iRobot: Roomba Red Review

Since I was out of the country for Christmas this year I decided to get my family a Roomba Red from the iRobot online store. The Roomba Red is the entry level robotic vacuum meant for cleaning both hardwood and carpeted floors. Other Roomba models are available for more specific tasks such as cleaning up pet hair, garages, or tile floors. The Roomba Red [Video] is available for $149.99 USD + shipping. With shipping to Canada my total came to around $190 USD. I had looked at comparable South Korean robotic cleaners but currently the Roomba’s appear to be the best model available, both in price and technology.
So far I have been very impressed with the Roomba. I was worried that it would not clean as well as an ordinary vacuum but so far it has cleaned above and beyond my expectations. We have several pets in our house and it has no difficulty picking up all the hair they leave behind. After you unplug the Roomba all you need to do is turn its power on and specify whether you want it to clean a small spot, or the entire room. From there our Roomba rolls room to room [Video] simultaneously cleaning and terrifying our cats.
The only problem I have encountered with the Roomba is that it sometimes becomes stuck under a few couches we own. Most of our couches are either too low to the ground for the Roomba or high enough that it cleans underneath them. However, we have two that are just big enough for the Roomba to get stuck underneath. After it realizes it is stuck the Roomba will try to struggle free for several minutes before shutting itself down.
Besides generosity I had an alternative motive for buying my family a Roomba. There is a large community full of hackers and other Roomba enthusiasts that have created some great hacks enabling the Roomba to be controlled using a Bluetooth interface, making your cell phone into a Roomba remote, or even turning your Roomba into a personal wine waiter.
Around Christmas time iRobot announced they had sold over two million Roombas, it is only a matter of time before robotic vacuum cleaners break loose from their niche market into the mainstream. In the future I will make sure that all my couches are Roomba compatible, cause I never plan on vacuuming again.