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Comment by Jagat | Hacker News Reader

Roomba is a great product. I've one that I've used for 4 years thrice a week without any problem. Another one that I've found indispensable is litter-robot. If I pay someone $5 to clear the litter of two cats, I'll have broken even in 100 days.

Sci-fi is rife with humanoid robots doing everything, while all customers want is specialized products that do one specific thing well and don't cost a lot.

Robotic lawn-mowers - considering there's such a huge market for it especially in the US, I'm surprised no one has come up with a cheap robotic lawn mower yet.

There was some rumor about iRobot coming up with their own lawn mower, but that was in 2016 and we've heard nothing of it yet. https://gizmodo.com/we-can-finally-stick-a-name-on-irobots-r...

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Only speaking personally, but I actually enjoy cutting the grass. It’s a sort of zen-like pattern game. I feel like this is a common sentiment.

Sweeping and vacuuming, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as interesting.

I didn't understand this feeling until I owned my own house, but I feel the same now. Mowing the lawn is one of those chores you can lose your mind in and I always feel better when I finish the task.

It's an extremely personal preference,and people seem to be on the extremes. I know people who absolutely enjoy mowing the lawn, find it relaxing and zen.

For myself, every second I mow the lawn (shovel snow, etc) is a moment of my finite life forever lost :<

I suspect it _may_ be related to growing up in condos/apartments until a few years ago, and having my residence historically be a "low-maintenance base of operations" from which I do fun/interesting things; and not a "black hole of maintenance and cleanup where I spend all my time & money" that a house now seems to be :P

I'm also in the Zen camp for lawn mowing. It's an hour or so of nice exercise, pushing the machine. I also experiment with patterns that minimise the number of turns, etc.

20 years ago, when I bought my Atco Balmoral lawnmower, the user guide said 'change the oil every 25 cuts'. So I started a small logbook to count the cuts. Now, even though I'm on a newer machine, I have 20 years worth of grass cutting data. Recently I digitised it and cross-referenced it with some local climate records. I proved to myself that in years when it rains more, the grass gets cut more. I wish I'd started logging my use of the BBQ at the same time.

I've also integrated grass cutting with leaf management, to get good mulch. One day perhaps I should blog about my overall compost management strategy.

Vacuuming is good when you've waited too long and can really really see the difference it makes (not just a little).

Having a vacuum cleaner that's not a complete PITA helps too (e.g. light, cordless and powerful)

I don't enjoy any housework and used to use a robot vacuum cleaner more or less exclusively, but it can't have been off its dock more than twice in the last 6 months. I actually enjoy doing it myself when I don't have to lug around a big heavy device with a power cord trailing out of it. Never thought I'd see the day.

they tried a couple of times.

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