Robotic vacuums

[KayLR]

Like Roombas...do any of you own one? I have seriously considered getting one, but want more info first. I know they can be spendy, but I have recently come into a bit of money and can afford a wise indulgence.

The reason I want one is that I spend a good time of my weekend and one weeknight vacuuming and my vac is as heavy as a boat anchor (old Kirby). It is getting difficult for me to lift into the house from the room it's stored in (there's a step) and even attaching the attachments hurts my arthritic hands. Whiny I know, but I've really been dealing with this for a while.

I'm getting so I resent all the time I spend sucking up cat hair and dust and one of these would just do it for me, freeing me up to do stuff I want to do like gardening and sewing.

But are they all they're cracked up to be performance-wise? Do they need to be recharged often?

[flowerseverywhere]

Love mine. Would never have spent the money on it. My kids gave it to me.
We live in a one story house. We put it in a room and let it go. The coolest thing is when the charge gets low it travels to the dock to recharge itself. Does a great job.

[Lainey]

Had several coworkers, most with pets, who absolutely love their Roombas.

[Simplemind]

We are on our second one. The first was a refurbished one that we wore out. We bought new the second time around. I love love love it. I can vacuum with the upright and then set Berta off and she picks up stuff the other misses. She goes under tables and chairs. Superb for drifting dog hair. Can't imagine life without her.

[Gardnr]

What about all my cats' toys?

[flowerseverywhere]

What about all my cats' toys?

You have to pick them up. Also shoelaces or similar strings will just wrap around and jam it. My house is neater because we keep it more picked up so we can use the Rhoomba.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

We had one ( a roomba) and loved it. I am not sure how long we had it before it started "limping" badly but it did an excellent job overall. Sold it on ebay for "parts - not working" for over $100.00 I think.

[razz]

Love mine for doing the bedrooms. My house is small at 1300sf so two locations gets every part done but I really dislike vacuuming under beds.

[ToomuchStuff]

So Razz, did it do the whole house, or do you have to move it as it is set up/designed for one room at a time?

Kirby's are massive, and my experience with them, lead me to believe they are pretty average. With more hardwood, my vacuum needs have been met with garage sale vacuums. Several people I know went Dyson, and several of them have switched to the Sharks.
My aging parents, use a lightweight garage sale vac, for the basement steps, and keep it downstairs so they don't have to use their heavier vacuums. Typically garage sale vac's have needed a cleaning/bag and sometimes a belt, if you want another option.

[Tammy]

I have all non carpeted floors and use a swiffer. Don't even own a vacuum anymore.

[Gardnr]

You have to pick them up. Also shoelaces or similar strings will just wrap around and jam it. My house is neater because we keep it more picked up so we can use the Rhoomba.

Well the only thing on our floors aside from furniture is the cat toys. We're gone 10+ hours per day so cat toys are a must. no roomba for us I guess.

[razz]

So Razz, did it do the whole house, or do you have to move it as it is set up/designed for one room at a time?

I have a dog that sheds fine hair. He sleeps at the foot of my bed on a mat on the floor. I have hardwood floors or fibreglass vinyl throughout. When the sun shines in, there is a glaze of dog hair on the floor each week, so once a week, I let the Roomba vacuum my BR, the ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet plus the middle BR. It cleans the dog hair and dust bunnies beautifully. I need to vacuum the filter that comes with it after emptying it.

I use my Sears vacuum to clean the rest of the house due to cords, deep clean the carpets in the LR, and front and back entries, dust my coffee and end tables etc. Within 1/2 hour the house is cleaned. I need my vacuum to clean the carpeted stairs going to the basement and the carpet in the extra BR and rest of the basement downstairs.
If you declutter your house so that the floor is clear of dog dishes, cords, magazine stands etc., the Roomba works very well. I use the best of it and am glad of it but found it has limitations.

[KayLR]

What about throw rugs? And do they adjust or adapt or transfer from hardwood to an area rug?

[razz]

What about throw rugs? And do they adjust or adapt or transfer from hardwood to an area rug?
My 6x8 foot rug would be alright because it is stiff but a softer one with a thick underpaid may cause problems.

[rosarugosa]

I have no experience with Roomba, but I've been really pleased with my Bissell Zing, which was cheap, is lightweight, and I believe I've had it for about 7 years now. The only downside is tiny bags that are pretty expensive, but I think all vacuum bags are way overpriced. I've been able to get them on Amazon for a better price than from Bissell. We have all hard floors; I don't think this would be a good choice for carpeted floors.
This looks pretty much like the one I have:
https://www.amazon.com/BISSELL-Bagged-Canister-Vacuum-4122/dp/B00AZBIV9Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497182746&sr=8-3&keywords=bissell+zing

[Teacher Terry]

Love my Roomba. WE have lots of dog hair. You just pick up small items before you run it.

[bae]

Bump. Now that I am a 1-person housecleaning team, I am contemplating a Roomba for vacuuming the main floor of our house, or at least several of the rooms in it. Mostly carpeted except for one of the bathrooms. Some pet fur issues, pets all short-haired.

I was looking at the Roomba 980 model.

Are these actually useful, or more of a widget?

[lmerullo]

I know people love them, but i just couldn't. I can vacuum the whole house in ~20 minutes, even with the occasional chair or table to move.

These dudes take hours.

You do have to remove clutter and obstacles, or it gets confused.

They are just about as noisy as a regular vacuum. Don't think you can set it like the dishwasher to run while you sleep. Also, if you're home a lot or even work from home it's distracting. And again, takes hours! I

The cup for dirt is small, and it fills up before the room is swept clean. Sigh! I would need to run it daily to get each section done, empty dirt, reload and recharge, set off again.

I think it was scaring the dogs, too!

[Teacher Terry]

You can set it to run when asleep or gone. I love mine.

[Float On]

I can't think of a roomba without thinking about that funny story that went viral a few years ago where they guy's roomba spread dog poop all over the house.

I'm down to about 500 sq ft of carpet upstairs and that will hopefully be changed within a few years. There are two rugs in the kitchen that I vacuum every other day. Where I'm super messy with cooking and the back door where we pile up the shoes.

[Teacher Terry]

I only run mine under supervision

[pinkytoe]

DD has one and programs it to vacuum in the morning before leaving for work. She has tile and wood floors only and the pet hair accumulates quickly without it. Never heard of any complaints. I imagine my cats would be terrified of it but her pets just ignore it as if it was another creature in the house.

[Teacher Terry]

The dogs get used to it. One time my old deaf dog decided to take a nap on it. That did not go so well:))

[bae]

How noisy are the Roombas in action? I had this fantasy vision of it sorta-quietly vacuuming the main floor while I am downstairs in my office.

[Teacher Terry]

Total fantasy:))

[bae]

I finally took the plunge this week, and got the latest Roomba i7+.

My motivation was simply that this house is quite large, and is currently inhabited by just myself and my 110 pound Bloodhound, who sheds quite a bit. While my standard of housekeeping is "moderate", I was falling behind, especially with the vacuuming, as I recently dislocated my elbow on my dominant arm, and my old-school vacuum cleaner weighs a ton.

The i7+ has a charging base that has a large bag and a vacuum in it, which empties the dust bin of the Roomba when it is full. The bag is alleged to be sufficient for 30+ emptyings. I had previously hesitated even considering the Roomba technology as I was expecting to constantly have to babysit it to empty bins.

This is not the case, with the new model it auto-empties. Within a day it learned the geography of my home, and I can tell it to clean a specific room and it marches off and does so. It comes back to its base when full, or when low on battery, and then gets back to work when it is able.

It isn't terribly loud compared to my "real" vacuum cleaner, it claims to have more powerful motors than the previous versions, and also be a bit quieter. It doesn't particularly bother me, especially as I can have it clean rooms I am not in.

My big complaints are the high cost, and that the battery is only good for 45ish minutes on my carpet, so it does end up coming back and then taking an hour to recharge between sessions. I think this won't be an issue if I simply issue it a room-by-room schedule.

It seems able to navigate obstacles that I would have guessed would have confused it. It claims to have a more sophisticated set of cameras/sensors/processors than previous models. Certainly watching it decide where to go convinces me it has some brains inside.

Housecleaners here cost $25-$30/hour, *if* you can find someone, and if they are reliable. It takes me about 30 minutes myself to vacuum just the main floor of my home, which I was doing twice a week because of the dog fur and the pollen/dust/allergy issues. So the cost of this will be paid off in 1/2->1 year, compared to hiring out the work. And I simply wasn't having enough time to keep up with things.

My new routine is to take the dog outside for a few minutes and deep brush him every day, which he loves, let the robot do the vacuuming, and perhaps use the real vacuum cleaner now-and-then if needed.

[KayLR]

Thanks for the review, Bae. I'm still thinking about getting one.

[Teacher Terry]

I have it do one room at a time. I use the devices that come with it to make that happen.

[bae]

Thanks for the review, Bae. I'm still thinking about getting one.

I was totally unconvinced, until it showed up and I got to watch it in action. I think the earlier generations would have been a great disappointment to me - the key feature here in this house is the auto-emptying business, and just how clever it is about mapping the house and sneaking into really quite tricky spaces.

Now also after a day of running it off-and-on, I can measure different interior air quality, so it is holding up on its filtering claims, which is nice. Hoping this will help during the upcoming pollen season. Assuming winter ends.

[Teacher Terry]

Mine can’t empty itself. That’s a great feature.

[bae]

I have it do one room at a time. I use the devices that come with it to make that happen.

This one builds up a pretty darned detailed map of your home. (I've even noticed that it seems to know about the molding around closed doors, and when it passes such an area, it checks to see if the door is still closed, it is clearly trying to learn or escape...)

With the map, you can just speak to it and tell it what room to wander off to, no special devices needed.

The empties-its-own-bin feature is a total gamechanger, even though it condemns you to purchasing the little bags for the bin-emptying-machine about once a month. (I suspect I can re-use the bag if clever though, or that someone will soon produce an aftermarket reuseable bag.)

[JaneV2.0]

Eventually, I'd like a Roomba and a rechargeable stick vacuum. And a new place to live with hard-surface floors. And a unicorn...

[Teacher Terry]

Mine is about 4 years old. Yours sounds great.

[bae]

Eventually, I'd like a Roomba and a rechargeable stick vacuum. And a new place to live with hard-surface floors. And a unicorn...

Hardwood floors, and some Swiffers tied to the dog's paws, I'd be set.

These carpets have to go.

[Teacher Terry]

We don’t have carpet. They make mopping roombas too.

[JaneV2.0]

Hardwood floors, and some Swiffers tied to the dog's paws, I'd be set.

These carpets have to go.

I couldn't agree more about the carpets.