Do these things work well? Are they a novelty, or are they actually decent vacuums?
I bought Mom one for Christmas, so if no one else answers, post again in about 6 weeks and I’ll give her opinion…
I use one, and I like it. Here’s a couple of other threads where we hashed over the Roomba pretty well:
If you have any specific questions / concerns after reading those threads, just post them and I’ll answer as best as I can.
Love my Roomba. It does a great job at getting everyday dirt, and I vacuum with the big vac maybe once every two weeks. I have the scheduler version, so it vacuums when I’m at work. I come home to a freshly vacuumed house every day. The first time you use it, you need to watch where it goes to see if there are going to be any problem spots where it will get stuck. It does not like rugs, but does great on both hard floors and carpet.
I hear they sleep better at night if you put a blanket on it.
I love mine - use it all the time.
Mine works like a champ. The only down side is that the hopper won’t hold a week’s worth of shedding from 2+ pets.
We have one. I would describe it as more of a carpet sweeper than an actual vacuum. The carpet looks like it’s been vacuumed, but it really hasn’t.
Same situation here, which is why you need to run it every day.
Here is the deal… it won’t totally replace your regular vacuum, but it sure makes your place a whole lot cleaner between real cleanings. In my house, the bin is chock full o’ dirt every day (well mostly dog hair).
I had a few problem spots, but was able to make some minor modifications to my house to get around it. For the most part, that little sucker is persistant as hell and can get out of sorts of situations that you would think would do it in.
I love mine but have developed a bit of a problem. I leave it on the charger and my cat has figured out how to turn it on. Seems she likes to play with it during the day.
Hmm. I’ve been thinking (and agonizing) over a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas, particularly a Dyson. I have hardwood and no carpets, two cats, and I live in an apartment.
Do I want a Roomba instead of a Dyson?
You’ll want both the Roomba and another vac, though the Dyson may be more than you need or want to spend for if all you’ve got are bare floors. The Roomba can’t do stuff like baseboards or anything above floor level, and it can’t get into nooks and crannies, so you will need something else to do more thorough cleaning from time to time. Roomba picks up pet hair exceptionally well, though, which I am sure you’ll appreciate with hard floors and cat hair - tumblefur is especially noticeable when you don’t have carpets or rugs. Just be sure to empty the dirt trap after every use. You’ll be amazed how much fur it’ll pick up!
I know my house is cleaner now than it was before I bought the Roomba, since I hated vaccuuming and would only do it once a week, tops. The Roomba can do a different room every day and then all I need to do is break out the regular vac once a week to do whatever it can’t - I spend maybe 10-15 minutes a week with the regular vac now, which makes me very very happy.
What happens if it runs into a large chuck of stuff? Not that any of my pets leave large chunks of stuff on the floor. But if it ran into say a totsie roll, would it just push the thing around?
It would try to run it over first, and try to suck it up. If the object was too big to run over, it would push the item around. You wouldn’t want to to try and suck something that size up - it’s not a shop vac (though they do make a shop vac version) and if it got stuck the robot would stop and emit an error sound. Needless to say, it’s best to pick up anything large like that before you start vaccuuming.
Hmmmm. My wife sheds all over the house. I think I am going to get one.
I do too. The problem with longer hair, though, is that it gets wrapped around the beater bar on both my Roomba and the regular vac. The Roomba comes with a neat little cutter tool, kind of like a letter opener, to clean the brushes with.
You can take my wife’s Roomba when you pry it from her cold, dead hands.
I have a sort-of functioning vacuum cleaner. The hose function works, but not the floor-cleaning upright thing. So I can get corners, but can’t do the middle of the floor unless I crawl around.
Where does one purchase a Roomba? Who carries them? Do you have to buy the recharging port separately?
IRobot designs and sells them.
You might want to keep an eye on woot though.
I bought the discovery version off that site about a week ago for about 100 bucks cheaper than retail. They seem to be selling them a lot lately. If you’re not familiar with Woot, they typically sell one product per day until they run out, unless they are having a ‘woot off’ like they seem to be having today where they replace the products one after another and… actually its probably best just to read their FAQ.