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3katz4me

Do you have a Roomba or similar?

last year

I‘ve always thought these were kind of weird but a friend swears by it. Lately I’m thinking maybe it would be good to have one of these at my new place. There is a lot of floor on one level - carpet only in the guest rooms. I looked at them and found a confusing variety of models. I would think I just want a vacuum, no mopping wood floors.

Comments (29)

  • last year

    Yes, yes, yes! My friend was given a Eufy 11S as a heartwarming gift. She talked it up so much that I got one. Then I fell in love and talked it up -and now six of us all have them:


    My house has never felt cleaner, despite the fact that I get lazier and lazier about housework with each passing year. I have a dog, (and at times up to three dogs when DD or DS visit). This thing goes under my sofa, under the buffet, etc., so it is truly getting up more than I would because I just never did that all the time. This in turn has cut down on my dusting, yay me!


    Mine runs for about two hours on one charge, and takes about five hours to recharge. So I tend to do the main living area of our home a few times a week, the MBR one day a week, and the upstairs once a week. There is absolutely no programming. When we go to the lakehouse, I just take it up there, plug it in and let it go. I generally empty the wastebin part of it at the end of its two-hour run. But if extra dogs are here, I'll often stop it halfway through, empty it, and let it continue. I give the wastebin, which includes a filter, a good wash every few weeks. The only other real maintenance is keeping the roller cleaned out. I have long hair and tend to lose it all over the house, so of course that gets caught, and if I've been sewing upstairs, the threads will get caught up in the roller too.


    You may want to take the time to check the measurements of any unit you consider. Mine fits nicely in between all of our straight back chair legs except for one, and also struggles with one stool (those are each about 1" too small for it to clear). I love the fact that I can let it go upstairs and don't have to guard the stairs, since it knows not to go down. Incidentally, I debated for a long time because Savannah hated the vacuum so much, and I wondered if it would just be more torture for her. But she doesn't mind this at all. I suspect it's due to the lower pitch and of course it is nowhere near as loud as a traditional vacuum.

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    I have a very basic Eufy. I call him Doink because he bumps into things. And yes he's a he for sure because he can be within an inch of crumbs and waltz right by them ;-) If I were to do it again I would upgrade to a model where you can map your rooms and program it to vacuum a specific room then go back to the station. We have a fairly open floor plan and If I just want the kitchen vacuumed I have to lay things across door openings to corral him. Plus, you need to get any cords out of the way, pull chairs out from tables so he doesn't get trapped by lots of legs. I find myself snarking at him saying 'you missed under the kitchen table again'. Overall it is only mildly efficient for me but a friend adores hers with mapping and self emptying features. Oh, and my hair gets wrapped around the rotor brushes, too so that's fun to clean.

  • last year

    I have a Eufy. He/she/they were always getting stuck somewhere, and now I am not sure it if is charging correctly. Meh.

  • last year

    I've never had one but recently saw reels on instagram of cats' tails getting caught in them. Not sure if this is common, but something to think about. Maybe others here can chime in as to the likelihood of that happening.

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    We also have a Eufy S11 in Cathedral City and it does a great job for us, but then we do not have a lot of furniture to get in the way or excessive cords to move. We often leave the house while it is running, but we never waste time following it or corralling it. If it has missed something when we get back, then we reposition it and run it again. I think it works best without interference - at least in our house.

    If we do happen to be at home when it is running, we generally stop if halfway through and empty the dirt tray, which does not hold all that much.

    We do not have pets, and so there is no pet hair to contend with, but we do get a lot of very fine dust that somehow finds its way inside, even though we have sealed the doors as well as possible, and the windows were already well sealed - mainly to keep out the heat, but also to keep out dust and fine sand.

    When we have sandstorms, fine sand makes its way inside, but the Eufy does a good job of getting rid of it. It's not that great for corners, and so we sweep the corners before we run it.

  • last year

    Thanks for this thread. I think I probably asked about this a year or two or five ago and have not acted. Part of it is the mapping thing seemed intimidating to me. ( I know, I know, it should be a non issue but I get easily discouraged).

    Reading bestyears' post with There is absolutely no programming sure has me rethinking this.

    So my other question is, do you have area rugs? I guess it would be fine if it just avoided them and just dealt with the vinyl planks?

  • last year

    I have area rugs and for the most part there is no issue with the vacuum maneuvering on and off of them. However it does not vacuum them as well as the rug attachment on my canister vac which does not have a beater bar (terrible for vintage rugs) but relies on a bit of muscle. Doink is a 98# weakling in that regard.

  • last year

    While recuperating from surgery almost two years ago, I was given a roomba. While it doesn’t take the place of a good vacuuming, it does continue to pick up a lot of stuff.


    I’m not sure of the model, but we were never able to connect it to the wifi. Not being able to start it from my phone has not been a hardship. (Pushing the ’clean’ button on the device does not cause exhaustion. 😊) Mapping has not been programed, we let it free range.


    Our house is one level. A mixture of tile, vinyl plank, area rugs, carpet. It handles each area well, gliding effortlessly from surface to surface. It has the run of the whole house most times, sometimes I close off rooms if no one will be here while it does its thing.


    There is one dresser in our Primary bedroom that it can get under but can not get out from. And it does knock off the white things (toilet bolt covers) in a guest bathroom.


    If I look around and think the house needs vacuuming I usually just use the real vacuum (for me, part of my fitness routine). I can vacuum the rooms we use in under 15 minutes, roomba runs for over 2 hours.


    And, yes, it makes a sound. Not loud until it hits a certain closet door that sounds like someone is knocking on our front door.


    I like how it does clean under beds and heavy furniture. Our dog died 3 years ago, Roomba is still picking up dog hair from my clean house.








  • last year

    I don't have one but my gf has a roomba. She started it up before we left her house one day. I found it very noisy and would be unhappy with that thing running if I were at home. Also, I noticed it didn't get into the corners of her house so she still had to clean them separately...it was obvious when she didn't.


    DH is much faster and he needs no programming but just maybe a gentle nudge...

    :)

  • last year

    This is the only area rug I have:

    and the Eufy does a good job of cleaning it.

    I have a California King bed (that came with the house), and it does a great job of cleaning under that, which would otherwise be quite difficult.

    We often sit outside or work in the yards when it is running. It was 76° yesterday and will be even warmer today. Temps in Palm Springs and L.A. were pretty much the same yesterday.

    I don't fret about the tiny amount of dust or dirt that might be left in the corners - that is not one of my priorities. The Eufy does as good of a job as the regular vacuum, as it has sweeping brushes that get very close to the corners.

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    I have one that's probably ten+ years old. I like how it gets under the furniture and the beds, especially under the sofas and the headboards which are impossible for me to reach without moving the furniture.

    It's loud and it needs babysitting because it always gets stuck under one part of the sofa that's a little low. And I have to take it apart every fifth time or so because stuff gets wrapped around the wheels and brush. But, I don't mind doing that. Some people might.

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    My son has one and it doesn't make a sound whether on carpet in basement playroom or hardwood flooring everywhere else. It is fabulous and I want one. ETA: Just asked. My son has a Shark version of a roomba. The one he has here does a "decent" job, but he has one at his NC house and he says it is awful-same brand, same price point. Of course he may not be taking the floors into account. Down in NC, they have a several hundreds year old place with equally old floors. The house here is only 120 years old and the floors are smoother, I think.

  • last year

    My daughter bought a Roomba and found that it didn't work well in their small apartment as it just didn't have enough floor space and kept getting hung up under things. I tried it at my house and it would get stuck under chairs or on lamp cords. I decided that moving the furniture and securing everything it would get tripped on was more trouble than using my cordless stick vacuum. A Roomba probably works well in larger rooms with a lot of floor space.

  • last year

    I love my Roomba. it easily goes under places my vacuum cannot.

    As for moving wires and other objects, one must move them to push a vacuum anyway, so what’s the difference?


    As for noise, Roomba is much quieter than my vacuum, and while it is Roomba-ing around the house, i am getting other things done.


    Sure, I use the vacuum on occasion, but i use the Roomba much more often. Mine is a simple model, no programming, just moves about on its own doing a fine job of cleaning up quietly, going under things and into corners, bumping into chair legs and repositioning itself. It moves effortlessly from carpet to bare floors and up and down area rugs.


    I love my Roomba!


  • last year

    My Roomba cleans the corners. Maybe better then our upright vacuum. Those little whippy things (official part name - Edge Sweeping Brush) reach the corners well.

  • last year

    Yes we have an irobot, the top of the line model that empties and charges itself and mops. It's great to run in between when the cleaning service comes.

  • last year

    Another reason I prefer DH is we have a central vac unit and it takes all the dirt and dust and blows the "filtered" air outside rather than blowing it back in the room as a regular vac does. Much cleaner that way.

  • last year

    Though a couple of my children have central vacs, alas, i do not. :-)

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    I have an area rug with delicate fringes. Would they get ruined?

  • last year

    I dont know, eld, as i dont have a fringed rug, but maybe. Do you vacuum the fringe?

  • last year

    eld how long is the fringe and what do you mean by fragile? I have short fringe on a few rugs and had no issue. Long fringe might get tangled.

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    Our Roomba did fine on our ceramic and hardwood floors. It did an OK job on carpets but really only picked up surface dirt or hair. It was much louder than my Shark vacuum and DH found it annoying - especially since the Roomba takes hours to complete a run. I liked the ability to put it in a bedroom and shut the door knowing that it would get under the bed.

    I didn't like the small dust bin or the need to clean the the gears and roller frequently. My chief complaint though was dealing with throw rugs. Most of ours were thick and while the Roomba was OK on the center of the rug, it left a perimeter of dirt on the floor around the rug. The little sweeper brush would brush the dirt onto the floor but was unable to vacuum it up because the wheels were uneven - one wheel was on the carpet while the other was on the hardwood floor and the suction wasn't strong enough. The other problem was that I had to remove my expensive Oriental throw rugs because it did get caught in the long fringe.

    My dog was oblivious to it - even when it would bump into her she just ignored it. My DH thought he was clever because he taught her to hit the red light on the top with her nose - which turned it off. I had to cover it with black electrical tape so she'd leave it alone. There were times when it returned to the base station and hit it at the wrong angle and couldn't recharge,

    When it stopped working after 2 years I didn't bother to fix it.

    DS has one of the top models, it empties itself and re-charges. He stopped using it because his dogs became agitated. I should borrow his to see if I'd like it. I'd still have to remove the fringed rugs but I no longer have thick runners.

  • last year
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    I have a Roomba. I call her Rhonda after the ex-wife of a guy we knew. When I first got her she would wander around drunkenly and not go home until I picked her up.

    I love my Roomba. I haven’t set-up half of the programs it will do, but if I had pets, I’d definitely set it up to automatically run regularly.

    My Roomba is several years newer than DD’s. DD’s sounds like a small vacuum running. Mine sounds like a very quiet motor running. I was running it in my bedroom day before yesterday. When I walked into the room, it was so quiet, I couldn’t find it. It was cleaning under my bed.

    You have to have 1.5 feet clear on either side of the charging station and a clear path in front of it for the Roomba to hit the charging station correctly. Mine lives on the floor of my pantry.


    Edited to correct clearance around charging station.

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    Ours works well and i particularly like that it goes under beds. Ours is vacuum only, no mopping. For us, it doesnt take the place of a regular vac, but keeps things clean and extends the time between. Ours is not loud at all.

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    Here it is, Sheesh and DLM.

    I avoid it when vacuuming.

  • last year

    “You have to have 3 feet clear on either side of the charging station and a clear path in front of it for the Roomba to hit the charging station correctly. ”


    OH OH! Please do not tell our Roomba.




  • last year

    You can buy virtual fences to keep your Roomba off rugs or out of areas you don’t want it to go in or away from pet bowls, etc. I have 4 fences.

  • last year

    I still don’t know, eld, as I have no experience, but i can’t imagine that beautiful fringe being vacuumed by anything. I’d avoid it, too.

  • last year

    @maddielee, I’m not going to post a picture of my pantry floor, but I will say, Rhonda doesn’t have 3 feet on either side. She apparently hasn’t noticed. 😁


    ETA: rechecked instructions. It is 1.5 feet on either side.