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IRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot Review
justechn writes "Many of us have seen robots in the movies and wondered how long it would take for them to become a reality. Some of my favorites when I was a kid were Short Circut and Runaway. iRobot is a company that is striving to bring some of that technology home today. Their most popular and well known product is the Roomba vacuuming robot. The Roomba is great, after I finished my review of it and sent it back I went out and bought one. It does its best work picking up pet hair. They just came out with another robot called the Looj. The Looj is used to clean the rain gutters that go around your roof. If you have ever had to do this by hand you know how much of a pain it is. This robot uses a 3 stage auger to break up clogs and sweep all the debris out of your gutter. It is also water proof so you don't have to worry if you have water in your gutter, just don't stand below it when it is cleaning or you will get sprayed." Read on for the rest of justechn's review.
"The Looj does not move on it own like the Roomba does, instead there is a remote control that controls the direction that the auger spins and the direction that the Looj moves (forward and backward). Because it requires constant human interaction I am not even sure I would classify it as a robot, rather it is more like a remote controlled car.
I recently got my hands on one and put it through my gutters. It did a fairly good job. I did have to go over some spots more than once to get all the leaves and dirt out, but in the end my gutters were a lot cleaner after it was done.
The price is also very good. At $99 for the base model it is cheap enough that you can pick one up just to play around with. The more expensive models only give you extra batteries and augers, so you are not missing anything if you go with the base model.
I only found two things about the Looj that I did not like. First, it will not turn corners, it is way too long and not flexible. Second, if you want it to move you have to constantly hold down the forward or backward button. As soon as you let go, it stops. If you could lock in the movement then you could do other things like move your ladder to the next corner while it was cleaning."
I recently got my hands on one and put it through my gutters. It did a fairly good job. I did have to go over some spots more than once to get all the leaves and dirt out, but in the end my gutters were a lot cleaner after it was done.
The price is also very good. At $99 for the base model it is cheap enough that you can pick one up just to play around with. The more expensive models only give you extra batteries and augers, so you are not missing anything if you go with the base model.
I only found two things about the Looj that I did not like. First, it will not turn corners, it is way too long and not flexible. Second, if you want it to move you have to constantly hold down the forward or backward button. As soon as you let go, it stops. If you could lock in the movement then you could do other things like move your ladder to the next corner while it was cleaning."
...if you are already up there with a ladder, so you can manually move the Looj around corners etc? Scooping out the leaves is trivial at that point - the real PIA is getting out the ladder, and going up/down and moving it from side to side. Doesn't seem like this performs and real useful activity?
Lots of people who own their own homes would take a lifetime to earn $100. However they don't have gutters on their homes :)
For most of the Slashdot crowd it is.
When it comes to the Slashdot crowd, you've generally got the "haves" and the "have mores". Computers, peripherals, and ISPs ain't cheap, you know.
And those fortunate enough to own their own house should probably consider prevention rather than maintenance. There are a lot of really novel gutter systems out there today that prevent debris from getting into gutters in the first place.
This just takes an age old problem and makes it quixotic.
Blessed with all the brains that God gave a duck's ass, and twice the charisma.
Until the leaves and twigs form a nice layer over the mesh and block the water...
It's the same - though with a slight lag - in the UK and New Zealand. I'm not completely sure I agree with the AC's point about investment, but if you're buying a house to live in it has to be better than renting over the long term. Even with the sub-prime crisis and property prices falling, buying a house and living in it has to be better than giving money to a landlord, money that you won't see any part of and is only useful while you continue to live in the landlord's house. Falling house prices should be seen as an opportunity - at least for people who are still able to get mortgages...
This is where the serious fun begins.
For most of the world, $100 is not something you can just spend on a whim. Then again, it might be for the people who buy iRobot products in the first place.
But if you own a house with gutters that need cleaning, you likely have more disposable income as well. Or you've gotten yourself into bigger trouble than needing your gutters cleaned.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
...but robots won't have to pay into SSI to help keep it solvent for the baby boomers. America's next big crop is old human beings.
I don't know where you're getting your info but I was living on the border before, during and after NAFTA's passage and I guarantee you that illegal immigration is nothing new. Additionally the maquiladora industry was thriving long before NAFTA was even a thought.
JAGga.me ----> Producing video games addressing emotional health and wellness issues affecting teens.
In what sense is this a robot? As I understand it, it moves back and forth along your gutter when you push the corresponding buttons. If this is a robot, then so is an RC car.
A gutter cleaning robot would emerge from a pod at the top of your roof, and walk around with spider-like legs. It would first map out your roof and send a 3D map to your computer. You would then indicate on the map where it should dump the gutter contents over the edge, and it would go to work. It might take all day to clear out the gutters, but you would be free to leave it alone (after you got bored of watching it.)
I am missing something here? Wouldn't a much cheaper solution to your "problem" of too many mexicans be to stop subsidising agri-business and make US farmers compete at international prices? The guiding hand and all that..
BTW if you want cheap and reliable iRobot is *not* who you're looking for.