I’m looking for opinions about these things. How well do they work? Is the Roomba better than other brands, and if so, why? The area I would be using it is primarily hardwood flooring, with one large area rub and your typical furniture. There is a large artificial (think Christmas) tree in one corner. Would it get stuck under there? What else should I know? TIA
How much clearance under the tree?
Best brand to some degree depends on what you are looking for.
Best for Pet Hair? Most reliable?
Using Consumer Reports and PCMAG among others:
Best bargain is probably Eufy 11s with a good rating for pet hair. {$200} Bonus: needs the least clearance. Negative: not as good as the more expensive ones for the carpet.
Best overall: High end Roombas {$1000+}
No Pet hair, handles floors & rugs well, look at the Samsungs in the $500 range.
Hey, great timing, CNET just dropped a review on Oct 13th.
They also think the Eufy 11s is the best bargain model.
Long human hair is the bane of these vacuums, well honestly any vacuum with a beater bar/rotating brush.
I have had a Roomba i8 (I think) for a couple of years. It works pretty good when I don’t have a bunch of junk sitting around. It does have the ability to only go in rooms you want it to go in. It has mapping, and you can tell it just to vacuum the kitchen, or the TV room, or whatever. Its self-programming of the house is interesting!
It also comes with a laser pointer (?) type box that runs some kind of beam across a doorway that will block it.
It’s a pain to clean when hair get wrapped around the rollers, but after talking with someone on the phone the first time, I have the process down. I have dogs, so lots of hair.
I like it, because I’m lazy. But because I’m lazy, picking up all the obstacles is a PITA. Stuff like throw rugs, and dog dishes. He (I named him Robbie) gets stuck a lot. Stuff like shoelaces will entangle him (I’m looking at you, Mr Rebo!) and flipflops - dining room chair legs can be tricky. And my one small bathroom apparently is a deathtrap. I’ll eventually notice he’s not vacuuming, and have to hunt him down. The app can make him “ding” so you can find him.
So sometimes it’s just easier to sweep with a broom, or pull out the big vacuum! Was this helpful? LOL!
Thanks! I will check that article out. No pets (at the moment) and I’m bald and the others are boys with pretty short hair, so really looking for something to get the normal small debris type stuff. The tree clearance is about 3-4 inches, but it’s in a corner.
Yes! That’s what I’m wondering. I don’t have much clutter to be concerned with. Really just furniture (there is a dining room with chair/table legs).
Sounds likes next decision is budget.
On the cheap is the Eufy 11s or 11s Max with excellent ratings from the first 4 reviews I checked including Consumer Reports which I consider the most objective.
The $500 Roombas or Samsungs are probably the more expensive options that work better but at 2.5x the cost.
I had one of the early Roombas, so long ago that I don’t consider it a data point even. It did a fairly good job for a new tech. They’ve come a long way now. The long hair & dog hair was a pain though and I finally gave up using the Roomba.
I got a Eufy 11S Max as a gift a couple of years ago. I was skeptical at first, but it works pretty well. I do have to clear the floor and block off a couple of places where I know it will get stuck before I start it, but otherwise it does a reasonably good job. The places where it tends to get stuck are under furniture with low clearance; it also sometimes gets tangled in loose wires lying on the floor. But its easy enough to drop a book or box or something in front of the problematic places before I start it. I think some models let you restrict it from certain areas by programming it, but mine doesn’t do that. It has a good stairway sensor; mine has never fallen down the stairs.
I’m doing research now in hopes of snagging a good deal around Black November. I see this one on sale now though that looks pretty good:
This one
I have had a handful of Roombas, I do not know about other brands.
I like them, I have the newer Roomba with mapping, and it does a good job, and rarely gets caught in our mess. We had one carpet which the old Roombas would not clean, because it is mostly black, and that falsely activated the old Roomba’s cliff sensors. The new one uses a different system and works. The brushes are easier to clean than they used to be.
We also have new furniture that the Roomba can go under, rather than bash into, much better.
I can’t forget Enola_Gay’s post on the subject. Let’s see if I can link to it…
I got an email from Roomba just yesterday saying that they now have learned to avoid dog poop, which I suppose must have been a problem.
After the hair of our Golden guide dog puppie blew out our old cheap Roomba, we got one meant for pet hair. That was at least 10 years ago, it is still running. I did replace the battery and some brushes. I think it is a 500 series. I also deep clean it by removing most of the bottom plate and getting out the hair and dust which accumulates there.
Love my roomba. I have a cat that sheds like a golden retriever, the pet roomba deals well with the hair. I set it off when I leave home and come home to a nice clean floor.
I have a Roomba and I love it because I am lazy and I hate vacuuming. I have a fairly small, fairly cluttered house but the Roomba manages quite well. It does take a long time though which can be annoying. I also have a stick vacuum for getting spider webs and anything out of reach of the Roomba.
I can’t advise on other brands as I have only ever owned the Roomba.
My Roomba will take itself back to the dock to recharge if it runs out of juice. Once recharged it will then complete the job. This is not something that happens very often for me though. Maybe my house is always extra dirty, but its relatively small bin fills up a lot faster than the battery runs out. It does not like running on a full bin. I think you can also program mine with your cell phone so you can get it to operate remotely. You could have it vacuum while you are at work. I have not needed to do that though so am fuzzy on how it all works and again, it would probably stop if the bin filled up anyway. So, a sort of useless feature as far as I can tell.
So, go for it. Love my Roomba and will get another one when this one dies.
I have had a Eufy for half a year now and think it’s great. It cleans twice a week automatically. It has become stuck I think 3 times, once on bolts that mount a workbench (which I since covered), once between the legs of a stool that it usually figures out how to navigate, and once for no apparent reason in a fairly big open space. It does a pretty thorough job. But I only use it in my office and shop area of about 1000 square feet.
Napier, what model do you have, if you don’t mind me asking?
Y’all prompted me to start my Roomba. I opened the app, and it gave me a tip that I can link to my Echo Dot (Alexa). I just told Alexa to start Robbie.
Tech is cool!
My mom uses her Romba. She is mobility impaired and can’t vacuum. Works well for her. She is very neat and tidy though. She seems to like it.
My Wife and I had one, but it really didn’t work out for us. Our house is in a permanent state of remodel and we would have to baby sit the thing. It’s easier and quicker to just use an upright for us.
I had 3 early Roombas. They were a novelty, would work for light cleaning but you had to be fastidious about keeping things like small objects and cords off the floor. Also if people in the house have long hair then cleaning the brushes becomes a regular thing. Once the batteries died I didn’t bother to replace them, I’d rather spend my time vacuuming with a more powerful vacuum than cleaning hair out of brushes.
They’re a great idea, constantly improving, but not great for all cleaning situations. Ours is nearly 10 years old, we use it occasionally to sweep the floor. It does a nice thorough job of sweeping everything, getting a lot of dust and pet hair we otherwise would have missed.
The major downside is that the rollers become entangled with pet hair, and when vacuuming a dirty area, the bin fills up fast. Ideally, a roomba should have mapping function (ability to prioritize some places and avoid others) and a self-emptying bin. They have charging stations now, on the newer models, that have larger bins that vacuum out the Roomba’s bin, so you might say that the self-emptying feature has finally arrived.
Overall, for me, it takes about as much prep time cleaning the Roomba as it spends cleaning. Our house is just too dirty, with outdoor dirt and leaves constantly being tracked in, and 3 fluffy animals shedding all over the place. In a pet-free environment that needs frequent light cleanings, a Roomba might be ideal.
Eufy Robovac G30 Edge.
Sorry I didn’t post that in the first place but I couldn’t find the number, until just now I powered it down and flipped it over.
This was a well reviewed model similar to one a friend showed me. Hers also includes a damp mopping capability I didn’t want. This one does have the ability to detect a magnetic floor tape to stop it from going into selected areas, a $30 premium which I thought I might use but haven’t. I also have a drop off of about 3 inches in one spot I was afraid it might fall down, but that’s never happened.
If I had to replace it I’d pick the same model, or perhaps the same one except no magnetic floor tape detector. It is not very high at all and runs under shelving units and a fold out desk with drawers.