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That Roomba I got for Grace is really one excellent toy, err, cleaning machine… The first day we put it to work, I emptied 4 full cartridges of dirt plus other crap. And this morning I sent it to “spot clean” the area rug for several cycles, and it again found stuff that’s not visible to the eye — 4 more cartridges of them!

After observing it for a couple of days, I’ve got some tips to share:

Roomba no like cables. Cables no Roomba friend.
Generally Roomba knows how to get out of stationary flat cables. But sometimes it does get trapped if a smaller and looser cable entangles Roomba’s bumper. Just get cables out of the way by wall mounting them or hide them from Roomba.

Roomba no like lightweight area rugs.
While Rooma does an excellent job on “heavier” and bigger area rugs, those small area rugs will trip Roomba. And Roomba, when trapped, will complain and try to get out of it by engaging in an interesting escape routine. But it doesn’t always get out of it successfully. So move those small area rugs out of the way so you don’t have to worry about rescuing your Roomba later.

Roomba smart. Roomba escape from tight spaces no problem.
I’ve watched my Roomba wander into pretty tight spaces and still manage to get out just fine. But it’s still a good idea to give it enough room to at least get in and out of a tight spot.

Rooma need help, Roomba yell.
When Roomba is acting funny, make sure you empty the cartridge AND check the cleaning brushes. My Roomba stopped in the middle of the room one time on full power with an orange status light on and beeped twice; I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. It turned out that it’d choked on a small piece of wine cork I’d cut up to raise the height of some furniture (so that it can go under and clean).

Roomba no like too much animal hair on carpet.
With two cats at home, the carpet is a magnet for animal hair and dander. It’s a good idea to use “spot clean” to really really clean out the carpet for the first few times. The lesson here is, for each spot clean, empty out the cartridge and clean the wheels (as well as within the Roomba itself) before the next cycle. Or else when the cartridge bin is full, Roomba will regurgitate some of that hair, leaving a track of “processed” hair behind it… Not a good sight…

Make cleaning easy for Rooma.
Some people (ahem, Chee, ahem, hoi..) complain that using Roomba is almost the same as vacuuming manually since one still has to lift things/furniture to get under them. But I beg the differ. The whole point of having a “robot” is so that it frees up my time to do other stuff. What I do is, I lift/move all possible obstacles out of Roomba’s way and let it do its job. True it takes a little effort still, but what house chore doesn’t? What I did was, I watched how Roomba cleans and how its cleaning routines work for the first few sessions, then I either modify how I place my things on the floor or change the way they are stored. And I give Roomba enough clearance under certain furniture so it can get all the dirt out. And it’s a good idea to watch how Roomba works for the first few times because then you get to see how Roomba may get into trouble or if it’s able to get out of certain traps (i.e. cables).

Roomba is no human.
Be realistic. Don’t expect Roomba to get to places that are smaller than its own size. There’s just no way Roomba will be able to get to certain corners or spots. Knowing that, it’s just a matter of cleaning after Roomba when it’s done. Not a big deal.

Funny backup sound.
When Roomba is at its charging station, by pressing on the “clean” button, something funny happens: Roomba makes a beeping sound while it’s backing out of the charging station as if it’s an heavy equipment or a large truck. It’s really cute and shows how its geeky creators do have a sense of humor.

One thing that’s really interesting to watch Roomba do is when it looks for and docks with its charging station. It reminds me of one of those sci-fi movies on how space stations dock. When docking is successful, Roomba turns itself off and flashes the power button, signally that it is being charged. On the charging station, an extra light goes on just like in the movies! Sweet!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Geek Stuff, Tips + Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.