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Roombas

amc80

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We signed the docs for our new house yesterday, and should be closing today! Well, we should have closed yesterday, but some how the documents the sellers sent from AZ to OR got routed through TN, and got stuck there due to the weather. Anyway, the new house will have hard wood on the entire first floor. I'm thinking about getting a Roomba because I want the floors to actually stay looking nice and clean. Anyone have experience with them? We are looking at the one from Costco which is the 655 Pet Series (we have a dog and a long-haired cat).

On another note, who else is in the Portland area?
 

chrono

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My cousin has one and I don't think it does a good job. You have to make sure the floor area is clear (does not have any objects) or it will just reverse direction and go vacuum somewhere else. You would still need to do a regular vacuuming. It looked very haphazard to me and missed many spots due to the redirection when it hits an object.
 

Matata

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I have the roomba 880 and I love it. Does a better job on some surfaces that my top-of-the-line Miele. It takes a long time to do its job but I just put it in a room or section of the house and let it do its thing. It comes with two tower thingies that keep it confined in any area you put it without doors. In the laundry room where I have 2 litter boxes, it goes from bare floor up onto the litter mats and back without a problem. If it gets lost or stuck, it'll let you know.

Mine will scout a room to get its dimensions and then it starts to clean. If you watch it while it does this, it looks like it misses certain areas but it will continue to take the measure of the room and won't turn off until it does the whole space. It has some quirks but it does a superb job of picking up cat hair, litter, and all the other junk that makes it way to the floor.
 

amc80

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Ha, two reviews and two totally different opinions! At least if I buy it at Costco they will take it back if I hate it.

I figure even if it just does an *okay* job, it's still better than the *no* job that would get done otherwise. Right?
 

Matata

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amc80|1435855521|3897933 said:
Ha, two reviews and two totally different opinions! At least if I buy it at Costco they will take it back if I hate it.

I figure even if it just does an *okay* job, it's still better than the *no* job that would get done otherwise. Right?

I was on the fence for a long time. I'm an admin on another forum with a lot of cat breeders as members and they wax poetic about their roombas. So I figured if it made people who have upwards of a dozen shedding cats, not to mention dogs and kids, happy, why not give it a try. I was totally surprised by it. Maybe the model makes a difference in its efficiency.
 

chrono

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No harm in checking it out, especially if you don't have the time to vacuum the house. Some is better than none. :bigsmile:
 

amc80

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Matata|1435855835|3897936 said:
amc80|1435855521|3897933 said:
Ha, two reviews and two totally different opinions! At least if I buy it at Costco they will take it back if I hate it.

I figure even if it just does an *okay* job, it's still better than the *no* job that would get done otherwise. Right?

I was on the fence for a long time. I'm an admin on another forum with a lot of cat breeders as members and they wax poetic about their roombas. So I figured if it made people who have upwards of a dozen shedding cats, not to mention dogs and kids, happy, why not give it a try. I was totally surprised by it. Maybe the model makes a difference in its efficiency.

We've got a male Ragdoll...so lots and lots of hair everywhere. Not to mention all of the crap left everywhere by The Toddler.
 

PintoBean

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We had a neato. It did a good job on our wool area rugs. I would set a timer for 25 minutes to signal when to empty, and flip over to remove any of my long hairs that always ended up wrapping around the rollers. Yes, it has an indicator that it needs to be emptied, but I'm a bit anal.

I don't know how useful the neato was at the end of the day because we would end up (we being me, DH, and two cats) staring at the darn robot as it went around doing it's job. That time spent staring at the neato... I could have gone and vacuumed myself lolol.... But one thing that neato could do more easily than me was to get under some of the furniture that had a low clearance.

After a few years, the sensor that detected the bin started going - i remedied that by taping it down - it was like a little rubber switch that would depress when the bin was put back. Then it stopped charging correctly. That was around year 4. It would say it was fully charged, vacuum for 20 minutes, then need to recharge.

We just moved, so I chucked neato. Our new place has multiple levels, so I didn't need neato to plummet to its death...
 

momhappy

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If you plan on having any persian carpets (or similar styles with the fringe on the ends) then I wouldn't recommend one. I have experienced far too many expensive area rugs with their fringe chewed off by Roomba….
 

PintoBean

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momhappy|1435857144|3897945 said:
If you plan on having any persian carpets (or similar styles with the fringe on the ends) then I wouldn't recommend one. I have experienced far too many expensive area rugs with their fringe chewed off by Roomba….

Good point on the fringe! I have no fringe on my rugs. I definitely wouldn't use a robot vacuum with fringed rugs!
 

Matata

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amc80|1435855940|3897938 said:
We've got a male Ragdoll...so lots and lots of hair everywhere. Not to mention all of the crap left everywhere by The Toddler.

Ooookay full disclosure time. I have had this situation occur a few times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SajTWY9a0e0

And one of my cats will torture the roomba -- turn it on and trap it in a corner because he likes the little boops and beeps it makes when it calls for rescue.
 

amc80

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momhappy|1435857144|3897945 said:
If you plan on having any persian carpets (or similar styles with the fringe on the ends) then I wouldn't recommend one. I have experienced far too many expensive area rugs with their fringe chewed off by Roomba….

We aren't fancy enough for persian carpets :) But I will keep that in mind.
 

amc80

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Matata|1435857720|3897953 said:
amc80|1435855940|3897938 said:
We've got a male Ragdoll...so lots and lots of hair everywhere. Not to mention all of the crap left everywhere by The Toddler.

Ooookay full disclosure time. I have had this situation occur a few times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SajTWY9a0e0

And one of my cats will torture the roomba -- turn it on and trap it in a corner because he likes the little boops and beeps it makes when it calls for rescue.

I sort of home my cat rides on it. But maybe not, he's pretty heavy. And that's hilarious that your cat plays with it! Hahaha.
 

iLander

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Mine gets filled up in 5 minutes! With all the dog hair, it's completely full in no time.

But give it a try, you can always return it to Costco.
 

december-fire

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Congratulations on your new home!

I have two Roombas and love them. However, I don't have cats or dogs at home. The bin in the Roomba is small and will require more frequent emptying if there's a lot of pet hair with which to contend.

Someone watching a Roomba might think that its moving randomly and missing large sections. However, that's not the case. A Roomba begins the vacuuming process by first moving about the room to map dimensions and objects (such as furniture), and then covers every square inch of the area.

You might want to check out the iRobot website (manufacturer of Roombas).
 

arkieb1

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I have two a Roomba and a Scooba, I think the one with the water in it is better for our wooden floor downstairs and we used to use the Roomba for the carpet upstairs until it blew up :(
 

vc10um

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We have a small army of Roombas. I'm too embarrassed to admit how many. :oops: But we wouldn't own so many if we didn't love them! My husband is principle Roomba caretaker and has them all set to clean their respective areas at times when we won't be bothered by them. It's really helped his allergies to have them around, as they vacuum much more frequently than I did before we got them! We have both hardwood and low-pile carpeting and it works great on both surfaces. If you've got a large open floorplan, you'll need some virtual walls to contain the Roomba...it can only do a certain amount of square feet on a single charge.

I hope you come back and let us know what you think if you do get one!

(We also have the Scooba. We also love it. Which reminds me...I need to "mop" this weekend...)
 

UrsTx

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One of the benefits about Costco is they will take it back if you don't like it, so why not try it?

We installed wood floors (with wool area rugs) in December so I picked up a middle-of-the-line Roomba from SAMs Club in January; returned it in February. It had issues getting up on the wool rugs, which are pretty thick, sometimes skipping them altogether. One time the house was too quiet so I had to hunt it down; it sucked up a cat toy hidden under the couch and thus turned itself off. It didn't clean every inch each visit but I'd say after three runs, it probably touched 90% of the floors (minus some of the area rugs) at least one time. We have two cats and it sucked up the hair well. Plus it's two hours per cleaning thus two hours of torture for the kitties.

I ended up getting a Miele upright for the same money. Plus side is I vacuum in 25 minutes and it adjusts to floor and carpet heights. Down side is I'm still vacuuming.

I may try a Roomba or comparable product again in the future but not right now. My coworkers who have Roombas love theirs though. Two are dog owners too.
 

lorrissey

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I have 2 pekes and 2 cats. I roomba every other day but we have a very small condo. It does a pretty good job. But it does take some effort before turning it on. Clearing all the cat and dog toys, shuffling some of the pet beds, food and water bowls off the floor etc. I even move the c tables and bar stools. It takes about an hour for it to do one room. So I clear, set it, hop in the shower get ready for work and it's done about the same time I am. Convenient in that sense. But for sure would be faster to just vacuum myself. But it does go under the couch and tv stand and other places that would take a lot more work if I were doing it. I love it.
 

missy

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We have 4 kitties and thanks to Jimmianne we bought the pet series Roomba from Costco and we love it. It is not perfect. We have a big open space in our home so Roomba does miss some areas and it takes a few times to get the whole house clean but it does a great supplemental job to my vacuuming and to the cleaning people vacuuming so no complaints.

It is really not enough to just let Roombie clean but it does help maintain our home cat hair free as much as one can with 4 cats yanno? Give it a try and buy from Costco so if you don't like it you can return it. We are keeping ours and have had it for a few months now. I like it enough that I am thinking of purchasing another for our beach house.
 

Asscherhalo_lover

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I have a 660 I think and it does a great job for daily upkeep. I use it on carpet and tile and it has no problems. With a sheddy dog and two cats it's a necessity. I still run the big vacuum on weekends but it really helps keep the fur down during the week. I have it set to run while I'm at work so I just empty it daily and clean it on the weekend.
 

momhappy

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UrsTx|1435885165|3898211 said:
One of the benefits about Costco is they will take it back if you don't like it, so why not try it?

We installed wood floors (with wool area rugs) in December so I picked up a middle-of-the-line Roomba from SAMs Club in January; returned it in February. It had issues getting up on the wool rugs, which are pretty thick, sometimes skipping them altogether. One time the house was too quiet so I had to hunt it down; it sucked up a cat toy hidden under the couch and thus turned itself off. It didn't clean every inch each visit but I'd say after three runs, it probably touched 90% of the floors (minus some of the area rugs) at least one time. We have two cats and it sucked up the hair well. Plus it's two hours per cleaning thus two hours of torture for the kitties.

I ended up getting a Miele upright for the same money. Plus side is I vacuum in 25 minutes and it adjusts to floor and carpet heights. Down side is I'm still vacuuming.

I may try a Roomba or comparable product again in the future but not right now. My coworkers who have Roombas love theirs though. Two are dog owners too.

I agree - Costco has an amazing return policy, so you have nothing to lose. Please keep us posted on whether or not you like it:)
 

amc80

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I got the Roomba on Saturday...we named him Puck. So far, so good! He has a bit of trouble with the kitty litter (as do all vacuums, though). I'd say he gets somewhere between 75-90% of the stuff on the ground. The way I see it, I'd rather have a 75% clean floor every day than a 0% clean floor for a week at a time. The toddler is fascinated with it. We told him that Puck "eats" the dirt, and he thought that was hilarious. We also told him that when he's on the dock, he's sleeping, and to leave him alone. The only problems we've had is that Puck gets stuck under the dishwasher lip. And he seems to spend lots of time going over the same place over and over. Other than that, though, I'm happy!
 

NewEnglandLady

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Thanks for the update, I was interested to see how you liked it.

Is the Roomba ideal for open-concept homes? We live in an antique where each room is sectioned off. And the room that needs the most vacuuming (the mud room) is gated, so I know the Roomba wouldn't be able to get over the bottom part of the gate even if the gate were open.

We have a dog and 2 kids, so I've vacuumed the main floor daily (on occasion 2x per day) for the past decade. It's such a part of my evening routine that I think I'd actually have a hard time NOT vacuuming, but it would be nice to have an alternative.
 

missy

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Congratulations on adding Puck to your family amc. Hope you love him. Here's a pic of our Roomba whose name is Roombie (haha very original I know) meeting our Tommy. LOL it was a lovely first meeting.

NEL, we have an open concept home and the Roomba works best if sectioned off in one area at a time or else he might not get every area or be efficient. If there is a Costco you go to I would buy him and try him because you can easily return him if it doesn't work out for you. I am very happy with the purchase and with 4 cats it certainly helps. Like you I used to vacuum every day but now I only do it a few times a week. Roombie is a very helpful addition to our family. :appl:

_32380.jpg
 

amc80

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NewEnglandLady|1436896093|3902739 said:
Thanks for the update, I was interested to see how you liked it.

Is the Roomba ideal for open-concept homes? We live in an antique where each room is sectioned off. And the room that needs the most vacuuming (the mud room) is gated, so I know the Roomba wouldn't be able to get over the bottom part of the gate even if the gate were open.

We have a dog and 2 kids, so I've vacuumed the main floor daily (on occasion 2x per day) for the past decade. It's such a part of my evening routine that I think I'd actually have a hard time NOT vacuuming, but it would be nice to have an alternative.

Mine came with a virtual wall, so I am basically creating separate areas anyway. You can pick him up and put him in whichever room you want. I think he was too overwhelmed when I just let him go free.
 

packrat

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no free range roombas!

Does the Scooba also vacuum first or does it only mop?

I've been vacuuming every other day this summer and it's making me kinda grossed out how much cat hair I dump each time. We need to shave the cats.
 

amc80

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packrat said:
no free range roombas! Does the Scooba also vacuum first or does it only mop? I've been vacuuming every other day this summer and it's making me kinda grossed out how much cat hair I dump each time. We need to shave the cats.

I think it just mops. Which, from what I can tell, is just a swiffer type pad?

I'm all for shaving long hairs cats. It makes such a huge difference.
 

MarionC

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My Roomba is a couple of years old and love it.
I did a lot of research on the robotic scrubbers and they did not get good reviews, much to my disappointment!
 
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