iRobot Dirt Dog: A Roomba for the Workshop

You can’t plan a theme crossover better than this: iRobot, makers of the Roomba and Scooba, are pushing the “Dirt Dog” cleaning robot designed for workshops and garages. With a yellow-and-black color scheme clearly designed to rip off DeWalt, the Dirt Dog is built to be able to slurp up nuts and bolts as well as wood shavings and sawdust.

The question I have is: Has anyone actually used this? We are a Roomba-heavy household—two Roombas and a Scooba live here; “I write about electronics for a living” is the excuse I use to gloss over my addiction—and find them to be a life-saver in the never-ending battle against pet hair. (Porter and the cats are all three major shedders.)

I don’t actually have a need for a Dirt Dog—I don’t have a workshop, but a “work area,” and my projects peak out at “hang lamp” and “build a Lego robot.” But I can think of a few folks who could use a $130 Dirt Dog for Christmas if someone could actually get their hands on one and use it in a real-world test environment. I have an inkling that one run through a pool of motor oil would gum up the whole works.

iRobot’s Dirt Dog Does the Work (Room) [PCMag]
Product Page [iRobot]