A Review of the iRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot
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WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
The Looj® is a strange-looking device, a long and thin tractor-tired cylinder with a series of devices on the front. The front layer looks like a burrow and is used to break up the debris. The second, a rubber airplane-propeller, picks up and swishes the debris out of the gutter. The final layer is comprised of several brushes which spin around and polish the inside of you gutter, finishing up the cleaning.
HOW IT WORKS
Essentially, what you do is place the Looj® in your gutter and detach the handle, which serves as the remote control. With it, you can move the robot forward or backward. In theory, you only need to climb the ladder once, place it in, and let it bust, scoop and clean its way to the end of your house or garage.
So, when evaluating if this is worth it or not, there are three main considerations. 1)Cost, 2)Effectiveness, and 3) whether it will become sentient and go all Terminator on its owner. Poking around on the internet has revealed no instances of the third question being true, and one imagines that would make the news. So we can just focus on the first two.
COST AND EFFECTIVENESS
The first issue is cost. On its official page, the cost has dropped from $100 to $70, before taxes and shipping/handling. While this isn’t terribly expensive, it is more than the ladder and gloves you probably already have as a homeowner. And if you don’t have those, you will have to buy them even with the robot, as it isn’t able to get into the gutter or bag up the leaves on its own. The question is, is $70 worth your time? That can only be answered if you know how well the product works.
Mixed. There are some reports of success, but it doesn’t seem to be able to handle heavy clogging very well. It is reported to frequently stick, and the owner has to send it back and forth. Additionally, it isn’t always able to scoop all the debris out of the gutter, and some of what it does scoop out can end up on the roof. You either have to go up and collect it, or the next rain will wash it right back in. When it works properly, it can be a time-saver, but there are many factors that might make this less efficient and more time-costly than just going up there and doing it yourself.
Now, it is a cool device, and if you are more concerned with not spending all your time on a ladder, which can be dangerous, than this might not be a terrible thing to have. Also, if you just like remote-control thing, go nuts. But in terms of both time and money, and not introducing components that can break down, the Looj® just doesn’t seem worth it. Bear in mind as well that for all your gutter needs—cleaning, installation, repair—you can always call up a qualified gutter technician to help you out, without having to worry about him or her transforming into a deadly killbot.
