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Letters From Little Rock |
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a semi-regular column
Letters From Little Rock is my column on whatever topic strikes my fancy at the time. Check in as often as you like, but I make no promise as to when new columns will appear. I hope to add a column on a weekly basis, but honesty compels me to admit that I might not even maintain a monthly schedule. November 6, 2004 I've just purchased a robotic vacuum cleaner. It was kind of an impulse purchase, but it really has proven to be one of the best buys I've ever made. I bought a Roomba Discovery. This version available on Amazon.com is not exactly like the model I bought but it looks pretty close and from the description I really can't see any difference in functionality. What I've found so far is that it isn't quite as powerful as most upright vacuums I've used in the past, but I use it a hell of a lot more often. The way I see it is that it will add up to a much cleaner carpet in a very few weeks. I guess it has a kind of new toy fascination for me right now, but its convenience and ease of use leads me to believe it will get used a lot even after the new wears off. My only other concern about it is whether or not it will hold up to so much use. I'm a notoriously bad housekeeper, routinely going a couple of weeks (or months) without vacuuming. I've already vacuumed more in the four days since I bought this thing than I had in the last two months. I have no big problems to report with the vacuum, but one minor issue has crept up. I'm not sure if this is an example of my vacuum not working exactly right or if it's a case of me having really dirty carpets, but the machine is claimed to run until it finishes cleaning or runs out of juice at which time it will return to its home base and recharge itself. So far I've never seen it return to its home base on its own. It may be that my carpet is so dirty that it never thinks it's done cleaning, but you would think that it would return when its charge gets low. It's very lightweight and picking it up and putting on its home base to recharge is simple enough, but I think there may be a programming flaw at work here. I think it begins to go back to its home base but becomes sidetracked by the dirt it finds before it gets there. I've run it repeatedly in one room and each time its trash bin has less in it, but I'm not sure how much dirt it considers too much dirt. It may be that its programming is more complex than it has to be. It seems to follow a chaos driven pattern when it cleans. It will circle outward in a spiral and then zigzag back and forth around the room. But if you try to discern a hard fast pattern you will most likely be baffled. It seems to concentrate its efforts in certain areas for no reason whatsoever and occasionally it reverses course for no apparent reason. Whatever the method of determining its path is, it definitely covers the room more thoroughly than I do myself. The unit comes with two electronic walls to keep it from wandering out of the room you want to clean. They seem to work fine. They require two "d" batteries apiece and I'm curious to see just how long they last. If like me you live in a relatively small house you may find you don't need them at all. Besides, a cardboard box makes a pretty good substitute anyway. All in all my complaints are trivial and I find the Roomba Discovery to be an excellent value. I only paid $250 for mine in a retail store.
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