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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'twant 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.
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
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.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-17 11:24 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-06-17 11:50 (UTC)From: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!