THE GOAL
I hate housework. Who doesn't? Some say they find ironing and washing up therapeutic, but there can't be anyone who seriously looks forward to rolling up their sleeves and actually doing it. And it's disturbing how much dust and detritus can accumulate in a few days, especially under the kitchen table: quite embarrassing if people pop in unexpectedly. So imagine my delight at meeting Roomba, a robot that promises to liberate me from hoovering for ever, by cleaning the floors by itself.
THE METHOD
Roomba is a cute-looking machine, shaped like an ice-hockey puck, which charges up at its minimalist docking station. Introduced more than a decade ago, to lukewarm reviews, the manufacturers claim it has reached the tipping point into the mainstream. You plug it in, set the date and time and programme it to do the housework when it suits you. Driven by an algorithm that sends it trundling across every inch of the floor, it goes from room to room and returns to its docking station when finished. It comes with two slim pillars, which emit an infrared beam that acts like a virtual wall, so you can fence off areas you don't want cleaned or prevent the Roomba from knocking into pet bowls or valued posessions on the floor
It's loud and slow, but who cares? You don't need to be there when it is hoovering and it could free up hours of your time every week.
THE VERDICT
Roomba is simple to programme and pleasingly effective. When it comes up against a bit of dirt, it focuses on it, swivelling around until it digests the problem. A small twirling brush pushes the dirt into two rotors that never seem to clog up with hair and dust. Why? They have no bristles. The robot beeps when it's bin is full and when I went to empty it there was a gratifyingly large clump of cat hair and dust inside. If anything, it is perhaps too powerful. On day two it started emitting the most alarming rattling sound, which turned out to be caused by a magnetic dart from a children's game. The worst drawback is that it can't see what's in its path or assess if hoovering is the best way to clean the mess that confronts it. I left it running in the living room with all the doors closed, not realising that one of the cats was in there. Pussy needed her litter tray but, unable to access it, pooped on the floor. The Roomba trundled on, smearing the poop everywhere, including over its own underbelly. Gross.
Despite this, would I like to own one? Yes, yes, and yes. Roomba doesn't get you out of vacuuming altogether because it can't manage stairs and, being round, finds it hard to get into corners. But it does the hardest bits of the job – and a handheld dustbuster could everything else.
Is it worth the money? At £649 for the basic model, it's expensive. But hoovering the entire house could take up at least three hours of my time every week, maybe more. Over a year, that's 156 hours, or more than six days. Pricing my time at £10 an hour means the Roomba could save me more than £900 a year. What's not to like?
