Does the Roomba work?

Your probably going to get mixed reviews here, I do not own one, but I saw one in action at a friends house. They actually love it, I'm sure others will chime in if it actually works. I have seen this one robot lawnmower at Fry's, in their demonstration, and it looked like it works wonderful. Sorry not much help here.

Oh, I have a cordless Shark, one of those really lightweight ones, My dad bought it for $30.00, and it works really good. It actually only works on hard floors, such as my hard carpet and berbur (sp?), and wood flooring.
Again, no help here.

 

We have one. It works well and we have had it for 18 months. The battery is getting a little old now and it does not run for as lond as it used to however it does a good job. We live in a 2 storey house and move it upstairs and it senses the stairs ,has not gone over the dge once.
You need to empty it regularly as it does not hold much and with a pet it is amazing how quickly it fills up.We simply put it on when we leave for work. It finds its way back to the docking station when it starts to go flat.We still do a proper vacuum evry week or so. We have carpet upstairs and polished floors down.

 

Hi,

I have both a "Roomba" ("Enzo") and a "Scooba" ("Dino") - I *love* em! What more can I say!....

Seriously - Yes, you've got to empty and clean 'em after every "session" - Especially if you have a pet - Hair (where does it all come from?) will wind around the wheels and clog up fairly fast if you don't pay attention.

The scooba does a great job on the hardwood (as long as it's sealed properly) Although not recommended, I also use it on "Pergo" flooring and so far so good - Beats the hell out of a mop!.... The roomba does great on both H/W and carpet. (I Roomba before Scooba'ing the H/W btw)

The only other comment I would make is it will do a much better job if the floor is "cleared" - ie, I put the kitchen chairs onto the table so he only has the 4 table legs to go round.

Oh - and if you do get one, be prepared to waste a lot of time watching it the first few times you let it out - I don't know why, but find it a fascinating process......

Finally, they have a pretty active "forum" on their website if you have any "problems" - There's some real "zealots" there!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I NEED a Scrooba, as I have two cats and they have muddy feet sometimes. The kitchen tile is a pain to keep clean, and I want something every day to get it ready before I come home:

1. where is best place to buy one
2. what is best scooba model IYO
3. What else should I look for?

rik

 

A maid maybe.

 

+1 Roomba.

 

I bought my parents one, suffice it say, its in the garage now. I guess it couldn't replace me after all, since I still have to do chores!!

It takes quite a while to clean a room, but it does work. You will have to empty it more often compared to a regular vacuum cleaner.

 

I am slightly OCD, as my wife points out. We have hardwood and carpet floors in the first level of our house. I got sick and tired of sweeping the hardwood floors all the time. One night at dinner I asked my wife how much we spend on groceries every week. She said around $200. I said I think $100 of every week is on our floors. We have identical twin boys, 15 years old, and for the life of me I cannot get them to put all of the food in their mouths. After every dinner you can look under the table. My wife's side is clean, mine is clean and theirs is a mess of crumbs. Enough of my rant.

I decided, for my sanity, to buy a Roomba. Best decision I have made in quite some time. It has kept me out of therapy. Anytime I note the floors are a little dirty I have the kids push the button and in a short time everything is clean and ready for the next meal. It has the capability of confining it to certain areas, if desired, by use of a sensor pod that runs on batteries.

For those thinking why don't I have my kids sweep the floor. Been there done that. They do an OK job but my OCD standards can only be met by the Roomba.

 

I bought one and used it about 3 months then the novelty wore off. Did an okay job on hardwood floors. Got tired of emptying the canister after each use and pulling the hairs out the brush and wheels. For the price you can buy a very nice vacuum cleaner.

 

The Roomba was only good for scaring the crap out of the cats. Our maid service does a much better job cleaning the floors...

 

+2 Roomba. I bought my wife one after seeing Daniel's

 

We've had one for years and love it. I really just wanted to point out that iRobot has the absolute best customer service. We've had a few issues over the years, and they have been stellar to work with.

 

After reading this thread on Sunday, I took Roomba out to the garage and let it clean there for an hour. Our garage floor is pretty clean, but there sand (Luca), tennis clay (Mrs.) and just general crap. The thing did a great job! Of course I could hear it bumping into the car wheels, and garage door every so often.

 

But at least it slows down before it hits stuff - At least my Roomba does - The Scooba doesn't go as fast so doesn't need that "deceleration" before it creams itself against a wall..... As I said before, a fascinating little critter IMHO

BTW - You do know they have a "workshop" version now? The "dirt dog" apparently....

Cheers,
Ian

 

I had both a Roomba and a Scooba. In the end (after a year), I decided that I could do a better job in half to one quarter the time the robots could with a traditional vacuum. The Roomba does better than a dust buster, but not as good as a vacuum. I meant to look into the scheduler version as it'd be nice to have this run around in between major vacuum times. Problems I had with the Roomba was it got stuck on too many different carpets (especially floor rugs on my hardwood) or in other places.

The Scooba was interesting, but just took to long in comparison to manual labor.

I think this thread shows it works for some, not so good for others.

 

I hated mine and left it for a house warming gift for the new owners. I got hung up on everything from fringes on furniture to feet on pedestals and tables. Had to clean the brushes constantly and empty the damn thing every day. I decided that cleaning that carpet was easier than maintaining the Roomba. Then I had the best solution of all. I got married and I now call my wife Roomba. She said if I ever got another one, she would be insulted.

 

If you have a lot of square edges (Ikea furniture) it can navigate well, but the novelty of it will have you adjust your tolerance to dirt. "Acceptable" by normal standards are a Roomba owner's "spotless".


http://www.myroombud.com/ costumes for your roomba and some cool mods