London Drugs now sells a “Grillbot” for cleaning you barbecue grill. This is so phenomenally stupid, I don’t know where to start.
First, it’s almost certainly not a robot, which implies a level of autonomy and decision-making, but rather an automaton, which simply bounces around the grill spinning it’s feeble little brushes.
Second, a simple steel brush and a bit of steel a wool would be more effective because a person can not only apply force when needed, but can also identify dirt spots and focus more attention on those.
Third, after you’ve run down the batteries on this gadget, you’ll have to clean up after it anyway. Check the results, scrub missed spots, rinse the grill, etc.
Fourth, as any Roomba owner knows, maintenance is time consuming and expensive. Dirt gets into the inner workings, parts need to be replaced, batteries charged/replaced — all of this costs you money and time. At huge expense, you’ve given yourself more work than you had before.
Finally, if I had a gas barbecue, I would definitely buy one of these, because OMG TINY GRILL-CLEANING ROBOT!