What model Roomba do you have? I see models from $350 to $700. I'll spend the extra money, if it's truly worthwhile; but I don't want to spend more than I need to.

I don't have to worry about messes from the dogs - my labs can be left 16 hours, if necessary, and they WILL NOT make a mess. Normally, they're rarely left more than an hour or two; so I don't have much to worry about in that respect.

it's not just bathroom accidents (mine are good about that too) but the occasional upset tummy resulting in barf (it always lands on the throw rug, never the easy-to-clean surface) :-) Mine are old so occasionally something disagrees with them or they have eaten more than they should.

My model is the Roomba 770. They probably have a 780 or 800 by now, mine is about a year old. I just emptied the dust bin - it basically looks like dryer lint inside. Very small particles. Since I had it upside down I pulled out all the hair and fluff in the brushes. It is not hard to maintain. Stuff will wrap around the roller (threads, long hair) like any vacuum so I just snip through it and pull it off. It's not for heavy duty cleaning but good for trying to keep ahead of the dust bunnies.

I don't have one but saw a demo of the Miele. It was impressive. When it is done it docks itself.

I like my ecloth mop. I just toss the microfiber pad into the laundry with my cleaning towels. I was visiting DM in her assisted living and noticed they were using the same mops. They said they got their mops through Aramark but they looked identical and probable cheaper. It is a blue flat pad with a telescoping and swivel handle.

We have a Roomba. It has sat unused for a number of years now, as it was "ONLY" good for entertainment!

Even using the virtual walls, it never stayed where you wanted it, and it did not take much cat hair to disable it and what a pain it was to clean the cat hair out of its brushes.

The good news is it was FREE, a Christmas Gift, but that is the best thing I can say for it!

It really is "Just a Christmas Toy", although it is fun to watch it "park itself".

Gary

I just bought a roomba 870 and braava. I LOVE THEM BOTH!!!! We have a 4000 square foot home which is hardwood/tile only on the lower level.

The Roomba is great for hair, dust and small items. I have three small kids which drop plenty of crumbs on my tile/hardwood floors and it picks them up with no problem. We have dark hardwoods and they look dirty all the time (probably from three small kids and a dog). Since buying the Roomba/Braava, the floors look impeccable all the time and I don't really have to do anything.

The Braava is also great. I use the dry function on my hardwoods and it's amazing how dirty they can get in just a few days (the pads are always so dirty). I use the wet mop feature on my tile and it looks great every single time. I actually used the included pads but have been substituting with my Norwex microfiber pads too b/c I don't want to do the wash often. They seem to work just fine.

I read a lot of negative reviews on Scuuba and thus decided to purchase the Roomba and Braava combination instead. I also have not used my Roomba on my carpeted areas upstairs - I still use a conventional Dyson on those areas.

Granted, I've only had them for a little over a week but I've used both almost every day and have no complaints. I did plenty of internet research to try and figure out which roomba to buy. Honestly, I liked the new technology on the 800 series and it made sense to just spend the extra $100. Dyson is supposed to be coming out with their own robot vacuum but I didn't want to wait. I absolutely adore Dyson products and will probably purchase that when it does come out in the coming years.

Oh and Overstock has these and if you can find a 20% off coupon (like I did) you can save a couple hundred bucks. I was going to order on Best Buy, Target or Bed Bath Beyond but none of them would let me use coupons for my internet purchase. Overstock would and I save $200.

loveumms-

The iRobot 880 is doing ALL the floor in your 4000 sq/ft house? Wow! I'm really just looking for it to do about 1,500 sq/ft of living room/dining room/kitchen area, that's all stained concrete floor! Does your unit do it all at once or do you have to program it to do one room and then another and then another, etc?

That coupon you mentioned, are you talking about an Overstock coupon or some sort of iRobot coupon? I found a 15% off coupon from iRobot but that was only for purchase through their own store - not another retailer.

Sure do appreciate your input!

Nope - not the whole house. We use it on our first floor exclusively (upstairs is all carpet). It can complete pretty much the whole lower floor on one charge - sometimes it needs to dock and recharge. I think the 880 has the programable features where you can program it to do one room and then move to the next. I forget what they were calling it.

I bought it from Overstock with a 20% off coupon they sent me through email. I did notice that iRobot has a 15% off sale going. I would have been happy with that too. We recently moved so have been getting all sorts of coupons from stores. Overstock was the only one that could be used online (Target, Home Depot and Lowes all prohibit the moving coupons from being used online thus they lost out on many of my big purchases ... I never want to go to the store anymore - too lazy).

I recently purchased the Roomba 880. I paid extra for the newest model because I liked the change in the rollers. I use it mostly on my main floor which is hardwood, and do so because of the dog hair from our golden retriever.

It does a very good, though not perfect, job. I take two minutes before it starts to pick up my kitchen counter stool and my dining chairs and move a few other items. I've never left the house while it works - I finish dishes or do laundry, etc. I do a quick damp mop of the floors as the Roomba is moved from one area to another. Our main floor is mostly open so I use the virtual walls/ lighthouses to focus the Roomba in one area at a time.

It will easily do the whole main floor (800-900 sf) on one charge and I may need to empty it once before it finishes if there's lots of hair.

And it's entertaining...

I have a roomba 880 and could not recommend it more. This model has the better tangle free vacuum system and has the capability to use lighthouses which is key. The lighthouse is what guides the roomba from room to room; it keeps it in one room for 25 minutes and then tells it to pass to the next room. The vacuum comes with 2 lighthouses and you will likely need a couple more for the entire downstairs. It takes some time of watching how roomba works to figure out where to place lighthouses, but once you get it down it works great. We do not vacuum the downstairs of our home ourselves at all (the cleaning lady does it once a month) and our downstairs floors are spotless. Note that our downstairs is all hardwood...The roomba works much better on hardwood/tile than it does on carpet.

Thanks for posting this question, Nick! I'm piggy-backing on your thread to learn more! Question for those with the Roomba 880 or similar - How does the Roomba handle area rugs on hardwood floors? Does it vacuum them too, or does it work around them?

I would like to piggy back on this one too, but about the Scooba that Divotdiva mentioned. I have a front foyer and long front hallway that get very dirty. The flooring is marble tiles. I can't keep up with mopping it, as it gets dirty almost daily. I have been thinking about the Scooba (supposed to be more of a real wash than the Braava). I am glad to read that Divotdiva likes hers. Does anyone else have the Scooba?

In answer to dmeah, I have an area rug in my living room, medium to high pile, and the Roomba cleans it beautifully. As it moves around the room, it just goes up on the rug when it needs to. I have a few cushion mats in the kitchen too, which I normally pick up before the Roomba gets to them, but if I don't pick them up, it will go over them also. Only sometimes it will approach the mat at an angle where it starts to push the mat before it goes up onto it. But these are small mats.

We use our Roomba to entertain the cats from time to time. Can't use it for cleaning because it will immediately eat the fringe on one of the carpets and die. Sorry, can't tell you which model it is, probably a year old or so.

I don't have area rugs with fringe so the Roomba handles them pretty well, I pick up the smaller ones by the door that I use to keep the dogs from tracking in from the yard. Low pile is fine - I don't let it run on one rug that I have that has long loops, I'm sure it would stall. I understand if you have black rugs or rugs with dark edges the Roomba won't go over them because it thinks it's a drop (like a step). It uses a sensor to watch for stairs and such and will stop when it gets to them.

To elaborate on the Scooba a bit more for those who are curious, yes, it does a wash more than the Braava which only pushes around a damp cloth. You set it up to clean a "small room" or a "large room". It has a water reservoir to which you add cleaner. The cleaner is not sold in my area so I buy off Amazon. BestBuy is supposed to carry it but not my local store. iRobot also has it on their web site. It doesn't take much cleaner - I only add a small amount to the water. The I set up my lighthouses/virtual walls to keep it in the area I want scrubbed (and obviously not on the area rugs). It runs around a bit to get a feel for the space and then it starts - it lays down a thin film of water as it goes, it vacuums and puts down the water, goes back and forth and in circles, using the brushes I suppose, then it goes back and vacuums up all the left over water. So the floor is pretty dry by the time it shuts off. It's a bit entertaining at the end as it shakes itself off, kind of like a dog.

You then dump out the water from the dirty side of the tank, rinse it out and pull out any hair. You can then add more water to the clean tank and top off the cleaner, and recharge it. I found it does need another small area rinsed out or you will get an error code, but easily done. The dirty water is noticeably dirty so it is doing something to clean the floor. As I mentioned, the manufacturer warns against other cleaners. and other users have posted that the unit will fail if caustic cleaners are used, as it will damage the unit. I have sprayed windex on the floor ahead of it with no issues.

It's not a perfect solution as you will still need to damp mop your baseboards and tight areas occasionally, but I do like it for my bathroom and I have on occasion used it on my engineered wood, but I follow it with an old towel and wipe up excess water so the wood does not absorb it.

If you, or your family members have long hair, I would definitely recommend doing a quick vacuuming or Swiffer run first to pick that up before running the Scooba, as it will pick up hair and then you will be very unhappy pulling it out of the reservoir and brushes. It is also not very quiet so don't think you can run it while you take a nap.

Sahmmy, you could use the lighthouses to block the Scooba in to clean the hallway only, depending on how many openings you have off the hallway. My kitchen is between the family room and living room, plus a laundry, so I use three lighthouses to block it from entering those areas, or close the door to the laundry.

Thanks so much Divotdiva2 for your thorough review and explanation of the Scooba!

The Roomba 780 is the Amazon Deal of the Day fyi

I have a Roomba 770 that's a couple of years old and I love it. It came with two virtual walls. I bought 3 more on ebay to better handle my open floorplan. It occasionally gets retarded, but it always does a way better job cleaning the floors than I ever did. It was really expensive, but way cheaper than maids. Too bad Roomba doesn't clean toilets.

The only room it has a problem with is what used to be my son's play room and is now our cats' room. The rug takes up at least 80% of the floor space in that small room and for some reason it has a problem jumping the edge of that rug. I never use it in that room. Since its always covered in cat litter, its probably best that I use a broom and real vac in there anyway.

There is lots of robot mops now available found this site has some good reviews on mopping robot you may find helpful, i have been using these robot vacuums a few years now I have mainly hardwood floors which i think are better suited for the robot mops and they work great in the kitchen on the tile floors mopping up spills and daily stains. read the review and get one that suit your needs.