Picabot was being sold for $1488 during Homedec recently. Salesman said that compared to roomba, battery life is shorter and vacuuming power is also lower (cannot pick up peebles and screws, which he said is unlikely to be found in our homes anyway unlike Westerners). Picabot also has a special bulb to disinfect the floor (I'm not convinced though).

There's another brand, Oku San No, which is selling for less than 1k. Haven't seen it in action.

Just bumped into a thread under

Lowyat.NET -> Trade Zone -> Bulk Orders [BULK] Auto Cleaner Intelligent Floor Vacuum, SORRY DUE TO WRONG PRICE QUOTED
forum.lowyat.net/topic/634901/+20

but last entry was June 08. It was offered for $800.

QUOTE(techm @ May 11 2008, 12:59 PM)
Hi guys
I got myself an Oku San No automatic vacuum cleaner drool.gif
Bought at Kepong Carrefour at RM 898.
Anyway here are my initial thoughts after 1 day of using it

Pros:
- It's pretty nifty & cute when u see it moving all over the house smile.gif
- Does its job of "general" cleaning.
- It auto recharges itself! smile.gif

Cons:
- It's round in shape, so don't expect it to properly clean corners of walls where it cant reach. Just a minor issue this is.
- It gets stuck along wires, or soft/light foot mats doh.gif . Make sure your floor is free of all these.
- It's kinda dumb...looks like its moving in random directions & in circles. I was hoping it had more intelligence built in (like creating an image of the room in its head)
- Haven't tested on the stairs, but it quite often falls off and gets stuck at drops of 4-5cm doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif . (I'm not sure if the edge sensor is working also??). Need to use the virtual wall feature to prevent it from falling over this area.
Quite a few cons, but I guess it's a "reasonable" price for such a new product.

My wife likes it a lot though. thumbup.gif

Anybody has seen how the iRobot compares to this?

QUOTE kbandito
Yes, RM400 if you get from the wholesaler in Malaysia.
China manufacturing cost is RM100+, plus import tax to Malaysia, the cost for local wholesaler is RM200+, they sell to retailer for RM400.
Solid info from my friend, he is selling this model.

---

Added on October 9, 2009, 8:55 amJust came across my mind that this thread seems to have moved in another direction. Sorry for that, aremad9.

Anyway, if you can get the iroomba for $1,788 (quote rubikian) + transformer cost, its much better.

I personally have no faith in these "copy" products, espcially since the local distributors also earn high margin.

@sherwin
Earlier you suggested "Mr Clean, AJAX Fabuluso, Kiwi Kleen, Clorox Non-Bleach Floor Cleaner, and Kiwi Kleen" to replace the Clorox solution. All of them works ? Any recommendation for greasy floor ?

This post has been edited by liewpk: Oct 9 2009, 08:55 AM