This is pretty funny... Ted and I have bought a robotic vacuum cleaner! Our old vacuum has been crappy for a while and just before our vacation it broke completely. So we needed a new one and decided to try the Roomba. We picked it up from Bed, Bath & Beyond on Thursday night.

It is just a great idea. The thing chugs around on its own vacuuming, you have to shut it in a room and do one room at a time, then move it to the next room. It has a rechargable battery which seems to last for about 3 large rooms and then it has to be recharged (the standard charger takes 12 hours to recharge but we bought a rapid charger that takes about 2.5 hours).

We gave it a heavy workout! Because our old vacuum was so crappy, and then broken completely for the last couple weeks, and having 2 dogs and 2 cats who shed a LOT in the house... things were VERY hairy. The manual suggested that if things were very hairy you could split larger rooms in half and then clean the brushes and bins after half a room instead of trying to do the whole room at once. So this is what we did in our bedroom, which is where the dogs sleep and stay when we're at work, so it was super hairy! However, when we took it apart to clean the brushes, we found that the brush axel had melted a little plastic piece inside! I'm pretty sure that happened because of the build-up of hair around the axels as the brushes were spinning, making too much friction and therefore heat... anyway, luckily it is only a tiny replacable part. I wrote the company and they are already sending us the new piece. And, it can still be used in the meantime. At that point (Saturday afternoon) I was very worried if the Roomba was tough enough to stand up to our kind of vacuuming. I would say we are a "special case" with Maki being a Siberian Husky and the cats are both long-haired.

However, I am happy to report that now that we have done the initial cleaning, it seems to be able to handle the daily mess (without several weeks of build-up). So, that is pretty cool. We just turn it on in the room we want to vacuum, go do something else, and it beeps and shuts off when it is done. The pets are surprisingly uninterested in it (I expected them to either be scared to death and hide away, or want to chase it). It seems to do a really good job at picking up the hair and other stuff, and is reasonably good at getting into corners and tight along the walls. Not wonderful at that, but acceptable in my opinion.

In our house we almost need to vacuum daily. I hate vacuuming and could barely bring myself to do it even once a week. So I think this is going to make a big difference to the state of our house! And I may never have to push around a vacuum cleaner again. The Roomba costed $200 US, which I think is a fairly cheap or average price for a vacuum cleaner anyway. So, I'm really happy!!!