Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Curiously Overstock.com has been stocking refurbished Kirby vacuums for a while, and they have added Rainbow SE vacuums (along with Panasonic, Royal, Dyson, and Oreck offerings).  The Rainbow SE is "factory refurbished" (not sure which factory) and is offered with a brand new Wesselwerks 11" power nozzle and a 5 year warranty. 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Rainbow-SE-Bagless-Water-Vacuum-Cleaner-Refurbished/3402181/product.html

Venson wrote:

I certainly wouldn't class IRobot's Roomba as lessening the effort of floor cleaning. They need quite a lot of hands-on maintenance to keep the brushes free from hairs which can cause the bearings and gear boxes to knacker up. The cheap plastic that makes up the Roomba seems to attract the dust excessively. Carpet fluff gets into inaccessible areas; you have to hoover it out. Complete waste of time. It is basically a motorised carpet sweeper, with a separate suction intake.

No, if you want a decent robot cleaner, the Electrolux Trilobite is a much cleaner machine. All the fluff released by the agitator goes up the suction tube, because the suction port is within the agitator cavity. The Trilobite's plastic seems to be far more anti-static than the Roomba's. The Trilobite has a far better filter system too.

Trilobite wrote:

Hi Trilobite,

It was not my intention praise one one brand above another nor do I know all the particulars between brands.  I also have to admit bias regarding either as neither is a match for a full-sized vacuum.  However, they are a beginning and who knows where they'll be in five to ten years.  As for maintenance, there's many a full-size vacuum that presents the same problems.  The issue is that robotic vacuums -- regardless of brand -- to some degree do make floor cleaning less labor intensive as regards the person keeping house.

They do not "deep clean" but can help a household look presentable with less effort.

FWIW, Consumer Reports gives the nod to iRobot Roomba over Trilobite and others on the market today.  Probably due in part to its price and affordability [$330 for the iRobot Scheduler vice $1800 for the Trilobite].   While comparable on most features, iRobot beats Trilo on weight [6 vice 12 pounds] ;  Noise [Excellent vice Very Good] ;  Run time [70 minutes vice 50] ;  and obviously a biggie:  Edge Cleaning [Excellent for iRobot vice Poor for Trilo].  So do the big box USA retailers give iRobot the nod.  Ironically, one of the ONLY bright spots today for big box retail stores and new vacuum sales is the iRobot.  Despite the complete collapse of consumer buying and confidence. 

And apparently investors like the stock too:

iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ)
13.11 +0.66 (5.30%)  Oct 17 4:00pm ET
Open:  12.02 High:  14.11 Low:  12.02		Volume:  0 Avg Vol:  181,000 Mkt Cap:  323.68M
Disclaimer

After Hours: 13.11 +0.00 (0.00%)  Oct 17 4:15pm ET

Main Street and Wall Street in agreement.  That's highly unusual in the present financial environment. In the spring of 2005 when iRobot went public it sold for $12.50 a share.  Albeit 3 plus years later and a precipitous drop in market value of over 30 percent, iRobot has maintained its high/low range well.

Intro'ed in the fall of 2002, the iRobot robotic sweeper has sweeped USA households IMHO.  Roomba made the sweeper, as well as its sister the scooba [for washing floors], affordable to the masses from the start.  To its credit, while iRobot's follow the leader competitors priced their products high to recoup R&D quickly, iRobot priced theirs low to recoup R&D slowly.  Long term view rather than short.  iRobot had the background for making robots but lacked the vacuum cleaner expertise.  Electrolux had the vacuum expertise but lacked the robotic expertise.  Obvioulsy the latter is more pricey and untested from an R&D perspective than the former.  I'll vote for the robotic experience first then the vacuum cleaning experience second.  And I'm an old school vacuum man through and through.

I suspect 5 to 10 years down the road, the iRobot will improve.  Its quality and performance has gotten better with each successive generation: Now in the 5 th generation models.  Not worst like some.

Robots are the latest and greatest vacuum product/technology in the industry in over 100 years.  One of the few/only niche vacuum products doing well in the big box store venues.  While some here post all interesting vacuum news for a certain brand, here's one that's been conspicuously overlooked:

http://robotstocknews.blogspot.com/

BTW, I'm guessing that Consumer Reports will do a more thorough review of the robotic vacuums soon since the October 2008 CR did not.

Carmine D.

Can anyone tell me what happened to Friendly Robotics' robot cleaner, the RV400? Is it still on sale;? Has anybody seen it in operation, close at hand?

It apparently had the vacuum cleaner parts designed by Hoover USA.

Hi Trilobite,

I checked out the company website.  It seems they have abandoned their robotic vacuum for robotic lawn mowers.  (Poetic justice????)  I placed a call and was advised to ring a man named Ames in sales here in hte States. (800-293-2923, Ext. 107)

The UK website is here -- http://www.friendlyrobotics.co.uk/

I'll reply if I get a callback.

Best,

Venson

Hi Trilobite,

Still haven't heard from the "friendly Robotics" guy but here's a link that might be informative.

http://www.earthority.com/robotics/robomow/rv400.php

Venson