Does anyone have a roomba (or other robot vacuum)?

[Dee*Jay]

I'm thinking of getting one of these but there are so many different ones, ranging from $200 to $2000 (yes--TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS) that I need some real life feedback before I go whipping out the ol' AmEx.

If you have one of these please chime in! Do you like it? How does it handle tassels on oriental rugs or cow skin rugs if you happen to have any? Do you find it gets stuck in a lot of places (under furniture, transitioning from rugs to wood floors, etc.)? What things do you love or not love about it? Any feedback will be much appreciated!

 

[arkieb1]

I have a Roomba and a Scooba both are O.K but I use them to alternate, I clean the old fashioned way then a few days later I used to used them. My Roomba died a couple weeks after the warranty ran out and I have not taken it anywhere to be fixed, I am not sure if you can fix them or you throw it out and buy a new one.

The Scooba which washes wooden floors was probably cooler than the Roomba overall. They did get stuck on things and they have a meltdown if they suck up kids toys or objects they do not like. For a basic general clean both are O.K.

 

[ForteKitty]

My friend had a mid-range one that she constantly raved about and insisted I get one. I asked her to bring it over one day before dinner, and the roomba ended up upside down and unable to right itself in the kitchen (on floormat over hardwood), the bathroom (another floormat, but different material, over tile), and in my bedroom corner (on absolutely nothing except carpet) before it gave up. Needless to say, I didn't buy one.

 

[gregchang35]

We have the roomba. We love it. we used it all the time for 2yrs until we got a cleaner.

we got it for around $300. the older roomba model as it was on special. we love/d it. we dont have any pets and we had vinyl in our old house and now in our floorboarded home. It takes about 2 hours to do a room with lounge setting, dining setting i cant tell you the exact size of the room.. So what we used to do is let it run when we do the groceries. What that means is that we had to put chairs up on the tables, move vases etc, so that it can clean in those areas.

We now have a cleaner (we love her) as she will clean everything including toilets and bathrooms.. not just the floors. So the Roomba now sits all alone.

 

[monarch64]

I don't have any of the above, but I have a beagle. She is basically a sniffer-upper of any detritus on the floor? Unfortunately, she leaves behind some real treats sometimes so we have a fabulous carpet shampooer thingamagig that takes care of everything else. A roomba would probably lead to her demise because she's on high beagle alert every time a leaf falls off any tree outside...

Good luck, Dee!

 

[momhappy]

We were going to get one, but then I visited a friend who has all hardwoods and persian carpets like we do. All of the fringe on her persian carpets was gone and she told me that the Roomba "eats" all of the fringe off Not cool and needless to say, we are no longer interested.

 

[packrat]

We don't but I'd like to try them. We don't do area rugs or mats, save the one right inside the front door, which is small and kind of a sand paper type. So it would just be a matter of going around the furniture, table/chairs and such. It would be nice to have some extra floor cleaning. Four cats and a dog kinda get some hair around-hard to keep up with!

 

[tyty333]

My friend bought one and then took it back. She had fake hardwood floors and rugs. It didnt clean like she wanted, would
get stuck, and would not be able to find its way back to its "home".

She bought her's from BB&B and made sure that she could return it if she was not happy with it. They took it back with no
problems. So, that might be a good option for you. Buy from a place you know you can return it. (talk to manager...get it
in writing etc).

Seems to be hit or miss with them...Good luck!

 

[Dee*Jay]

I don't have any of the above, but I have a beagle. She is basically a sniffer-upper of any detritus on the floor? Unfortunately, she leaves behind some real treats sometimes so we have a fabulous carpet shampooer thingamagig that takes care of everything else. A roomba would probably lead to her demise because she's on high beagle alert every time a leaf falls off any tree outside...

Good luck, Dee!

Hmmm... sounds like with different types of flooring and lots of tassled and cowhide rugs this might not be the right answer.

Thank you everyone very much for the input -- I'm very glad I asked real people and not just went off the reviews before I hit the "buy now" button!

OK, off to the pound. In lieu of a robot vac I'm adopting a BEAGLE!

 

[iLander]

Yeah, our Roomba works for five minutes, gets full of dog hair, then it clogs up. Not worth is at all.

Don't forget, Beagles are barky because that is their nature (get together with pack, etc). Maybe you've already had one, and you know this. They also follow scents, so their head is down when they walk. I met a couple that had their beagle in a painful-looking head harness so he wouldn't sniff. This seemed cruel, and why get a beagle if you can't let them be a beagle?

But I digress . . .

YAY! Have fun with your new pal!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Ha ha -- sorry iLander, I should have quoted Monnie's post to begin with!

I'm not really getting a beagle!

 

[iLander]

Ha ha -- sorry iLander, I should have quoted Monnie's post to begin with!

I'm not really getting a beagle!

Oh . . .



Yeah, it would mess up your leather seats.

How's it running, still thrilled with your car?

 

[ponder]

We had a Neato, but gave it away. Our house was too big and it would get lost when it's power was low and could not find its way back to the charging station. Also, it took a lot of prep to get the house ready to use it. Everything had to be up off the floors and it was constantly getting stuck under furniture. It did a great job when it didn't have problems, but for the effort and time it took I could have finished the floors the old fashioned way.

 

[ericad]

I had a roomba years ago and loved it, but it scared the crap out of my cats. Like seriously traumatized them. So I gave it to my pet-free parents and they love it! It's especially wonderful on hard floors, but runs into trouble with area rugs (especially with tassles), etc.

I loved to just let it run around daily while we weren't home (because the one I had, which was a 1st or 2nd gen model, was sooooo loud) and it really kept the hair balls under control (from shedding of said cats, plus the dogs) in between vacuumings. The little dirt receptacle was super small, so we would just set it off in a different room/area each day when we left for work and when it got full or the battery ran out, it stopped. Then we'd just empty and move it the next day, repeat. Loved it. It cut the frequency of full-house vacuumings by probably half as long as we were diligent about roomba-ing daily.

 

[urseberry]

I have a Neato and love it. I do have to be aggressive about keeping the floors clear. Chair legs and electrical cords cause it to get stuck. I now put the dining chairs upside down on the tables when I run the vacuum. Oriental rug tassels might be a problem.

The vacuum suction power on the Neato is great, stronger than the the two older upright vacuums I had.

The coolest thing about the Neato is how methodically it vacuums your rooms. Instead of bumping about randomly, it uses laser rangefinders to map out the space, including obstacles, then proceeds up and down in neat rows.

I hope I don't sound too much like an advertisement. I hate vacuuming and love clean floors, so having a robot vacuum has been wonderful

 

[GliderPoss]

We have one in a vain attempt to stay on top of the black dog hair and to be honest it does an ok job. It's called "Oskar" after my Mum's dog who likes to "vacuum" the floor frequently for any food scraps...

We have acres of floor tiles and little bit of carpet but no rugs or stairs which helps. Ours is programed 3 days a week whilst I'm at work. Often when we get home Oskar is stuck under the TV tables or caught on a power cord so you do need to be careful about picking up anything off the floor. (Once he ate a pair of my underpants! ) It also seems to have lost the sensor function a bit and now bumps quite agressively into furniture whereas he used to never actually touch it.

I do hoover as usual on the weekends anyway but I find Oskar helps to keep the tiles looking less hairy...

 

[movie zombie]

Roomba was interesting but our rooms are odd shaped and there are a lot of furniture legs occupying the open floor plan and the poor thing either got very confused and/or got stuck.

hubby thought i'd appreciate the one that does the 'mopping'.....and I indeed do because he is the one that gets to set it up and clean it out.

we are 100% tile floors on the first floor and I must say that I do appreciate this one as well as hubby doing the work that makes it run. admittedly, we don't do it very frequently as any cat mishaps are taken care of immediately with a water/vinegar solution.

 

[HopeDream]

Loved mine for years, but over time I've used it less and less. The room-prep to make the room vaccuumable for roomba takes as much time as vacuuming. Maybe there's a used one you can buy for less?
The replacement filters are more expensive than they should be.

 

[Dandi]

I have an LG RoboKing, and it's fabulous. I run it most days when we leave the house, or just close it in a room that needs doing so it goes over it a few times. We have some carpeted areas but mostly parquetry, and it handles both really well. We only have one rug at the front door which it just cruises over, and it doesn't tend to complain much if it runs into stuff, it just goes around it. It doesn't bump the furniture hard either. I really like it, especially with parquetry floors and a toddler - bad combo!

 

[Sparklelu]

We have a Roomba, got it about 3 years ago use it once a week to keep dog hair under control. We have hardwood floors and a very open concept floor plan. It came with a Bluetooth device I put in the doorway of the room she stays out of. Yes she her name is Rosie after the maid on the Jetsons.

She never gets trapped and finds her way back before she runs out of gas. We do close the doors in the long hallway leading to the bedrooms because one is my craft room and you sometimes can't find the floor and the others are empty of humans.

FYI My mother had several beautiful oriental rugs and between her Kirby and the Electrolux after a while the fringe on her orientals was ripped to shreds.
We are in the process of restoring one and were told to tuck back and seam tape the fringe not replace, as it lowers the value of the rug. That particular rug is valued at 9,000. Even with the torn fringe. Not bad for a 500.00 rug bought in 1970!

 

[Dee*Jay]

This feedback is great! I also went to my neighbor's house to watch his Roomba run and I see why it works so well for him. He's got all hardwood floors except for one rug in the living room area with no tassels. He doesn't having a dining room table with chairs but he does have four breakfast bar stools and he said the Roomba sometimes get trapped over there. I think I just have to many potential pitfalls with the rugs and the furniture with legs to use one with confidence. In doing my research BTW I think if I did go that route I'd probably get a Neato since it maps out the room is more systematic in the process than the Roomba seems to be (although the jury is still out on whether it would work on an open room of the size I've got or if that's too big for the mapping technology). These gadgets are pretty amazing--I hope they come up with one SOON that works for my scenario!