# Anyone have a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 11, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059 "2014-02-11T15:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059/22 "2015-05-28T15:09:48Z")
I’ve had a couple older Roombas, they were neat and could do light-duty cleaning, but they aren’t a substitute for a big vacuum. Also the batteries eventually died and would have been expensive (~$40 IIRC) to replace, and I often had to clean hair out of the brushes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059/23 "2015-05-28T16:28:13Z")
We’ve had a couple of Roombas and currently have a Mint. None of them seem to have been particularly useful. Unless you’re the sort of person that has to vacuum more than once a week, there’s no point because you still have to vacuum once a week anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059/24 "2015-05-28T16:38:45Z")
I’ve had a 650 for about 6 months, and run it twice a week, scheduled for when I’m not home - I really don’t see the point of running it while I’m home - I mean, yeah it takes forever to go through the house, but the whole _point_ is that I’m not there so it doesn’t matter! It works pretty well , from my perspective, though I do think I’ll need to do a deeper cleaning from time to time. I’ve had it choke on cords once or twice, but no big deal. Caveats: I’m a single guy with no pets in a house that doesn’t tons of furniture getting in the way, its used primarily on hardwood floors, though it does work well on the couple of carpeted areas, too. It does a decent job of getting into the corners, and only traps itself in the bathroom when I leave the door open wide enough that it bumps the door closed while on patrol (ie: user error). ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059/25 "2015-05-28T18:02:50Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > My Roomba once ran over dog vomit and smeared it all over. I only use it now when I’m there to supervise. That has long been something I wondered about. I’d like a Roomba to clean up cat hair and kitty litter while I’m at work, but if it’s going to cause a huge mess if there’s cat barf… ---
**Author:** ![Caldazar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Caldazar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldazar)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059/26 "2015-05-29T00:50:05Z")
I have a Neato Botvac. I bought it to keep dog hair under control between cleanings with the normal vacuum. It doesn’t work at all on our high (1") pile carpet; it gets stuck. It works reasonably well on our medium and low pile carpets. The carpet coverage is decent, unlike my old Rooma that used to miss a lot of spots on the carpets. Of course, it’s not going to replace regular vacuuming. But it serves it purpose; I set a regular schedule, and it does the light vacuuming without my intervention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-a-robotic-vacuum-cleaner/681059.md?page=1)