twodoebs

It started with the Litermaid 2000 (many thanks to T-Diggity on THAT one!), a liter box that automatically removes the cat waste 10 minutes after Belle finishes going to the bathroom. NOW, we've got Casper (the vacuum ghost!) to come and clean up the little itsy-bitsy pieces of litter that Belle scatters all around the box when she's takin' care of business. Casper is a Roomba Discovery Vacuuming Robot manufactured by a Massachusetts company called iRobot and our initial impressions of this thing are great!

T-Diggity might have done right by us on the Litermaid 2000, but the reports on the Roomba she passed along from her friends had us spooked (ha!--get it? . . . his name is CASPER and we were spooked) at first. And not just her . . . EVERYONE was skeptical. But this thing does EXACTLY what it claims to do--as everyone's favorite Sewickley electronics salesman would say, "Bob, thith thing ith really a PERFORMER!"

Prior to Casper's first run, we hadn't really vacuumed in a while, so there was quite a bit of dust all over the place, not to mention both Belle and Kati hair pretty much everywhere. And since we've only been in our apartment for just under six months, we had never had a spring cleaning, where we moved furniture and cleaned under beds and behind dressers and whatnot (psh . . . I make it sound as IF we WOULD clean under beds and behind dressers if we HAD been in the apartment for over a year!).

None of this fazed Casper AT all. He tore that apartment apart! He goes THIS way, he goes THAT way, he gets all the cat hair off the rug, he cleans up around the litterbox . . . and when he's all finished, he finds his way straight back to his charger, plugs HIMSELF in, and gets all juiced up so he's ready to roll the next time we call him to action. He's INCREDIBLE! He even found his way under the beds and took care of all the nasties that have started festering under there where we couldn't possible reach with our upright vacuum (even if we TRIED). Wood floors, carpets . . . he does a great job on both. PLUS, he's really great fun to watch--seeing how he meticulously cleans around corners and furniture is surprisingly entertaining!

I do have two problems. First, for as intelligent as he is, he gets caught up on the fringes of throw rugs. And that's a tough one 'cause part of what we WANT him to clean are the throw rugs. So we gotta sort out a work-around for that. And second, he DOES require a pretty significant amount of maintenance to keep him working at his optimal level. Because he's so small, he doesn't really have a very large dust receptacle, which basically needs to be emptied every time he runs. And all the hair gets wound around his agitator brush pretty easily, which SIGNIFICANTLY lowers his performance. But iRobot did include a pretty great tool that makes untangling the hair very easy and the hope is that as running him becomes a more regular activity, there'll be less hair on the floor on a daily basis, so he won't have as much work to do every time he runs.

By and large, though, I'm VERY pleased. I look forward to significantly less time dusting and vacuuming thanks to Casper.

And what's next in the super-automated world that is our apartment? That would be SCOOMBA--the Floor WASHING Robot! That's right, Sweet Kati (and Belle!)--iRobot now ALSO makes a companion to the Roomba that claims to "make mopping a distant memory!" I like the sound of THAT!