Robot cleaners - any good?

[Mammyofonlyone]

Following on from another thread, I'm thinking of buying a robot vacuum cleaner. I have a Labrador and the hair on my hard floors is driving me crazy.

On the thread in question, several people recommended the Roomba 605 and reviews on Amazon look good so that's the one I was thinking of getting. Does anyone have any others they'd recommend, or should I just stick with this?

Also, are there any down sides to it?

Lastly, and I may well be being a bit dense here, what happens when you have chairs/stools under tables, or other things in the way? We have them in the dining room and at the island in the kitchen - do you just have to move them out of the way??

Bump?

I’ve the 605 and I love it. It’s currently whirring away in my living room as I relax in the kitchen . I lift the chairs in my dining room so it gets a good clear run.

Thanks Ariel, does it just turn itself off after a while e.g. If you go out

Ours just keeps getting stuck under the furniture. It’s a bit of a PITA really.

I have a large Lab and hard floors with rugs. Hoovering was a nightmare until I bought a Neato (much cheaper than roomba at £169) .
He is now 3 years old and I still love him. We have replaced his brush and battery in this time (brush for a slightly better/quieter one but only after the original brush ate too many toys) and the battery after 2 years ish.

It is programmed to Hoover everyday while we are at work and encourages us too keep the floor clear (it can occasionally get stuck after eating a sock or something left on the floor)

If it every died I would replace immediately and rate it higher than my dishwasher!

Forgot to say ours cleans under and around furniture (sofa/dining table/chairs etc) but if we want a deep clean we will stack the kitchen chairs)

I have a roomba that I have used for the past 2 years. It is used most days and has never broken. It is fab and when it dies, I will definitely buy another one. It doesn't do stairs and it can't get in some corners but I use a handheld dyson for that. I still use a big hoover very occasionally, for example when there is sawdust everywhere from diy or I want to do under the sofas quickly (roomba can't get under mine), But I absolutely love it. It is so quick and easy and works brilliantly.

If it is in the same room as its docking station it will automatically go back there and dock itself when it is finished. If it is in a different room and can't get the docking station it will stop itself after a while.

You can just prop all the doors open and make it do the entire floor in one go, but I prefer making it do a room at a time as it seems to do a better clean that way.

Also, it does have to live on its docking station when not in use or the battery can drain.

We were bought one once and tbh it was as much use as a chocolate tea pot in a funny shaped room containing furniture. Preparing the room and cleaning the corners it couldn't get into took just as long asjust vaccuming the conventional way. We sold it on eBay eventually. Some people rave about them though. Ours was a roomba.

My Roomba is currently underneath me, where I'm sat on the sofa feet up having a cup of tea, whirring away doing its stuff.
Had it a couple of years and still love it. I just have to move it between floors and set it going. We empty it between uses. We use it on carpet, laminate and vinyl flooring.

Ours does corners - well as good as I do anyway. It has flicky brushes that flick the dust from corners so it can pick up. I move wires from the floor but don't really have them laying around anyway. It does sometimes get daughter under or coffee table - it's just the wrong height - but it's find if I just remember to put something like a book in the one corner it gets caught. It can't go under our bed as the beds too low. Fits under or around everything else.

Mine is doing upstairs at the moment. He can't be trusted under one particular sofa, and one wardrobe, is I've stuffed a towel under these to stop him getting stuck fast. He manages fine with chairs and tables, just does a little dance around them.

I heard a horror story once - the family dog had been unwell and the Roomba kindly vaccumed dog poo through all the carpets downstairs

Maybe make sure your dog isn't in the house when it sets off!

Hmmm interesting, think I'll defo give one a go

Can I jump on op?

Also thinking of getting one. Downstairs I have some different floor levels, I know they couldn't cope with actual steps but what about 1cm change in floor level? Do have have to move it and the docking station to do different rooms?

Mine lives in the kitchen/diner, which is a pretty big level ceramic tiled area. He does get stuck under the chairs sometimes, so if I want him to do a proper clean I have to put them up on the table.

Of course fake. I have a 4cm drop between my dining room a kitchen so presume it wouldn't be able to cope with that

I think it would be fine with a 1cm drop- it goes from my hard floor up onto rug just fine and rug is about 1cm thick. I think it might stop itself going down a 4cm drop though, same way it stops itself from falling down stairs.

I don't move the docking station to different rooms, I just keep it in the living room and move the roomba, then move it back again when its finished. I suppose if you were ging to put it on in a different room and then go out for a very long time (eg overnight) you might want to move the docking station into the other room so its docked while you aren't there but I've never needed to do that. I normally just run it when I'm in the house doing other stuff, it is programmable but I 've never used that. Partly because I usually tidy the floor befoe it is used as the dc leave lego etc. everywhere and it would eat that.

Robot cleaners can do the job for you unless it's one heck of a messy task than you might as well do it yourself. But assuming its a day-to-day cleaning, a good but generally expensive hoover can get the job done for you.

But then you have to do it yourself. This way I multi task - the robot does the hoovering and I can then be doing something else or just go and sit down with a cuppa or have a bath whilst it works.

Has anyone seen the Vileda mop?