I got one of those things.. a robot!

So I did it…

I have been checking these out for a couple of years…

A Robotic Vacuum…

and I finally bought one.

My husband wanted to get me one for Christmas, but I said we didn’t need it.  We still don’t need one, but I realized how often we DID NOT vacuum.

My vacuum cleaner always sits out and we vacuum up the spills of Cheerios or cracker crumbs and under the table, but a real deep vacuum of the whole house was rarely happening.  It may happen every couple of weeks, if I was lucky… Our upstairs even less… maybe once a month if that (gross I know… but no shoes allowed up there).

So I realized my floors needed vacuumed more than I wanted to do it myself..  Honestly a couple of reasons prevented me from more time with the vacuum..

1.  The time..  It would take a good 30 minutes to vacuum the upstairs, which is fine, but I always found myself getting distracted by kids or picking something up or starting laundry.

2.  It hurts…. A vacuum may be self-propelled, but my shoulder always seems sore after a long session of vacuum cleaning.

So I asked my group of ladies  and I had one lady who suggested the iRoomba 690.  She has a cat, so if she had a cat and success with a Roomba I was game.  I checked it out.  I found it had a decent review (4/5 on Amazon) and was an Amazon Prime Choice.  It wasn’t on the lower end or the expensive end… In the middle of Auto Vacs at $325…

Now this was more than I had ever spent on a vacuum.. but I knew it would get more use then, my stand up one… so I weighed that in… knowing it would actually run and vacuum  in areas once a week, that never saw a vacuum more then once every couple of months, I took the leap and clicked BUY.

Underside of the Roomba 690

So I waited and the box arrived.

I read the instructions, and it needed to be plugged in for 3 hours before using.

WHAT??

I already waited a couple of days, so 3 hours we waited… actually probably closer to 2.5 hours.

We turned it on and it went.. it moved around chair legs, under small tables, went from carpet to wood floors and wood floors to carpet.  It did great in my dinning room and living room.

I moved it up into the kitchen, hallway, and powder room area..  It did my rugs without grabbing the ends.  It was going great until I heard ERROR (squelch sound) Wheels.. something..  I wish I would have taken a picture of the predicament it got itself into, but I just wanted to fix it to make sure I didn’t break it already.

The predicament it got into was under our bath vanity.  There was a roll of toilet paper under there and it caught it and it kept spinning and spinning until it was clogged.  I unplugged it (5 seconds) and pushed the “clean” button and off it went again.

I have had it for a few days and I have already had it run over all the floors twice.  I should run my regular vacuum over to see if it is missing a substantial amount, but I feel it is doing more than I would be with the vacuum sitting in the living room.

So after a few days, I have learned a few things.

1.  You do have to pick up.. socks…small toys, blakets..ect..  things that it can grab ahold onto and get “tangled” in..

2.  You get “twice as much stuff done”.  While it starts vacuuming, I pick up “stuff” (see #1)  and it is already vacuuming.

3.  It doesn’t fall down stairs!  I was impressed.  It recognizes the cliff. (Roomba 690 anyways)

4. Great for Kid & Adult entertainment!

5. It may get stuck under small tables or buffets.  My buffet is just high enough where it goes under just a little and then gets caught.  So may have to watch for that.

6. I can totally see where dog poop or something like that would ruin your day.  I do not have animals in my house, but it goes every where, so I can see where there would be endless poop.  So do a quick glance and make sure there is no noticeable soft bananas, poop, or slim of any kind for it to drag through the whole house.

7. People name them.  I have yet to say yes to a name the kids have said.  These have been the options;  Strawberry, Strawberry Blueberry, Letter (Let her vacuum), Clean her upper… ! I do like these the last two..  Some one said Daddy… But I don’t want the kids saying.. Go turn Daddy on..  Sounds SO WRONG.  So we will wait a little while until we finalize a name.

8. So far I LOVE IT. Now for them to come out with Robot toilet cleaners!!

Kids Entertained

**Jodi tenBensel is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

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