By Susan Davis

I tried a Roomba a few years ago and I must say I wasn’t impressed. Oh, it was fun watching it clean instead of me but it got tangled easily on carpet fringe and, what’s worse, I couldn’t use it where I really wanted to, which was upstairs, because it would immediately head for the stairs, which I had no way to block off. This new one, however, is a different story. If it hits fringe or wires it doesn’t just keep trying and trying and trying to eat the damn things, it spits out whatever is caught and continues on. But what’s more impressive is something unavailable the last time I tried… a virtual wall. What is a virtual wall, you say? Well, remember my upstairs problem? No problem now because you take one of these little sentry thingies and put it on one side of a stairway opening (or a room you want it to stay out of), and put the other on the other side and the Roomba will stay clear. No more standing guard so it doesn’t fall down the stairs.  Genius!  And this newer version cleans great too, more efficiently on bare floors and low carpets than on deep carpet, but even there, it’s good for a touch up.