Who has a ROOMBA ?

Trooper_IHB

Trooper_IHB

New member
I know there's a vacuum thread already, but I wanted some feedback on the Roomba. I have wood floors, two cats and lots of dust bunnies. I'm considering buying a Roomba to tackle the daily fur but not sure if the cats will freak out or not.



So here are my questions:



- Who has the Roomba and do you think it lives up to it's claims/reputation.

- I have wood floors, but each room has a thin, 1/2" raised threshold on the floor at each doorway...can the Roomba climb over this little thing?

- Does anyone have the one that activates itself at a certain time each day, then re-docks itself so as to recharge?

- Will it climb over cords or just sense them and stop? I'm worried it's going to run over my cords under the couch and damage either them or the unit.

- How much are these buggers?

- How do animals react to it?

- Can it transition from my wood floors up and onto my throw rugs?



Thanks!
 
[quote author="Trooper" date=1212062297]I know there's a vacuum thread already, but I wanted some feedback on the Roomba. I have wood floors, two cats and lots of dust bunnies. I'm considering buying a Roomba to tackle the daily fur but not sure if the cats will freak out or not.



So here are my questions:



- Who has the Roomba and do you think it lives up to it's claims/reputation.

- I have wood floors, but each room has a thin, 1/2" raised threshold on the floor at each doorway...can the Roomba climb over this little thing?

- Does anyone have the one that activates itself at a certain time each day, then re-docks itself so as to recharge?

- Will it climb over cords or just sense them and stop? I'm worried it's going to run over my cords under the couch and damage either them or the unit.

- How much are these buggers?

- How do animals react to it?

- Can it transition from my wood floors up and onto my throw rugs?



Thanks!</blockquote>


I have one and I like it - a lot. If you are persistent in checking out woot.com, they will have one up on sale at least once a month it seems. It is not perfect. It won't get into corners, so when picky company comes, you will have to pull out the regular vac and get the corners.



On the newer ones (pretty much any one you can buy now), height transitions are no problem. Rugs with fringes are, so you will need to tuck the fringes under the rug or the Roomba will get caught. It may get caught on the cords, but may not if they are relatively flush to the wall.



<a href="http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=270">Here's iRobot's explanation about pets.</a>



I don't have the one with the timer. I can turn it on when I leave and then it (usually) docks itself when it runs out of battery power - if the Roomba is in the same room as the charging unit (it searches for a signal from the docking unit to find it).



Amazon has them from $150 (for remanufactured) to $300 (for the latest model).



If you have any questions, either check out www.iRobot.com or you can ask me. I may not know the answer, though. :red:
 
I have one and also like it alot. I have german shepherds and their constant shedding leaves clumps everywhere. I only have hardwood floors and no carpet (allergies) and If you run the roomba daily, you'll be amazed at home much dog or cat hair it picks up even though the floor looks clean. Mine has had no problems with thresholds, but does occassionally get tangled in cords that are "loose". If the cord is a thin lamp cord and has lots of free play then it can get tangled and the roomba just errors out until you untangle it. By the entertainment center and upstairs I use the Virtual Wall Lighthouse that tells the roomba not to go there.



I don't have the version but do have the one with the docking station. Unfortunately mine does not reliably return to the unit and recharge, it typically ends up running out of gas away from the charging station.



I remember watching videos on Youtube to see how pets react to the roomba. Most did just as mine did, curiousity and eventually it was just another random toy. It didn't freak them out as a regular vacuum cleaner.



I bought mine refurbished on amazon. One of these days I may buy the scooba to followup after the roomba. Nothing like wet-cleaning hardwood floors for the "gritty" feel to squeaky clena.
 
ok, now you just made me watch an hour's worth of YouTube Roomba ! Looks good, but one commenter did say it scratched her wood floors. Anyone have this happen?



Also, cats seem to be ok with it...plenty of those vids !
 
hi - I have a roomba too but haven't used on wood floors. I had an older model for awhile and got a newer model about a year ago - newer model is much, much better so I wouldn't suggest buying too old of a model. In order to clean the brushes on the old model I had to unscrew screws - pain - the newer model is much easier. You need to clean the brushes often which is not too fun but they give you a nice little letter opener type tool that works well. Don't have pets but my young kids are scared to death of it - it is quite amusing! I set mine up room by room and move some stuff like cords in the middle of the room each time I run it so it can get under the beds - so I can't answer many of your questions but I can say that I can't imagine being without mine - I love it!
 
I have a Roomba and I love it! It's named Scooter.



Bigger cords will just get pushed by it, but I've never seen it roll over a smaller cord.



If I don't close the bathroom door it can tend to close the door behind it and lock itself in there and run out of juice. It also got stuck on the edge of the stairs once, but that was only once in 3 years. All the other times it senses the edge just fine.



It tends to have issues with tight corners that I manage to create with furniture or the virtual walls. Yesterday I created a tight triangle corner with a virtual wall (and a real wall) and I caught Scooter just turning circles in it trying to get out. I adjusted the virtual wall by a degree and it was just fine after that.



Note that the container for the stuff it picks up isn't very big, so I can imagine folks with pets would empty it on a regular basis.



Someday I will own a Scooba, too!
 
I have 2 Roomba's and 1 Scooba.



The first is an older Roomba scheduler, which I set to vacuum 3 times a week. It lasted over a year without trouble, then the battery died, and few months later the unit started going haywire and likes to run backwards. I haven't gotten around to cleaning the sensors with compressed air and resetting the system, but suspect the problem can be resolved.



The 2nd is one of the newer models (530?), which seems to run a little better than the first one. However both had trouble getting stuck under certain cabinets and I had to leave a piece of wood there to prevent it from going there.



Roomba's do drag cords along on rare occasions. I use it on both carpet and hard (tile) floor.



I bought a Scooba used (refurb) via buy.com special and it seems to have trouble with its pump, I'll be returning it.



Despite the minor quirks, overall I'm fairly happy with the Roomba. Like all mechanical device the more you use it, the faster it'll break down. The APS battery is only good for so many recharging sessions so don't use it 3 times a week.
 
In rooms where my shepherds are not allowed the roomba hasn't left any visible scratches. For the rest of house, I doubt I could tell if it did scratch the floors, my dogs do way more damage.
 
[quote author="Astute Observer" date=1212104459]I am thinking about getting one from Costco... don't have pet, so will the Roomba be worth while?</blockquote>


Depends on how much you shed... :p
 
[quote author="momopi" date=1212102149]I have 2 Roomba's and 1 Scooba.



The first is an older Roomba scheduler, which I set to vacuum 3 times a week. It lasted over a year without trouble, then the battery died, and few months later the unit started going haywire and likes to run backwards.



The APS battery is only good for so many recharging sessions so don't use it 3 times a week.</blockquote>


Momo,



That happened to me, and I just replaced the battery for $40-45.
 
<blockquote>- How do animals react to it?</blockquote>


I have seen Scooter in action and I have to say I was impressed. So impressed that Scooter will be taking a field trip to see how the cat reacts. More for entertainment purposes on my end, but I will let you know how it goes and if there is a YouTube link to go with it.
 
Absolutely love my roomba!



In fact, my next house will have all hardwood floors, just so I can have a roomba upstairs and downstairs.



I have the scheduler model, with timer, self docking and remote control. I do not use the timer... as sometimes the roomba gets "stuck" in the bathroom and can't navigate it's way back out.



I roomba my place almost everyday... the cat hair and tracked litter on the hardwood floors is now completely managed. Yes, every once and awhile I go into the corners of the rooms with a vacuum or damp paper towel to get what the roomba left behind. I empty the collection bin about every three days too.



My cat NEVER had issue with it... just watches it go around the room as he sits safely on the chair... And my cat normally hates vacuums!



It does very well with my throw rugs too! But I did tie up all my cords with zip ties so cords would not be an issue...



Oh, and bought it at costco due to the amazing return policy. Good price too!
 
ok, I ordered a Roomba 550 today via CostCo online. $239 smackers. I'll let you know what I think. Thanks all for the input!
 
Just a quick follow up... I cleaned my Roomba's sensors and everything works fine now.



If you flip the Roomba on its back, you'd see 4 sensors along the front bumper. They need to be cleaned with compressed air once in a while for the unit to work correctly.



Roomba's require more maintenance than regular (larger) vacuums. The brushes and rollers need to be taken out and cleaned. If you have long hair, or long-haired pets, the hair clumps along the rollers and need to be removed manually.
 
Yes, I got the $50 off the 550 by ordering online, free shipping too. Saves me a trip to CostCo, where I would, without a doubt, buy things in bulk that I really don't need. Funny, I saw a show on TV the other night with a guy who teaches people how to save money. One of his tips was to NOT bring a cart in while shopping as the tendency is to fill it. He said by walking around carrying your purchases in your arms/hands, it allows you more time to process what you are about to buy....and not overbuy. Interesting.



Momo, yes...I have two long haired cats and the Roomba purchase is really all about them. I just vacuumed yesterday using my upright and their hair clogged up the brushes so fast that the thing started smoking ! You should have seen me uplugging it and running quickly outside with it in my pajamas ! I thought it was going to catch fire! I understand the Roomba will shut itself down if it gets clogged, yes? If not, I would be too worried to program it to run while I was away.
 
Yes, it arrived yesterday. I charged it overnight and was going to use it when I got home from work....but I <em>just </em>got home from work (midnight). I'm pooped, will try tomorrow and post !
 
First Roomba experience, positive ! This little thing is great !



It took about an hour to clean my apt floors and it did a really good job. It only got caught once, under the dishwasher door, the infrared sensor that pokes out above the unit got caught. (does anyone know if the unit will eventually turn itself off....so if it happens while I'm out of the apt it doesn't just keep banging around and running?) It kept spinning and sliding around under the door, but there was no way it could have gotten itself out without my assist. Funny, it did ok during the 1st two passes under the door, but the 3rd time it got caught.



My cats did pretty good with it, they just hopped up on the coffee table and watched it. The boy actually walked up to sniff it once, so all good there.



My apt has wood floors and they now look shiney ! The rollers/brush seems to have almost buffed them a bit.



It wasn't noisy at all, found it's docking station without a problem. It's recharging now, so I'll wait until that's done before I clean out the bin/filter/roller. I'll be interested to see how much kitty fur got caught. I imagine I'll have to clean the rollers after every 2 or 3 uses. The directions tell you to do it after every use, but that seems like a little much to me.



Thumbs up on the Roomba !
 
The older Roomba and the newer one has different height. The old model would sometimes get stuck under the cabinet, and the newer one under the dish washer. I'd recommend getting a piece of wood and just putting it under your dish washer.



The unit does turn itself off eventually if it gets stuck, but it's not healthy for it. If you have long hair & pets with long hair, the rollers need to be cleaned on more frequent basis.
 
One of my son's friends had on older one and it didn't bother the cat, but

you know that already.



I'm ready to buy one for the screened back porch, where the cats live

most of the time. I just vaccuumed up an incredible amount of fur,

they are really shedding, since it is so hot now. It's tile out there, is

that any problem?



Also, there is that (blush) cat barf problem. Any reported problems?
 
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