I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today
with a “20% off any one item” coupon with the intention of picking up an
organizer for the mess of plastic sacks we have in the closet. I walked
out the door with that organizer… and a Roomba Discovery robotic
vacuum.
I’ve been looking at the Roomba for a while, and with my tax return and
the 20% off… well, the novelty of the thing just broke through my
barrier. It ended up running me $200 all told, and let me tell you:
Based on novelty alone I’ve got my $200 worth already. Watching it
chase the cat around is way too funny.
It’s in the process of cleaning its first room now. I started it in my
living room/dining room, where there’s no furniture, just to see how it
works. It’s actually pretty interesting. It seems to follow a pattern as
yet undetectable to me. It moves with a purpose - like, it’ll move
halfway into the room, then turn a certain amount, then head straight to
the wall - so I’m pretty sure it’s not just randomly floating about. But
it’s not doing anything discernable to my robotically-untrained eye.
That said, I’m looking at where the tracks have been and it seems to
have cleaned things up pretty well so far.
I primarily got it for the wood floors in the house. I don’t mind
vacuuming too much, but sweeping the wood floors is a pain in the ass.
(We have a lot of wood floors.) If I can get the Roomba to do it, so
much the better.
Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten a gadget, and I’d classify
this as a gadget.
I’ll keep you posted on it. Thus far - pretty cool.