I ran down my Little Buddy!

[Melody]

Do those things work?

All I can say is that my husband and I *love* ours.

Mel

[Nanci]

I have the Dyson The Ball. I wanted one ever since my friend Tiffany got The animal, but couldn't decide since there are so many models and prices and colors. The Best Buy salesman explained to me that the insides are all the same- it's the attachments that you pay for. Since The Animal has the most extra stuff, it costs the most. The latest generation have a pivoting ball that lets them go around corners. I didn't like it, driving it in the store, but decided to get it anyway, and love it now and am so glad I got that kind.

What I like about it. It's extremely simple to use. There is nothing tricky about disconnecting, emptying, reconnecting the cannister like there has been on every other bagless vacuum I have ever had. Push a butotn, it comes off. Pull a lever, the bottom drops open and stuff falls out. Click the bottom shut. Set it back in it's place with no fighting or aligning.

How it performs. I wanted a vacuum that would vacuum up both tiny down feathers that are all over my house like others have pet hair, and bigger wing and body feathers. It does, and never gets clogged. The suction is so strong that, if I vacuum under Milly's cage, feahters fly out of the cage down to the floor. You can see feathers being pulled to it from as far away as two or three feet. Also, it picks up right to the edge of baseboards- no need to get out a separate attachment to go along there. You can turn the rotating brushes off with the push of a button, up at the top of the machine, to go onto tile. I vacuumed up pine needles from the Christmas tree, even the big quantity from when it first came in the house. No problem. I take it outside and vacuum my truck. I love it.

I especially loved that when I went to Best Buy, there was a salesman who knew absolutely everything about it and had one himself. He let me play with the different ones for as long as I wanted. He let me pour dirt on the floor and vacuum it up. He let me try emptying the cannister right on the floor. He showed me how the suction is so strong that, if you have the wand on a hose attachment out, you can walk away as far as it will stretch, then cover up the end, and it will pull the vacuum towards you, fast! He could explain all the technical stuff, too. He advised me to get the Best Buy extended warranty simply for the reason that, though Dyson has a good warranty, you have to pay $40 to ship it. If you have the Best Buy extended warranty, it covers shipping.

Nanci

[pkq]

OMG! I think attempts at origami would be much more difficult with a vaccum than a mere squirrel.

What about clean up?

[snapdragen]

The suction is so strong that, if I vacuum under Milly's cage, feahters fly out of the cage down to the floor. You can see feathers being pulled to it from as far away as two or three feet.

I'm now sitting here, visualizing Nanci's bird, sans feathers 'cause her Dyson sucked 'em all off......

[betagirl]

You can get one of these to put on it:

http://www.myroombud.com/

[SadieKate]

What about clean up?

Depends. Is it easier to clean up goo or dust blown into every nook and cranny. Ewwwwww!

[Lise]

Depends. Is it easier to clean up goo or dust blown into every nook and cranny. Ewwwwww!

Hmmm....squirrel goo...who's going to volunteer to do the experiment?

[CorsairMac]

I have a Roomba too and I LOVE it! I have 2 dogs: 1 long haired that sheds in clumps, and 4 cats: 2 of them long haired. What I love about the Roomba is I can start him up in the mornings and then do my regular routine: make coffe, take a shower, watch TV whatever and let HIM vaccuum the carpets. Because of my animals I only do a room at a time and clean the brushes and filter every time but it's Still better than being stuck behind one. I've also noticed it doesn't travel well between 2 uneven surfaces: tile floor and thick pile carpet. It will clean both of them but sometimes it trails some of the animal hair over the edge trying to climb unto the carpet. Still - picking that up is better than spending my precious TV time walking behind one!

[MightyMitre]

Yeh-hey! MM is back.... and asking questions... about housework!!!

What is/ who is your Little Buddy? From the photo at first i thought it was some kind of personal stereo that had suffered in a turbo trainer accident. I was on the home trainer once with the tv remote in my back pocket when it fell out an bounced off my back wheel and into bits.

But am I right in thinking it's some kind of carpet cleaning auto hoover thing that does the house work for you?

If so, where can I get one!!!

[CorsairMac]

MM!!!!!! HUGSSSS and welcome back!!!!!

The Roomba (V's pix) is a self=propelled vaccuum cleaner. You can get one that has a timer on it that you set to vaccuum your house at a certain time during that day, or the one like mine that you take out of it's docking station and tell it to go clean (ok...you gotta push some buttons but you get the picture)
For someone like me that HATES to vaccuum, it's the perfect housework tool. I can set it up in a room and go make breakfast or whatever.

[MightyMitre]

MM!!!!!! HUGSSSS and welcome back!!!!!

The Roomba (V's pix) is a self=propelled vaccuum cleaner. You can get one that has a timer on it that you set to vaccuum your house at a certain time during that day.....

So let me get this right, it does the hoovering for you?? And it's got a timer to hoover when you say so?? Why haven't I heard of this before? Up till now I've been suffering with the old fashioned version, namely Husband, but even though he's not what you'd call an old model there are some issues with the timer ie - it doesn't seem to work unless you use a complex system of bribes.

OK - so it cleans for you, but what about the funiture. Does it go round/under things? And what about general crap that live on the floor, like track pumps, tool boxes, spare inner tubes? Surely it's not clever enough to pack things in cupboards and draws as it goes along. That just sounds too good to be true.

[SadieKate]

More Roomba info:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116854,00.asp

[CorsairMac]

no - it won't pack up your floor for you - yet! who knows, maybe the next generation will! but yes it goes under beds, couchs, my bikes (as long as I keep the pedals at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. It has a sensor on the top of it that it uses to "measure" a room and a bumper that allows it to turn. Once it "learns" the rooms size, it sets itself up to clean it in a grid pattern. So if you don't feel like picking stuff up off the floor - or forget, it'll just learn there's something there and go around it. And yes ma'am...it does the hoovering for you! It will even move between floor surfaces ie: tile to carpet, or wood to tile, etc etc. You can even "tell" it to go home when it's done and it'll dock itself in it's charging station. and if it gets itself stuck on a loose carpet thread or an electrical cord - it'll play a little song to tell you it's stuck and shut itself down.
It even has a "spot" cleaner so if you have a patch of dirt, you can place the little guy on that patch, hit spot clean, and it'll clean up that spot. (can you tell how much I love mine?! LOL)