Personal experiences only. Is the thing even worth it? My entire house is hardwood floors. It would be nice to have it help with cleaning the floors. I know it isn't designed to replace sweeping/vac but it great helps keep the high traffic areas cleaner for longer. Anyone have any experience with a Roomba or similar device and is it worth the money or a waste?
My parents have a neato XV-11 similar to roomba and it works pretty well for their house. They also have hardwood floors.
the roomba works well enough, but its tank capacity hinders it the most imo. its good enough at picking stuff up that its little tank fills quickly.
I haven't personally had one, but one of my good friends had one and he said he would not recommend it. He got the one that's supposed to auto dock and he said it always has issues returning to the base. He gave up on it after a couple of weeks and went back to manual vacuuming
It's not supposed to replace manual vacuuming. I'm doing tons of research at the moment so thanks for all the input.
In his case, it didn't supplement it, either. which models are you looking at? I know woot has them pop up all the time. If you're not looking to buy in a hurry, you may be able to save a bit that way.
Roomba vs Neato....looks like the Neato is better. It will return to it's charging base on it's own and then when charge resume cleaning on it's own. Not the case with the Roomba it seems. Wow you can hack these things to to do wifi etc.....lol crazy.
No hurry hence me researching and asking. I see similar review that you posted Drew on the Roomba. Neato seems much better thus far. Yeah it costs a little more but sounds like it's worth it though.
i hoped for $700 with accessories it would come around and give you head once in a while but it doesnt... its nice when your house is already clean and needs minor cleaning.
the 780. it was $600 but when you add on extra filters and accessories with shipping it came out to $700
I've had two Roombas over the years and neither has lasted for over a year. Two other friends of mine had the same experience. Dunno if the latest generations are more reliable, but the past versions were terrible.
I have an older 4000 series one. It works well enough, but the battery needs to be replaced about once a year. As other have mentioned, the canister is a bit small, so it will often fill up before the battery runs out of charge. Other problems include having to remove any loose items from the floor (cables, throw rugs, etc). You will also become quickly proficient in the wierd things Romba does when it's unhappy. YouTube is a great source for 'why is my Roomba only going backwards', or 'what does THIS series of beeps mean'. FWIW, it doesn't really save you all that much time. You're trading the traditional vacuum motion for getting out the dental tools & picking little bits of fuzz out of a robot. If that sounds like it's more your thing, then by all means, Rombas are great. I do like mine quite a bit. -Chris
Was given a Roomba a few years back and it's completely useless unless you're already a neurotic neat freak. Money better spent on a crack whore and the following divorce than to buy one of these.