I love my cleaning robots!

Today I used the vacuuming robot again. I am getting better at using the remote control to get it to go into places it had missed. We moved most of the chairs and other furniture out of its way. It is much more efficient when it doesn't keep running into things. (What a surprise!) Then we ran the floor-washing robot for the first time. It did a really good job, and the water in its tank (when it was done washing the floor) was impressively dirty. It only missed a couple of spots, and one of those was something sticky that it couldn't dissolve. So we are really happy with these gadgets, but moving everything out of the way is almost as much work as doing the cleaning myself. I should take a lot of the stuff off the floor (things that aren't furniture) and put it somewhere else, so perhaps this will encourage me to be more tidy. Perhaps.

Cleaning robots rock!

We haven't tried the Scooba yet, but the Roomba worked quite well for cleaning on tiles. It's a bit noisy but did a good job. Its dust bin filled up rather rapidly when it went under the bed into the "mega dust bunny" zone (we hadn't cleaned under the bed in over 6 months), so we found out how easy it is to empty the bin. Ours has a remote. In theory we can use the remote to control the robot like a toy car, but today when we tried it that didn't work very well. We'll have to experiment a bit more to see if that was user error or a problem with either the remote or the robot. [Later: it was user error. I'm getting a lot better at controlling it after a bit of practice.] It was fun to watch. Its search pattern never reached some of the corners of the bedroom, but we stopped it to empty its bin before it had really finished. It also just fits under the Ikea bookshelf units, another place that accumulates vast quantities of dust. Overall, we think it will be a great addition to the household.

The robots have arrived!

Eric and I had ordered two domestic robots, a Roomba (for vacuuming) and a Scooba (for washing the floor). They arrived today and are charging right now. You've probably seen them on TV, but here are some links if you want to look them up (not all models are available in Australia). http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122 http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=128 The FAQs include "Can Roomba [or Scooba] clean as well as I do?" We laughed, because we hardly ever clean the floor, so no matter how good or bad the robots are, they will probably clean better than we do!