Late last year I bought a Roomba Discovery — Veronica’s and my first domestic robot that turned out to be a fun, if guilty novelty which proceeded to have battery issues, difficulty in finding and interfacing with its dock, and problems with its Scheduler remote. Its vacuuming capabilities are passable, but not enviable. In short, I’m not a very happy customer. So we went from the top of the automated heap to the top of the manual, and purchased a Dyson DC15 (aka “The Ball“). It came today, and I have to admit, I’m afraid to turn the thing on and discover just what the hell we’ve been walking on all these months while Roomba lounged about living the fully-charged good life.

Update: we have a clear, hands down, undisputed champion. Whereas a good 1.5 hour session with the Roomba will produce a few ounces of the nasty stuff in its bin, in as much or less time the Dyson pulled up NINE massive canisters of stuff I’d really rather not think about. (Naturally, I took pictures.) The apartment is about 900 square feet, so figure one canister for each 10 x 10 patch.

You know, there are days I love technology and those rare days I don’t. Today I definitely love technology.