Suck it up

It's been a week for things breaking or going wrong.

This monring I put Raymondo, our robot vacuum cleaner, to work in the bedroom.  He spun round a few times, and then gave out  his oh-oh sound and stopped.  Usually when he's in trouble, he speaks a helpful error message, for example "Please clean Roomba's brushes".

Today, there was  no message at all.

I cleaned all the brushes anyway, and took the front castor out to clean that too.  When I popped it back in, it wasn't rolling correctly, and it looks like the plastic holder has broken. I'm guessing that's the trouble.

At least it's easy enough to buy a replacement part. It hasn't always been the case.

He's 8 years old now, and very battle scarred.

When we first bought Raymondo, he was top of the range.  Accessories (like brushes and filters) were hard to get  and spares were impossible and had to be imported from the US.   Accessibility to these things improved as robot vacuums became more common.

He's had 2 replacememnt batteries (the newest one was a lot more efficient), and  we also replaced the brush head module which (apparently) effectively upgraded him. His ability to clean, already excellent, became outstanding. 

He used to be our main vacuum cleaner (up until I bought my first stick Dyson), and he was set on a timer to clean the downstairs while we were out.  I retired him for a while, the Dyson was so easy to use.  I found that Raymondo cleaned under the bed with less hassle than when I did it, so I brought him back into service, and he now lives upstairs. .  He does a fab job on both the solid floors and the carpet.    We no longer have him set on a timer - our ailing cat spends much time asleep on the landing, and she hates Raymondo.  We don't want to disturb her, so Raymond is set to work manually.  He's  also parked in a cubby hole, and he's not able to get himself in and out, so the auto thing isn't possible.

His main duty is our bedroom and the landing.  Izzy (the aforementioned ailing cat) is nto able to groom herself properly, and sheds an incredible amount of fur.   It gets everywhere, despite daily brushing by us. Raymondo does this beautifully.

Actually, I might move Raymondo and base plate into our bedroom.  I could then put him back on automatic daily duties.  Why didn't I think of that before?  That has the added bonus of freeing up the cubby hole/

Hopefully the new castor will arrive quickly.

And hopefully it'll solve the problem.