We've had our robot vacuum cleaner for about a year now and there are some hints and tricks
to make it operate more reliably.
More reliably is key so that it does not get stuck and call you and not finish the room.
We have found it is more of a luxury item.
It does help keep the dust down between normal cleanings.
And we've found some general things like it works better on hard floors like wood, tile,
stone.
It works OK on short carpets and good room preparation is necessary.
I can tell you some of the things that it will snag on.
Let me show you those.
As you can see this window ledge, it's a full length window, call it an inch and a half
high.
It's just a little too short for it to see.
And it catches on it and that's one of those spots were it snags.
So how do you keep your robot from sticking on here?
You can put something like a shoe on there and it will see the shoe and not get stuck.
Furniture with legs like this, with this slope to it, are a good trap for these things.
It gets up on here and gets stuck as you can see.
With these small tables we just pick them up and put them upside down on the couch.
Any kind of ramp, I will show you some more where it likes to get stuck.
Here's another place where it likes to get hung up.
It's the ironing board.
It's the front legs, the back legs for some reason, maybe they're at a slightly different
angle, they won't hang her up.
It drives up here and gets stuck.
Typically we address this problem by putting the ironing board away.
To deal with the ironing board legs I have thought about putting a piece of duct tape
across here.
It would not be beautiful, but then it's just an ironing board, right?
I'm trying to come up with a more glamorous way of doing it.
Maybe just tape a piece of paper or plastic so it can see the leg more easily.
Here's another one of her favorite hangups.
You can't see it but she's got the door stop.
She pulled the door stop out from under the door.
And there it is.
Most of the time she gets hung up on it and we have to come and free her.
Removing the door stop is the right answer.
She also likes to get hung up underneath this clothes rack.
As you can see.
The clothes rack has to be moved.
She's coming after me, she's mad.
To keep her from dragging this rack around I'm thinking about some way to lift it up.
It only needs to go up like millimeters.
And it would pass right underneath.
Trying to think of a way to lengthen the legs.
Got another one of these with adjustable legs that I just put them all the way down and
it will pass right under.
So millimeters, half and inch or so.
That's 1 fix.
Another fix is to move it out of the way.
Another way to keep the robot from hanging up on it is to provide a visual barrier.
Simply take a piece of duct tape and put it across here.
Hang a piece here and it would stop.
Or you could do something more beautiful like put a fabric piece and sew it over this bar.
The robot would see it and stop and not get stuck.
Those are other options.
So you can lift it up or create a visual barrier.
Here's another place where it sometimes hangs.
On the leg of the electronic piano.
This time it cleared it but most of the time it gets stuck.
Again you can put something on top of the leg, like up here.
Set something on top so it can see it and it will stop before it gets there.
Carpets aren't too bad.
A heavy carpet as long as it does not have these tassels on it.
So if you've got a heavy carpet with this you can leave it down or pick it up.
I usually pick it up.
But if it's got tassels on it, the robot will tangle on it.
This kind of carpet is not too bad.
It doesn't have frills on the edges.
It does not do a great job with it, does an OK job.
As long as it's a heavier carpet where the edges won't come up it will do OK.
Cords are often times an issue.
The phone cord almost always gets stuck on it.
We normally have it tucked up in here.
I will show you that.
Internet / ethernet cable, sometimes we get away with the internet cable being on the
floor.
Big, heavy duty extension cords we use for the computers; usually not a problem.
It will jump over them, but as you can see back in the corner, it does not clean the
dust.
Let me show you how I deal with cords.
Typically you have to get them off the floor.
Back behind the desk what I've done is put a hook on there and hung the wires and used
some velcro tabs to get the phone and internet wires up off the floor so that the robot can
get underneath the desk and not get snagged on wires.
We've found that spacing furniture just right will allow her to get back into corners.
In this case we have to push the vanity stool over so she can fit inside this opening then
she will go in there and clean it.
The same is true of spacing of things like that cabinet over there.
Between the stand and the bed.
She can't get in the little crack.
We usually move that stand over and leave it over so she can clean around it.
Also leaving a door open like this, if you can, will allow it to clean behind the door.
So that you don't move the door and find dust bunnies behind it.
It' is best to move things like this small trash can out of her way.
Most of the time it will see it and stop, but often times she will just start pushing
it around the floor.
Another thing to consider are small bumps like this one between the hall and storage
room.
She will make it over this and she will convince herself she can go over this down into the
storage room (I think this was originally designed as a bathroom) and get out into the
storage room and she can't get back of course.
She will clean the storage room but does not get the rest of the hallway.
We simply shut this door let her do the hallway and rooms that are attached and then let her
do the storage room separately.
Another thing to consider in your room prep is to make sure you don't have things that
are tippy like this.
Has liquids, something hot or breakable items because sometimes the robot bumps into stuff
hard enough to tip things off.
When you do your room preparation consider things like this that can tip and cause damage
or problems.
When you prepare your rooms you also want to look around for things like this that are
easily tipped over that are expensive like this, your camera on a tripod.
It would be a bad idea to leave this sitting here and run the robot.
It could easily tip it over and you might end up with an expensive repair.
When you prepare your room look for things that can tip and break.
Brooms, mops any thing that can tip over and strike something else.