Romba - robot hoover - who's got one and would you recommend it?

[dizzydo]

Saw talk of this on another thread. Pleaseeee tell me more!

They are selling these at costco at the moment

How thorough is he Jura? Do you have to get the hoover out as well. And presumably he will swallow up things that you might not do with the hoover, ie. £1 coins etc!!

They are quite expensive aren't they Peanutbear?

How about the Robomop? It's not quite the same, is it, from looking at it - the robomop just kind of dusts the floor, and can't cope with carpets. Much cheaper, though. (I haven't got either, but covet a roomba. They have them in the Lakeland catalogue too now, but they're probably cheaper elsewhere).

There is also something called a vacdroid which claims to do what the roomba does but at much less of a price tag.

I've got the basic one (does not return to recharger and no scheduler) - but it's fab. I plonk him down in a room, switch him on and come back to a clean carpet. He can't get into all the nooks and crevices but does a great job on most of the carpet and is fine along straight edges (eg. walls). I get the old hoover out and do nooks and hoover webs off ceilings etc once a month or so.

How long does it take to clean a room Millarkie. Do you just go out and leave him to it?

the other brands aren't supposed to work well (at least that was true a couple of years ago when I looked into it). They take an age to do a room, and more importantly you have to clean them out as well (some people say daily) which is a a bit of a fiddle. If you don't the fluff builds up inside and the motors stop working. I honestly don't think ours saves effort, but it is rather fun & we like it.

Don't know how long he takes to do a room - I just bung him in and try to remember to go and rescue him later when his battery's run out. He takes a lot longer than I would do with a hoover. Mine has a 'dirt detector' so if he hits a patch of particularly dirty carpet (eg. broken biscuit or mud) he spins round in a tight circle until it's all clear, then potters on again.

about £150 or less I think for some reason £136 is in my head I tried to buy one but DH was with me and he frowned LOL

Would the robomop work on a slate floor? It's quite uneven, and has a coarse surface. And do they sweep/vacuum or just mop?

I bought one in costco yesterday. It's the roomba 530 (has a docking and virtual wall but no scheduler) and it was about £165 inc vat IIRC.

I bought a £37 one from ebuyer a few weeks ago. It does a half decent job. It does as well as my electric carpet sweeper, so get cat hair and crumbs and wee bits of fluff but doesn't have the power to get dust. It also wallops itself off doors/walls to make it's way around the room and that annoys me lol. The software is less sophisticated than the roomba as it doesn't cover the room so well. But for £37 it's worth a shot. Deals with hard floor better than carpet. Won't 'mount' rugs and things. Is fiddly to clean as you need a screwdriver and need to do it every half dozen uses or so. But it's a good wee gadget and apparently uses the same battery as the roomba so is a much cheaper replacement battery for a roomba if nothing else. There is a rumour that it's a generation 1 roomba repackaged.

The roomba is more sophisticated. The software means that it maps the room better, it's less 'random' and although I've only been using it a day, it hasn't failed to pick everything up. My mum has one and she's never had a problem with it missing areas. It's easy to clean. And it picks up as well as my dyson IMO. It gets loads of dust. It goes under sofas. It goes around edges really well. Only area it misses is corners. It'll also not manage things like large pieces of toast - the sort of thing I suck up with the hoover and probably shouldn't. It's worth £170. BUT... next to the £37 ebuyer one it looks pricey.

I don't think it could replace a normal hoover. But you could easily use it every day and then just hoover your corners and furniture or whatever every few weeks! If you don't think you'd use it much and have a lot of hard floors, I'd recommend the cheap one for inbetween hoovering touchups. If you have mainly carpet or are rubbish at getting round to the hoovering then a roomba is fab.

Also, I didn't need one with the scheduler as I don't like leaving things running when I'm out of the house. Also, I need to clear the floor before using it and if it just went itself at 10am then it would eat the cat/breakfast/toys/knickers etc!

My dad was SERIOUSLY against them. My mum hid hers for the first couple of days until she knew it worked well. Now he's a convert and even said that he's looking forward to roomba doing the hoovering tonight while mum is out so he doesn't have to!

VERY hypnotic to watch though...

They are fantastic. Get one, you will never look back

I can cope with the carpets, but on the same them, do all you Roomba-ers also have Robolawnmowers (sure I saw such a thing on Tomorrow's World or somesuch aeons ago...)?

That's what I REALLY need...

or even theme

I was discussing the robo mowers with my dad the other day. Apparently such a device is available, but they don't have a great deal of power so only work well on short cuts. And they require a complex 'mapping' of lawns to avoid them straying into borders or onto paths.

Though how my dad knows all this I'm not sure... and perhaps things have moved on since his info! I think our garden might be too big for one, but that would be great!

Actually, if I could only get one to cook dinner and take the bins out I could get rid of DH!

My Roomba was about £145 from Fenwicks - prices vary a lot. It's great because I'm very lazy. It charges in the cupboard under the stairs and does different rooms every day. Goes under the kids' beds. I use it as top up. Last night for eg we had relatives round. I switched it on and left it while I cooked.

I've got one - it's a 'scheduler' and I think it cost around £250. I don't use the timer at all, which was the thing that bumped the price up, as it sets off my house alarm and annoys the neighbours. TBH I don't use it much at all, as it takes about 45 mins to do one room, and I prefer to whizz around myself in about 2mins before people arrive.

Thank you all so much for your replies. Foofi you're the only one who's not that keen, do you want to sell yours?

Sadly I havent got a costco card but am off to google and see what I can find it for.

Thanks again.
xx

why bother when you can get a machine to do it?