katiushka wrote:Any one knows how this compares to the Neato? i have one of the pet and allergy ones and it does do a good job and picks up lots of dust!!! I really love it!

Amen to the neato.......love it..love it...love it.

squawks wrote:I wouldn't recommend spending $300 for this because:

1) They don't work as well as a regular upright. They can't suck up dust. It's basically just a crude sweep.
2) They are not as reliable as an upright. My 560 broke after a year - the brushes won't spin any more. Yes, I tried Googling the issue to death. No avail. Meanwhile, my Dyson lasted 7 years before I sold it in a moving sale.
3) They are only worth cleaning before you leave the house for a while because they clean so slowly.
4) They take up just as much, if not more, floorspace than an upright.
5) The cleaning mechanism sucks, it always spits dust back out into the air so is bad for allergy users. If you look at the filters, they look terrible. Meanwhile, the Dyson HEPA filter looks new even after 7 years.
6) If I wanted to clean the room immediately, but am not leaving the house, turning this thing on and waiting for it to clean the living room will take 30 minutes, while I can grab an upright, vacuum the room, and put away the upright all in under 5 min. While the Roomba is cleaning, you have to make sure that you, your pets, and your kids have to get out of its way constantly.

Get an upright. Get a Dyson. Move a little bit and stave off those extra pounds on your love handles.

You're missing the point. It isn't that Roomba will do it faster or better; it's that Roomba will do it while you do something else.

Is guessing that those who are panning the storyline, which I loved as an homage to one of my favorite authors, have never read Isaac Asimov's series of books about robots and humanity.

I have no dog in this race, having never owned a roomba, but when Roombas and Neatos come up on woot (which seems to be about every 5 or 6 minutes lately) virtually every single person who's owned both says "Neato is way better".

I do own a Neato and unfortunately I didn't have a good start, they had to replace my unit twice before I got one that seems to be working correctly. The first unit died, the second unit couldn't find the base station under any circumstances, finally the third unit seems to be working well.

As long as it works Neato is indeed awesome, personally I still wouldn't buy the Roomba, I'd wait for another Neato to come up. Should be in about 3 minutes now.

This is 549.00 on roomba website. the model 630 and others have the aerovac technology. This vastly reduces the cleaning of brushes etc. the aereovac filter can be purchased on roomba website.
I have this machine and love it. have two persians. CHECK out color of filter

pupyluvr wrote:Oooh... Darth Roomba!

Darth Roomba: Join me and together wii will clean the livingroom.

I see what you did there :P

Forgot to mention that aerovac filter and bin are $34.99 on roomba website. Based on their price of $549 this is well worth it. I have had two 330 models and one dirt dog and if i had gotten the upgrade bin they would still be with us.

I like the Roomba -- had two different ones, in fact.

One thing that need to be noted is that all robotic vacuums are "maintenance" vacuums -- you'll need to vacuum with your normal vacuum eventually, if not the room, then the robot itself. It does mean you'll be breaking the vacuum out a lot less often, but still something to keep in mind.

Pros:
1. They are great at maintaining rooms -- they can go under furniture and does a through job using a "drunkard's walk" (semi-random) algorithm to ensure it goes over 100% of the room at least once.
2. They don't need to be pushed -- therefore, it's easier on the back overall.
3. Side brush will actually clean the edges of the walls -- this actually makes it more obvious when you haven't vacuumed the baseboard in a while, as there will be a strip of "clean" where the Roomba went over it with the side brush.

Cons:
1. As some others have said, cleaning, while only taking 5-10 minutes after getting used to it, has to be done after every run.
2. The Roomba can only do at most 3 rooms at once -- and scheduling will only work well once you've figured out the best placement for the charging base.
3. Roombas are "blind" (well, it has a few infrared wall-following sensors, but it can't "see") -- thus, it has to bump into things before it knows something is there for the most part. So, planters with wire legs need not apply, as they get bashed into by the Roomba a lot, with the potential for the Roomba to knock them over.

downing9790 wrote:Had one of these, not the same model, but a Roomba and bought the Neato instead. 100% better, as it has an actual vacuum in it and better cleaning and less maintenance and it hasn't broken like the Roomba. I repaired the Roomba and gave it to my daughter, but Oh Well.
The Neato will stop go to the charging station and then resume where it left off cleaning and then finish the job. I have it scheduled to clean at 8:45 twice a week and it works great.
Neato Rules!

Same experience here, I have a cat, a dog, a colombian girlfriend with super long hair, and my fro, and with my new neato, no more hair under my sucks anymore! Simply awesome. I have it scheduled to run once a day at 8:30am

squawks wrote:I wouldn't recommend spending $300 for this because:

1) They don't work as well as a regular upright. They can't suck up dust. It's basically just a crude sweep.
2) They are not as reliable as an upright. My 560 broke after a year - the brushes won't spin any more. Yes, I tried Googling the issue to death. No avail. Meanwhile, my Dyson lasted 7 years before I sold it in a moving sale.
3) They are only worth cleaning before you leave the house for a while because they clean so slowly.
4) They take up just as much, if not more, floorspace than an upright.
5) The cleaning mechanism sucks, it always spits dust back out into the air so is bad for allergy users. If you look at the filters, they look terrible. Meanwhile, the Dyson HEPA filter looks new even after 7 years.
6) If I wanted to clean the room immediately, but am not leaving the house, turning this thing on and waiting for it to clean the living room will take 30 minutes, while I can grab an upright, vacuum the room, and put away the upright all in under 5 min. While the Roomba is cleaning, you have to make sure that you, your pets, and your kids have to get out of its way constantly.

Get an upright. Get a Dyson. Move a little bit and stave off those extra pounds on your love handles.

U ever try cleaning out the motor and gears?

I hate hand vacuuming and have saved hours of my life on that chore by using Roombas for the last five years. They may not have as much suction as hand vacs, but my floors are cleaner because I use it more often than hand vacuuming and it goes under the bed and furniture. The earlier models weren't as reliable, but iRobot replaced two parts for me for free over the years. Cleaning the dustbin and brushes takes about 3 minutes and creates a smaller dust cloud than a full-size bagless vac.

Another potential problem with all unattended robotic vacuums, not just Roomba--particularly if you leave pets roaming your home during the day.

What's this "vacuum[ing]" word you keep using?

Does this thing climb stairs? I have 30 of them. If I just pushed it off the top stair, will it clean them all on the way down?

For $285, I think I'll let someone else test that theory.

This is not a serious cleaning tool. It is at best a toy for geeks, a stopgap measure for the excessively busy, or a substitute for cleaning for the extremely lazy.

Said as someone who meets all three of those criteria.

aderyn wrote:You're missing the point. It isn't that Roomba will do it faster or better; it's that Roomba will do it while you do something else.

Like nap or eat potato chips.

Look, it even comes with a flask of whiskey.

Every time a Roomba comes up it seems a lot of people come out to complain. Not me! Me and the spouse and three cats quite appreciate the little robot.

First, I don't know how ANYONE can say "it only takes me 5 minutes to vacuum with an upright" because if I want to suck up all the little bits off the floor it takes me 15-20 minutes. I don't like to miss spots.

Second, upright vacuums scare the crap out of my cats. Okay, might sound crazy cat lady of me, but I don't like subjecting them to the upright EVERY day. Roomba picks up the cat hair and dirt just fine and my cats don't make a dive for behind the couch every time it runs. And they seem to love to roll around on the freshly Roomba'd carpet so I'd call that a feline stamp of approval.

To each their own, but I love my Roomba.

Will this pick up my kids toys, put them in their room, then vacuum? If it did that I'd woot for sure....probably pay twice that too!

rennyn wrote:Can someone who has one of these tell me how well they do with larger pieces of debris like the size of cat or small dog kibbles or maybe like small wood stove pellets?

I've had one for 10 years and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I leave and come home and the floors are clean. Yes, it picks up dog kibble, cat litter spills and will eat the errand sock or two.

In May of 2009 I bought the following:


iRobot Roomba 535 Robotic Vacuum with Lighthouse Technology

and I'm pleased to say that "Dusty" is still in working order. We have dogs, the kind who shed, and Dusty does a decent job on my hardwood floors.

Cleaning it sucks, literally. I hate having to unwind my waist length hair from the rollers, but considering how long I've had Dusty I would say it was worth the money I paid.

I still sweep, and use Dusty to "finish" the job, overall I would recommend one...

katiushka wrote:Any one knows how this compares to the Neato? i have one of the pet and allergy ones and it does do a good job and picks up lots of dust!!! I really love it!

We have a number of Roombas, as we have replaced models that have broken over the years. We picked up the Neato 'pet' model when it was offered here. I don't think we will ever buy a Roomba again.

It almost unfair to compare them; the Neato is a real vac and is smart about it's cleaning pattern. The only thing I don't know is how it'll last, but it seems very well constructed.

katiushka wrote:Any one knows how this compares to the Neato? i have one of the pet and allergy ones and it does do a good job and picks up lots of dust!!! I really love it!

Pickup-wise, Neato and the most recent Roombas are about the same -- however, Neato is better at navagation overall, since it can see everything and map out a route for itself based on that. Neato vacuums also have the advantage of being less maintenance, due to the beater brush being less likely to have hair tangled around it. (It happens, but it takes longer for Neato to get hair wrapped up.)

Only thing Roomba has over the Neato is the side brush, which brushes along the wall and "dusts" the bottom half of the baseboards. Since that's patented by Roomba, it's not something Neato can add to their robots. So, yeah, stick with the Neato.

I'm concerned that this robot might be smarter than me, or develop a sentience that requires me to, "put it down."

What guarantees come with this steel beast to safeguard my family from an "Asimovian" uprising?

zandorrr wrote:

Edit* - forgot to add - if you have black carpets, roomba wont work over them (they have this weird edge detection sensor that gets fooled by the color black and thinks it is staring over the edge of a deep precipice of sorts) - i was able to find fix online by taping the sensor but still yet another glitch that I didnt know before purchasing it.

I just thought I should say that I actually have black rugs in my bathroom that my Roomba has absolutely no problem cleaning. I've had mine since August and I'm extremely happy with it. I just clean it after every run, which if you have a can of compressed air and a seam ripper, takes about 5 minutes. So I'd say having clean floors in my apartment is worth 5 minutes of my time.

Oh, and the only time I ever came home to find it stuck someplace other than at its charging base was when it shut my bathroom door on itself, so it literally died trying to get out.

Woah, woah, woah... Hold on! Woot is selling Roombas now? No. Frelling. Way.

If I come back tomorrow and see like a Dyson upright or a refurbished tablet, I may wet myself from excitement.

You continue to amaze, Woot.

RWoodward wrote:This is not a serious cleaning tool. It is at best a toy for geeks, a stopgap measure for the excessively busy, or a substitute for cleaning for the extremely lazy.

Said as someone who meets all three of those criteria.

Who wants to know a serious cleaning tool?
Roomba is my butler, my maid. I can set Jeeves loose every day, and he may have fun
spinning around, and not be serious, but he does his job. Who the heck wants to lug out a
vacuum when it can be done automatically?
There is always plenty of dust and sand and
dog hair picked up. And if you have hair, dental floss, fishing line, or whatever wrapped
around the brush, just cut it and pull it out. No need to disssemble the Roomba, you drama queens. This is instilling much more passion than the debates. 4 more years for my Roomba.
donut

Hi you guys, did your Roomba get shipped already? I still have the ' sit tight bud' message when I look for it at the 'stuff you bought'

Cheers