anybody have a Roomba? (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Illingworth]

I saw one at the vacuum store and thought how cool they are. Who has one? Are you happy with it? Tell me more tell me more, was it love at first sight?

jeremy

 

[Jeremy Illingworth]

Really, nobody has one? I thought lots of people would. They're so cool, getting one makes you one step closer to living in the Jetsons.

jeremy

 

[BrianW]

I don't own one, but my understanding is that they don't actually vacuum. Rather, they use rotating brushes to pick up debris, like the old hand-powered Bissel floor sweeper. (Rotating a brush takes a lot less energy than vacuuming, so high performance is sacrificed for extended battery life.)

If this is true, then I don't think it would be a good thing to use to spiff up the house before the In-Laws come over for their two-week Christmas visit. Those brush contraptions don't work on the very tiny stuff. Hence, I don't think it will replace your regular vacuum cleaner.

However, if there's one thing those rotating-brush floor sweepers works really well on, it's hair. For people with pets, it sounds like the perfect thing for picking up pet hair and keeping the house presentable between regular vacuumings. Just set the Roomba loose before you go to work every day, and come home to a hair-free floor. And if it makes your regular vacuuming routine less frequent (and I don't see why it wouldn't), then that's gotta be worth something.

Sorry I can't speak from personal experience, but that's my take on it. I'm seriously considering one to help mitigate our dog's shedding.

 

[JamesHl]

They're pretty neat if you don't have a lot of junk on your floor. Or have tall carpet. If you use it periodically and your carpet isn't terribly soiled it will mostly eliminate your need to use a conventional vacuum in the area that it covers.

 

[Keith_R]

Anyone seen the commercials for that robotic vacum the Roomba that you can set to clean and it will do it by itself , looks like a pretty neat gift idea, however I don't know of anyone that owns one nor do I have experience with them. Anyone here own one of these? are they as good as they are cracked up to be? thanks.

 

[Joe Spratley]

Works good, Not just a gimmicky item. I figured I would end up taking it back but after seeing it work I had to keep it. If you vaccuum with a regular vac to get out all the heavy stuff and then run this every day or two you shouldn't have to vaccuum again with the regular vac for quite some time.

 

[Joe Spratley]

Works good on dog hair thats why I bought mine. If you run it every day you should be pretty much hair free.

 

[Jeremy Illingworth]

Except for one room I've only got hardwood and tile. I just don't like sweeping and I think I'd vacuum more if a robot did it for me. I guess I'm just lazy and want robots to do all my dirty work. Do the fancier models do a better job?

jeremy

 

[JamesHl]

The top model comes with a remote and a cleaning mode where it runs until the battery runs out, and I think all of the newer ones come with that spot mode thing. It is kind of fun to drive around with the remote, but probably not all that useful.

 

[JamesHl]

There's a thread about this already.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Does it actually hit everywhere on the floor? Seems like it would just go in right angles everywhere and not do much.

 

[Cees Alons]

Two threads merged.

 

[Joe Spratley]

It will hit 100% or very close to it.

 

[JamesHl]

Does it actually hit everywhere on the floor? Seems like it would just go in right angles everywhere and not do much.

No, it has a pretty good system for figuring out the shape of a room and then proceeds to hit I'd say 95% or more. I've noticed when I let my guinea pig play on the floor she follows an eerily similar pattern.

 

[Philip_G]

too bad it can't go up stairs

 

[Don Black]

I picked up two Roomba Pros from HSN recently. I stripped one of them for vitual wall units and filters and flipped it on eBay for a profit and kept the other one. I made sure to purchase the extra two year warranty though for the one I kept since I didn't want to have a dead robot in 91 days.

My cost for a Roomba Pro, 4 wall units, 12 filters, and a two-year extended warranty was about $160 in the end. I'll probably sell everything in a year or so, when the new model comes out, and get the latest and the greatest.

I'm pretty happy with it but it doesn't do well on thick carpeting. It does indeed vacuum and not just brush but it can't store much dirt and it takes a long time to charge the battery (unless you splurge for the rapid charger).

If anything, it's a great conversation piece for my fellow nerds. =)