It's time to say goodbye to Raymondo Jr.
Raymondo Jr was our second Roomba, a 560, and we've had him since 2008. We had an earlier version of Raymondo (Raymondo Senior) for many years before that.
Raymondo Jr has been very unwell for sometime, and now needs yet another new battery. We've replaced the NiCad battery on him several times over the last 14 years, and given him upgraded brushes, new rolling eye, an upgraded bin and filters and various other bits... but it's now got to the point where we might as well get a newer model. One with a lithium battery and a whole host of other helpful features.
I've been saving for a while, and decided that I would bite the bullet this Amazon Prime Day. IRobot changed their prices to match the Amazon price, it was a good discount. Both the models I looked at were on offer. Neither was exactly what I wanted, I imagine that the next release will be a perfect combination... but I don't want to wait another year.
I watched a few review videos, and the most helpful was one from a calm chap who had had his S9+ for 18 months.
His review helped me decide to go down a model to the J7+. I'd be giving up on some of the features I really liked (the slow spinning brush, and the shape which makes it easier for the machine to get into corners) but I'd be having a model which is newer, has some better features, and was a fair bit cheaper. It means that I'd feel comfortable upgrading sooner than if I spent out on the S0+
Roberto (I couldn't use Raymondo's name again, he's been such a fab robot) arrived today, and we set him up. We set up a home for him, in the hallway and wile he charged up I downloaded the app, and moved everything out of the way (the garden was full of stuff, and the jkitchen worktops had things all everywhere) ready for him to do his mapping run. We set him off, and watched with interest, and then left him to it.
He fell out of the kitchen on to the patio, which was a bit unfortunate. In the split second before we heard the crash, I had 3 alerts on my phone, which was the equivalent to the poor chap shouting for help.
"15.07 Roberto requires your attention. Roberto is Stuck" "
"15.07 Roberto requires your attention. Roberto is Stuck"
"15.07 Roberto requires your attention. Roberto is stuck near a cliff".
Raymondo used to fall out of the door as well, I had thought that the newer models would have sorted this out.
We picked him up and set him on his way. hen he was done, we looked at the map he'd created, tweaked the zones, created some favourite routines, and then set him off to clean the three kitchen areas. I could see we had an issue with the mapping (our fault for not clearing the chairs out for the mapping run) so we got him to map again. I had to re-setup the favourtie cleaning jobs. and set him off again. He's done a reasonable job, and he's been back to base to empty himself.
The app has the ability for me to mark no-go areas on the map, and I'll do that when I've seen him clean a few times.
I'm reorganising the downstairs a little bit - in line with my attempt at getting rid of stuff I don't really use. I've taken one of the fold up stools and folded the up and put them under the stairs. I had to clear some stuff out of the way (and into the bin) to create space for this.
I need to create some space in parts of the living room, because there are areas where the gap just isn't wide enough for Roberto to get into. I don't quite know how I'm going to do it.
We haven't tested the obstacle avoidance skills of Roberto, which was one of the main reasons for going for this model.
I need to get poor Raymondo out of the house soon, as I feel guilty every time I look at him.
