Garage Robot

[Inetmonkey]

I'm sure many of you have seen the little floor cleaning robots that have come out in recent years (Roomba, Scooba, etc.), but did you know they now have one specifically for workshops? My wife picked me one up for my birthday and I started it up last night. This morning there was a bunch of stuff in its dust bin and some small piles of sawdust and metal shavings I had left uncleaned were gone. This is a must-have for any of you gadget hounds. You can get all the details and photos here:

http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=272

 

[beetroot72]

I'm sure many of you have seen the little floor cleaning robots that have come out in recent years (Roomba, Scooba, etc.), but did you know they now have one specifically for workshops? My wife picked me one up for my birthday and I started it up last night. This morning there was a bunch of stuff in its dust bin and some small piles of sawdust and metal shavings I had left uncleaned were gone. This is a must-have for any of you gadget hounds. You can get all the details and photos here:

http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=272

My brother in law had one. It worked great.....until he ran it over with his Tahoe.

 

[cc_rider]

Last year during one of the nerdier conventions here in Austin, someone rigged up a Roomba-type thing with a remote control, and used it to play 'Frogger' across a major downtown street. They made it back and forth several times before the inevitable...

I want one for my pool table; brushing it gets to be a PITA.

c.

 

[Old Moparz]

My brother in law had one. It worked great.....until he ran it over with his Tahoe.

I can see that happening.

 

[Lu47Dan]

Maybe one of the computer genius' could program it to haul a$$ back to the recharging station when a garage door opened . Dan

 

[PAToyota]

I'm afraid that thing would fill up on under five minutes in my shop... I've filled up a six gallon shop vac in an afternoon...

 

[Wardrum]

If this "Dog" can pick up nuts, bolts and nails, it must have pretty stiff bristle brushes. Have any of you used one on an epoxy-surfaced floor to see if it will scratch the surface? Just curious...

 

[BoCRon]

I was looking at the website and saw that they have a few models with a "schedule" feature. It was pretty stupid of them not to include that feature on the garage/shop model. I would love to get one of these and program it to clean every night from midnight to 6am for example. Then you know it would be back in the base when it's time to leave for work.
Maybe the next generation will have that.
Annette

 

[ChucksCrib]

Don't count on these robots to return to the base all the time. Ours return to the base about 50% of the time. Other times it gets hung up on something or the batttery does somewhere in transit. We currently have 3, 2 Roomba's and 1 Scooba.

However, they die out on us for various reasons and when end up sending the units back for evaluation. In fact I know there address by heart because we've sent them back so many times.

Now for the good.....

Their customer service is amazing. we literally have sent back 7 or 8 of these units because they have stopped working for one reason or another and every time we were send back new ones...no questions asked. We have 4 dogs and 3 cats and run the robots hard everyday. The misses loves 'em. the less time she spends vacuuming conventionally, the happier she is, which of course translats to me being happy

She asked if I wanted one for the garage(Dirt-Dog) for my birthday and I passed. I would have been another project in the garage waiting for me to mod-out.

 

[KingPerformance]

Don't count on these robots to return to the base all the time. Ours return to the base about 50% of the time. Other times it gets hung up on something or the batttery does somewhere in transit. We currently have 3, 2 Roomba's and 1 Scooba.

However, they die out on us for various reasons and when end up sending the units back for evaluation. In fact I know there address by heart because we've sent them back so many times.

Now for the good.....

Their customer service is amazing. we literally have sent back 7 or 8 of these units because they have stopped working for one reason or another and every time we were send back new ones...no questions asked. We have 4 dogs and 3 cats and run the robots hard everyday. The misses loves 'em. the less time she spends vacuuming conventionally, the happier she is, which of course translats to me being happy

She asked if I wanted one for the garage(Dirt-Dog) for my birthday and I passed. I would have been another project in the garage waiting for me to mod-out.

Agreed, dual 18v rechargeable impact battery cells would be an excellent upgrade for the roomba. Hmmmmm, maybe some all terrain tires, lift kit, cage ....

 

[wilbilt]

This morning there was a bunch of stuff in its dust bin and some small piles of sawdust and metal shavings I had left uncleaned were gone.

That is so freaking cool. I have been aware of "robot vacuums" for many years, but had not realized they have reached such a level of refinement.

SWMBO has informed me that we will be buying some. The pets will just have to get used to them. We have a large cat that I refer to as "Speed Bump". I assume the vacuum will learn to negotiate around her presence.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

That is so freaking cool. I have been aware of "robot vacuums" for many years, but had not realized they have reached such a level of refinement.

SWMBO has informed me that we will be buying some. The pets will just have to get used to them. We have a large cat that I refer to as "Speed Bump". I assume the vacuum will learn to negotiate around her presence.

Our Golden Retriever would make short work of one of those things. Our moles on the other hand? They seem to have signed some sort of non-aggression pact with the dog.

Phil

 

[kutza]

we use the indoor verison at our home on daily basis. We even named ours "I". The dog hair on hardwood floor is no problem for this thing.
Actually "I" got lost a few months ago. We found him stuck under one of the sofas.
It came with a remote, and a invisible fence, and some programming ability. All we do is turn it on, and forget about it. I would et one if budget permits for the new garage.

 

[PAToyota]

How big is the capacity on these things? Do you empty them daily or what? And how do they do with the transition from rug to bare floor and back? I've been tempted to get one, but was never sure how well they would work. Initial reviews weren't too promising...

 

[kutza]

"I", gets emptied out daily. Once a week we have to dig out all the dog hairs that are stuck in he brush roller. There is a red flashing light to let you know when its full too.
Rug to Floor and back is no a problem, but we have a relly thick rug in a room (almost 1/2in tall), and most of the times it will bump into and turn away, on the thick rug. I believe it works well. Again we have had it for over two years now, and the Wife had initially told me it was $100, recently confessed to its actual cost. So I can see why one would want better reviews on the machine that costs almost 300.
It des a good job cleaning, not a substitute for a good vacuum, but a cleaner for daily use, and once a week you can vacuum.
I hope this helps.

How big is the capacity on these things? Do you empty them daily or what? And how do they do with the transition from rug to bare floor and back? I've been tempted to get one, but was never sure how well they would work. Initial reviews weren't too promising...

 

[BoCRon]

we use the indoor verison at our home on daily basis. We even named ours "I". The dog hair on hardwood floor is no problem for this thing.
Actually "I" got lost a few months ago. We found him stuck under one of the sofas.
It came with a remote, and a invisible fence, and some programming ability. All we do is turn it on, and forget about it. I would et one if budget permits for the new garage.

This got me chuckling. My son named the Polaris pool cleaner "Roger".

Annette

 

[kbs2244]

Sounds to me like they are doing their final stages of design refinmeent and product testing at the customers expense.
They want the old ones back so that they can see what goes wrong and fix it in the next generation.
That is why I don't buy something untill it has been on the market for 2 years.
Smart computer guys have a saying about programs. "Don"t buy until Rev 3.0". That is, until the third generation of the programing.
Of course my days of being "leadng edge" and a clothes horse are long past.

 

[CraigFL]

I've been using Roomba for about 2 years now. But if you really need something to cut thru the heavy stuff in the shop:

http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/other/1166650664/1166650664la.htm

 

[dwashatka]

We named ours "Herman", that's short for Herman Muencher. HeHe? It's great except for the fact that you have to keep it cleaned out. I'm afraid once per session as far as the indoors one goes. Course the better half has never been the "Suzy Homemaker" type, but then I knew that 29 yrs ago when we wed!

 

[kbs2244]

I like the Robersours.
Use it once and call the fire deparment to clean up behind it.
Then the insurance company.
Then start off clean.
(But please keep us all up to date with a build thread.)

 

[greaseball]

Our Golden Retriever would make short work of one of those things...
Phil

Short work of the SPEED BUMP?

 

[VintageGarage]

Very interesting.

 

[Steve_S]

I have an epoxy floor and lots of old cars that leak oil. That thing would just track oil everywhere whenever it went under a car. I find it easier to just clean up the garage after every job. Compressed air takes care of what I can't sweep up.

 

[EZ SPEED]

Wow...I thought I was high-tech by using my leaf blower to blow all the dust out of my shop about every 2 months