Talk me into buying a Roomba

[dwinnol]

or out of it. It's a lot of money at £380 minimum. I work full time, have 2 moulting dogs and 2 messy children, I need one, don't I?
Roomba

[littleredsquirrel]

nope. It really doesn't help as much as you think it will. Its fine if you have it on every day and you're there to keep emptying it but the collection chamber is teeny tiny and if you have anything on the floor it will get tangled or hoover it up if its small enough and then you have to go poking around amongst the dust in the chamber to retrieve it.

It also needs charging very frequently which means the charging station has to be on permanently which means you are paying for the electricity. Plus if you let it run down completely chances are it will have buggered the battery and you'll need a new one which will cost you about £60.

[DillydollyRIP]

I like the idea of going out on the school run and coming back to a hovered house. I need a floor washing model too!

[Lioninthesun]

You can get them on ebay or amazon for around £270 (model 660 I think?) I am wondering the same so thank you Little I am just fed up of spending the few hours I get child free running around trying to hoover up all of the cat hair! Hoovering nearly every day at the moment and it's a real PITA.

DD is a fan of leaving tiny stickers and bits about though, so it sounds as though we would break it within a month!

[littleredsquirrel]

floor washing model is called the scooba.

You don't come back to a hoovered house though. You come back to a reasonably ok hoovered room as long as you picked every single thing up off the floor. So the reality is that unless you are there all the time to keep emptying recharging and resetting, you will only get a room/couple of rooms done each day.

I do have one and I do use it but I'm home all day and can keep resetting and emptying.

[dwinnol]

Oh no littleredsquirrel! I want a magical solution to cleaning my floors and the John Lewis reviews are all excellent, oh hang on....

[littleredsquirrel]

It is good for under the beds though (as long as there's nothing under there)

[Artandco]

You need the new roomba 880! No brushes so things can't get caught. They have rollers instead

[littleredsquirrel]

It also bashes the furniture. It hits the furniture, tells itself theres something in the way and so turns and goes in a different direction until it hits the next thing. My chair legs are bashed to bits.

[Lioninthesun]

I was trying to talk myself INTO it, rather than getting a cleaner (who I know I would run around trying to clean before they arrived = more stress!). My idea was that compared to a monthly £40 or more it would pay for itself within a year. Sorry, not being very helpful here at talking you OUT of it but then I don't have one so it's good to hear that they aren't the magic answer.

[dwinnol]

I'm afraid of Ebay, so many sharks on there. I will buy stuff if it's under £50 but I'm too much of a wimp to spend any more there. Plus JL offer a 5 year guarantee for an extra £40.
I need this to be magical, DP doesn't want one (nor does he want to hoover either) so I need it be worth the outlay.

[littleredsquirrel]

Its definitely not a substitute for a cleaner!

If someone gives you one for free or you can buy a second hand one for £40ish I'd say go for it as a top up tool. Otherwise there are better things you can spend that sort of money on IMO

[dwinnol]

I'm too afraid to look at the price of an 880!

[dwinnol]

Yes Lion, I thought it would be a good substitute for a cleaner. Getting a good one is very hit and miss and I'll be the sort to clean before they come.
I'm so disappointed, I had my finger on the buy button after reading the JL reviews and then thought, "just quickly confirm its magic on MN"
Bah!

[AlarmOnSnooze]

I love mine. yes you need to pick stuff up (but then you do to do the hoovering anyway). Yes it does a room/area at a time, and needs recharging.

I put mine on in the morning during school run, it runs and recharges (can get to charging station by itself). Come back, and put it upstairs to do ds' bedroom. Collect it as I put ds down for his nap after lunch, and pop it on to charge. Then put it on again when I go out to do the afternoon school run.

Works for me.

I didn't used to be bale to collect/charge it as often, but it still worked for me as doing areas in strict rotation meant I at least kept on top of the hoovering which meant when I got 5 minutes to do it with the 'big' hoover ti wasn't a full-on war but more a top-up battle!

It changed my life completely, as my dd1 has severe ASd and couldn't bear the noise of a hoover - even if I tried when she was asleep it would result in hours-long screaming meltdowns. SO I could pop it on and leave the house. Honestly, lifechanging.

[4littleones]

I've just bought one off eBay and I'm hoping it will arrive today or in the next few days. It's a second hand, but barely used 630. It cost about £180 and figured I would try it for a couple of weeks and can resell if I don't get on with it, but I think I will.

I had read tonnes about it before we bought one. I am aware I will need to tidy the floors before setting it off - but surely you would do this before using a normal hoover anyway? I wouldn't get my Dyson out till I have tidied and made sure there are no bits and bobs on the floor.

I am home most of the day so I'm hoping it can sort of follow me round the house. as in, so far this morning I've cleaned and tidied my living room and then moved onto the kitchen. so I hope that I will usually be able to tidy and dust the living room, and then instead of then hoovering, I will set roomba to work while I shut the door and go and clean the kitchen. then set him in the kitchen etc?

and also, If say I get the living room clear before the school run, he can hoover that while I'm on the school run?

I'm hoping it will motivate me to keep the house tidy enough to use him all the time to be honest. and if it manages to make me a tidy person, then I'm happy!

[dwinnol]

I read your thread 4littleones and wondered if you had received it yet.
I really wanted everyone to say they were fab so I could buy it.

[YouAreMyFavouriteWasteOfTime]

i think they are great. we have a cleaner but the Roomba does an extra clean and does each room more thoroughly than a person.

we also have a similar product for lawn mowing.

the rooms get clean, the lawn gets mowed, while we do something more fun.

[AlarmOnSnooze]

dwinnol, at the very least you will manage 2 rooms a day that you have not physically hoovered yourself - one during the day when you are put, and then (if you have the charging station where roomba can get to it to recharge once finished) one in the evening while you are in another room/cooking dinner/havign a bath/whatever.

to me, that is little short of miraculous.

if you have smallish rooms, then you could get a couple of rooms out of a single charge, so could do two rooms in the evening.

I think they are marvellous (and also have a scooba for my kitchen/dining room floors. also great.)

[dwinnol]

AlarmOnSnooze - you are right, it is miraculous! The dog hairs are driving me to distraction at the moment, so it will be a small price for mental peace.
So when are JL next having a 20% everything day??

[dwinnol]

Right, it's ordered. I've taken the 5 year guarantee and it's coming tomorrow! I'll update with a review.

[4littleones]

I am that yours will be shiney and new AND You may get yours before me when I ordered mine last week! Stomps foot! Lol

Youaremyfavouritewasteoftime - You have one that mows the lawn?! On it's own?! PLEASE tell me more! Does it pick up the grass? Or do you have to do that yourself? I WANT ONE!

Alarmonsnooze Can I pick your brains about the scooba? I have been tempted by ones on ebay between £100-200 (so obviously not top of the range). Is it worth it? We have laminate floor in the kitchen and hall which could really do with mopping daily or at least several times a week but the reality is more like once a month . I just find it impossible with little people about all the time. DS is still at the age where if he is say playing upstairs - I have to be upstairs with him. So he is always running on the floors. His naps are unpredictable but I should really do it when he is asleep. But I always have more important things to do. I then have Lino in my extention/dining/utility room. None of these places are huge though - would it manage them all in one go? Or would I have to separate areas? There is no doors between them, although I could create something I am sure but adds to the work! Do you need to run the Roomba first and then the scooba after?

[AlarmOnSnooze]

i am very of the lawnmowing robot too! Need to know more...

4littleones - if the areas are together, and ok sized, then scooba will cope. it uses the same random-patterning though, so if there is a corner involved, it might be best to do them separately (you can manually stop when you think most of the floor is done, then lift and reposition) so that it doesn't do all of one bit, and think it is done due to havign finished the bit it mapped out, iyswim.

scooba (I have a very old and very basic model - about 6 years old now, but still going ok) has a basic hoover bit, but really only for stray bits and pieces, rahter than a full hoover then mop. it will pick stuff up though, so if only lightly dusty then it'd cope. it hoovers as it goes, so as it goes over a bit of floor it hoovers, then wets, then sucks up the majority of the water - it does leave floors wet (a little bit more wet than mopping, but not flooded)

I love mine - brilliant for dining room floors where little children re involved...

[Lioninthesun]

Oh now you have all got me thinking of a scooba! I have engineered wood floors with underfloor heating, so am hoping it would dry them faster? Mine is an open plan downstairs L shape so it should do quite well. How is it with chair/stool legs and edges of rugs?

Also curious on the mowerbot. I wish they would do deals on the two sold together!

[AlarmOnSnooze]

Newer models might leave less water about. Even mine is not a huge amount - probably took about an hour or so to dry fully when I had wood floor/underfloor heating.

Chair/table legs were the same as roomba - fine unless it gets stuck in the middle of a forest of legs (I found it easier to put chairs up on the table, tbh, to give it a free run at the offerings from my delightful children ). I took the rug up as wanted the floor underneath mopped.

[SpringBreak]

I adore mine, however it's only used on the kitchen / diner hard tiled floor which still gets a proper hand wash down a couple of times a week. It gets rid of all the dust and cat hair on a dark floor though. I have a 6 yr old one, imagine they've improved massively but mine is still fine. Never bothered using the laser gateway things at all.

bear in mind you can't leave it running while your burglar alarm is on (if you have one) as it sets off the motion sensors. May sound obvious but.... we learned the stupid way