Anyone using a roomba in their garage?

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I am debating getting a roomba with an extended warranty for my garage. I have a roomba for my house - it was having weak battery issues & the company sent me a replacement roomba. Before sending it back to them I put the unit going back in my garage for the evening & the garage looked amazing.

The Roomba didnt look great after that point. I think my concrete floors may have been a little rough.

Anyone using a roomba in a concrete garage? Any thoughts aside from I am lazy?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Colin Len]

I LOVE our Roomba. Depending on the specifics of the garage (size, how clean you keep it, what's normally on the floor...etc) I'd assume it could work quite well. I'm interested to see if anyone is using one like that. I know for me it's just out of the budget, plus, the biggest issue in my garage is leaves being blown in from outside and a Roomba won't do much about that.

 

[Shiftless]

On my smooth concrete floor I usually use the old horsehair push broom I got free because it had a missing handle. Once in a while I use an electric leaf blower to get dirt, leaves, sawdust and cobwebs out of the corners.
I wouldn't consider a roomba. There are usually 2 cars parked in my 2 car garage. I have 2 workbenches and floor to ceiling shelves on the 3 available walls.

 

[Colin Len]

I wouldn't consider a roomba. There are usually 2 cars parked in my 2 car garage. I have 2 workbenches and floor to ceiling shelves on the 3 available walls.

With a garage that full I suspect a Roomba would do a MUCH better job cleaning the floor than a push broom or leaf blower. For leaf blower or broom you'd need to move the cars but the Roomba would have no problem getting under the cars (as long as they have 4" of ground clearance) and into all of the tight spots between vehicles and cabinets...etc. Our Roomba is amazing in terms of the tight spots it's able to clean effectively.

 

[kwschumm]

We have two roombas, one for each floor. They are great but I see a few issues using them in a garage.

For one, if the concrete isn't sealed the concrete dust would probably kill it after a few months. Maybe an extended warranty would cover it but you'd need to check the fine print.

Then there's the issue of getting stuck. They do get stuck at times, or the battery dies before it can make it back to the docking station. If someone got in a car and backed out over a stuck roomba the warranty would probably NOT cover it.

If it's a working garage the floor must be kept clean of globs of grease and such. Ever see a roomba that ran over dog **** in the house? What a mess! Our puppy took a few weeks to get house trained and that happened once, which was enough for me.

Lastly, if the shop is not heated the battery life may not be so good in winter.

 

[openwheelracing88]

Everything is off the floor in my garage. So I simply take my ridgid blower and blow everything out the doors. Then once awhile I mop the floor.

 

[rpcraft]

If I put a roomba in my garage it would choke and die from dirt, saw dust, or mud off the Jimmy... That or drown in mystery liquids, lol

 

[chrismenke]

I put two of the old OG roombas into garage service when the household ones got replaced. They've been great. They deal mostly with sawdust and metal dust (which will eventually kill them). They've been okay with the sludge, grime, etc.

When they're done I run a magnet above the bins to pull the hardware that got dropped, and I eyeball the bins too as I've got small non magnetic things like dropped lock tumblers.

They do get stuck under cars a lot and finding them can be a 5 minute waste ofd time, but probably okay considering the work they do for me.

 

[firworks]

Maybe someday they'll make a RoombaShop with big oil/solvent resistant tires, and a bigger opening with less brushing sort of like a shop vac.

 

[Tennessee Cattleman]

Well shucks, I guess that I am the only one on here that had to use the search engine to figure out what a Roomba is. I think it would choke to death in my shop in the winter after trying to clean up a half frozen wad of cow poop that had fell off my boots.

 

[Shiftless]

well shucks, i guess that i am the only one on here that had to use the search engine to figure out what a roomba is. I think it would choke to death in my shop in the winter after trying to clean up a half frozen wad of cow poop that had fell off my boots.

I have a mental picture of that event.
Even though I live in the city, I used to help my uncle on his dairy farm.

 

[chrismenke]

Maybe someday they'll make a RoombaShop with big oil/solvent resistant tires, and a bigger opening with less brushing sort of like a shop vac.

There used to be one. I think there wasn't enough of a market.

 

[LXCam]

Ever see a roomba that ran over dog **** in the house? What a mess

I would have been tempted to just bag it up and send it in for warranty with a note saying "it took a ****, now what?"

Just a thought

 

[Rick B.]

I would have been tempted to just bag it up and send it in for warranty with a note saying "it took a ****, now what?"

Just a thought

Now that's funny, I don't who ya are!