Those rumba cleaning robots...

[WreckOfTheHesperus]

We have wooden floors mainly plus a couple of rugs (and lots of toys scattered liberally about)
Is a rumba the answer to a maiden's prayer, or should I save my money?

Sorry, roomba, bah to predictive text!

I think mine is the best thing ever. I'm very lazy when it comes to hoovering and I feel this machine was invented for me! It costs the same as a decent Dyson anyway. And it makes me tidy up stuff from the floor.

If only it did stairs...

Do you have wooden floors, Panzee? Would the roomba get rid of dried-on weetabix or do I need the floor-washing variety?

Ah, no it's carpet I'm afraid. No, I don't think the weetabix would shift once dried to cement consistency, but a quick scrape with the foot would probably lift it enough to be hoovered up.
I've never tried a floor washer one, sounds intriguing though!

Ours does the ground floor every morning before we get up. Can't recommend it highly enough.
If you get one, try and go for the higher spec with the scheduler and lighthouses, and be prepared for it to acquire a name and be treated like a pet. I am, of course, the worst culprit at this and talk to him/it regularly.

save your money

we have wooden floors and loads of toys and a few rugs

had a roomba but sold it on ebay a few weeks ago as it's easier to use a hoover

it kept missing sides of the rugs so I had to sweep them myself or frantically try and sweep them inot the path of the roomba-stupid

we also have open plan and it would escape and end up drifting around not doing any area fully

have I put you off

Conflicting views from girl and soapy dishcloth...the alternative to the roomba is probably not getting it done, rather than doing it myself...

If I didn't own a Roomba I'd be on Life of Grime.

Dh is researching these at the moment. We have mainly wooden and hard floors with some carpet upstairs.

When he's home I'll update this thread with the models he thinks would be best for us.

Very thorough researcher my dh. I think he justvtries to slow down my spending process

Splendid alouiseg, keep us posted. Can you ask him to include the floor-washing ones in his research?

The scuba, yes of course, it is his favourite!

We have wooden floors but no rugs and use the roomba daily to keep the dog/cat hair to a minimum. It isn't a thorough clean but enough to keep the place reasonable until I have time to do a proper hoover. We are open plan (well, we have no doors in the doorways at the moment) but block up zones using furniture to keep roomba penned into a smaller area.

Same as EColi except half our flat is parquet, half carpeted. DH does a 'proper' vacuum every 2-3 weeks.

I've heard that the floor-washing one is a bit useless as it doesn't hold much water so you have to keep refilling it. TBH after Bob (ahem) has finished doing all the vac-ing I don't mind whizzing round with a mop.

That's what I think Fenoiulle, mopping is fine as long as you havnt had to do the same route with a vacuum first.

Roomba 581 scuba 385 are the ones dh thinks we need. I think we'll go for the roomba 581 to start with and see how it goes.

Thanks for update, will investigate

Perhaps they could send us some freebies for us to review :o

What would the cat think of this? I am very very tempted, do people who have one think it would work on my downstairs - three separate rooms plus the hall, edwardian/victorian with the kitchen at the back and two receptions at the front. Does it have bags? I would want to be able to empty it often in case the cat has fleas .

Thank you thank you thank you for this post - didn't even know these existed. Just ordered one and will let you know how we get on!!!!!!

Does it go right to the edged of your carpets? I would worry about a kind of grime demarcation zone around the edges of every room.

Yes it has a long sweeping arm that reaches out further than the edge of the machine. There are some demos on YouTube.