, I fail at daily vacuuming especially when I'm having symptoms. Hell, I fail at weekly vacuuming regularly, symptoms or not! Not because I don't want have to do it, but because... WHEN???!

R2 is a Roomba 780 from iRobots, and yes, in one go it sucks up less than the big Vorwerk Tiger 251, but R2 works daily for two to three hours unsupervised on the 90 squaremeters available to it (I blocked the wet and fat area - a.k.a. bath and kitchen - with infrared barriers). Its random walk makes it work on each spot multiple times, and it's stubborn like a hungry wasp on your fruit juice when it comes to squeezing itself into corners and crannies to clean them.
When I vacuum, I miss more spots and cut more corners than this bot! And I'm not ashamed to say that R2s results on our linoleum and short hair carpets are superior to mine, even when I dedicate a whole weekend day to that work.
R2's been working daily on my flat since this Friday and even after just three runs the amount of dust in the rooms and even on the shelves is dramatically reduced at a cost of approx. 30 € a year for electricity (charging and stand-by, calculation based on the current electricity costs).

Frankly, eliminating the dust in your apartment is a war of attrition and those aren't won by the guys with the biggest guns, but by those with the most tenacity.

Comments

[rheasilvia]

I've been contemplating getting one of those - but for me, it'd be mostly a "OMG a robot is doing my housework, coolness" thing. ;-) This is interesting, though; I'd been wondering how effective they truly are. I have wooden floors with rugs, so I suspect the robot might have trouble with the edges...

[akk]

Well, we have short haired carpets on linoleum (see R2's portrait above) and it has absolutely no problem with the edges (or carpet tassels). Although, we have no-slip mats under the carpets.
I think the problem with rugs would be their low weight. If they don't stick to places, the robot might push them ahead instead of climbing onto them and clean them.

There are some pretty detailed reviews on Amazon.de describing experiences: http://www.amazon.de/iRobot-Staubsaug-Roboter-Funkfernbedienung-Programmierfunktion-Multi-Raumerkennung/dp/B005DE8EXS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339933306&sr=8-1 Maybe some of those will be helpful for your decision.

Frankly, when I got R2, it was mostly geek curiosity (and the hope that it provides enough "service" to ease the workload a little, when the allergies are exceptionally evil). I definitely didn't expect results on this scale. Admittedly, our apartment is already pretty straight-through in terms of vacuum / cleaning, given that it has to accommodate me and my allergies, so the lack of posh and art deco clean-intensive details may be somewhat responsible, too, but still... wow!

[primera]

R2 huh? But can it hack imperial mainframes? :P

That thing looks really cool, I would consider except I think a robo vac would terrify my cat.

[akk]

That's R2D2, not R2. ;)
Besides, it was either R2, or mom's horrible suggestion of "Robby". I couldn't do that to the poor thing!

It might consider it "Mr. cat toy" after the initial scare wears off. ;)
Really, cats are much more adaptable than we give them credit for.

[primera]

Youre right, they are very adaptable! I once read that cats have adapted to nearly every environment on earth. But for whatever reason, my Chloe, who is a fierce little thing, has a terror of noisy things... especially hairdryer and vacuum!

[akk]

With my cats, it was brand dependent. They hated Braun hairdryers, and didn't mind Sassoon (or whatever the name of the company was; it's been AGES ago).

If my little grey were still alive, I'd probably worry more about him sitting on R2 and using it as means of transportation...

[primera]

Oh my goodness, I don't know if my wallet can handle testing different brands to see what her highness is more comfortable with.

... I searched "cat rides vacuum" on YouTube and it seems like many cats are doing just that xD gotta love cats!

[akk]

Find a shop that allows "at location testing" or has a solid return deal (like Amazon, for example).

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

I so wish I had one of these. I stink at vacuuming. And dusting. And housework in general. And with six cats, there's LOTS of housework that really needs doing.

[akk]

Not sure about dusting. It can't climb up the book shelves (yet), but there's a special version for pet owners in the previous line. :-)

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Ah, but if it vacuums, then dusting is simply a matter of knocking the dust down where the robot can get to it without knocking down books / knickknacks with it. Dusting is much easier (as long as you're as not-worried about a little dust as I am, at least) if you don't have to clean up the dust as you go.

Roomba's of DOOM!!!

[(Anonymous)]

http://archiveofourown.org/works/381185/chapters/622952

Fic to inspire you with your new Roomba.