by Kingsley on June 3, 2008
I put my Roomba to work for the very first time today. I bought it yesterday and let it fully charge overnight. It turns out to be the smartest, most adorable vacuum cleaner ever. It has no trouble going in and out of the bathroom and kitchen, even though they have a ledge. Yet, it knows not to climb the ledge to the balcony. Since my home is small, the Roomba cleans every room many times with ease. The only trouble I have is that sometimes it gets stuck on the base of the barstool. But when it does, it stops immediately, until I move the stool slightly out of the way, then it starts roaming again. Finally, when it’s running out of juice, it docks itself back to the charger. Right after, I checked over with a dust mop and the cloth was clean, not even a strand of hair on it. Then I mopped the floor with water, and the water in the bucket was clean, too. This is the most happy I am with a home appliance, so much that I already threw away my old vacuum.
by Kingsley on June 2, 2008
Just received my Roomba 530 today. Let’s say it’s a housewarming gift for myself, so that I don’t have to do any vacuuming. It’s pricey at HK$3,280, especially compared to some China-made robotic vacuums that look eerily like Roomba at half the price. But I also did enough research prior to know that just cause it looks the same doesn’t mean it works the same. My customer’s wife bought a generic one through her credit card promo, and said that it got stuck under a furniture but kept running till it toasted itself, all the while they were away. I hope my Roomba is smarter than that. If not, I can set Virtual Walls (came with two) to block off areas that are off-limit to Roomba. Right now, it’s sitting in the corner tugged in its Home Base charging for the very first time. I’ll be able to put it to the test when I get up tomorrow.
by Kingsley on May 31, 2008
Here’s my follow-up post to hiring a cleaning service to clean my old, empty apartment. At first, I didn’t think it was going to be too tough a job to clean my tiny apartment; I was worried the cleaner might even finish too soon, before his 4-hour was up. So I stuck around the neighborhood to run errands and spot-check on him. In that time, I hired a repairman to fix the leaking water tank and the broken washer in the apartment. I also had my hair colored at the salon downstairs. At the end of 4 hours, the cleaner had barely enough time to finish the whole apartment. However, he did an admirable job. The place was noticeably cleaner. He reached places I would never bother to clean. How the heck does he clean outside windows that span from floor to ceiling, on the 12th floor? I won’t dare try. Overall, I’m satisfied with the Home Cleaning Service. Now I can put my apartment up for sale and be proud of it.
by Kingsley on May 30, 2008
I hired a cleaning service to clean my old apartment tomorrow. I found it on the web. It costs HK$438 for one worker for half-a-day (4 hours). It’s the cheapest plan, since my tiny flat falls short of even its description of small. I guess it figured anything that small you can do yourself, unless you’re a lazy bum, which fits my description. Even the receptionist didn’t bother to sell me a bigger package. I’ll do a follow-up on its cleanliness before I can recommend it.
[Update, 31 May 2008] The cleaning service came and went. Here’s my follow-up post on it.