Roomba is exactly what happens when you make a good product, get a good lead and then fill the company with MBAs and think you'll coast along on name alone instead of innovations.
Nobody buys Roombas because everything else is way better with way more features. They don't even come up in discussions any more, because they can not compete with Dreame, Roborock or any other vacuum with lidar, step up ability, mopping, and now robotic hands.
This exactly. My four-year-old i9 effectively does not work. It can't complete a single run without getting stuck on something, complaining about the container being full (it's not), complaining about the base being full (it's not), not being able to empty the container into the base (and making a huge racket with the repeated attempts), or many other things. If I fix one of the issues, it'll soon find something else to complain about.
After twenty years of owning robot vacuums, this is the worst one yet.
I switched to a Roborock a few months ago, and so far, this is genuinely the first robot vacuum I've owned that works 99% of the time. It barely ever gets stuck on things and requires very little maintenance. The maintenance it does require is easy to do and clearly explained.
Perhaps it'll start to break down in a year or so, but so far, so good.
I've got a roborock s6 from 2019 and it's still going very well. I I've had it dismantled a few times, once when the cat pissed on it, once to clean the vacuum motor, and most recently when one of the wheels got clogged. It's really easy to replace individual parts, this is how consumer electronics should be.
Unfortunately I've read the later models are harder to repair, and I would like to upgrade for the better mopping and self emptying.
I have a Roomba that used to be able to detect cords and roll over them, but at some point it ceased to do that -- and jobs would consistent failed due to it getting stuck.
I'm too lazy to tidy up my cords just for a robot vacuum to run. Would be great if there was one that was intelligent enough to simply avoid cords and other hazards.
>Roomba is exactly what happens when you make a good product, get a good lead and then fill the company with MBAs and think you'll coast along on name alone instead of innovations.
Same with the big German car brands. They put MBAs at the helm in the 90's who outsourced all their tech innovation development to suppliers to lower costs thinking their history, prestige and brand names alone will carry them into the future, and now the Chinese are out-innovating them.
Similar with Intel. When you reach that point it's often too late to turn it round as you're now a sclerotic bloated organization, full off people who coasted and failed upwards for decades and made sure to hire other people just like them.
It is about taste. I still like german car brands. They learn with each iteration. Even the volume knobs returned. Materials are nice. But for sure the other brands are more gimmicky.
My mother in laws Jetta she got brand new a few years ago needs an engine after something like 10 years, both mechanical and electrical. Dies randomly like something electrical. Consumes a quart of oil every few hundred miles and getting worse. This thing was driven regularly but lightly (several times per week but few miles) by a little old lady who took it right to the dealer for any little thing. Oil changes and other maintainance strictly and religeously on schedule and performed by the dealer. The quote for the engine was ridiculous too but I don't remember what it was exactly because I only heard 2nd hand and I wasn't taking notes in prep for a post like this. But they are getting another car rather than fix this one. The rest of the car is in excellent condition, so it's not like some beater, yet it's still not worth doing the engine.
You can see right through my 97 4runner from all the rust and it's running and working fine. Does not drink oil. I neglect the piss out of it. I haven't changed the oil filter in probably 3 years, just add a new quart once or twice a year, probably 5 to 10k miles. It has needed repairs. I put a new starter in a few years ago. Pulled the injectors and had them rebuilt a couple years ago (basically they just clean them and put new screens and o-rings on them). couple hundred bucks each time.
Anecdata, sure. All anyone has is their own experiance.
I think VW are unreliable and expensive to repair and nice looking.
Inefficiency basically. Burn more fuel for the amount of work output, because of heavier parts, simpler designs, less magic.
I prefer such things so I am not damning them for this, it just is the unfortunate reality. It's a trade-off.
A simple example is adding a turbo increases both power and efficiency, at the cost of more parts, shorter mtbf, and less robustness. Ie aside from just more parts to wear out sooner, the system is less rugged even when new and perfect, more easily incapacitated by a spec of dust, in a machine that doesn't live in a chip fab clean room.
(Lately, I saw on the internet this video about cars and their suspension in comparison. And it felt like a throwback to the 2000. The one car that goes over the rails like its flying. Been there, done that. Did not go into the mass market for reasons. But reminds me, how good competition is, maybe old ideas will be tried again and this time the ppl want it.)
So far I’ve had a Roomba, a Eufy and now a Roborock. The Eufy was quiet but was tearing up our trim and furniture so it got retired. The Roomba tore up trim/furniture, was incredibly loud and it was extremely expensive for having no special add-ons. The Roborock is laser guided, clearly mapped our house to gain efficiency, empties itself and is reasonably quiet - cost about $500. Roomba with some of those and arguably lesser features is several hundred dollars more. iRobot is getting the outcome it built for itself.
Nobody buys Roombas because everything else is way better with way more features. They don't even come up in discussions any more, because they can not compete with Dreame, Roborock or any other vacuum with lidar, step up ability, mopping, and now robotic hands.