ladykemma2
my review of the dirtdevil dirt devil whiskers robotic sweeper
by , 06-17-2012 at 11:20 AM (6285 Views)
introduction- i have an "all tile" house. i am a clean freak. i have two cats and myself and we shed. i work 12 hours a day and my precious time off is needed for rest and a social life. i looked into robotic vacuums such as neato and roomba but, discouraged, decided against them because of the price. sigh.
i stumbled onto this review http://www.rigcast.com/r3/r3-dirt-de...obotic-vacuum/ I changed my mind and decided to give it a go. i bought the first one from Walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dirt-Devil...70000/19478273 . i bought the one without the dust rag on the bottom, because it thought it would be a potential failure point and a source of irritation on lumpy/bumpy/rough "fake slate" TILE floors, instead of smooth hardwood. i assembled it, charged it, chose "dark floors" setting, and then put it in the bedroom. it got stuck once, wedged under the tall secretary. whiskers generally needs to be babysat because the cup gets full, stops and squeaks at you, and needs to be emptied. it's pretty neat to watch it get out of tight places. the battery runs out and you have to pick up the unit and go plug it in. i dump the dirt cup then and wash the filter. you can buy the filters replacement at the dirtdevil website. i read somewhere that you need to clean the sensors with a Q-tip.
this is not a vacuum. it is a sweeper for hard floors. it sweeps the floor, like a broom, but does a better job. it cleans best when used every day or every other day on recently mopped floors (i.e. not sticky or gross). (i tend to mop the whole house every 90 days or so, when the house starts to smell like a cave of a large animal -- thanksgiving break, xmas break, spring break, and the first week of summer but i mop the kitchen and bathrooms weekly or as needed.) the whiskers keeps up with the 2 inch dead roaches (Texas - they come in from outside) , cat fur, detritis, and schmutz on a clean floor, if used on almost DAILY basis.
you need to be there when it runs. one room for the full charging time, so that the mathematical algorithm can work and ALL the room gets swept. it does the baseboards to get oriented and the bad reviews out there are "it's sweeping the baseboards again". yes, it is. don't worry about it. leave it alone and let it do the job for the full time. you have to shut doors. i lay a broomstick down in a couple of places where i need the invisible walls (take that, roomba). i read the bad reviews online and it is clear to me that people were sweeping filthy floors and getting their panties in a wad when the inlet got clogged up, or they were expecting it to have the suction power of a roomba and to be able to do carpets.
i purchased another so i could do two rooms at a time. i named the first one "Mo" from the movie wall-E, and i named the second one "The Furminator". there is also the "cool factor" in watching them do the work for you and the science/algorithm/statistics/math involved -- "how cool is that?" the nerd in me observes "one speck of crud" and waits to see if that "one speck of crud" gets swept. it usually does. no disappointment there.
in conclusion, these gadgets work well on tile floors to clean up pet hair and dust. they work best if the floors are freshly swept and mopped, and then maintained by the machines. they keep clean floors clean. they do the intended job better than my hand sweeping did. i can get other chores done while they work. my allergies are better since buying this product. i highly recommend the dirt devil whiskers product.
edited to add: it helps if you pick up occasional furniture, area rugs, and stuff off the floors. i had to pick up floor lamps, queen anne chairs and occasional tables. less confusion for the furminator.
edited to add: look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMuK7...eature=related
and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UOw7...eature=related
this too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK6dR...feature=relmfu
and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=v7kBf2sqxoM
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