Roomba Discovery 4210 by iRobot
SUMMARY: Very cool! Does a great job on wood floors. Doesn’t clean carpet as good as vacuum, but more like a sweeper. Still does a good job. Can get stuck under some conditions, but this can be worked around.
I bought this as a Christmas present to my wife and I. So where I bought it weeks ago, I had to wait until Christmas morning to open it. It comes witha rapid charger that will charge the battery in 3 hours, but they recommend charging it for 16 hours the first time. So where I plugged it in at 9am Christmas morning, it wasn’t going to be ready to try till 1am. So yesterday (12/26), I kicked it off. The thing worked great on my wood floors (they are not hard wood, but southern long leaf yellow pine which is technically a soft wood). I managed to go under the stairs where it is difficult to vacuum, and under the cabinet edges. It did a fantastic job on the wood floors! The floor now looks great. It wasn’t very loud. I was talking to my wife on the phone with the Roomba running only five feet away. The dust bin on the unit is kind of small so I had to pause it a few times, and empty the dust bin. But once the floor is clean, subsequent runnings shouldn’t fill the bin as much. I had used the ‘max’ option, so when it was done after a couple hours, it docked itself on the charger. I let it charge again, and after about two and a half hours, it was ready to go again. I let it go into the living room which is carpeted, and the dining room with is vinyl floor. It did pretty good on the carpet, but there were still a few little bits of whatever that it didn’t seem to pick up. But then you will get that with a vacuum. Keep in mind when I am comparing it to our vacuum, our vacuum is a high-end model Hoover with lots of power! It had some difficulty going over the edge of the kitchen floor rugs/mats. It would sometimes roll the edge up as it crossed the rug. And I found it didn’t do a great job around where the rugs were. But on the next run, I removed the rugs from the kitchen, and then it cleaned in there very well. I read that wouldn’t go over a ledge or stairs, but I was real nervous the first time it was heading toward the ledge under the stairs for which if it had gone over would have been a eight foot drop. But it sensed the ledge and backed up. I am still nervous every time it heads that way that there might be a hole in the logic that would allow it to bump into something and then it will back over the ledge, but thus far it has been over there a lot, and has gone over. It tends to get stuck under the corner of my rocking recliner chair. The problem is that it will wedge itself under the corner, and chair will rock back a little, but when it comes forward again, there is enough weight laying on the Roomba, that it can’t quite get out. I think if I recline the chair before kicking it off, it might not get stuck there.
I have only been using the unit for a day now, but thus far it works as well as I imagined. It is fun to watch as well. I was concerned that my dog would bark at it, or chase it, but so far she just stays out of it’s way.
They make a Scheduler unit for it, so that you can program the Roomba to turn on and start cleaning at certain times of the day, or even certain days, but I am not thinking I will find it very useful. My wife works different hours every week, and it will not be much effort to set the Roomba in the middle of the room, turn it on, and let go as I am on the way out the door to work.
Roomba comes with virtual walls, which are small electronic boxes that transmit an infrared beam that the Roomba wont cross. I used these and they work well. Another solution is just to place an obstacle that will block the Roomba. I didn’t want the Roomba to go behind my couch (there are suround sound speaker wires on the floor there), so I simply laid a small rock there.
As far as I can tell, Roobma doesn’t seem to map the room out, but just does a series of random patterns which the hope that if it does these enough, it will eventually hit the whole floor.
I will continue using the unit, but so far I am happy with our Roomba!
I have had cold air coming in from where the vent for my Jenn-Air grill goes through the wall. I was planning on ripping it out, and redoing it, but haven’t wanted to do it in the freezing weather. But yesterday the temperture outside was over 40 degrees. Woohoo! A heat wave! Well, at least not freezing. I pulled the vent off, cauked around the trim, and rescrewed it into place. I was looking at how to better seal the part that connects to it, when I decided to go to Home Depot to get some mastic (I read about mastic in a book). At Home Depot I found a brand new vent piece that would replace the one I had. The old vent had gotten stuck open a few times. I also decided to replace the piece that connects to it as well. I asked the guy about sealing and he recommended silicone caulk. I asked about mastic, and he said that silicone caulk would work as well or better than the mastic. And I already had silicone caulk. So I went home, and pulled the old vent off (the caulk hadn’t fully solidified yet), and installed the new one with some fresh caulk. I also used some new screws as the old ones were a little rusty. I used some screws that were meant for exterior use. So now that the vent was in place, I looked at connecting the next piece. There was a space in the drywall around the venting, but I cut a little more out in one spot. I fit the new piece on, and caulked heavily around where they connected together to seal the gaps. I then used some Great Stuff exanding foam (kind for doors and windows) around the vent to fill out the gap between the vent and the drywall. Now I attempted to hook up the remaining parts (a couple 0-90 degree 5 inch swivel type duct pieces). I couldn’t get them to fit right. They wouldn’t swivel easily or at all on some joints. So I headed back to Home Depot, and bought some new ones. With a bit of playing, I got them hooked up. I sealed the remaining seams with duct tape. I will probably still rap the duct with some insulation, but I don’t notice a signifcant draft coming from the cabinet now.
Right now my computer is on the floor next to the desk. I have a big box sitting next to it, and have a printer sitting on top of it. I have an HP Laserjet 4 on the floor next to it, and an HP scanner on the floor in front of it. I have cables and cords everywhere. My router and DSL modem are on the desk taking up space. So I decided to build a computer rack. I went to Home Depot last night, and bought some plywood, and angle brackets and screws and stuff. But now I am reconsidering my design. I found a picture online of something someone else built, and I am thinking of making a modification of that.
I bought a couple Watt Stopper power strips. I am probably going to put one onto my computer and maybe one onto my wife’s computer. Not sure yet. I bought tem off of ebay for $10 each, plus $14 shipping. They are pretty cool. Thay are regular power strip with surge protector built in. But they also have montion detectors, so that after a set time that it doesn’t sense montion, it will shut off power to some of the outlets (ie printer, scanner, monitor). I saw it in my book Insulate and Weatherize : Expert Advice from Start to Finish (Build Like A Pro).
I also ordered couple new books. The first one I saw at Barnes & Noble, but I got it for less on Amazon. The second book was one that I had been looking at on Amazon, but bought it so that I would qualify for the free shipping. So the two books cost less than what I would have paid for just the one at Barnes & Noble.
Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook-12th Edition : The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies & Sustainable Living
Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings: All New Listings of the Most Efficient Products You Can Buy
I made an appointment for next Wednesday to meet with the energy auditor. He wont be doing the audit at that time, but will meet with us to fill out the form to apply for the audit from the New York state Energy Star program. Apparently we can get some rebates, and other money from the state to make energy improvements to our house.