ROOMBA!!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

WOOT!! We just bought a Romba (those robotic vaccums) I’m so excited to not vaccum (or at least less) and to see what the bunnies think of it…I think Rupert will assume it’s apocalypse time and Kahlua will have a blast chasing it!

[ScooterandAnnette]

We love our Roomba. The bunnies get quite used to it and sometimes they won’t even move when they know it’s coming, they just let it bump into them lol. We have had the occasional problem with a cat walking on it and turning it on accidently.
– Annette

[MimzMum]

I hear they are expensive though.

I would love to have one. I think the worst thing about vacuuming (besides the noise) is that you HAVE to be there to do it. I mean, after having automatic washing machines and dryers, dishwashers and the like, we are still back in the stone ages with vacuums. I like the idea of one that does the work while I go do something else…like surf BB.com! ^_^

[ScooterandAnnette]

I think there are different models available. The one we have doesn’t have their “scheduler” so we can’t set it to go on at a specific time, but on the other hand we can start it and then leave the house and let it go. Or wait until the cats step on it and start it accidently! lol
– Annette

[MimzMum]

I’d have to peel my cat off the ceiling if it came upon the little robo-vacuum mindlessly wandering around on the floor. lolz…but it might be fun to see it happen. ^_^
I’ll have to look into it. Although I am almost positive our nasty Alaskan dust would kill it off in three uses. That stuff is hard on machinery.

[Cassi&Charlie]

I’ve never heard of this but I want one! I hate vacuuming and evidently everyone in my house does as well because it almost never gets done. Occassionally I tell Charlie to do it, but for some reason he refuses to

[jerseygirl]

I saw one in a Harvey Norman Catalogue this weekend so if you want to check them out Cassi, you know, like just for fun, pop into HN!

[Cassi&Charlie]

I’m online right now hunting one down. Might use my tax refund for something useful this yr instead of a car like last year.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

They are expensive but we found one at XSCARGO it sells stuff from places that had too much stuff etc. So we got a 300$ model for 130$ Price was right!!

Turns out they make them to do gutters, shop floors, wash floors, and pools!!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Hehe, found a robot lawnmower! I don’t actually need one cause my buns are efficent enough but thats just cool.

[MimzMum]

“Hehe, found a robot lawnmower!”

lolz…. Sshhhhh! If my son hears you about that he’ll want one! ^_^ We’ve got 5 acres he’s in charge of and he hates it! Snow can’t come soon enough for him!

[ScooterandAnnette]

There’s a video on the manufacturer’s website – http://cdn.irobot.com/filelibrary/Roomba_Videos/560video.html

If I remember later I’ll run it for a little bit when the bunnies are out so that you can see how they react to it. The only thing is that I still need to build a little Roomba-hut so that the cords and base are out of bunny-reach. Right now we have to block off that area so they can’t get to it when they’re out.

– Annette

[bunnytowne]

Someone mentioned why dont’ they make riding vacuums.   They have riding lawnmowers for men why not riding vacs for women. I would like the Roomba better tho.  Cotton would run in a huge panic thru the house tho. HB would just look at it and go oh thats all it is. ho hum.

ruby probably go and bump it with her head.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Mimzum- That’s what I was thinking about my cats! I think they would be severely traumatized!!!!

[Alicia Conklin]

LOL BT your HB sounds alot like Drue.  He’s just so easy going compared to Tucker! Tucker chases the regular vacuum hose when I clean the carpet on her shelf so she’d probably do the same with something like that.  Drue would just lay there and maybe move slightly before flopping over again if it came too near.

I’d love one of those things but I actually don’t mind vacuuming, it’s actually one of my favorite chores heheh.  Or atleast the chore that I mind the least. 

[MimzMum]

I’ll hire you to vacuum my place! ^_^

[BinkyBunny]

We have a roomba, and we love it. It works well with our hardwood floors and LARGE area rugs. It doesn’t do very well with fluffy rugs – just FYI – at least that was our experience with it at our old place.

[ScooterandAnnette]

BB I have to agree that it depends a lot on the kind of rug. Our old place had 1970’s shag carpeting (K&K has seen it!) and while the roomba did okay with picking up the stuff that was on the surface there was no way it could get deep down into it to get everything. Mind you I don’t think anything could, lol!
– Annette

[jerseygirl]

Posted By ScooterandAnnette on 09/27/2008 7:33 AM

The only thing is that I still need to build a little Roomba-hut so that the cords and base are out of bunny-reach. Right now we have to block off that area so they can’t get to it when they’re out.

– Annette

I had to laugh reading this Annette as a pictured a little NIC Condo for Roomba!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Heheh I love it so much!!

Rupert who I thought would be afraid actually lets it bump right into him, he could care less! And Kahlua is totally scared of it-I think she’ll get used to it and start chasing it though-I will have to videotape them for you!

[jerseygirl]

Me thinks this Roomba thread is robotic too. I’m sure I saw it here in the Lounge, then in Q&A, then back here again. It’ sure is getting around ok! Maybe it’s zooming about cleaning up all my double posts.

 

[Veronica Vigilant]

lol…. my roomba has it’s own NIC “cage!” My friends think it’s funny that I cage my roomba instead of my bunnies…

[kimberleyanddarren]

omg how much was that? it looks expensive lol how much K&K? i bet it has to be emptied often aswell

[Lagomorpheus]

I had one for a while – be careful of rugs or other things that the spinny side-brush will get stuck under. Ours broke off pretty quickly and it was never as effective again. Our rabbits would constantly jump on top of it and hit the large on button in the center of it to turn it on. I’m fairly certain they did it intentionally. Roger would sometimes jump on top, turn it on, and ride around on it for a few seconds before jumping off and doing a head binky in delight. I hope yours are as fond of it as mine were!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Thanks for the tips lago!!

K & D -> There are models that are expensive and some are less. You could try ebay? We found it at XSCARGO and they sell stuff uber cheap, we got it for 130!!

It actually has to be emptied each day but it holds alot!

We’ve been setting it on each day and it’s STILL picking up hair! It’s really good!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Do they actually work as well as it says on the commercial? It looks so cool! I want one now! Does it clean hay and bunny poo effectively? I find a robotic vacuum hard to believe.

[BinkyBunny]

I’m not sure how well it would do with lots of hay. We use our shopvac for the hay, but as far as cleaning up all hair, dust, and just general floor ick, it works very well (again, we have hard wood floors, and flat area rugs.

[ScooterandAnnette]

Finally got some video of one of the bunnies (Tegan) with the Roomba!

 

– Annette

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

What a cute video!!

It actually works really well with hair and poops and hay!! I wouldn’t set it loose on a hay bale, but the thing does pick it up and not just a little or a few peices!

It also has a dirt sensor, when it senses dirt it starts spinning on the spot until it picks it up; every poop and hay activates ours and it doesn’t miss anything! It also automatically detects carpet/lino etc. and changes modes on it’s own!

Ok you can tell I’m ecstatic about it hey??

[wendyzski]

I adore mine – I’ve had it since shortly after I got Pepper.

I replaced the battery once and the rubber beater once, but just cleaned everything else.

I got the plain Red one (no schedule or anything) for $65 off E-bay.

[jerseygirl]

Tegan was so chilled! Unbelievable!
I don’t think I’d do well with one of these vaccs. I’d be standing over it going “you missed a spot!” and trying to redirect it!

[kimberleyanddarren]

wow it looks like it works quite well, i may have to consider getting one! does it use alot of electric when its charging? or is the battery life quite good?

[ScooterandAnnette]

Uhm, I have no idea how much electricity it uses to be honest. This particular battery/model will run about 90mins or so before it’s had it for that charge. I think some of the newer ones have longer life batteries but I’m not sure.
– Annette

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Yes ours runs for one or three hours It charges for three hours as well but I’ve no idea how much it uses (guess we’ll find out next month when the bill comes! )

[Kaitlyn*[ily]*]

sorry but hearing about the robotic vacuum made me laugh because of a story i heard on the radio. so had one of those vacuuming their house while they ran across the street to get something from a neighbor. and while he was at the neighbor’s house the dog got diahrrea (sp) and the vaccuum spread it all through the house. can you image the mess he had to clean up? lol

[Scarlet_Rose]

A little loud, but very cool. Don’t hate me but my two are really good with their litterbox habits and don’t leave stray poos behind, and if they do, it is rare but even I have thought about getting one of those. They had them on sale at KOHLS but I resisted.

[MimzMum]

lolz….I am rotfl-ing about the Roomba targeting dust to be picked up and jerseygirl saying she’d have to follow it with a whip and a chair to be sure it did it’s job….lmao!
Ew on the dog story. >.< Hence why my dogs don't live in the house.

 

I just watched the video too…omg, that is hilarious. Tegan looks like she’s going to kill the poor thing! ^_^

Can y’all imagine how different Disney’s Brave Little Toaster would’ve been with a Roomba instead of Kirby?

My daughter thinks it sounds like a pencil sharpener…lolz! Nice and quiet, definitely!

Having a little trouble navigating that radiator vent, but on the whole it looks to be quite the little picker upper! ^_^

[BinkyBunny]

Posted By jerseygirl on 10/02/2008 6:24 PM
Tegan was so chilled! Unbelievable!
I don’t think I’d do well with one of these vaccs. I’d be standing over it going “you missed a spot!” and trying to redirect it!

 

That’s EXACTLY what my husband does! LOL!  It drives me crazy because it’s like he’s in a Roomba Trance and just watches it.  It’s SUPPOSED to save you time, but it can’t save you much time if you just spend that time watching it.

Though it can miss some spots, for the most part it does come back around and get up most everything.   So even though it seems to miss things, it does many many rounds.

[jerseygirl]

BB, look at it this way; you can just “set and forget” both Roomba & Hubby!

[ScooterandAnnette]

The Roomba came with a remote so you can actually direct it while you’re sitting on the couch watching tv. We’ve never done that though.

It definitely does not do a as thorough a job as a regular vacuum, but the theory behind it is this: You can run the roomba every day while you do other things, so even if it misses a little area one day it’ll go over it the next. And because you’re usingit more frequently than you’d vacuum everything more or less evens out, although I still like to take the regular vacuum to the carpets now and then.

Yeah it has a problem with those vents, not sure why. It’s worse with the ones in the upstairs bedroom, it gets onto them and can’t figure out how to get off them! But when it runs into a problem it plays a little tune that sounds kind of like “uh oh” so that if you’re around but can’t see it you can still hear that it’s in trouble.

As for the sound, it’s not really all that loud. It sounded louder than you’d ordinarily hear it because I was on the floor taking the video and it was anywhere from 1-9′ away from me during the video. Actually at one point it had decided that it had enough of the dining room and was going to do the livingroom, but I was in the doorway so I redirected it back into the dining room where Tegan was so I actually had my hand on it for a little bit getting it to go in the other direction. But if you’re not down on floor level with it then it doesn’t sound quite as loud.

Tegan gets more annoyed at it than anything else. Most of the time they ignore it. It’s kind of funny to see them just sitting out in the open and the Roomba comes along and they’ll either just completely ignore it or look at it and say oh, it’s YOU and give it the bunny butt.
– Annette

[MimzMum]

So the Roomba “gets tired” of vacuuming certain places eh? Hmmm….Terminator, anyone? lolz…

Or perhaps this is the precursor to Bi Centennial Man?

Meh, I’m getting convinced that I need one now, if for nothing else, the comic relief! xD

[kimberleyanddarren]

god BB i think you need to leave it on longer! be glad its keeping him quite for a while! hahaha *thinks this may be a better reason to get one than not having to hoover* lol

[Veronica Vigilant]

I had mine going the other day…. Ember decided to sneak up on it to investigate, but then it changed directions and came straight at her! She jumped 2 ft up in the air and 3 ft to the side- I think it took me 5 minutes to stop laughing! After her “binky” she casually hopped over to the food bowl to eat… “What? Me, scared? No no no. See? I’m sitting here casually eating… I wasn’t scared, oh no, not me…”

[MimzMum]

That’s about the only thing keeping me from getting one, well besides the cost and knowing the Alaskan dirt here would kill it in twenty minutes or less. I would be so afraid the bunnies would have coronaries and my cat would have apoplexy! >_<

[Veronica Vigilant]

I always dump so much dirt out of mine after it’s done that I’m amazed it still works! I keep thinking that if I run it every day then eventually the dirt will start to lessen… but not so far. And I actually vacuum with my Shark first to pick up all the big pieces of hay, etc just to make sure I get everything as clean as possible! (attempted allergen control!)

I think Ember was more annoyed that I saw her get startled then she was actually “scared!” She’s kinda crazy though… my dad was fixing the floor of their condo this weekend with a power drill and she charged it! He actually broke the drill bit because he pulled it back away from her so fast!!!! So now power tools are only used when Em is locked away someplace safe and far away!!!!!

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