How Do You Limit Your Child’s Technology Use?

Today’s children are growing in the high-tech world, and nobody cares for your child’s well-being and success as you as a parent do. It is the sole responsibility of parents to guide their children in today's digitally-driven age, both in the physical and virtual world. 

Children of the digital generation get exposed to different forms of media, including TV, computers, tablets, laptop, smartphones by birth. Media and technology have greatly influenced how children feel, learn, think and behave. 

As per the Pew Research Center, 

⦁71% of parents under age of 12, expressed some concern about the amount of time their children spent using electronic devices.

⦁31% who are very concerned about this matter

⦁80% of parents of the child under the age of  5 to 11 say their child uses or interacts with a tablet computer,

⦁63% of parents say the same about smartphones. 

⦁48 % of parents of children under the age of 5 say same for interacting tablet or computer,

⦁And 55% of parents of children under the age of 5 say the same about smartphones

Children have no clue what might be the consequence of bad screen time. Once they get their hands on a digital screen, they continue to watch them for the longest time possible. Parents need to teach and help their children form good and healthy media use habits in such a situation. 

If you are among those parents who are constantly seeking to limit your child’s technology use, firstly, you need to be familiar with the digital parenting concept and follow the guidelines as mentioned below in the article. 

Why limit technology use?

Overuse of technology and media can put your children or your teens at the risk of

Obesity

Extreme use of technology, excessive screen time, or having a TV in a bedroom can increase the risk of obesity. Viewers often enjoy munching or snacking while watching screen media; as a result, they end up overeating junk foods, which ultimately affects their health. 

Sleep problems

Excessive use of technology can interfere with sleep. Child or teen who spends more time on social media or who uses their phones at bedtime is most likely to suffer from the sleep deprivation problem, which affects them physically and can harm their mental health. 

Negative effects on academic performance

Children or teens are most likely to use the internet and phones for entertainment purposes in the name of searching information for assignments. Some of the children watch TV or online videos even while studying or doing their homework. Such multitasking can greatly harm their academic performance. 

Cyberbullying

Children are not mature enough to use the internet wisely. Everything that seems fascinating to them on the internet, children want to try it out when even thinking what consequences they might have to face and maybe end up being the victim of cyberbullying. 

Problematic internet use

Children often overuse social media and technology, which can be at risk for problematic internet use. Children who overspend their time playing video games or are heavy video gamers are at the risk of internet gaming disorder. They like to spend their free time mostly online and show less interest in offline or real-life relationships. 

How to limit a child's technology use?

Reduce your screen time to set an example of healthy use 

The child picks up the things more quickly what they see more than they pay attention to what you are telling them to do. Parents usually check their phones every hour or surf the internet on their laptops for hours and hours, even if they are home after work. 

Thus, it is important to remember that kids observe you when you use technology when kids are around. So, try to set a good media-free times example by turning off the electronic gadgets such as TV, phones, laptops and spending some quality time with family. 

Implement password protocol

Most of the parents ignore password protocol. But you should not forget that it is the simplest and easiest method a parent can apply to limit a child’s technology usage. However, some parents tend to follow this method but end up putting passwords too simple their kids can easily guess that.  

You must be aware while securing your electronic gadgets with passwords. Try to keep complex passwords, and do not ever share your passwords with your kids, even if they try to blackmail you emotionally. Remember that all the things that you are doing are only for your kid’s safety. 

Aim for balance

There is no doubt that the world is becoming only more digitally-driven, and technology will stay forever and keep upgrading. Technology has a lot of good things to offer today’s generation of kids. It can empower kids of all ages with the comfort and facility it provides that help children learn in fun and engaging ways. 

Keeping all these things and also the negative impact, maintain a balance between online activities and offline. You can follow the certain tips mentioned below:

⦁Give them the freedom to use or introduce them to technology but to some extend only. 

⦁Make a routine that covers both screen time and playing time (outdoor games) with friends.

⦁And if possible, try to be around your kids when they are using social media and technology. 

Use parental control

Another simplest yet effective way to limit your child’s technology use is by using parental control software. These tools help you keep your child from being exposed to and accessing explicit content online. Most of the parental control applications such as bark.us, Net Nanny, easily available in the market, provides a feature to set a filter or block unwanted content. 

Not only this, but you can also enjoy other features such as- 

⦁Setting screen time limits to your kid’s devices, 

⦁Monitor and control their online activities, 

⦁Track their location 

⦁View their browser history. 

Thus, it would be best to get your hands on some parental control, especially if you are working parents and looking for a good and practical method to limit your kid’s technology use. 

Keep yourself updated on new technology

Today’s generation of kids is tech-savvy. There is no objection that kids know more about new technology and electronics than adults do. Thus parents need to show some effort to keep themselves updated about new apps, online games, technology, social media platforms, and trends. 

If you are confused about why you should educate yourself on technology, then it’s because you cannot teach your child or teens about the risks of using a new technology until and unless you understand the danger yourself. And also, it would be easy for you to explain why they need to limit their technology use. 

Create technology-free zones

Establish a zone in your home where using any sort of electronic gadgets are strictly prohibited whether it’s phones, tablets or handheld video games whenever all family member are dining together or having a family conversation or in the kids’ study room. Make all the family members, including your kids, follow them. 

Protect bedtime

Surfing the internet or using digital media at night can interfere with sleeping patterns. The child continues to play with the electronics, whether it’s a phone or video games, at least for hours and hours. Sometimes there can also be the case where they play games the whole night and feel less energetic and have a severe headache during day time. Thus it becomes very important for you as a parent to protect the bedtime. For this:

⦁Ask your child to avoid screen time for at least one hour before bedtime. 

⦁Make sure your child does not sleep with electronic gadgets such as phones.

Encourage other activities

Every time being on the phones or laptops, playing online games, or only chatting with virtual friends online make your kids lazy and dull. They show no interest in socializing with real friends or meeting new people. 

And if you are parenting such kids, then it’s time to change your kid’s habits and turn their screen time to healthy social time. Encourage your child to involve in other activities that require no screen facing, such as:

⦁Playing outdoors games 

⦁Reading books 

⦁Helping parents in the kitchen 

⦁Going for a short family walk together

Final thoughts

Technology changes way fast and keeps upgrading every year. And the love for technology among kids/children and teens is insane. For parents, it becomes very difficult to keep their children away from using technology. However, technology has lots of good and positive aspects to offer you and your kids. 

However, some hesitation regarding technology use can be seen among many parents. They worry about their kids being exposed to inappropriate content online or spend more time online than playing outdoor games with friends. Not only this, but it also becomes hard for parents to keep an eye on whenever their child is using technology.

Thus, to overcome such problems, you can simply implement the guidelines mentioned above practically in your life that somewhat helps you limit your child’s technology use. 

Note: There is no specific rule out there where you can simply use it to limit your child’s technology use in a day. At last, it’s all about discipline and understanding between parents and children.

How Do You Limit Your Child’s Technology Use?

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How Can You Be A Good Parent With Technology?

The digital world is evolving at a rapid pace today, and yet many parents don't have the knowledge or experience to guide their children in this digital age. A simple misguide to your child may have a severe impact on their childhood. As a parent, you need to be alert and conscious at the same time regarding your child's technology usages. 

If you are among those parents who are constantly worried about what technology is doing to your kids and want to have some basic idea about how you can cope up with your tech kids, then do not worry. Here, I have shared some tips and tricks you can implement in your life and be a good parent with technology as nobody can better understand one parent's feelings than another parent.

For us, as a parent of today's generation of kids, technology is both a blessing and curse. However, most parents would show objection because they find technology only as the biggest curse that one can ever have. 

They say that they are constantly worried about their kids because of the usage of advanced technology and should monitor their kid's activity frequently, which may sometimes be hectic as they have more important things to handle. 

And if you are also among those parents who have no clue how you can be a good parent with technology and think technology is the only curse, then it's time you need to change your perspective regarding it. By simply implementing the following tips practically, you can surely be a good parent with technology as I, being a parent of two children, have felt the changes. But before diving into the topic, firstly, have some idea what mistakes you can make with the technology in brief. 

Mistakes parents can make with technology 

⦁Not keeping up with the new technology and finding themselves comfortable using old-based technology phones or devices. 

⦁Trusting their children blindly and not monitoring their child's online activity. 

⦁Allowing their child to take phones into their rooms 

⦁Ignoring password protocol

⦁Not setting time limits to child's devices 

⦁Allowing kids to have their phones at an earlier age

Six keys to be a good parent with technology

⦁Key an open mind rather than fear of the use of new technology 

There is no doubt that today's era is almost wrapped with technology. The way technology is upgrading is insane. We cannot deny that many technological developments and innovations played a major role in our lives, whether using computers, smartphones, or even smartwatches. 

All these revolutions in the tech field have made our lives easier, comfortable, faster, better, and more fun. Keeping all these things in mind, it will be beneficial for you to be open-minded and introduce yourself to the new technology as it is the first and foremost step to be a good parent with technology. 

⦁Embrace the positive side of new technology while building skills to mitigate risks

Many parents often seem to be concerned about the issues emerging in the technology and business environment. As a result, they are afraid to try out new technology and not permit their children to access it. Not permitting your child to use technology because of your fear is no less than giving them a harsh punishment. 

Instead, allow them to use new technology but within a certain boundary. There are plenty of parental control apps available in the market. Use them to monitor and control your child's devices. As we all know very well, although technology has some negative side effects, it also has many positive sides. Embrace those positive sides and give freedom to your child to explore them. 

⦁Model good behavior 

Children are too observant and quick to pick up the habits that they see. Children always look up to their parents. They think that parents are always right and whatever they do is always good. Thus, children try to act or do the same thing as you (parents) do. As per the article published in Pubmed, parents of young children pick up their phones almost 70 times a day.

So try to put your phone away whenever you are dining with your child. Teach them a good dining habit. Do not be on your phone whenever you are home from work. Try to spend some quality time with your child. Make them aware of the bad consequences they might face if they are always on their phones.

⦁Keep an open conversation about digital issues

Children are not mature enough to determine what is good and bad on the internet. They are clueless about what digital issues are, how they might get into the traps of such issues, and what consequences they might suffer. 

As responsible parents and parents of today's digital world, you must make your child familiar and educate them on digital issues. Make them understand what cyberbullying is, online fraud, phishing. Also, make them alert that whenever they see or encounter an attractive advertisement while playing online games or browsing some site, they should not click on that dialog box. 

⦁Engage with the technology yourself so you can remain credible

Nobody can be a better tech mentor for the child during their beginning phase in technology. Children are fast learners. They are sharp and quickly pick up the things that you teach them. You know very well that any simple mistakes done while surfing the internet can cause severe problems. 

So try to engage yourself with the technology and keep updating yourself about the new technology, apps that are famous among today's youth so that you can guide your child in the right way because no parents want their child to be misguided by someone else. 

⦁Seek a balance between offering support and independence

Parents are constantly worried about their child's online activities. They are afraid of their child ending up victims of online bullying or may talk to the stranger and share pictures or contact with each other. So to avoid this situation, parents often seem to be interfering in their child's privacy to an extreme level.

But you should not forget that you are raising an adult who will grow up and need the freedom to make their own choices. If you kept interfering in their choices even after they grew up, you made it difficult for both of you and damaged your equation with them. So you must seek a balance where you can protect and encourage them at the same time. 

Final thoughts

For us, being a parent is never easy. Every new year comes with new challenges for us, especially when our kids are growing. There is no guidebook mentioning all the tips that suit all the parent needs, since everyone has their unique way of parenting. However, you can still follow some general guidelines that help you to be a good parent with the technology. 

Technology is upgrading rapidly, and some of these changes have negatively impacted the way parents communicate with their children. Thus, try to create some rules regarding the use of technology-making discussions with your child. By doing so, they won't feel you are being too strict or interfering in their choices. Also, you can maintain good equations with your child and protect them from online bullying.

How Can You Be A Good Parent With Technology?

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Why My Roomba Is Flashing Orange?

Roomba is a self-cleaning robotic vacuum cleaner manufactured by the iRobot Corporation. As you may already know, your Roomba robovac operates on a rechargeable battery that provides hundreds of cleaning cycles. Maintain it properly to extend its life, and the key is to recharge the battery after each cleaning session. When you put a Roomba into an on-wall outlet, the charger's solid green light indicates that it is charging. However, what if your existing model is recharged through a Home Base? It is quite usual for the unit's light indication to go out when charging via the Home Base, as the Home Base itself does not have a light indicator. 

The reason for this is that throughout the charging process, both the robotic cleaner and the Home Base must exchange energy. After the robot vacuum docks, the Home Base's power button turns green for four seconds and then turns off. Meanwhile, once linked to the Home Base, the little cleaning machine's charging light will likewise become green; similarly, it will extinguish after a minute.

So, how can you determine if your Roomba is charging?

These are the things to know when Roomba is charging accurately.

• On the unit, press CLEAN.
• When the power indicator is green, it indicates that your robovac is completely charged.
• The amber hue indicates that the battery is still charging.
• If the indicator goes red, this is a sign of a low battery and you should charge it immediately.

If you are utilizing the 900 series, the simplest solution is to download the iRobot app. The Roomba battery's state will be presented on the screen, indicating the optimal time to conduct a cleaning cycle.

How does Roomba Work

The working modalities of Roomba need some explanation before it can be fully understood. We promise to simplify it in this article so that our readers can understand.

Roombas are robot vacuum cleaners in the shape of a Frisbee or large disc. The bottom of a regular Roomba has rotating brushes like any other vacuum. Many Roomba users are unaware that their robots drain electricity while not attached to a power source or home base. Internally, a few applications operate instantly as long as the battery is inserted. If you do not utilize a home base or connect the power source directly to the Roomba's side, a gradual but steady drain occurs, resulting in an extremely low battery level. When this occurs, the Roomba charging system detects the need to perform a "special battery recovery" program and indicates this by flashing the Clean indication light on at a rate of 120 interrupts per minute (IPMs) over the following 16 hours during the special battery recovery program period.

Operations

Modes of operation: Start/Pause/Sleep

1. Start

A. When the switch on the bottom of the robot is activated, the CLEAN button indication will gradually turn blue.

B. To begin cleaning, press the CLEAN button on the main body or on the remote controller. The robot will be equipped with

2. Pause

To temporarily halt the robot’s cleaning:

A. Hit the CLEAN button on the main body; 

B. On the remote controller, press the ON/OFF button.

3. Sleep mode

To put the robot into sleep mode, which will result in a darkened display indicator (robot in standby mode, not switched off):

A. If no order is received within 30 seconds, the robot will automatically enter sleep mode.

B. For two seconds, push the CLEAN button on the main body or the ON/OFF button on the remote controller. The robot will enter sleep mode.

Whenever an Orange color light with a quick pulse appears on your Robot vacuum whether it is a 400, 500, 600, 700, or 800 series robot, it indicates that the robot has begun a 16-hour refresh charge cycle due to a severe depletion of the battery. After one minute of charging, certain versions will also turn off all of the robot's indicators. This is natural behavior designed to conserve your energy. A refresh charge will occur if the Roomba has been removed from the Home Base® or charger for a prolonged length of time. 

This thorough charge rejuvenates the battery and enables it to run for an extended amount of time. If you want the best results, please do not interrupt the refresh charge. The CLEAN indicator (battery icon indication on the Roomba 700 and 800) will pulse fast to signal that the refresh charge has begun. The refresh charge cycle cannot be started manually; it begins only when it is necessary. 

Tips for Taking Care of Your Roomba Battery

With appropriate maintenance, the battery in your robot can survive for several cleaning cycles before needing to be changed. So here are a few battery care suggestions to help you extend the life of your battery and keep your Roomba working at its best:

1. Utilize only iRobot batteries.

2. Make occasional use of your robot. It is equipped with a powerful rechargeable battery, and when used often, will provide most cleaning tasks.

3. When not being used, keep your robot connected to a power source.  Let the Roomba charge on the Home Base. Keep your robot connected to the charger if you do not have a Home Base

4. Make sure your robot is charged and stored in a cool, dry location.

Maintain a clean robot. If it becomes blocked with hair or dirt, it will have to work harder than normal, which will drain the battery more quickly. Recharge your robot immediately after use; waiting several days might cause the battery to degrade. If you will not be using your robot for more than a few weeks, keep it in a cool, dry location. For best performance, fully charge the battery at least once every six months.

Never keep your Roomba unplugged from a charging component for an extended period of time after completing a cleaning mission unless you remove the battery to avoid a complete discharge and probable battery failure.

Why My Roomba Is Flashing Orange?

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Why Does My Roomba Only Run For A Few Minutes?

A tiny disk running around the house and absolving one of one’s cleaning responsibilities is always a breath of relief. Brooming, mopping, everything is done, without any actual broom or mop to the effect. That is the Roomba, your cleaning robot. However, imagine that little robot losing its efficiency and abandoning its work. Sounds terrible, right? An absolute waste of a beautiful day. Sad as it is, quite a few of us seem to have encountered this problem, where the Roomba only runs for a few minutes and stops after that, sometimes with certain messages such as “I’m done” when its not, or “Please charge” even when it is charged. But don’t worry, the reasons have been identified and solutions looked into!

Battery Issues

The most frequent problem is that of the battery runtime. To overcome this, you need to give a test to what the full battery runtime is. This requires you to follow a three-step procedure. First, charge the battery to the maximum extent. Second, press the clean button and let the Roomba start cleaning. If in 60 minutes or so your Roomba plays the ‘I’m done’ tune, then your Roomba is alright and it has calculated the room size and it takes only a little time to clean the room. However, if your Roomba plays the ‘please charge the Roomba’ sound in less than sixty minutes, this means that you need to change the battery of your Roomba. You can do so by going to a service center. Or you can order the battery online on the official website. 

You can also get it from an unauthorized dealer who sells Ropomba parts. However, it is advisable to always get parts of your Roomba from an authorized seller. If your Roomba is well within the warranty period, then talk to customer care executives and figure out how you can solve the issue. The customer service is excellent and you will not need more than a couple of days to get your Roomba fixed. 

Make sure that your Roomba is actually getting charged

The problem might also be in your charging socket or the Roomba’s charger. Before calling customer care or proceeding to buy a new battery, check to see whether your socket is working fine and whether the Roomba is actually getting charged. To check the workings of your socket, remove the Roomba’s charging plug and try pitting your phone charger. If your phone charges normally, then you can be sure that your socket is working fine. If you think that the plug point might be the problem, try setting up the Roomba’s home near another plug point to verify whether the issue is in your Roomba or the charging situation. Ensure that the Roomba is actually getting charged. There can be issues with the wires too. 

If you see that your Roomba is getting charged properly but it still works for only a few minutes, then it is most likely an issue related to the battery. 

If you have recently re-mapped room boundaries 

In some Roombas remapping, the room has caused these problems. If you have recently remapped your room and your Roomba is topping after running for a couple of minutes, then it could be due to that. But this isn’t such a huge issue. You need to re-map the room again. Delete the app, and start the entire re-mapping process again. The Roomba will take 2-3 days to adjust to the new boundaries and the new map, but the issue should be solved after that. If your Roomba starts running into the same problem again after a couple of days, then it might be an internal issue. You should contact customer care to pinpoint your Roomba’s issues. 

How to solve your Roomba’s issues?

Changing batteries

If you conclude that your Roomba’s issue is due to its battery, you should get a new battery. However, before ordering a battery, talk to customer support to ensure that it indeed is a problem in the battery of your Roomba and not a software issue or other issues. Buy your Roomba’s battery from an authorized seller to ensure that you get the authentic battery. 

Doing a factory reset

Doing a factory reset will delete all your app data and you will have to do the entire process all over again, but in most cases doing a factory reset solves the issue. The customer care executives will also ask you to do a factory reset before looking deeper into the issue. So it might be a good idea to try it before calling the customer care executives. If your Roomba starts working fine, then the entire effort is worth it. Besides, you wouldn’t need to spend money on buying batteries or on getting your Roomba repaired. 

Removing the battery and putting it back

Another thing that customer care executives ask customers to do is to remove the battery of the Roomba, keep it aside for a few minutes and then put the battery back in. This can solve the problem sometimes. You can also do an entire reset after removing the battery and putting it back. If none of it solves your issue, then you can rest assured that the problem is either in the battery or in the software. It could also be a hardware issue. Contact customer care. 

Updating the software or loading a new firmware 

This is something that the customer care executive will do for you. You don’t have to do anything. Just contact the customer care executives and if they think that your Roomba needs new firmware, they will ask you to keep your Roomba at its base and they will load new firmware in your Roomba. This has shown to be effective in solving the issue of Roombas working for a few minutes and then stopping. If your Roomba works fine for only a few days after the update, then contact customer support immediately and ask them to fix your issue. 

Why Does My Roomba Only Run For A Few Minutes?

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What Does Roomba Charging Error 5 Mean?

An error message in any device simply means something is wrong with the functionality of the device. When your Roomba starts displaying Roomba charging error 5, it means there is something wrong with your Roomba, and it needs to be checked using some of the methods that will be revealed in this article.

The basis of writing is to pass a message to a large audience. The best way to successfully make a large audience understand a concept is to assume that everybody is reading it for the first time. This will give you the opportunity of starting your explanation from the scratch. Even though it is not possible that all your readers are coming across what you are talking about for the first time, it will allow those who are reading for the first time to understand better.

For example, we want to talk about Roomba charging error 5 in this article. Before you can talk about Roomba charging error 5, it means there must be something called a Roomba. Those that have Roomba will understand, but those that do not have a Roomba will not understand. In that case, they would not bother reading the article. That way, you have not successfully passed a message. To make sure this article is beneficial to a larger audience, we will begin by explaining what a Roomba is, and its mode of operation. 

What Is A Roomba And How Does It Operates

The concept of Roomba began in 1990 by three artificial intelligence laboratory technicians namely Rodney Brooks, Colin Angle, and Helen Greiner who designed robots for military defense. Presently, they are designed by a company based in the United States of America known as iRobot. Roomba is one of the various robotic vacuum cleaners designed and sold by iRobot. 

How Does Roomba Carry out Its Operation

The Roomba uses three components in carrying out its cleaning operation around the house. The components are infrared sensors, photoelectric cells, and piezoelectric sensors.

Humans cannot see infrared but they can feel it as heat. Infrared is very useful at night. They can locate objects that are in dark places. When you press your remote control to change a channel on your television, it is infrared that allowed you to carry out such action. 

A photoelectric cell uses the photoelectric reaction to change light energy to electric energy. It does that by discharging infrared light rays from its lightning ray element towards an object it is targeted at. 

The difference between the infrared sensor and the photoelectric sensor is while the infrared sensor locates changes in movement, the photoelectric sensor estimates changes in the levels of the light. The infrared sensor is positioned on the front of the Roomba sends out a light ray that locates any stumbling block while the photoelectric sensor interprets the light to know where the object is stationed and estimates the distance of the object from the light.

A Piezoelectric sensor is also one of the sensors that a Roomba uses in its operation. It consists of metals between two metal plates. When the metal plates are squeezed, an electrical voltage is formed.

A Piezoelectric sensor is used to locate the existence of wastes in a Roomba. If there are a lot of tiny waste particles in the Roomba, the ‘Dirt Detect’ is activated. The ‘Dirt Detect’ triggers the device to remain over an area for more rigorous cleaning.

Another thing that is important that we need to discuss in the operation of a Roomba is the Touch-sensitive bumper. The infrared ray sensors as we have said before locate stumbling blocks before it gets to the Roomba. The Touch-sensitive bumper stops the Roomba when it locates something.

How Roomba Cleans

The Roomba is designed to clean using two methods. It is either, it can either clean using "wall following" and "random bounce". In "wall following", the Roomba moves around the room by winging its brush, and ensuring that its brush reaches every angle of the room.

For "random bounce", the Roomba continues to clean a particular spot until it comes across a stumbling block. As soon as it encounters a barrier, the Roomba changes its cleaning by facing another direction.

Roomba Error 5 Charging

After taking our time to explain all the concepts we have explained about a Roomba since the beginning of this article, the time has come for us to move to the main aim of writing this article. This is also the segment where we will end our article. Everything you have been reading since the beginning of the article is tailored towards making you understand what we are about to explain now.

Roomba charging error 5 varies according to the Roomba model you are using, but they all mean the same thing irrespective of the model.

But before talking about what charging error 5 means, let us look at how to indicate charging error 5 in some Roomba devices.

1> If you are using Roomba 900 series, it will display like this "Charging error five (5). Please open the iRobot App for help".

2> If you are using a Wi-Fi-connected Roomba 600 and 800 series, it will display like this "Charging error five (5). Please open the iRobot app for help."

3> If you are using a Roomba 500, 600, 700, and 800 series, it will display like this "Charging error five (5)." 

Generally, charging error 5 means the charging system is not working accurately. One of the causes of charging error 5 is fake batteries.

When you encounter a charging error 5 messages on your Roomba device, the first thing to do is to remove the battery and check if it is not a fake battery.

If your battery is authentic, then it might be due to excess waste on the charging contacts. Open it to confirm if there is a waste. Once you find wastes, use soft foams to remove the dirt from the charging contacts on the home base and robot. 

What Does Roomba Charging Error 5 Mean?

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Is It Better To Sweep Or Vacuum Hardwood Floors?

If you have a hardwood floor you know that taking care of it is a task. You don’t want your beautiful hardwood floor to get scratched or face damages. There is an entire debate about whether to mop and sweep hardwood floors or vacuum them. Your first reaction might be to pick up a broom and mop to clean your room, but researches and studies point out that vacuuming a hardwood floor can be just as good and safe. 

Which is safer for hardwood floors, sweeping, or vacuuming?

Vacuuming hardwood floors seems like the better and safer option considering everything. The chances of scratching your hardwood floor with a broom are higher as it drags the dust particle on the floor. If by any chance there are sharp particles of dust or any other sharp objects, the dragging can cause scratches on the floor. But in the case of vacuum cleaners, they suck up the dust without dragging them on the floor. 

Vacuum cleaners can do the job quickly and can collect even the finest dust particles. Whereas brooms and mops often miss out on finer dust particles. These fine dust particles also settle on cushions, couches, and rugs. Brooms cannot clean these things. But a vacuum cleaner can not only suck up all the dust particles from the floor, but also from bedsheets, cushions, couches, and rugs. 

It is almost impossible to reach under cupboards and beds with a broom and a mop. Even if you try really hard, you will miss the difficult spots. A vacuum cleaner can reach the most difficult corners and pick up dust particles from there. 

So it can be safely concluded that a vacuum cleaner does a better job at cleaning hardwood floors. Even if you want to stick to traditional brooms and mops to sweep your hardwood floors there is no harm in it. They also get the job done. But in comparison with vacuum cleaners, they are a little less efficient, 

Benefits of vacuuming a hardwood floor

The challenge in vacuuming hardwood floors is choosing the right model of the vacuum cleaner. No matter which type of vacuum cleaner you choose, you have to make sure that the vacuum cleaner needs to have soft bristles so that it doesn’t scratch your precious hardwood flooring. Once you ensure that, there are many benefits of using a vacuum cleaner. Let us look at a few benefits. 

1> It requires less labor and can pick up dust better than brooms and mops can. You do not have to go around with a broom, trying to reach difficult corners. You can simply use the vacuum cleaner with ease and reach the most difficult corners without having to do an entire workout routine. 

2> Vacuuming your hardwood floor is a much faster process than brooming or mopping it. You just have to walk around with the vacuum cleaner. If you have a robotic vacuum cleaner, then you don’t even need to walk with it. You just have to switch on the robotic vacuum cleaner and let it do its job. 

3> The bristles of a broom are exactly what they are. You cannot change them. However, when you buy a vacuum cleaner, it comes with various different kinds of brushes that can solve different problems. Some attachments work better on hardwood floors, others work better on tiled floors. You can try different attachments and see which one works the best for you. 

4> If you are allergic to dust, vacuum cleaners are a better option for you. Unlike brooms, they do not kick up dust into the air. Instead, vacuum cleaners actually suck all the dust. This can be a safer option for you and your allergies won’t be triggered. 

5> Vacuum cleaners have been seen to be very efficient in dealing with fine dust. Brooms sometimes miss fine dust particles. These particles can be very harmful to health. Vacuum cleaners can deep clean your house by collecting all the finer pieces of dust along with larger dust particles and debris. 

6> You can also use a vacuum cleaner to clean sofas, curtains and blinds. Therefore a vacuum cleaner can be used for multiple tasks. Your house can be cleaned thoroughly using a vacuum cleaner. It ensures that every surface in your house is free of dust and dirt. If you have rugs, you know that brooming them does nothing. But you also must be aware of how quickly rigs get dusty. Vacuum cleaners are perfect for cleaning rugs too. 

Should you vacuum your hardwood floor every day?

There is no harm in vacuuming your hardwood floor. Ideally, vacuuming your hardwood floor once every two days can be a good idea. Vacuuming is just an alternative to brooming, so you can vacuum your house as often as you broom and mop it. If you have pets who shed a lot of hair or if your house gets dusty very fast, then vacuuming it every day can be a good idea. Otherwise, once in two to three days is more than enough. 

How to clean efficiently with a vacuum cleaner?

Vacuum cleaners are very easy to use, especially once you get the hang of the entire process. The workings of vacuum cleaners vary. Different companies and different models have different functioning. For example, robot vacuum cleaners are very different from handheld vacuum cleaners. So the best thing to do is to check the user manual and read it carefully. If you don’t know about the working of your vacuum cleaner, you might not be able to make full use of it. 

Vacuum cleaners can get to even the most difficult corners, so make sure to use them for that purpose. If you have domestic help who helps you with cleaning your house, make sure to explain the functions and working of your vacuum cleaner to them. If you have a robotic vacuum cleaner, you don’t need any house help. All you need to do is push a few buttons, and your house will be squeaky clean.

Is It Better To Sweep Or Vacuum Hardwood Floors?

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