Isn't It Time For A Roomba Vacuum Cleaner?

Consider iRobot's Roomba vacuum cleaner. It's more than just a vacuum cleaner; it's your very own household robot. We may not be driving aircars or nipping off to the Moon for a vacation, like some 1950's pundits said we would by now, but you can have a robot in your house if you want one. Sure, it's mostly a vacuum cleaner, but a Roomba floor vac is special. It cleans your carpets and dusts your floors at the mere touch of a switch, and you don't have to push it around. It's shaped like a fat Frisbee and isn't much bigger, but it's smart enough to wend its own way through a room, avoiding obstacles and scooting under furniture to get the dust. Let's see your ancient upright vac do that.

A robot for all seasons

Roomba offers a variety of robotic vacuums, all of which compare favorably to the best uprights and conventional floorvacs. They range from the inexpensive Roomba Red ($149) to the Roomba Pro Elite, Discovery, and Discovery SE (up to $300). That's not a bad price to pay for any robot, much less one that cleans your floors. Roombas can handle hard-surface floors as well as carpets, removing even clingy dust and pet hair with panache. It learns as it vacuums, spiraling through a room several times to get every speck of dust, and when it's done, it puts itself away.

Cleans carpets, doesn't do windows

Roomba, introduced by iRobot in 2002, was the first robotic carpet cleaner marketed in the US, and arguable remains the best. It's no longer alone on the robotic vacuum cleaner market, but Roomba has remained at the forefront, and the price is right. Wouldn't this be a great time to buy one?