RichardKennaway comments on Consider a robot vacuum. - Less Wrong

16 Post author: BrandonReinhart 05 June 2012 08:08AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 05 June 2012 09:18:37PM 1 point [-]

Do you have any information about comparative reliability? For me, reliability is a virtue second only to "does it work at all?"

I had a Roomba some years ago, the second-series "Discovery" model. I had less than two years use out of it before the cliff sensors started behaving like it was always looking over a cliff. Taking it apart (a very long and fiddly task which left me distinctly unimpressed by its design) and cleaning everything I could get at helped for a while, but not enough and I eventually relinquished attachment to the sunk cost (i.e. I threw it out). iRobot after-sales service outside the US was nonexistent then, and spares were unobtainable.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 05 June 2012 09:32:02PM -1 points [-]

Do you have any information about comparative reliability?

Not really; I've only had the Neato for a couple of weeks. My Roomba experience was similar to yours — I'm pretty sure the fatal problem was sensory rather than cognitive or motor.