Quote:
Originally Posted by Evans, Marv
For those who have them, I'd like to ask how you think one would do for our place. We have wood flooring with area rugs up to maybe 3/4 in. thick and some tile in the kitchen & baths. How do they do with area rugs? I imagine it would be OK if they just went around them & we vacuumed the rugs on a regular basis. The thing is our floors are easy to keep clean & I've never been sure it would be worth getting one. Thoughts?
|
If the area rug is so thick (tall) that the Rhoomba considers it an obstacle, it will simply work its way around the perimeter of the rug, vacuuming away. Otherwise it will climb up onto it and vacuum. Our rugs are probably around 3/4" thick including the foam pad, and the Rhoomba climbs onto them fine. OTOH the transition from our dining room hardwood to the kitchen slate is about 1" and very abrupt (45 degree, almost a tripping hazard), and the Rhoomba won't go over it, so I might install a more ramped transition. It handles tile like any other surface.
The earliest Rhoombas had various problems, I'm told. They've gotten a lot better. Our house really has to be a terrible place for a Rhoomba - dining table has 10 legs, chairs and sideboard have 46 legs, living room is crammed with couch, chairs, game table, more chairs, piano, stacked books, junk, and so on. Yet it seems to cope.
The only thing it has so far really been troubled by is the dining room register that has long slats. Like a bicycle crossing a storm drain grate the wrong way, the Rhoomba gets stuck there about every fourth time. I may set one of the infrared "fences" to keep it away from that place.
I heard that the Rhoomba may have trouble with cliffs (stairs, etc), as in it won't fall off, but may stop at the precipice and not resume vacuuming. I haven't tested this. You could set up another infrared fence at the stairs. The model 550 comes with two infrared fences.