The Robot has Arrived

The Roomba arrived yesterday. I had to wait for it to charge overnight. I woke up today feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. I couldn't wait to get downstairs.

Ryan was skeptical, but he was amused by my excitement. The dog and cat appreciated the newest addition to the family the least. The cat was actually pretty indifferent to the little round machine that traipsed haphazardly across our open floor plan, and she even let it bump into her once (that got her out of the way). The dog panted nervously the whole time it was running. We did our best to muffle our snickering when the vacuum scooted towards her from under the couch -- her scrambling exit was swift and anything but graceful.

Our Roomba got stuck twice: once on some tangled cords under the sofa (they've been reworked and will no longer get in the way), and once when it tried to go up the half-inch bump of the fireplace hearth and got wedged between it and the guitar rack in the corner. I'll be playing with the iRobot virtual wall lighthouses to avoid that from happening next time. It also stopped once when it sucked up a rubber band that became so entangled in its rotating brushes that they stopped turning. Finding the problem was easy -- just as the users' guide promised, it sounded a beep that resembled “uh-oh,” then one additional beep which indicated that the brushes could not move.

After circling the floors for about 45 minutes (“Not as loud as I thought it’d be,” says Ryan), it found its home base and docked itself for charging, emitting a triumphant beeping sound. I inspected its work. Overall, I'm quite happy with the Roomba's cleaning performance. The floors feel noticeably cleaner underneath my bare feet today. A lot of dog hair was sucked up into the dust bin. It did not clean the dog hair from every inch of the floor, however. It also seems to have made our kitchen mats hairier than they were before; however, the clumps of hair it left around their edges are much easier to pick up than single hairs strewn about the floor.

We envision putting our new little pal to work a few times a week while we walk the dog -- it wouldn't be fair to her to leave it on while she's stuck in her crate alone. It will be a nice treat to come home to cleaner floors. We will still have to do some spot-cleaning of tiny corners the robot can't reach, and will probably have to pick up a few clumps of hair here and there as well. I also don't know how reliable this thing will be and how long it will last. Overall, I give it a B+ or even an A-.

I want to name our robot. Any suggestions?