Every Woman's Fantasy...

Quick! What’s every woman’s fantasy?

No, that’s not it. It’s a Roomba! A robotic vacuum cleaner.

Guess what?

I got one. Which means, technically, all my dreams have come true. This is pretty much accurate.

Shout out to my FIL and my little brother who pitched in Amazon loot for my birthday which enabled me to bring Ed home finally.

Here’s Ed.

How do I know his name is Ed?

When I told Nick his name was Ed, he asked how I knew that. I said, “It says it there, right on his top.” He said, “You mean P3?” 

(Men, they can ruin everything.)

I chose Ed after carefully considering the options within my budget and reading some of the 400 reviews on Amazon. (Seriously, there are more than 400 reviews of robotic vacuum cleaners on Amazon. Who are these people?) The part that really sold me was that when reviewers were talking about Ed, they always referred to the vacuum as “he”. As in, “He does really well on hardwood floors, but doesn’t like carpet quite as much.” And “My only complaint about him is that he can get stuck moving from hardwood to carpet and he only holds a charge about 35 minutes.” I wanted this vacuum who had so clearly carved a place in the hearts of these reviewers.

Ed was super easy to assemble, just needing me to attach his happy little brush that sweeps objects out of edges and into his path and also the dust cloth. Then the hard part came…I had to wait 16 hours for him to charge up his rechargeable batteries! (It only took that long the first time, subsequently, he was much quicker to get back in the game.)

When he was all charged up, I prepped the kitchen. I removed the mats near the door and picked up larger items like shoes, baseball hats, dogs, and dice (I have a kid with a serious D&D habit, so there are dice in every nook and cranny of my house). Then I put the chairs up on the table and counter. 

(My children did such a great job removing all their crap from the table, just like I asked. Ahem.)

I left a few things like a lego piece, a raisin, and a stray ear bud pad on the floor just to see what would happen.

Then I turned Ed loose. I made a cup of tea and I watched. Yes, I know letting Ed do the vacuuming should free me up to do other things, but for this inaugural run, I had to watch.

Ed was amazing. When he bumped into anything, he simply backed up a tad and turned slightly right and then continued. This helped him either zigzag around or bump along a wall until he came to a corner at which point, he spun around in a uturn and set off on a new trajectory. A few times I redirected him to a spot he missed, but he probably didn’t need me doing that, as he seemed to have his own plan. I’m sure he was grumbling, “Stupid human, let me do my job!” (Actually, I’m certain he speaks much nicer than that. He probably sighed and said, “Trust me, please. I got this.”)

Despite the fact that all the reviews said he would only run 35 minutes on a charge, Ed worked my large kitchen/dining floor for just over an hour! And he did a great job. He sucked up the lego piece and the raisin, but spit back out the ear bud pad. His only fault is that he can’t get all the way into corners. So I took out my trusty little hand vac and quickly went over the corners. The floor even looked kind of shiny because there is a duster pad on the bottom of Ed that kind of polishes. A few reviewers said you can spray murphy soap on the pad and let Ed go over the floor to clean even better. I’m planning on giving that a go next time.

Here’s before/after photos:

When Ed was finished, he emitted a small noise and simply shut off. I emptied the dirt collector. (I emptied it once midway in the process also. Our floor is VERY dirty and the collector isn’t huge.) This was super easy to do. Then I brushed off the filter and plugged Ed back in to recharge for later.

The next day he vacuumed my bedroom floor, front hall, and screened in porch. If only I could find children who were as compliant.

Ed may not be perfect. He sometimes covers the same area repeatedly and admittedly takes much longer to vacuum a room than it would take me. But then again, if Ed’s doing the vacuuming it takes none of my time to vacuum.

There are probably better robot vacuums out there, but he makes me very happy and more importantly, he makes me feel like I am not alone in my battle with the filth of this house. Now I have an ally.

Here’s a link to Ed’s Amazon page, just in case you need your own Ed.