Re: Roomba DirtDog

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"E. Lee Dickinson" <lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f3kmso$hg6$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> We've got a Roomba Discovery, and love it. Have been considering a dirt
dog
> for the shop space, maybe one for my small warehouse at work.
>
> How do you think it'll do with screws and workshop detritus?

Some follow-up.

I've ordered two more units so I can have one on each floor and some
cannibalization potential as they age.  (-:

I became sold on them when I tipped over my Xerox shredder onto the carpeted
floor.  The DirtDevil Broomvac choked almost immediately on the pile of
spilled paper strips 1/4" wide by 4" long (it's a crosscut shredder).  The
vacuum inlet could be cleared by jamming a clotheshanger into the inlet and
wiggling it, but that turned into a very bizarre looking imitation precision
drill team with me flipping the Broomvac every 30 secs or so.  Then I tried
a slightly larger Hoover hand vac, but the result was the same.  There's
very little room between the inlet and the capture tank wall, and the paper
knits up a nice bird's nest very quickly.

I put the Roomba DirtDog down and confined it to the area with two kitchen
chairs and by the time it took to get my camera and get back, it had sucked
in nearly every shred!!!  A few minutes later and it was completely done.

I have found one place where the bot gets hung up routinely.  It's an Ikea
floor lamp with a large metal base that has a very gradual incline.  The
Roomba slides up on one wheel and then tries to "hump" the lamp like a randy
dog.  I'm serious.  We call it the "Dirt Dog Conga." (-:  It starts banging
against the base of the lamp while it tries to free itself and the whole
lamp starts shaking, the motors start groaning and it rocks itself back and
forth until it either frees itself or plays the "I've fallen and I can't get
up" song.

I put some bright fluorescent duct tape on the edge where I've *repeatedly*
tried to lift it by the trash bin door (oops!) and written: "DO NOT LIFT" on
it.  But it hasn't helped much.  I once again picked it up by the trash
compartment and it fell about four feet and broke the right "bump" sensor.
Locating the dirt cup release right where most people tend to lift the unit
is the culprit. It behaves quite differently without the bump sensor.

I found (eventually) in trying to repair it that you can modify the robot's
program and instruct to spend more time in the corners.  Had the sensor on
the brush side failed, it would spend a lot more time brushing corners,
bumping forward until some internal watchdog timer says enough is enough and
the DirtDog moves on.  If I do decide to reprogram it, I will make sure that
it spends at least twice as much time working that rotating corner brush.
So maybe the bad release design had a serendipitous component to it.   I've
found that two pieces of black electrical tape on the top right where the
dirt cup seam is located hold tightly enough to keep the unit from coming
apart when lifted by the disk, and not the handle.  A bother, but a quick
and dirty fix seems to have solved it.

This week, I found that the cord had come loose from the charger and the
blinking green LED had flashed all that time and nearly depleted the
battery.  We store it face down to keep the little whip brush from deforming
and so did not see that the light was on.  Minor nit and might become
pointless if I go with the homing charging station.

If you forget to empty the bin, it starts to back up into the machine's
innards.  To avoid nasty overload cleanup , you've got to check the roller
brushes and the dirt cup each time although the manual says every three.
It's important to do, because when the cup is full, the unit begins to
really ram dirt and hair into all sorts of openings and seams.  No matter
what they say, it needs cleaning after every run, at least if you've got
pets.  Even short-haired dog hair gets matted up pretty quickly.  Since JRT
hair is extremely oily, it cakes up everywhere, even worse than in a regular
vacuum because of the beating action of the brushes combining the oily hair
and the dust.

It works best if I work with it, though, removing obstacles, moving
wastebaskets, pickup up tissues, stray dog rope toys, etc.  Even the dogs
are in on the act.  I give them treats for each lost nylabone or tennis ball
they retrieve before the DirtDog stumbles on them.  If I don't keep an eye
on it, I often have to chase it down to see what bed or bureau or shoe it
got hung up on or under.

All things considered, I'm still a happy owner because people keep asking
"did you just vacuum?"

One other nit is those damn end bearing for the roller brushes.  They have a
very loose bayonet lock and one's already gone permanently missing.  They
invariably fall off the end of the roller brushes and into the twilight zone
when they're being cleaned.  Oh well.  I'll have to contact Roomba to buy a
bag of replacements because it's clear that they will come free again in the
future and end up in the trash (at least I think that's where it went!).
We'll see how understanding they are about repairing the bump sensor or
whether *they* agree that the dirt bin release is in the wrong place!

--
Bobby G.