Roomba - really good or gimmick that I would regret?

[brawhen]

I've been thinking about a Roomba (magic robot vacuum cleaner) for ages. Yes expensive - but I would consider worth it if they really work.

Can anyone tell me:

• are they robust - will they last several yrs?
• will they cope with food-under-kids-chairs muck in hard floored kitchen?

We have no pet hair issue. We are all hard floors downstairs (some rugs - but none in kitchen). Rooms are large though - possibly a problem with bag capacity?

Downstairs currently gets hoovered & mopped once a week but really really needs done more often and I want an easy solution!

Well, i love mine. Things they don't like are long tasselled rugs or carrier bags, so you do have to pick some stuff up (they do a sad beep if they get stuck). Mine gets up lots of really fine dust. I can't say I've ever tried it on (possibly wet) food under high chairs.

Advantages are that they're low lying so can get under lots of furniture. They're fairly good at getting coverage of a whole room. They work best if left to do 1 room at a time, rather than the whole downstairs. Mine sometimes gets into a bedroom and shuts the door behind itself.

It does need emptying fairly often, but you can set it to go off overnight and it sorts itself out - goes back to the dock to charge up afterwards etc.

I did a review www.squidoo.com/i-love-my-roomba here.

We have one and it runs early every morning (has a timer) and cleans hard floors downstairs. Collects dust, cat hairs and dried food - rice, spaghetti, the odd peanut etc. Only wet issue was the cat was sick (TMI) which did mean a strip down for a good clean.

It is a luxury but we don't vacuum the area any more.

Love the idea of a Roomba shutting itself in a bedroom....

sulking teenage Roomba - 'it's not fair, you make me work so hard....'

I want a Roomba!

Can I tag on an related question...and the Other Roomba, the floor washing one, is that good too ?

they do a sad beep if they get stuck

My desire for one has just increased a million fold. Any hoover that does all the work for you AND makes pitious cries for help in extremis has to be the one for me.

I'm just worried that the cats will beat it up and give it a bit of a complex though. Although they'd probably ignore it after ten seconds as the novelty had worn off. Like they do with all the moving toys I have ever bought them.

I love mine. Use it every day. Have two dogs so lots of dog hair. Large open plan kitchen/dining area. Then when it has recharged I put it in hallway and tv room or living room. Am frequently amazed by the dust it gets out of the 4 month old carpets.

I just went awww at the sad beep!

I love mine too! We have had it for 5 years and it still works fine. We have had to have a new battery once which was around £20 I think. My DD like to let her toys ride round on it...
It isn't good at doing right into corners so I do a normal vacuum every month or so.

Thanks everyone - think we've persuaded ourselves we'll get the 564 version. Unless anyone convinces me the new 700 models are a major improvement - but they are £150 more.

My MIL bought me a Roomba 560 for Christmas 2008 and then the following year a Scooba - I love MIL!

Wouldn't be without mine either, I have to vacuum the corners of each room every couple of weeks or so, other than that 'he' does a better job than I do and is much more thorough. Just be sure that he will be able to scoot under/bump against low furniture or sofas without getting jammed. We reduced the legs on one piece of sizeable furniture in the living room so that he didn't get stuck because we don't like vacuuming love him so much. DS1 and DS2 came up with his name of Walle-Rover - because he collects rubbish and roves like a dog apparently.

We have had to buy 2 new batteries that cost about £45 each and we're currently looking at probably having to buy another, warranty on the batteries is for 6 months only. We're currently looking at Roomba robot expert websites to try and work out why our batteries never last more than a year, but I expect we probably use it too much and the Roomba never gets a break.

pinxminx How on earth have your batteries lasted so long - do you use it lots or every now and then? I'm very jealous.

Does yours pick up food from kitchen floor?

Will porridge break my roomba?

I have heard they are not very good where there's a lot of long hairs. I'd love one but with two longhairs in the house, I suspect we'd kill the poor thing in a few months.

I currently have to cut the hair from the miele brushes every time I use it...

For the uber geek you can also "hack" them with wifi or get them to follow a laser pointer. Loads of stuff on youtube.

There's also some funny clips of cats and rabbits riding them. I found one of a cat that switches the roomba on. V silly.

brawhen - it does say in the instruction book not to use it to pick up wet stuff, but I do use it every day in the kitchen after breakfast when there is inevitably wet/soggy cornflakes, weetabix etc. on the floor and never had a problem - I do clean and empty it right after too but I'd never use it to go over a puddle of spilled liquid though - that's what I use the Scooba for:)

The Roomba is pretty good at picking up the long hairs - just one of us in this house. So long as you clean the brushes religiously after each use it shouldn't be a problem, I've read that it causes problems if the hairs aren't removed after each use and then get tangled and causes the motor or brushes to fail.

Cleaning and emptying them is really easy though and I'd rather do that 4 x 3 minutes a day than vacuum;)

Dinosaurs thanks - soggy breakfast cereal is exactly what I am worried about.

We're not to hairy a household and will be full of best intentions to clean & empty daily.

to = too

We love ours - it's buzzing around upstairs now while I'm wasting time on MN catching up on some admin.

It copes with longish hair and is definitely not a gimmick - saves us hours each week and the floors are much cleaner.

I took another mners advice and bought the extended warranty as apparently they do go wrong - and indeed we did have to send it for repair after 8 months, so would recommend doing that. It's back to normal now.