iRobot Roomba 560 (Refurbished)
- Model: IROBOT-560-R
- Cleans your floor while you’re outside shoveling snow
- Older model, but this is where Roombas found their groove: since then, it’s been all about minor tweaks and higher prices
- You should still straighten up your floors yourself once in a while
Why isn't this a robot snowblower?
We have the technology. We shouldn’t have to shovel our own driveways and sidewalks and parking spaces like a bunch of suburban cavemen. This Roomba 560 knew how to wander semi-autonomously around your house years ago. It doesn’t seem that complicated to just swap out some of the parts and turn it loose in the snow.
WARNING: DO NOT TURN THIS ROOMBA 560 LOOSE IN THE SNOW.
We don’t get it. iRobot makes robots for bomb disposal and hazmat removal. Seems like they’d find it simple to make a robot that can remove snow without giant terrifying blades right out in the open. They’re experts at this kind of thing. If some guy on YouTube can make a remote-controlled version, certainly the people who made this Roomba 560 could make a robotic snowblower.
WARNING: THIS ROOMBA 560 IS NOT A ROBOTIC SNOWBLOWER.
If you think about it, snow is just another form of debris to clean up, right? Only instead of collecting it in a debris bin, the Roomba 560 would have to blow it out of the way. Maybe all it would take is hooking up a little fan up and pipe up to the bin intake.
WARNING: DO NOT HOOK A LITTLE FAN AND PIPE UP TO THE BIN INTAKE AND TRY TO REMOVE SNOW WITH THIS ROOMBA 560.
Just set up some virtual walls around your driveway or sidewalk and let it run, right? Seems like it’d be just that simple.
WARNING: IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE.
Anyway, our lawyers are telling us we need to back off of any implication that this Roomba 560 could be used for snow removal. So we’ll just say, until the baffling lack of a robotic snowblower on the market is rectified, we’ll have to settle for the Roomba.
WARNING: TO CLEAN OUR FLOORS, NOT REMOVE SNOW. WE CAN’T STRESS THAT ENOUGH.
