How well does Trilobite (vs. Roomba) do with several rooms?

[andreas]

I found a discussion concerning how well Roomba Discovery handles several rooms here: http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=435
But since I got a very advantageous (?550) offer I'm most into buying a Trilobite (ZA2).

But I have my doubts about how the Trilobite handles several rooms. We have a 2 bedroom (+kitchen+hallway; totally 65 squaremeters) home, and when I talked to an Electrolux employee, he officially stated that the Trilobite can handle only one room.
I believe that his statement might be because they cant guarantee that it works for several rooms, but that it indeed would handle my apartment quiet well.

Does anyone have any experience on how well trilobite handles several rooms?
Thanks in advance!

[Talon]

I can't answer your question Andreas...........but you could buy 2-3 Roomba's and unlease them at the same time in different rooms and be very happy + bank the extra money or take a vacation with what you saved from not buying the Trilobite

[pachovia]

I just bought a new Trilobite on eBay cheap and I'll test it and report back. I just got high pile carpet installed in my house and the Roomba doesn?t work very good so I bought the Trilobite. But after I bought the Trilobite I modified the Roomba to work on my carpet so I might be selling the Trilobite after a few test runs. The Trilobite will map the rooms and clean the entire area, the Trilobite will even go back to the charging base and recharge and start cleaning were it left off if the area that isn?t done. I assume it would do my entire first floor, it would probably have to recharge to finish the job. The Trilobite can be scheduled and it goes back and self charges like the Scheduler Roomba. But for a retail price of $1,400 it?s a lot to pay, when a Roomba scheduler will do the same but in a much more unorganized pattern. I see the advantage of the Trilobite is better suction power it cleans more like a real vacuum.

[eqwalker]

Pachovia,

Did you ever get your Trilobite to test?

[pachovia]

Pachovia,

Did you ever get your Trilobite to test?

Yes here it is:

http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=874

Joined: 03 Jan 2006
Posts: 43


PostPosted: April 19, 2006, 6:12 pm Post subject: Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post Report Post
I got my Trilobite yesterday, the Trilobites build is superb nice fit and nice materials. Its taller then the Roomba and louder when it cleans. The Trilobite has 3 cleaning modes quick, auto and spot. The spot cleaning is like the Roomba but it?s a 10? square instead of a 3? circle. The auto clean maps the rooms outer walls then cleans the room and if the battery is low and its not done cleaning the Trilobite goes back to he charger and recharges by following the wall and after recharging the Trilobite starts cleaning were it left off. The Trilobite uses magnetic strips to set of barriers instead of the invisible walls, the magnetic strips are easy to use. The Trilobite comes with two different types of magnetic strips, permanent with a adhesive backing which can be laid on top of the floor or buried under carpet or temporary strips which are wide and easy to lay down and cut to desired lengths. I put the permanent strips under my carpet and it serves as a barrier that doesn?t need new batteries and no one can see it.
I charged the Trilobite for two hours and then pressed quick clean. The robot moved slower then the Roomba and was louder but it didn?t touch any furniture and didn?t do the same area of the room more then once. One charge lasted 45 minutes on my high pile carpet and it cleaned the entire area my Roomba cleaned when I had low pile carpet. My Roomba was about maxed in its cleaning ability and charge in this area so I came to the conclusion they both cover close to the same area, the Trilobite is slower and doesn?t last as long but it doesn?t cover the same area of the carpet many times making the Trilobite more efficient in its area coverage. The suction power on the Trilobite is very strong compared to the Roomba it sucked up much more dirt and dust then the Roomba. The Trilobite seemed to have a real vacuum clean and brush clean as were the Roomba seemed to use its brushes to clean and the Roomba seemed to have zero suction. To me the Trilobite has two negatives when compared to the Roomba. One negative is the Trilobite doesn?t get as close to the walls as the Roomba since it never touches the walls and doesn?t have a side brush. The second negative is the Trilobite doesn?t have a scheduler, but this seems less of an issue with the Trilobite I would never want it to run at night, its too loud to run when you are sleeping and its easy for me to run when I leave the house. When its all said and done the Trilobite is the superior vacuum, the Trilobite cleans like a upright and will clean an entire floor even if the Trilobite needs to recharge it will keep cleaning after it charges until the job is done. It also wins no contest if you have medium to high pile carpet, the Roomba simply can?t do the job on these carpets. Also the Trilobite sweep right over my rugs no problems unlike the Roomba. But at $1,300 to $1,700. I'm not sure its worth it for someone with low pile carpet or hard floors. If you have low pile carpet or hard floors I would stick with the Roomba unless money is no object. I still use my Roomba Scheduler in my kitchen Wink.

[sys12345]

Are you still using the Trilo now? Any reliability issues? I noticed that the Trilo does not have castor wheels as well, will it leave marks on hardwood flooring?

[pachovia]

Are you still using the Trilo now? Any reliability issues? I noticed that the Trilo does not have castor wheels as well, will it leave marks on hardwood flooring?

No problems, the wheels are covered in rubber like the Roomba but skinny. .I have a small section of hardwood and it doesn't leave marks. The suctions power of the Trilo seems much stronger then the Roomba and it handles my high pile carpet great, were the Roomba gets buried. If you have high pile carpet I see no other choice, but if you have medium to low pile carpet or hard floors the Rommba would do just fine. I have Run the Trilobite at least once a day for the past 9 months with no one real problem.

[sys12345]

Pachovia, thanks 4 the feedback. Its certainly a lot of $$$ to pay for a robotic vacuum cleaner. Have you done any comparison between the Roomba and the Trilo for hard floorings? I was just wondering if the Trilo actually cleans better than the Roomba for hard floors, i.e. if the more powerful vacuum makes a difference?

[pachovia]

Pachovia, thanks 4 the feedback. Its certainly a lot of $$$ to pay for a robotic vacuum cleaner. Have you done any comparison between the Roomba and the Trilo for hard floorings? I was just wondering if the Trilo actually cleans better than the Roomba for hard floors, i.e. if the more powerful vacuum makes a difference?

I see no diffrence the Roomba works great for hard floors.

[eqwalker]

Pachovia,
Since you have the Trilobite you are getting all the questions about it.
Have your tried the Trilobite doing mulitple rooms? I have thick med pile carpet and, yes, the Roomba does strain on it and I really don't want to cause premature failure on my Roomba wearing it on my carpet. I would like to get a Trilobite but I would want it to be able to do multiple rooms. I have read on Electrolux's website that you could buy several chargers (home bases) and have them scattered throughout your house to make it more effective. Wouldn't this mess up the room mapping though? The scheduling thing is an issue too if I do that. The Trilobite 2.0 does have scheduling, but I don't know if, or when, it will ever be released in the US. I would love to be able to schedule the Trilobite and let it go from room to room and just grab a charger when it needed it and do the entire house that has carpet. I could do that already with Roomba, but as I said, the carpet is a little too thick for it really. I do have tile as well and I'll leave that to the Roomba. Thanks for your comments.

[pachovia]

I've never tried to set up my house with more then one charger, but the Trilobite will clean my complex first floor, the Trilobite it needs to recharge to finish the job but it works great every time. On my second floor with a hallway the Trilobite won't clean the entire upstairs at once. The Roomba would clean my entire upstairs 70% of the time before we got high pile carpet. But the Trilobite does a much better job and will clean two rooms but not the 5 rooms at once upstairs.

[eqwalker]

Do you think they will ever add scheduling to the US version?

[pachovia]

Do you think they will ever add scheduling to the US version?

I'm not sure.

[eqwalker]

Well, pretty soon I'll be able to do some Trilobite testing as well. I went ahead and ordered a Trilobite 2.0 so I will go ahead and post some results when it arrives.

[RC Eden Carpet Cleaning]

Did they release the 2.0 in the US?

[eqwalker]

No, I ordered it from "letsautomate.com" in the UK and had it shipped here.

[eqwalker]

Well, the ZA2 arrived and after I built a power adapter to plug the charger base in, I let it charge up and started it up. I have to say, the Trilobite is definitely a good performer. It has much more suction than the Roomba and does have this certain amount of superior intelligence to it. It is very well constructed and performed well on my med. pile carpet. Other than it trying to dock to my subwoofer after it completed it's cleaning cycle, it operated perfectly. Even after several attempts to dock to my subwoofer it finally gave up and went on around the wall till it did get back to it's charger. All in all, a fine piece of equipment. And, of course, for the price, it should be. Although, I will say I paid less than the Amercan version of the Trilobite even getting it from overseas.

[sys12345]

Hi Eqwalker,

How big is your cleaning area? Can the ZA2 complete the cleaning in a single charge/cycle? How close can it get to the sidewall? Any issue with the lack of a spinning side brush?

Well, the ZA2 arrived and after I built a power adapter to plug the charger base in, I let it charge up and started it up. I have to say, the Trilobite is definitely a good performer. It has much more suction than the Roomba and does have this certain amount of superior intelligence to it. It is very well constructed and performed well on my med. pile carpet. Other than it trying to dock to my subwoofer after it completed it's cleaning cycle, it operated perfectly. Even after several attempts to dock to my subwoofer it finally gave up and went on around the wall till it did get back to it's charger. All in all, a fine piece of equipment. And, of course, for the price, it should be. Although, I will say I paid less than the Amercan version of the Trilobite even getting it from overseas.

[eqwalker]

I have about 700 Sq. Ft. for the Trilobite to clean. It will clean it on a single charge. It has 2 batteries in it and after about 20 minutes it will stop for a sec (it is switching to the other battery) and start back up and continue cleaning. It completes it cleaning and then shuts off the vacuum motor and then goes to a wall and follows the wall back to the charger and then docks. I use mine only on my med. pile carpet. it gets pretty close to the walls. It keeps itself about 1/2 inch from touching the wall. Even though it does not have a side brush, the beater bar is fairly wider than the one on the Roomba. The beater bar is behind the drive wheels so it extends about out to the edges of the unit. But a person would have to use a vacuum hose to get right up to the baseboard with one though. In all honesty, my Roomba's side brush didn't really do me any good on my carpet as far as edging. Now on my tile floor that is a different story. the Roomba's side brush works well there.

[newmom]

No, I ordered it from "letsautomate.com" in the UK and had it shipped here.

Here is what I found on that website today for prices



Part No Description Stock Availability at 18:49 Apr, 19 If ordered on-line Price = Qty to
order
12172 Electrolux Trilobite ZA2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner (Inc Base & Battery) Stock = 20 ? 794.99
(? 676.59 + VAT)

12310 SPARE - Trilobite EF110 Filters (10 Micro Filters, 1 Motor Filter) Stock = 32 ? 14.10
(? 12.00 + VAT)

12312 SPARE - Trilobite ZE110 Magnetic Strip Stock = 11 ? 14.10
(? 12.00 + VAT)

12309 SPARE - Trilobite ZAC2 Charging Base Stock = 18 ? 94.00
(? 80.00 + VAT)


12268 SPARE - Trilobite ZA1/ZA2 Battery Stock = 1 ? 117.50
(? 100.00 + VAT)

12311 SPARE - Trilobite Waste Container Stock = 17 ? 16.45
(? 14.00 + VAT)

12364 SPARE - Trilobite Dust Pickup Roller Stock = 15 ? 16.45
(? 14.00 + VAT)

I believe the exchange right now is about 2 to 1, so the vacuum is almost 1700 dollars and for the other parts just doubled the pounds to find out their $ prices. I noted that their website says they only Warranty items purchased and shipped to Europe??? I am sure that is so that they can charge us in the USA about three time more for the accessories we need because of making the low cost vacuum available through Sam's. The filters for instance are about $2.80 on this website. while I was quoted $7. in the USA by Electrolux.--