To that end, I have purchased a couple of automatic (or robotic) appliances.
I have the Littermaid automatic litter box, which definitely has room for improvement, and seems to break frequently (I have bought about six of them over the last five years - I use two at a time, to keep my two cats happy).
I just recently bought a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. It worked fine for about two days, then had a spate of problems (it seemed to get lost in the room, and not make it back to its hutch), and is now working okay again (I tried to remove some of the clutter in the room).
I’m looking into a robotic lawn mower, but at $1500-$3000, just paying someone else to mow my grass looks a little better.
What are some other products that I need - whether already in existence or not - that would complete my dream house?
That’s odd… I’ve had my two Littermaid Mega boxes for close to 4 years now (two cats) and have not had one failure in that time. I travel extensively and they are a lifesaver for the trips where I’m on the road for 5-7 days. Which model are you using?
Light timers have been around for a while, but they’re a lot more sophisticated now. They have timers now that take your latitude and longitude, plus the date and time, and automatically calculate sunrise and sunset (if you want to use those in programming the times), plus they can be set for a different program each day of the week, and special on holidays. So you could have your bedroom lights turn on at 7 AM on weekdays (except for Wednesdays when you work half-days), when you have to get up for work, but 8 AM on Sundays for church, and not at all on Saturday mornings, when you can sleep in. Then, in the evening, you could have your living room light turn on from sunset until 11 PM when you go to bed, except on Friday nights when you’re usually going out, so the lights don’t turn on at all.
Similarly, there are programmable thermostats, which can be set for different temperatures in the morning when you’re getting up, during the day when you’re out of the house, in the evening when you’re home again, and at night when you’re sleeping.
Ah - not the Mega, just the plain old model that you can buy at Wal-Mart for about $80. I’ve wondered if the bigger, more powerful one would work better. I guess I’ll try that next time. The ones I have now have been holding up pretty well, however - almost a year with no problems.
What happens when they break is the rake just stops moving, usually in the middle of the cycle, and I can’t get it to move again. I’ve taken them apart and cleaned them according to the instructions I received from their customer service, but it hasn’t helped.
Ah. I wasn’t aware the pellets were wood. I thought they were agricultural waste, like leaves and stuff. Wood (sawdust, chipped slash, etc) makes a lot more sense.
Of course! IBJammin’, you should have attended the Michigan Dopefest yesterday. We were discussing the mechanics of robots, lasers, and building a 1920’s style Death Ray.
…and on those lines, I hope you already have an automatic coffee maker (one of the ones that automatically grind the beans for you) set up to have a cup waiting for you every morning.
I believe I’ve seen something about refridgerator/freezers that can defrost things on a timer; I bet at the highest end you can find something that will take food from frozen to cooked all on a timer.
