Industry Figure Tom Chappell

My good friend Chris Ravenscroft has long touted the Glory of a Roomba, but I’ve maintained a healthy skepticism. Sure, it’s a robot that takes care of your mundane vacuuming chores, which has got a nice Jetsons feel to it, but aren’t there downsides? In the books I’ve read, sometimes robots kill you in your sleep, or wall you up in a box and take your place. No one wants that.

Two things changed my mind: (a) Chris has had the Roomba for a long time now, and still likes it. (b) There’s a new generation, with all kinds of great features (whose descriptions I have largely stolen from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog):

Twice as powerful as previous generations.

31 cubic inch dustbin (3x larger than earlier versions).

Fast-charging base acts as a home base: When power runs low the robotic sweeper vac self-pilots back to the base for a rapid 2 ½ hour recharge (80% faster than the previous generation).

Advanced power system battery lasts a full two hours (30 minutes longer than previous models).

Sensor detects (and retreats from) stairs.

Virtual walls project infrared beams that confine the floor vac to desired areas.

Scheduler Remote lets you schedule up to seven programs to direct the robotic sweeper vac to clean at preset times of your choosing.

Two Virtual Wall Schedulers work with Scheduler Remote to define Roomba’s cleaning boundaries; two Classic Virtual Walls also included.

New dirt-sensing technology locates and focuses on heavily soiled areas.

So, for Christmas, we’ve got a robot! Since it’s (a) a robot, and (b) a vacuum, it couldn’t possibly be a Christmas present for my wife, but she would never think to get it for me, so I had to get it as a present for myself.

It’s working great, so far. It worries the cats, but doesn’t terrify them. My Mother-In-Law’s dog ignored it; it bumped into him and changed direction. Also, having used it, it’s hard to imagine what the old 3x smaller dustbin could have been used for. Storing toothpicks? We tried using a remote to command it to fall down a flight of stairs, and rather than retreating (because we were telling it, “No, come on, it’s perfectly safe!”), it just sat there making disrepectful sounds and refusing to move.

There are several models, with subtlely different features. The one that we bought is a Hammacher Schlemmer exclusive, the Roomba Discovery SE Scheduler Special Edition, though it’s hard to say what exactly is so exclusive about it, other than Hammacher Schlemmer’s global policy of a “lifetime guarantee” on everything they sell: “Should any product fail to meet your expectations, simply return it. We will replace it, refund the purchase price, or credit your credit card.”

The “Scheduler” aspect is actually a separately-available add-on: it comes with the Scheduler Remote, the Virtual Wall Schedulers, and what looks like a little USB connector to update the software in the Roomba from the Remote.

You too can buy a Roomba from Hammacher Schlemmer
$349.95

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Hey, it was advertised to come with 3 filters, but I only see one replacement filter, so I count that as 2 filters. I’ll give them a call in the morning, and we’ll just see about that.

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They more-or-less cheerfully agreed to credit my credit card with $5, the cost of the missing filter. I had to suggest that this would be a good solution, but they did it.

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Whoa, they had a web-crawler or something looking for new references to Hammacher Schlemmer, and a guy sent me a nice e-mail apologizing for the typo on the web site, which they’ve also now fixed, AND sent me a complementary pack of 3 filters. See, that’s why you order from Hammacher Schlemmer, and not other retailers, whom I could name, but won’t, for fear that they might send me free stuff, too.

(Post #5 of 16 Posts in 16 Days)