Rhonda the Robot

How could I fall in love with a robot?

One problem in buying this RV is that it came with miles of white plush carpet. At first I threw down a bed sheet on the main area so it wouldn't get tracked up while moving in. But the bed sheet was a pain to deal with and what's the use of having carpet if you don't use it.

So the bedsheet came off and into the washer.

The rig came with a heavy duty vacuum cleaner. So heavy I couldn't carry it from level to level to clean with it. Six weeks went by of nobody vacuuming. I sold the vacuum cleaner. The buyer had to come carry it off, I couldn't lift it.

This is the first time I have owned a place with wall to wall carpet.

I had heard they make robots to vacuum without human intervention. I did a ton of research then used my Christmas gift money (THANK YOU!) to buy the simplest robot vac available. No wifi, no schedule, just turn it on and let her work!

Now Rhonda vacuums EVERY day. Well I admit once in a while I goof up and give her the day off. But mostly I use her every single day. Leash up the dog for a walk, turn on Rhonda then lock the door. I come home to clean carpet.

I have to move her to all 3 levels and she does an outstanding job. At first her cup over-floweth as apparently I had a lot of dirt inside. Even now on a daily basis she finds an amazing amount of debris to pick up.

After tons of research I bought the original innovator, the Roomba which is now called iRobot. Their super simple model 614 suits me perfectly.

Roomba carried replacement parts. I have learned one has to do a bit of maintenance on the bot every month. Plus it's important to empty it after every use.

She seems powerful enough and has a sense of humor.

When Rhonda backs up she puts out her warning backup beeps. When she is done with an area she plays a TA DA! beep that is kind of cute.

If she tangles up with something like one day she tried to swallow an empty errant dog poop bag and it got stuck so she shut down with an UT OH beep.

She gently bumps into walls and furniture as she learns her way around. She does a superb job. I am mightily impressed. In my book she is an "adaptive aid". If you know of anyone struggling to maintain their independence, then get them a Roomba.

I get a kick out of walking my dog or riding my bicycle knowing that I am multi-tasking what with Rhonda at home zipping around collecting dirt.

For some fool reason I thought if I vacuumed every day Rhonda would run out of dirt to pick up. I try my best to take off my shoes and wipe my feet, but still Rhonda finds dirt every where.

Typically I empty her into the outside garbage can and clean her filter. Ever few weeks I have to give her a hair cut. Even though I mostly brush my long hair outdoors, it rolls around her roller brushes and clogs them up. She came with an included hair cutting tool that makes it easy and fast to clean her brushes.

I am super impressed with Rhonda and she has quickly become my new best friend. Oh just kidding, I love my little crazy doggy.

Which Harley dog had some issues with Rhonda. She eats any snacks left on the  floor! So now Harley is quick to be the hoover hound checking the kitchen often for tidbits because he is jealous of Rhonda. It appears that when he is in same room as Rhonda she chases him around. He doesn't like this either.

If I need him to go outside, I just turn on Rhonda and he races for the door!

Rhonda is able to reach every square inch it seems except for the step to the bath level and the next step to the bedroom. I just place her up there and she runs wild until it's clean then beeps me to move her to the next level.

I still have my little HEPA Shark hand vac, so I can do those two steps. After a few weeks, it seems my carpet has this new springy feel to it now.

Amazon has many different iRobot models (and other brands)  to choose from. I liked and bought the super simple model 614.
https://www.amazon.com/iRobot-Roomba-614-Robot-Vacuum/dp/B00IPEZKBW

Now that I have her, I can't imagine life without Rhonda.  8)

Does anyone else here admit to using a robot to vacuum their RV?

Glad you've found a friend. 

Ours was scratching up our furniture and got sent back to the adoption center (Costco).  Having two golden retrievers who shed a puppies worth of long hair every few days didn't help either.  I had to disassemble and clean the brushroller every day.  We go through vacuums like crazy.

Interesting and well written, wonder what our cat would do with the robot

My dog and cat would be looking for higher ground.

There's not much carpet in our RV, but we've had a Roomba in our S&B for years. It's not in use at the moment because the battery is weak, so it shuts off long before it gets halfway done -- we'll use it again once we have a new battery. Other than that, it always seems to take the same path around the walls, thus over time you can see wheel tracks where it tracks against (and nudges) the walls. Since there are a couple of doorways (one very large), we also got a couple of the "invisible walls" (infrared beams that make Roomba think they are walls). It definitely stops at a stairway (down) edge to keep from falling off, though, so we don't need the "wall" there. It does occasionally get stuck under a couch (low clearance), we have to move throw rugs, and I had to clean up some loose audio cables behind our TV stand (they hung to the floor) to keep it from getting entangled.

We don't have pets in the house, so don't have as much brush clog as you do, but there is still some. But it's been nice to have, and saves some work. It's much quieter than a regular vacuum, too, though far from silent. And when done with the room, it homes on its charger and parks itself for recharging (the charger is on the floor, but out of the way). Do note, though, that once in a while (perhaps every month or two) we'll run a regular vac over the same area, and it gets stuff that Roomba leaves behind, but it takes a while for much to accumulate.

Cats love to ride the robot vacs like they are king.

Dogs not so much. My dog doesn't like Rhonda because she eats any snacks left on the floor. Not that we leave snacks there, but I drop things while cooking and don't want to contaminate my hand picking it up and usually hoover hound races over to do the clean up.

If you need some serious giggles, watch these cats that have mastered their rombas:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=romba+cat

My favorite is this hilarious cat that rides in his padded bed with his feet propped up while he vacs! When he lets out this killer yawn at minute 1:99 I about split my sides! Even funnier is his serious attention in checking that the floor is clean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGI8Od22WM4

Larry N. said:

There's not much carpet in our RV, but we've had a Roomba in our S&B for years. It's not in use at the moment because the battery is weak, so it shuts off long before it gets halfway done -- we'll use it again once we have a new battery. Other than that, it always seems to take the same path around the walls, thus over time you can see wheel tracks where it tracks against (and nudges) the walls. Since there are a couple of doorways (one very large), we also got a couple of the "invisible walls" (infrared beams that make Roomba think they are walls). It definitely stops at a stairway (down) edge to keep from falling off, though, so we don't need the "wall" there. It does occasionally get stuck under a couch (low clearance), we have to move throw rugs, and I had to clean up some loose audio cables behind our TV stand (they hung to the floor) to keep it from getting entangled.

We don't have pets in the house, so don't have as much brush clog as you do, but there is still some. But it's been nice to have, and saves some work. It's much quieter than a regular vacuum, too, though far from silent. And when done with the room, it homes on its charger and parks itself for recharging (the charger is on the floor, but out of the way). Do note, though, that once in a while (perhaps every month or two) we'll run a regular vac over the same area, and it gets stuff that Roomba leaves behind, but it takes a while for much to accumulate.

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Mine doesn't take the same path. It has an erratic method. It's true that once you get the clutter out of the floor, the place already looks better and then Rhonda can seriously vac.

I used to hate my white carpet, now I love it. It's so soft since Rhonda took over the care of it.

DearMissMermaid said:

Mine doesn't take the same path. It has an erratic method. It's true that once you get the clutter out of the floor, the place already looks better and then Rhonda can seriously vac.
...

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Away from the walls, ours does exactly that. It's just that when it hits a wall it sort of nudges its way along the wall (trying to turn into the wall, but being rebuffed) until it comes to another object that forces it to turn (sometimes a 270? turn, a piece at a time), so it then will take off at some unpredictable angle. But the result, over time, is a little bit of wheel track (one wheel) visible next to the wall. It does the same when hitting a piece of furniture such as our coffee table (eight feet long), until it gets to the end of the table.

I wanted an iRoomba so it could vacuum under the beds which are very heavy and difficult to move for a good vacuuming.  It does an amazing job!  You do have to move electric cords and such so I usually have it vacuum under the beds just before putting the electric blanket on and when taking it off with an occasional time in between when I can pay attention to those electric wires.  I haven't used it in the motorhome but Russ Mahoney did.  He's the one who extolled its virtues and made me decide to get one.  I have eight "lighthouses" because we have an open floor plan with fairly large rooms and need the virtual walls to keep Jack under control.  For a while I had a second one, Jill.  When we first got Jack I couldn't believe how fascinated two adults could be watching the stupid thing!  Mine doesn't follow any pattern so it pretty well covers the cleaning.

I definitely empty the bin every time it's used and probably clean it every other time because my long hair tends to get into the brushes even though I try to be careful.  No pets here but I've seen videos of dogs barking at iRoomba and maybe feeling a little threatened by them.

By the way, MissMermaid, that was a cute description.  Well written.

ArdraF

My son is a gadget junkie. He gave me a roomba for christmas when they first came out. I think it was even more simple than yours. This one made no cute beeps or anything. It just went back and forth in a way that reminded me of a ball rolling around a pool table. It worked good but it kept getting stuck under some of our furniture.  I put it out in the garage to give to my son when he came back from the army, but it fell of the shelf and got run over by our truck. 

Sounds like the truck was jealous. 

I bought a cheap robot vacuum a few years ago and I ended up throwing it away it was so worthless. So when DMM posted this it got my attention. I went to Amazon and searched for vacuum robot and found the ILIfe A4s robot vacuum cleaner. As per my usual I went straight for the questions and reviews. I almost died laughing at the answers to some of the questions. Some one asked 'What do you do when you can't find it? Is there an alarm you can sound to make it beep? It isn't under any surface that I can see. :/'

The answers are hysterical. Here are a few samples:

It probably escaped outside. I would start calling for it. If it doesn't reappear at your door then ask your neighbors if they have seen it and put up some flyers.

This was posted in July. How far did you have to travel and did you find it? I found mine in Mexico after looking for 6 months. He had developed a drug habit and had joined the Mexican mafia. :/

Mine went out for cigarettes...it's been ten years now. When friends ask, I just say it's on a business trip.

Internet humor at it's finest. ;D

https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/Tx1JRXTPGAYGXX6/ref=ask_dp_dpmw_al_hza

The answers are hysterical. Here are a few samples:

It probably escaped outside. I would start calling for it. If it doesn't reappear at your door then ask your neighbors if they have seen it and put up some flyers.

This was posted in July. How far did you have to travel and did you find it? I found mine in Mexico after looking for 6 months. He had developed a drug habit and had joined the Mexican mafia. :/

Mine went out for cigarettes...it's been ten years now. When friends ask, I just say it's on a business trip.

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Hahahaha ;D ;D ;D ;D

Rhonda seems so happy, she hasn't seen the need to run away or hide.  ;D

I keep her clean and do her maintenance so she is well cared for.  8)

She is by far my favorite toy. If anything happens to her... there will be tears. 

Your washer may be crying already ;D

Ernie

Ernie n Tara said:

Your washer may be crying already ;D

Ernie

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So true, for 8 years I had a compact washing machine in my Class C (no slides) and it was a true love affair. I used to say if the rig is on fire, I will grab one important thing... the washing machine! Then run out the door.

I had to sell my nifty compact washer with the C because the 5th wheel came with a stacking washer/dryer by Kenmore. I don't like the agitator as my old one was a pulsator, but it's over $1,000 to upgrade to a newer stackable so I am learning to like the agitator.

Since the old washer fit so neatly in the bedroom, the new owner was thrilled to have it with the C.

The 5th wheel came with a dishwasher and a fireplace. I was smitten with the fireplace until Rhonda came along. I am in love with Rhonda. She is a hard worker.

I still like my fireplace though, matter of fact it's so cold in Florida today, I am using it in April! I never thought I would enjoy a dishwasher, but it is fun fun fun. It's the 18 inch size, so I don't need to wait to run it. It's fun to entertain knowing the dishes are done.