Chaos Critter: Family Profile and Tech Review
This week we discuss the newest family member: Frank. He's our first robot and immediately became popular (especially with the Homo sapiens). The family reacts to Frank and we cover care and feeding.
Leading up to Christmas, we thought we’d introduce and review the newest member of the Chaos Critters. Frank has already appeared in posts and stories, but he’s been around long enough to deserve some detailing.
We bought Frank ourselves. The company did not request a review and may even be horrified at the prospect.
Who is Frank?
Frank is named after Flexible Frank, from Robert A. Heinlein’s A Door into Summer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer). In the book, Frank is the first of the general household automata created by the main character.
Our Frank may not be as flexible as the one from the book. He is not, however, a single tasker, as we decided vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping were all different jobs.
Frank is actually a Dreame X40 Ultra Robot Vacuum (https://www.dreametech.com/products/dreametech-x40-ultra-robot-vacuum). Anna and I checked out a lot of reviews but definitely need to give a hat-tip to a review site we found Vacuum Wars (https://vacuumwars.com/)!
What does the family think?
Anna and I think Frank is wonderful. We run him three times a week to clean the entire house. We’ve started using him on the weekends for the worst part, near the back door.
Crokell is pretty laid back about Frank. The worst part is sometimes Frank thinks our Newfie is a pile of laundry and tries to clean too close to him. Then Crokell gets up and moves elsewhere.
Beleth thinks Frank can be interesting. At this point, the biggest thing is that he thinks Frank’s cleaning liquid smells. At first, like the rest of the family, Beleth would follow Frank around while he worked.
Aki thinks Frank can be intrusive, running around with his video camera as he works. She’s usually sleeping up high, so Frank doesn’t usually disturb her.
Dante barely noticed Frank. The little Mini American is still a puppy. He kind of went, “What?”
What does Frank need?
Frank needs to be “fed and watered” and “groomed” as needed.
Watering: The dirty water needs to be emptied and rinsed. This is water that was used to wash the mop pads once Frank is done. The clean water needs to be filled. We use distilled water to prevent build up inside Frank.
Feeding: Frank uses a concentrated cleaning solution. They come in different scents. Anna and Beleth voted for the cedar smell. It isn’t real strong - mostly a background while Frank works.
Grooming: Frank needs to be groomed after he works. It isn’t much and is way less work than cleaning the floors ourselves. It may be easier for you, if you don’t have a Newfie and a Maine Coon Cat.
First, Frank has an internal bin where he collects debris while cleaning. Once he’s done, you should check this was emptied properly. Here we’ve pulled the bin out. You can see the air filter too. In the little compartment for the bin, you can also see a slot towards the bottom of the picture. You can check this for hairballs.
Second, as we just mentioned, Frank should be checked for hairballs. Remove the roller and clean it out. This is a week without cleaning. (My story is we failed to clean it during the week, so you could see what it looked like.) In the Chaos Critter Demesne, most of the buildup is around the ends of the roller’s axle.
Finally, Frank occasionally needs the bag inside his den cleaned. Once he docks, his bin is emptied into this bag. (You can also see the container for the concentrate right next to it.
How does Frank work?
Frank has all sorts of options for controls. We use the simplest. We manually tell him to clean the house during the week. And on weekends, we tell him to clean a specific area that gets extra dirty.
He cleans really well and it’s nice having clean floors that we don’t have to take care of.
Chaos Tip of the Week
Never leave home without a rubber band; it’s the secret to holding your sanity together in a chaotic universe.
Critter’s Weekly Question
In the spirit of time and stress savers like Frank, what's your go-to stress relief method when pet chaos ensues?
Later
~Tod and Anna