Introducing Marge! My Robot who vacumns.

Those who know me know that I am pretty compulsive about a clean house and especially dog hair!.  Now I have three indoor dogs: 2 yellow Labs and a Springer Spaniel puppy so dog hair is ever present.  I vacumn at least once a day and many times twice to keep up with the dog hair and dirt they track in. 

I have been eyeing iRobot's Roomba as a possible solution but just wasn't sure.  Well, this weekend my favorite store, Costco, had the Roomba 550 available with a $30.00 rebate.  I admit - I took the bait and bought the thing.  I really figured it would be going back the next day. But - not! 

My Roomba is named "Marge" and she does a decent job on the keeping the dog hair down.  At first the dogs thought she was a new, mobile toy but now they just ignore her as she does her thing.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Roomba's here's a little information.  They are manufactured by iRobot.  iRobot makes robotic items for the government and home use.  The Roomba is their vacumn product. They also have a Scoomba (that scrubs floors) and a Dirt Dog (for shops, garages, etc). They have multiple makes but the they work basically the same.  By using a computer program they glide across your floors (tile, carpet, wood, throw rugs) in a pattern picking up the dirt and junk that is on your floor. "Roomba calculates the optimal cleaning path as it cleans and determines when to use its various cleaning behaviors".  She may spiral, follow a wall, cross rooms, spot clean and stay in one place when she detects a need for more intense cleaning.  Virtual walls or lighthouses keep the Roomba in the room you want or will allow the Roomba to clean one room and then move onto another.  Some can be programed to operate on a set schedule or you can just push the button and off Roomba goes.  Now, don't get me wrong this will not take place of a regular vacumn but for the daily dog hair, etc it does the job.  So far Marge has not gotten stuck under anything  or on the throw rugs; if she does she goes back and forth to get unstuck.  Should there be a problem, such as dirty sensor or full dust bin she stops and says "uh-oh" and then beeps to let you know what needs to be done.  They make 2 "pet" models but they do cost more so I settled for this one and so far am happy with her. Although if I should upgrade I would consider the pet versions. The downside is you have to empty the dust bin after she is done with her rounds and clean her brushes and she is slower than I am but while she is doing her thing I am doing mine and not pushing the vacumn around the house.

I will post a couple picutes of Marge also so you can see her at work.