| “ | ... well, I guess that Roomba deal that Schlong made such a big deal over last year was a cropper. Usually he revisits his Stuff That Work items, but nothing for a year.
| ” |
Wrong broom-breath. Roomba is still humming along, but I do have some additional observations.
- Fringed carpets are a Roomba nemesis, or rather, Roomba is
the fringe nemesis. So much for letting it free range downstairs,
it's just not worth the trouble. In fact, the very first day I
turned it on it got so tangled in the oriental rug fringe that I
couldn't untangle it, so just sort of yanked it out. Unbeknown to
me at the time, I had pulled the side brushes
out. This is a very important part, because these spinning bristles are
what pull dirt out along baseboards. I would have replaced them
right away but -- (whoa! Now I'm really pissed. Back to this later). Roomba was selling this chintzy piece of plastic, that must cost all of 2¢ to manufacture, for $12.95, plus shipping. Two weeks ago I Googled up GoVacuum. Price -$9.95. Still pretty outrageous, but at least I was beating the man.
Name
Code
Qty Each Options
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Roomba Side Brush w/ 2564181 1 9.99
> Screw item #11239
>
Subtotal 9.99
>
Shipping 3.99
>
Tax 0.00
>
Total 13.98
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Back to why I hollered above. Just then I checked Roomba,
to get the picture, and saw that the brush, which had been $13 + $5.99
shipping, is now going for $5.99! The bastards. At least GoVacuum threw
in a Roomba brush cleaning tool, which iRobot still sells for $5! Like the brush, the thing is so cheap that Cracker Jack
could replace the lousy Tweety Bird sticker prize with either one
without affecting the bottom line. Which brings us to ..
- If you have to replace something, like brushes,
filters, etc., they're expensive. On the plus side, I don't yet
see a need to replace anything, but when I do need a new battery, for
instance, it will (today) cost $70. I'm thinking that the
next time Woot! sells one of
their Roomba refurbs for $89, it's a great way to get all new parts for
just about what one battery will cost, with shipping. That's if I
decide it's worth it, and I'm not real sure it is right now. We
have a lot of fringe.
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