Anyone here own a Roomba by iRobot?

[flyingvees]

We are making major improvements to our house including new hardwood and carpet. I have been intrigued by the roomba for a while and am ready to bite the bullet. Any advice or reviews for a fellow tgp'r.

[jtm622]

My wife bought one, and uses it now and then... it seems to work pretty good on tile and hardwood - I don't know about carpet, though... :)

[shark_bite]

The robot uprising is near...

[52ftbuddha]

I have the one's costco sell, I am somewhat satisfied. They deal with 2k of hardwood floor on each level. They are far from perfect and do not pick up as much as a dust mop/swifer. I suspect I may need more of them. I give them a 7 out of 10.

rob

[FlyingVBlues]

We had one and it worked poorly on carpets and fairly well on hardwood floors. After owning it about 6 months a plastic part broke. iRobot only makes a few replacement parts, such as batteries, filters, and replacement brush bearings. Since the part we needed was not available, and iRobot would not service it, our Roomba was non-functional and we relegated it to the trash. I would not buy another one. The Roomba is a good idea hindered by poor quality and service.

FVB

[RichieD]

I bought my wife a Scooba for Christmas last year. It works pretty well.

My advice would be to buy it from Hammacher Schlemmer (no, I am not affiliated with them in any way other than as a satisfied customer). That's where I bought mine mainly for the reason of their Unconditional Lifetime Guarantee. Should it ever quit working or should we ever become unsatisfied with it for any reason, they take it back. I view it as a no risk, and no cost, insurance policy.

[JPB2]

My parents had one...and were somewhat satisfied with the performance. But it broke...and a nightmare ensued. When my father called the company, they insisted that it needed a new battery, although my father said the battery tested fine. He was charged for the battery. I forget the amount, but it wasn't cheap ($75?). The battery was not sent for nearly two months...when it arrived, it didn't solve the problem, so my father called back. They told him (1) they had no record of his call (2) he was unable return the battery and (3) his warranty expired two weeks ago...so he was out another $75. He did receive an offer to purchase a new one at 20% discount!!!!!!! I told him to file a complaint with the BBB. iRobot is a joke

[LReese]

I've had 3 - 1st 2 went bad, but due to hammachler-schlemmer's policies, I was able to get it replaced twice.

It's a good sweeper - If it gets better reliability in the later revisions, I'd say its a real timesaver if you have hard floors. but as a vacuum - it's no replacement for a vacuum.

BTW, you can buy batteries off Ebay for something like $30 - You will need to install in the existing casing, though.

[Mike Fleming]

I gave my old man one a couple years ago, because he likes techy stuff. As a carpet vacuum it kind of sucked. It didn't pick up real good, and it leaves a super crazy pattern all over the carpet. I know that sounds anal, but seriously, if you care enough to vacuum, you care enough to have the room look nice right?

I don't recall how it did on the hardwood but if it does ok there I can see it being a plus, i.e. buy you more time between sweepings.

[scottlr]

Every time I see that thing mentioned, I think of "Womba. It cleans your business." from SNL :D

Maybe Dyson will get a wild hair to try and improve this concept, too. It'd be great if it really worked! I hate to vacuum!

[pir8matt]

I bought a refurbed one from buy.com. I have hardwood floors and 2 dogs, so it definitely helped keep hair and dust and whatnot from accumulating between vacuumings.

But then the battery died and I haven't gotten a replacement. I plan to, though.

I have some friends with the scooba (the one that washes floors) and they panned it pretty roundly. I think its good for just getting up loose dust and dirt, but I have trouble understanding how its powerful enough to wash and pick up water/cleaner etc with any kind of success.

[semi-hollowbody]

It works great under beds...we usually let it go in our bedroom every couple days and it gets the big rug and the hardwood floor...

[snarkle]

Ms. Snarkle's mom has one...it works well enough in her apartment (she's in her mid-’70s and very tidy) but has some drawbacks.

At her place, it picks up a surprising amount of dirt but bangs into the antique tables and chairs, leaving scuff marks on their legs that are going to get worse over time.

We tried it out at our place, and it quickly clogged on the kilos of fur that Flash the wonder dog sheds on a daily basis...and it took a LONG time to clean. Don't buy one if you have hairy pets.

(I understand they make a heavy-duty unit just for this application, but I still don't think it would cope well with anyone as fluffy as Flash...)

I was also dubious about how long the Roomba took to do the job...we could vacuum in one-tenth the time. More work, yes, but less noise.

[pir8matt]

I was also dubious about how long the Roomba took to do the job...we could vacuum in one-tenth the time. More work, yes, but less noise.

Did you not get the 'scheduler' model? The whole point (from my perspective, anyway) was to have it run when you're not home.

The few times it ran on the weekend when I was home, I turned it off. The noise drove me nuts. I changed the programming to just not run on weekends.

Moral of the story, if you get one, get the scheduler model.

[Bobbofallenstar]

We have one. It's the only vacuum my wife can operate. :facepalm

[MCK]

It works well for us on carpet. There is an alternate brush for homes with pets too and I hear it does a good job in collecting pet hair. My only gripe is that its container is too small. Need to empty it out too often.

[pcutt]

You might want to wait till later this spring for the Neato Robotics competitor. I saw a live demo of it last week and it was superior to the Roomba. The Neato doesn't randomly move around the room and leave places unvacuumed; it methodically goes back and forth (like a lawn mower) and avoid obstacles.

http://www.neatorobotics.com/