By Bob Gatton
iRobot is the company that developed and sells the Roomba, Scooba and now the Dirt Dog. You may not be familiar with iRobot, but they have sold more than 2.5 million home-cleaning robots. Their first product line was the Roomba, a small robotic vacuum cleaner that cleans the floors, carpet and hard surfaces in your home. Press the "Clean" button, and the Roomba goes back and forth across the room(s), following the walls. It even goes underneath beds, couches and chairs. If you have the optional Roomba Home Base, the robot will automatically return to the base to be recharged.
iRobot spends quite a bit of time communicating with customers to see how they use their products. According to Nancy Dussault, director of marketing communications with iRobot Corporation, one of the most interesting findings is that often someone in the family would take the Roomba to the workshop, garage, basement or patio. But this usually left the Roomba dirty and dusty.
So they decided to expand their product line to include a tougher, purpose-built robot just for these environments: The Dirt Dog. It is about the same size as the Roomba, but it has:
- Heavy-duty wheels
- High-speed brushes to sweep the floor, instead of a vacuum
- A larger dirt bin
The Dirt Dog (MSRP $129.99) comes with a battery, battery charger and cleaning tool. Options include:
- A wall mount to store the Dirt Dog ($19.99)
- A Home Base charging station that the Dirt Dog will find when it is done cleaning to automatically recharge the battery ($59.99)
- A remote control to start, stop or pause the Dirt Dog ($19.99)
After charging it overnight, I put my sample unit to the test. There is nothing to program; just press the clean button on top (it's the only button on the Dirt Dog) and walk away. But if you are like me, you probably will want to watch it for a while. It is interesting to watch it navigate around the tires on a car, the lawnmower and tool boxes. And when it discovers a wall, it will follow it, effectively cleaning the edge. It even has sensors in the front; if it comes to a drop off, such as stairs, the sensors prevent it from falling off the edge. The interest in watching diminishes over time, but it is fun.
The first few times I let it roam around my garage, I was really surprised by how much dirt it picked up. I used a leaf blower to remove most of the leaves, dust and grass clippings out the garage just a few days before I started to use the Dirt Dog. After most of its sojourns around my garage, the robot's bin was full of not only dirt and dust, but it also picked up some wood chips, a couple of nails and a deck screw.
To test it further, I put some nails, screws, bolts on the floor. Examining the bin after it cleaned the floor, I found all of the bolts and screws, and every nail but one. The one missing nail was found under the lawnmower. Apparently the Dirt Dog pushed the nail under the edge of the mower before it could pick it up.
The next day, I put four coins in an open area of the garage and let the Dog attack. When I came back to check, two of the coins were missing, but two were still on the floor. The two coins were not in the Dirt Dogs bin, they had been wedged in the brushes. Picking up coins is not one of this product's strength.
In the last test I put some sawdust, wood shavings and a few small pieces of broken glass on the floor. It picked up everything without a problem.
A few comments:
- The Dirt Dog is not designed to replace a shop vac if you have large quantities of debris to clean up.
- Before you use the Dirt Dog (or the Roomba), you need to prep the area. The robot can get hung up on electrical cords, twine, etc.; it will try to eat them.
- I recommend getting the optional Home Base self-charging station. Having the Dirt Dog automatically return to its base for charging is not only very convenient, but without the Home Base the Dirt Dog just stops when it is done or its battery has been exhausted. Several times during my evaluation it stopped under my car. Not a big deal, but sooner or later it will probably stop behind a tire. Picture this: You are in a hurry, start to back out of the garage, and hear a crunch. No more Dirt Dog. This has not happened to me, and I hope it doesn't. (Note: I did not test the Home Base Charging Station.)
- If there are stored items that are less than 13 inches apart (the diameter of the Dirt Dog), it cannot get in there and sweep. I ended up moving a few things in my garage so the Dog could do its job better.
My garage floor has never been cleaner. I need to return the review sample in a couple of weeks, but I am going to ask if I can buy it. At a big discount. After all, it's dusty and dirty now.
Dirt Dog
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