I have been discussing robots quite regularly at EPJ and the manner in which they are likely to be used to replace workers priced out of the market because of hikes in minimum wage laws. So I guess, it was only a matter of time before I would buy one for myself.

I have, now, done this in the form of an iRobot Roomba 880 vacuum cleaner.

I have a cleaning lady that comes in once a week, but depending on how many people I have coming over during the week and outside weather conditions, sometimes the place could use a good going over a couple of days before the cleaning lady arrives.

As far as me personally pulling out the vacuum to vacuum myself, there is more of a chance that I am going to devote the remainder of my life looking for the real killer of Nicole Simpson.

Enter Roomba. iRobot Roomba 650 Robo... Best Price: $167.16 Buy New $490.00 (as of 10:10 UTC - Details)

The Roomba arrived Tuesday and I tested it out yesterday.  I used it on a carpet in my bedroom and in other hardwood floor areas with rugs.  My opinion after the work out after I gave the machine:

It’s absolutely amazing,

The Roomba has some type of software built in so it “figures out” the lay out of a room and “remembers” where it has been so that it vacuums in something of a crisscross  manner. It is able to get nooks and corner, go around chairs. At one point it disappeared and I wasn’t sure where it was, but soon figured out it was deep under a couch, where I doubt the area had been vacuumed in years.

I actually left for a couple of hours, while the thing continued to vacuum, and came back to find the entire place vacuumed to immaculate condition and that  the Roomba had re-docked itself at the charging station.

It also has an a scheduling system that allows you to preset up to seven times per week for Roomba to vacuum, so you can be away at work and come home to a freshly vacuumed place. Pretty awesome.

Reprinted with permission from Target Liberty.

iRobot Roomba 880 Robo... Best Price: $225.35 Buy New $597.92 (as of 03:40 UTC - Details)

ECOMAID Filters for iR... Buy New $9.59 (as of 09:00 UTC - Details)

ANBOO for iRobot Roomb... Check Amazon for Pricing.

Amazon.com $50 Gift Ca... Buy New $50.00 (as of 11:05 UTC - Details)

The Best of Robert Wenzel

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$bio: Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.com and author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

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