Roomba Buying Guide

Before you ever consider buying a Roomba, you may even consider getting a Scooba instead as you thought Scooba can do the same cleaning job as Roomba? Do take a look at this article on the difference between Roomba and Scooba.

Also you may wonder on whether other similar brands of robotic vacuum worth taking a look also?

Well, to answer that, you got to look at what's goes inside a Roomba.

Though there are some copy cats that looks and works like Roomba, there's really nothing that can comes close to Roomba.

A good example is the Metapo Cleanmate. On the outside, it may looks quite similar to Roomba. It even have an option to reduce the vacuuming noise of the robot. But there has been report of it getting stuck easily and requires frequent human intervention. For Roomba, it has many years of R&D to back it up and thus cannot be easily replaced by a copy-cat.

Here are some of the questions that you will need to ask yourself before selecting the perfect Roomba for your home :

1) Do you have a budget? - What is the amount?

2) Do you require a state of the art super high end Roomba?

3) How often do you normally vacuum or sweep your floor? - Daily, weekly or even monthly?

4) Do you have a maid? Is someone else helping to clean up your room? - How much do you pay your maid/assistance?

5) How big is your house that requires vacuum? - Does your house has wide clear area without lots of obstacles for vacuuming?

6) Do you requires scheduling function on your Roomba? 7) Does your house has many openings and requires at least 2 virtual wall to confine the vacuuming area?

This is a simple question, isn't it? Or does it really matters? With Roomba priced at few hundred dollars, it seems like having a budget to purchase such a useful robot is out of the question!

Well, I will say that buying a Roomba is like buying a car. Why is it so? Well, first you need to take care of the maintenance.

Maintaining a Roomba is not that difficult but it requires regular inspection on its brushes, wheels and of cause on its own dust bin. The common wear-ables are the side brush which I had reported it giving way under some amount of wear and tear. Next, is the Roomba battery. It is made of Nickel Manganese and when fully charged, it can allow Roomba to operate for more than 45 mins. Like all rechargeable batteries, the charging capabilities of the battery will wear out progressively over time and will need replacement.

How long can the battery last before Roomba's operation time becomes noticeably short? Well, from my experience, the roomba battery can last for a year given that the Roomba is used on a weekly basis.

You will notice that your Roomba LED light will turn into Amber light much faster than it used to be after about 10 mins of operation. That is the time that you may need to consider getting a new battery.

Do you require a state of the art super high end Roomba?

This answer is also obvious. Everyone wants the latest state of the art Robot to impress their friends and relatives, isn't it?

Though everyone will wish to have one but the truth is that the best may not be the most suitable for you. Some of the feature may not be require by you like the scheduling function which enables your Roomba to operate automatically on the selected time and day. This scheduling function can easily be replaced by manual operation as you can always set it to "ON" and leave it running till it detects inadequate battery power and automatically proceed to the Home charging base(If you are using Roomba 500 series or selected Roomba 4000 series) to charge.

How often do you normally vacuum or sweep your floor?

Answer this truthfully. If you always like your room to be spick and span without any dust, you will be most likely to vacuum or sweep your floor daily. This will leave you little time to do your normal household chores and of cos your precious leisure hours to watch TV or out for some outdoor sports. You may want to consider putting Roomba up to task for the daily floor vacuuming.

Do you have a maid?

How much do you spend to employ a maid? Can Roomba replace your maid's daily sweeping job? Of cause, Roomba does and without complains. If you do not have a maid, getting a "Robo Maid" may seems to be a viable choice.

Roomba operation cost may cost much lower as compared to getting a maid to maintain your floor cleanliness. And the best part is that you can ask Roomba to vacuum your floor on any time of the day and without any complain also.

How big is your house that requires vacuum?

If your house has a big area for vacuuming and have little chances of having Roomba to get stuck, Roomba will be a good choice. People have been asking me how do we know whether Roomba will get stuck. The answer is through experience!

As Roomba is a robot, it can be considered as an intelligent robot as it can help you to vacuum your floor but even so, a robot is only as clever as its progamming logic and can be subjected to problem like getting stuck on corners and some unexpected place.

So your experience really counts!

Do you requires scheduling function on your Roomba?

That simply means having your Roomba to be scheduled to vacuum the floor at any time of the day. Note: The scheduling function only allows you to schedule one day within a week.

Does your house has many openings and requires at least 2 virtual wall to confine the vacuuming area?

You will need to look out for Roomba sales package that comes with at least 2 virtual wall! Its always cheaper to buy them in a package than to purchase them individually.

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