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irobot..do you? Who uses a Roomba

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

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So I'm in the market for a Rumba and I'd like to know if anyone has one or has had one. What are your thoughts? Is it worth it?
 
I've thought about getting one , since we have hard floors, but I think we would break it. With all the cat hair and girls hair.


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My wife wants one so bad to pick up the cat fur and whatnot but she's too cheap to buy one haha. It's all fine and dandy until it rolls through the cat puke and spreads it throughout the house right?
 
I have used a neato. It works really well, but it is a little annoying. It is pretty loud and it runs for a while. If you can program it to run when you're out of the house, do it.
 
Confession time, I have had one since I retired about 6 years ago. My wife said that since I was now home all of the time, vacuuming was now my job. I use it twice a week and use the Kirby about once every 3 months. It does a pretty good job but sometimes I have to run it twice as it just runs around randomly before the battery weakens and it redocks for charging. You can program it to run the same time each day or certain days.

One tip, order it from here http://www.hammacher.com/Category/Home-Living-Vacuums?promo=topnav_home_vacuums as they offer a lifetime guarantee on their products http://www.hammacher.com/Editorial/Lifetime-Guarantee?promo=ft_hs_guarantee I did have to replace mine about 2 years ago and it was totally free. You will pay full price, but it is totally worth it.
 
We have one. Purchased it from Costco due to the return policy, and just in case we didn't like it. Well, WE LOVE IT! It actually picks of stuff really well.

You can program for it to run when you're out of the house or middle of the night when you're in bed. The problem is it can probably do 2 rooms max on a single charge - may be a bit generous. I have had it set to do our living room and dining room and some times it'll complete the vacuum, other times I'll find it in the middle of the room because it ran out of juice.

However if you're a busy family I highly recommend it. Working full time, having a pregnant wife and a toddler - we're just too exhausted and lazy to go around vacuuming the rooms. We have it vacuum a different room each day. Set it and forget it!
 
We have one and we love it.

If you don't mind having to maintain it at least every other day, and can stomach the price tag ... I'd say go for it.

We have two dogs that shed, a lot, so we have to empty out the bin every other day. You also have to tend to the brushes and the front wheel to get out hair that wraps around the bearings and whatnot ... but the whole process takes less than 5 minutes. If that doesn't put you off, I'd say go for it.

If you have floor registers for your heating/cooling, make sure they are low profile and nothing sticks up to catch the robot.
 
Wake has one, and he loves it. It's like his version of a dog.
 
I have one, a pet specific model. Works really well. We have all laminate flooring in the house. I have it set to run every day and it docks itself when the battery is low. I think they have updated the power and capabilities in recent years, I saw the newer models at CES last week and they look to have gotten even more powerful. I highly recommend it.
 
I have never even seen one but it sounds cool if it works. The dyson my wife bought was like $500. How much are these?
 
Barberakb said:
I have never even seen one but it sounds cool if it works. The dyson my wife bought was like $500. How much are these?
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Mine was about 300.00 if I remember correctly. Included two virtual walls.
 
Barberakb said:
I have never even seen one but it sounds cool if it works. The dyson my wife bought was like $500. How much are these?
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My kids would destroy it.

Or...

My dogs would destroy it.
 
Barberakb said:
I have never even seen one but it sounds cool if it works. The dyson my wife bought was like $500. How much are these?
Click to expand...
Bought the 650 from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for around $400 (before tax).
 
I have a competitor - locked up in storage right now so I can't get the name, but it is great. Absolutely love it. I set it to vacuum while I was at work. The one I got also had radar or something, so I could just let it loose and it cleaned multiple rooms, under beds, all kinds of cool stuff. It didn't transition between carpet and hardwood great, but reasonable enough for me.

My friend went to CES this year and whatever new Scooba they showed, I think it scrubs and vacuums(?). Anyhoo, he's dead set on getting one for his hardfloor filled house (with lots of kids and mess).
 
War Eagle said:
My kids would destroy it.

Or...

My dogs would destroy it.
Click to expand...

This is my fear, my too little ones breaking it while running around like savages in a sugar fit :D. Madyson would just bark at it, she a big talker no bite.
 
We had one. We also had the mop version too. Neither worked as well as a regular vacuum for us. I think it depends on where you are. House with carpet and no dogs? Thing is brilliant. In a place like ours with tile floors and two dogs? It did okay. It would die before finishing everything and once in a while get stuck "in" a chair and just sit for hours on end trying to go.

The mop one was even worse for what its worth. Rumba worked okay. Like I said, if our house was a bit different I might seek it out again. But vacumming does not take too long and I dont mind doing it and for us it does a way better job.
 
I'd love to see our cats and dog check one of these out. It would be priceless :D
 
The vacuums are really good. You might have problems if your house is really big with battery life. I would not recommend the Braava hard floor mop as is simply doesn't clean as well as a regular mop.


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We have a Neato. Got it on Woot a couple of years ago, for $300, I think. It has done a pretty good job. The first time we used it, my wife ran the Neato. And, then she ran the upright over the same area. She was pretty impressed with the results.

Our downside with it is that we have carpet, concrete and wood. It gets stuck on the transition piece separating the carpet and concrete. So, we have to setup blockades to keep it off of that. But, we do use it on the carpet and on the concrete. Ours doesn't mop. But, it does a good job of picking up dog hair, food crumbs and dirt.

Currently, we are having battery issues. It doesn't seem to keep a charge. Replacement batteries are about a $100.
 
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I wish, but no chance because Ellie is deathly afraid of all things vacuum-related. I would come home to a bigger mess than when I left.
 
We have one of the pet specific models at home that we bought from woot. When I lived with my brother and his dog, we would run it almost every day because the dog shed so much. We had to make sure to set up the virtual walls in good spots to contain the roomba in the area of the house we wanted to clean. With a more open floorplan like ours, it can be tough to set up effective areas that don't confuse the roomba too much.

Definitely a great tool, though.
 
Love hate relationship with Roomba. We have had 2. Both worked for about a year and then broke down. When they worked and my wife loved them, but we just can't afford to replace one every year. The Roomba customer service department left a lot to be desired as well. I will say that while they were working they were great. Maybe if purchased from Hammacher Schlemmer with the lifetime warranty it would be a better moved.
 
I have a roomba and run it while I am at work 5 days a week. It covers about 1000 sqft of area rugs and hard wood floors and keeps up with the cat hair very well. I am very happy I have it, but it is not quite, though it is not as noisy as the canister or upright vacuums that I have/have had in the past. I also use it in other rooms for a quick clean up while I am elsewhere. it is handy to set up and run in a pinch.
 
ArmyGolf said:
My wife wants one so bad to pick up the cat fur and whatnot but she's too cheap to buy one haha. It's all fine and dandy until it rolls through the cat puke and spreads it throughout the house right?
Click to expand...

Yep, my neighbor has one of these robotic vacuum's, he also has a really nice, really big Golden Lab ......the dog crapped on the carpet in one of the bedrooms and the Roomba picked it up and spread it into the other three bedrooms........$450 to have all the carpets professionally steam cleaned!

He no longer uses the Roomba..............
 
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