56 ms·

I have a cheap (well, also old, there wasn’t too much else back then, it’s 10 years old) iRobot Roomba 620 and am very happy with it. Extremely repairable, whic

• blagie 3y ago
  I have a successor, almost identical, but perhaps two generations newer. Upgrades: - Bigger, better dust bin - Slightly less dust makes it into the HEPA filter - Slightly better / cheaper roller design ... and similar details. A friend gave me their smarter vacuum (which they didn't use), and I hated it: 1) It tried to overthink things and was pretty demanding. 2) It didn't clean as well. My Roomba has a pretty anaemic vacuum, but cleans very well by virtue of going over every place many times in random directions as it bumps along for 30+ minutes. The smart vacuum plotted a course which covered everything once, finished up in record time, and nothing was actually clean. What's odd is that even now, 2+ decades after launch, so little has improved. What I really want is "cyclone operation," as in any modern dumb vacuum, so most of the dust doesn't make it to the HEPA filter. The design is stupid simple: - Air comes into a circular container from a hole in the side, so the air spins. - Suction comes out a hole in the top at a half-way point in the radius of the dust container, while most of the dust wants to stay at the inside or outside - If you're even more clever, you put the suction at half height, because dust naturally goes to the bottom. The annoying thing is cleaning or replacing filters.