Thursday, November 17, 2016

Product: iRobot Roomba & Braava

Been putting off this purchase, reading reviews, adding the bots into shopping carts, emptying shopping carts, only to find myself doing it again after every few months.
Last faithfull 11.11 made me take the plunge. The discount Lazada.sg had made it hard to resist any further.
The bots arrived just a few days after the online purchase and we charged it up immediately after unboxing them.

Package received

The eager one helped to unbox

///
More of a nuisance rather than help. More amused by the  sticky tapes than the contents of the package
Terrorising the charging base

The roomba and braava both took about 2 hrs to fully charge. Didn't perform the initial charge as with my other Lithium battles (the roomba 860 comes with lithium batteries). And I put the bot to use immediately after it's done charging its battery.

It took the Roomba 860 about 55mins to complete the vacuuming of the entire floor - minus the balcony, where the cats are, and the kitchen. It did a very good job with multiple passes over the same areas. 

Dust & Fur collected in the bin from the initial use.


I was skeptical at first but the Roomba 860 did its job very well as advertised and I'm pleasantly surprised. No Manual intervention required and it returned back to the dock (home charging base) after it computed that it has completed the job.

The Braava 380t on the other hand, managed to get stuck 3 times. Under the curtain, in between a cabinet and a wall, and lastly, wedged inbetween the gap of the rear bumper of Eli's car and the floor.
Its not as intelligent as the Roomba, and it does not return back to its base after its done. Its cleaning capability though is pretty good.

Taken without flash

Taken with flash

As you can see, it still manages to pick up dirt where the roomba could not. These two bots work very well together - one after another.

I have 2 cats and they roam the house from 9pm - 7am. Daily cleaning with Magiclean dry mop and Magiclean wet wipe mopping on alternate days were a necessity. I can confidently say that these two bots will be able to take over this routine from now on.

I would recommend this to anyone who:
1) Have pets
2) Have kids
3) Doesn't have a helper around the house

A little addendum for those who are considering purchasing a vacuum bot and is confused especially by iRobot, like I was.
There are a few series of vacuum bots that iRobot has. They call it the Roomba and it comes in a few models. The 600, 700, 800 and 900 series.
And in each series, they have the 600, 650, 700, 770..etc.. the differences are the accessories that come with the bots. 880 will come with more accessories than the 860. and the 990 will come with more accessories than the 980. Its as simple as that.