Gadget Boy has a robot!

Being the ultimate gadget geek that I am, I have always wanted a Roomba robotic vacuum. Well, this past holiday, my wife bought me one for my office! Specifically she got me the Roomba Discovery.

I LOVE this thing. It was always a pain in the butt to haul the vacuum downstairs to take care of the office area. The floor switches from tile, to hardwood to carpet, and regular vacuums just weren’t very effective. The Roomba however rocks!

As much as I’ve wanted one, I’ve always suspected that they might not work very well. Man was I wrong. We have two dogs and two kids, so the carpets get pretty dirty. The Roomba has picked up everything in it’s path, and transitioned back and forth between surfaces with no issues whatsoever. It basically maps out the room in its little robotic brain and keeps going until it feels it’s hit every spot, or if its battery runs low. Once either one of those things happen, the Roomba goes back and docks itself to its own recharging docking station.

It even has a remote! So, Mr. Lazy Ass (that would be me) could be working at my computer, and I can simply press the CLEAN button on the remote and Roomba does it’s thing. Now that I’m comfortable that it works fine, I can start it up and leave it to its own devices and still be confident that the office will be clean when I get back.

A couple of caveats. You should always clean out the brushes and dust bin after every vacuuming session. Hair can get tangled in the brushes pretty badly, so you have to keep an eye on it and keep it clean. Also, I dunno how well this would work on really thick carpet. For me, the carpet area it cleans is an extremely low pile, so it works great for that. Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, two thumbs way up. It’s my new favorite gadget!