Anyone have an iRobot Roomba?

[Dolittledo]

Would you recommend it?

Totally. He's hoovered the whole house today (3 storey). I luffs him very much.

I don't have a roomba, I bought a robot vacuum about a month ago, was another brand and was on offer. I really like it, a roomba will probably be even better. It has limitations,filter needs emptied often , it doesn't do stairs or under cushions and I don't think it'd cope with a big mess but I use it most nights after tea and it is excellent at maintaining a relatively clean floor. My floors are clutter free so it manages well, if you have a lot of stuff lying about it might struggle. I'd say definitely go for it.

Thanks, I'm really tempted. The thought of having miraculously clean floors is very appealing!

Go for it! We love ours, well worth the outlay.

I'd love a Roomba too - can anyone tell me the difference between the versions (other than price?)

I love mine - it very rarely hoovers up clutter apart from the odd tissue or fine wire ( blackberry charger wire got wrapped round brush but was undamaged) . I love the fact that it can do under the bed- first time I did that I found a neat pile of lost books, tissue boxes and other bits in the middle of the floor- thought 'WTF!' until I remembered Ruby had been busy.
Deals with cat hair and has a timer so it can run while you are out (but I usually just switch on last thing before I leave the house in the morning). Puts itself away on the charger. Versions are for thing like the lighthouses to block areas you don't want hovering, ability to detect dirty spots and give them an extra going over. The older versions used to clog with pet hair but new versions are more enclosed.
batteries last for ages ( good job as expensive)
I have a henry for the occasional deep clean under furniture .

Had a quick look on Amazon but confused by all the different types. Where do I start and how much should I pay.
Downstairs have mainly tiles and wood and carpet in living room. Would love something to get crumbs off black tiles in kitchen. Seems a never ending job.

Bump, I need one of these in my life but not sure which?

Also interested in this, but have a dog with a vacuum phobia. Can anyone tell me how noisy they are, compared with a standard upright?

Mine was a few years ago and it didnt handle my long hair and my long haired dog very well, spent more time cleaning the brushes than hoovering

Love mine. It's currently doing the landing while LO's are asleep so they are pretty quiet. I have 2 dogs, 2 kids, one with long hair and a mix of hard floors, rugs and carpets and she handles it all beautifully. My only regret is not buying it sooner.

I have borrowed one to try out - amazing! Definitely need one of these in my life.

So what type should I get and brand?

Quieter than the dyson. Copes with cat hair ( had fours cats at one point). I use a 'quick-un-pick' to get rid of long hair on the brushes about twice a year. higher model numbers are new and have more features - but I would get whatever Roomba version Lakeland sells as they do a good job of figuring out which is best value. ( should note the the Neato gets also good reviews) Expect to pay about £300

I love love love mine. It has massively changed our home. We now have the motivation to keep the floors clear of clutter.

It hoovers my living room/dinning room 1-3 times a day, the rest of downstairs daily and upstairs as and when we need it.

We thought we would still need to hoover once a week but we don't. We sold one of our Dyson hoovers and now seriously considering selling the other as it sits unused most of the time, and we have a handheld for stairs.

The roomba actually cleans better than the Dyson. you can run it over What looks like a spotless floor and it still has dirt in the box at the end.

You do need to empty it pretty much every time you use it though, or at least daily. that's In our house anyway but it gets heavily used - family of 6, baby/toddler dropping food etc.

we have now bought a scooba and are equally impressed.

We bought both second hand off eBay so didn't cost quite as much.

They have another brand in Aldi at the moment reduced to £129!

We have a roomba. It is about 4 years old now and is now suffering a bit. In fact, I dont use it regularly anymore as it's not picking up very well. I'm hoping some TLC will help! We have mainly carpets and 2 huge dogs that shed hair like it is going out of fashion. Put it this way, I have to empty the dyson pretty much every bloody day! So I think the roomba hasn't done too bad.

Whoever said about black tiles. They dont 'do' black floors. I think its because the sensors on them detect it as a 'hole' so it wont go over it! The sensors stop it falling down the stairs for exanple.

I would love a scooba!

Wow! Pretty unanimous then Sold!

Can anyone share model numbers/names for their roombas please - I thought there would be one or two to choose from but there's LOADS!! (And massive price differences!)

I was just looking at these! Really want one but they are £££££

Lakeland have a sale on but yes still £££

I'm aiming to justify it (to the DH and my subconscious) by saying if it lasts a year that's less than £10 per week so cheaper than a cleaner (albeit only the hoovering gets done but that's what bugs me - either that or the furry creatures go and that would make me very sad, i would need constant cheering up, leading me to a shopping spree - so roomba cheaper all round!)

That's how I justified it to myself Chish and I'm bloody glad I did. I got the roomba 770 and it's great, a big outlay though, but I really really wish I'd got the 780. It cost a lot more but has the ability to do one room thoroughly, then move on to the next and so on. The 770 has to be manually moved if you want to do more than one room thoroughly - it will wander from room to room if you leave doors open but I'm not sure it's all done properly iykwim.

We got a Roomba 770 - copes with one very furry cat. And the cat isn't bothered by it all. Step daughter has long hair so have to clean the brushes after it has done her room. The first time we used it it needed emptying after about 10 minutes - and I thought it was rubbish. But that was just because there was so much for it to pick up. Now we use it regularly its fine. We have black tiles in the kitchen and its fine on that too. Brilliant thing.

For those who haven't seen it....
cat on roomba dressed as shark

Does it cope with rugs on the floor?

Copes fine with rugs. We do have one rug with quite fine tassels and I've found a few of those tassels tangled up in the brushes - but it hasn't stopped the Roomba working and the rug still looks fine. I suppose if I really cared about the rug I'd take it up before I set the Roomba off.