A good friend who at one time had 3 dog (1 a long-haired collie!) has a Roomba and loves it. It's just for "in-between" vacuuming, though - she had a cleaning woman once a week.

I swear by my roombas!

We had 5 pets at one point and the roombas kept up. You can set them on a schedule. You can also corral them to certain rooms or certain parts of the house with the "lighthouses". I would strongly recommend buying lighthouses if the model you want doesn't come with them.

The key with roombas IMO, is to just let them do their thing. No need to watch them or rearrange them or worry about them. Just turn them on and go out or whatever.

One of the best things in life is coming home to a freshly vacuumed house, all the time!

The Today Show did a test of robotic vacuums the other day.

Maybe this will help

I also have a Roomba, and I agree that's it's just for in-between vacuuming. It couldn't keep up with two dogs in a one bedroom apartment.

It's now at our house where I use it on my tile floors in-between mopping or using my Dyson cordless.

I wouldn't recommend it for a main vacuum.

I have a Neato and love it! No pets here, just DH and I. I run her about once a week. Love, love, love it. I have had her about 18 months. I usually have her vacuum the bedrooms/bathrooms side of the house one day and the rest of the house the next day. She is not terribly fancy and does not have apps; I just program her by using her built-in screen.

I have not had a Roomba so I cannot compare the two.

Maddielee - thanks for the video. I had been toying with the idea of looking into one of these robotic vacuums, but I think I'd rather save the money (or spend it elsewhere!). The opportunities for the thing to get caught up in rug fringe are too great for the area where I'd need it most, and I can't reasonably take up the rugs to allow it do its thing unimpeded. I'm another who feels like I'm constantly cleaning the floors, but honestly I've found a good old-fashioned broom and dustpan to be my "go to" when it comes to the hard-surfaced floors.

I also don't like the thought of a little robot bumping into furniture, baseboards, etc. Maybe that would never, ever leave a mark - but it still makes me uneasy.

I have a Neato. His name is Rocky. This is my second Neato -- the first one gave up the ghost after about a year and a half which was disheartening. I have 2 dogs (one is a fur exploding shepherd mix) and 2 hairy cats. We run ours daily while we dog walk, and I'll say it replaces 80% of the need to vacuum. Maybe my cleaning standards are low, lol. Mine has no wifi and I don't use the scheduling feature; I just push the start button and let him go.

The Good: The front corners and the little side brush are effective at getting into corners and running along the baseboards. The dirt hopper is large and it STILL gets filled each time I run it. I got the pet model with a rotating brush and it is very good at getting pet hair on both rugs and hard floors. It sits low to the ground and can get under pretty low clearances

The Bad: He does get stuck a fair amount. We live in an old house and have black floor grates for our furnace...these tend to trip him up. He also gets tangled on long rug fringe, but not short fringe. He's temperamental and we have had to reboot him and calibrate the battery a couple of times.

Overall, I wish he was less finicky but I can't imagine life without him. House cleaning is my least favorite chore and he makes a world of difference. I expect the robots will keep improving over time, and I fully expect to replace mine with another when this one goes. I'm hoping someone invents a dusting robot too.

IdaClaire: My Neato has never left a mark on anything. We're not talking about a object moving at 25 mph here. :) The first few times she ran - mine's a girl and her name is Rosie - she was learning the lay of the land, so to speak. She GENTLY bumped walls, doors, and furniture, not with any force at all. Now she remembers where permanent fixtures are (walls, heavy furniture that I don't move, etc.) and never bumps them.

She does, however, get tangled in fringe. I had a fringed rug that I got rid of after she got snagged on it; thankfully I only had the one. She also gets stuck in a corner in the kitchen under the cabinets. My stove sticks out just a bit on one side, and the dishwasher sticks out a bit on the other side, and when she vacuums into that corner and then tries to back up, she gets hung up on one or the other. So I just set a coffee cup in that corner so she can't get in there so far. Afterwards I pick it up and wipe that corner with a damp paper towel. A minor problem.

We LOVE our Neato. No problems with damage to furniture and baseboards. With two dogs, I was vacuuming every day. Now, just once a week with the Dyson. I honestly feel like the Neato gets down into the carpet fibers better than my Dyson.

Love my Neato, I have the pet version. Big trash bin. Very good quality.

Love the Roomba. Best quality of life improvement in a long time. Two dogs, toddler grandchildren here at least once a week and it keeps floors clean between bimonthly housekeeper who vacuums with the Miela, dusts hardwood and follows with Bona. I run it at 4 am so I wake up to clean floors and rugs. If she gets stuck (sometimes on chrome legs of dining chairs), I am up in time to set her free and clean the compartment out of ick, dust, dog hair and an amazing assortment of weird debris.

A male friend of mine who researches things to death before buying chose the Neato over the Roomba. He explained why - in great detail - but MEGO.

I have a dog and wool rugs that shed. Got tired to trying to keep up with the dog hair/wool dust bunnies and bought a Neato D80 about 7 months ago. Like graywing's friend, I research stuff to death before purchasing, especially when the price is in the hundreds. I chose the Neato over the Roomba for several reasons, in no particular order: 1) The Neato is at a lower price point than Roomba models with similar features, 2) the Neato vacuums in a pattern vs. random, 3) Neato doesn't get tripped up going from hard floor to plush carpet 4) larger dust bin and 5) Neato's designed to clean along walls which is where dog hair, carpet fuzz and dust congregate.

It's a love-hate relationship. I love it when I come home and the house is vacuumed. I hate it when I come home to find it stuck behind a door or in a corner. Sometimes I have come home to find it stuck up against a wall (what the heck?). It's an imperfect machine that sometimes does stupid things.

The filters are expensive. I replace mine once every few weeks and that's after cleaning and vacuuming the filter every time I empty the dust bin. I feel like that extends their life a little.

I too am a research fanatic and that's why I went with the Neato. I watched comparison videos on YouTube and the Neato out performed the others significantly. I went into it totally open minded with zero preferences and no prior experience. I really like that a small strip of the magnetic tape will keep the Neato away from places you don't want it. Very easy to use.

Measure the space between the bottom of your cabinets/furniture and the floor. My roomba works great in the kitchen but catches under the bathroom cabinets. If you have fringe on your rugs, it will tangle, get stuck and make the fringe dirty doing so.

soooo... hippolyta , it doesnt appear anyone addressed your terrazzo concerns... i know they have brushless models now., for stone/sensitive floors.. im thinking a durable wax/finish would reduce scratches for any cleaning method... what vacuum did you end up with? any problems?