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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

anyone got an irobot roomba?

12 replies

mrsshackleton · 11/10/2010 17:46

We have a lot of floor that constantly need sweeping and dh and I are wondering if a little robot is the answer

Has anyone got one? Do they work? Thanks Grin

OP posts:
ChippyMinton · 11/10/2010 17:49

They work beautifully - sadly mine conked out Sad

MisSalLaneous · 11/10/2010 18:06

Yeah, we've got one (in addition to our "proper" vacuum cleaner), and it's brilliant for when you don't have the time to do a normal vacuum. E.g. get call re friends coming over. Switch Roomba on to vacuum sitting room, whilst frantically picking up clothes in hallway putting on the coffee. Grin It doesn't replace a vacuum cleaner in my opinion, but it is a very useful addition.

Mowgli1970 · 11/10/2010 20:05

I want one too! But at £350 I think I'll stick with the Dyson Smile

cjbk1 · 12/10/2010 19:36

what about sucking up little toys under the settees?that'd b my concern x

aendr · 12/10/2010 20:46

We have a Roomba 560. We borrowed an early model from some friends who went away for a year, and have now bought our own.

The model we have is compatible with the "wireless command centre", which enables us to drive it like a remote controlled car. This is pretty fun, and helps with getting at bad spots if we don't want to wait for the Roomba to do that area. (The floor coverage is pretty good, but time inefficient.)

It has virtual wall-lighthouses, so that we can either cordon off an area or have it do one area and then progress to the next area.

We can schedule our model to come out at set times and clean, though I haven't done this yet because I haven't figured out a good time for it to do so.

Ideally, you clear as much floor as possible before setting it going. In practise, it can cope with a lot of obstacles. It isn't so good at coping at cloth on the floor (eg clothing) or trailing cables.

You need to empty the (small) dust compartment after each or every couple of runs, and also clean the brushes. This isn't that onerous, and easier on the newer models. cjbk1 as a result, you would spot the tiny toys in the dust compartment. I've got an under 3 and a baby, so we haven't progressed to strewn small toys yet, but observation of other behaviour suggests to me that it would move things like lego men but not suck them up, whereas the small lego tiles or one-peg bricks might get sucked up (trying to find something people would know how big.)

I did find that on the occasion my husband set it off in the bedroom without checking the floor, it found a paper tissue, and shredded it, scattering bits all over the floor. It was like a churchyard after a wedding. However, it also very effectively then vacuumed it up when I set it off again (having emptied the dust compartment and cleaned the brushes, which I don't think was needed because of the tissue but because the husband had interpreted "the Roomba needs emptying BEFORE it gets used next" as "yeah, make it vacuum the bedroom if you like").

My toddler likes to watch (supervise) the Roomba but runs away crying if it gets too close. He's pressed the "clean" (go) button in the past and got a fright when it then undocked and headed for him. I believe pets can also be afraid of them.

Ideal for people who are naturally tidy and not too cluttered. Perhaps not so good for untidy lumps with small children, like myself. However, the former are probably houseproud and can be bothered to hoover themselves, whereas I much prefer to mumsnet while it hoovers for me, plus it means my husband has some enthusiasm for a household chore (his general tolerance for mess and laziness at avoiding chores is unfortunately higher than mine.)

mrsshackleton · 13/10/2010 10:30

Thanks everyone
aendr - what does cleaning the brushes involve. How long does emptying the compartment and cleaning brushes take? [lazy emoticon]

OP posts:
aendr · 14/10/2010 13:03

I'm lazy too... (and typing 1 handed, feeding 7 week old)
The old one we borrowed - 1 min to pull compartment out, walk to bin, dump stuff, walk back. 4-5 mins to turn over and remove brushes and pull bits out of them - mainly my long hair wrapped around. A min or so to hunt for the yellow end which fell off when pulling the brush out (I had to buy a new set at one point). Longer to hunt around house to find small jeweller's screwdriver and unscrew rotatey brush and clear that, did that once in a blue moon Blush. Couple of mins to set rooma off to clear up where I dropped bits while cleaning it :)

The new one - 1 min for compartment. 2 mins for brushes as there's this funky tool which you push them through and hey presto, hair removed. And the screwdriver is now kept with said funky tool, so much less hunting. So, erm 3 minutes for basic clean, 8 for full works including changing filter. Compartment is better designed too, so much less stuff dropped, and I can use the Roomba remote to clean up which is fun and much more accurate than the "spot clean" button.

mrsshackleton · 14/10/2010 17:52

2 mins for brushes I can handle - any longer I might as well sweep the room. Hmm. Am going to have to think about this Grin

OP posts:
orchardlime · 14/10/2010 20:08

I've just posted on the household goods thread about ours - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/household_goods_chat/1062310-Robot-vacuum-cleaner-it-s-transforming-our-lives - love it, love it - get one if you can afford it, it'll change your life.

DreamTeamGirl · 14/10/2010 23:12

I adore my roomba, and now want a scooba
It does take some maintenance, but well worth it IMO

mrsshackleton · 15/10/2010 14:03

a scooba? Confused

OP posts:
DreamTeamGirl · 15/10/2010 14:16

Scooba washes the floors
I want one so badly ... www.iroboteurope.co.uk/section?secid=39818sccoba

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