midjd
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 14:48:33 GMT -5
Post by midjd on Jul 28, 2013 14:48:33 GMT -5
Most of our downstairs has laminate flooring - it looks nice, but seems to get dirty again less than five minutes after I sweep. This is much worse during the fall/winter when we track in leaves and twigs. I suspect it will also get worse when we have a little person hurling Cheerios like confetti.
I'm in favor of anything that will save me time/effort, but the $300+ price tag makes me think twice.
Anyone have one? What model? Best thing ever, or not worth the money?
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goldensam
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 14:54:52 GMT -5
Post by goldensam on Jul 28, 2013 14:54:52 GMT -5
We bought the 650 model a few months ago and love it. We have two golden retrievers, but based on how much they shed, I think they may have a few more hidden in the house somewhere.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 15:16:17 GMT -5
Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 28, 2013 15:16:17 GMT -5
I've been considering one also. Either a roomba or someone to comecleanthe floors every week. Our house is 2000sf and 1500 of it is hard wood flooring. Th amount of dust bunnies who are procreating under the coffee table and dressers is just crazy.
Do Roombas scratch hard wood floors though?
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 15:25:14 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2013 15:25:14 GMT -5
See if you can get one off of Craig's List. A lot of people don't like them.
We've had a couple of them. It all depends on the application. Your situation sounds like it may work but if you have a lot of area rugs you'll be disappointed. Even though ours (formerly MIL's) states it o.k. on rug fringes it's not. I have forbidden DH from using it in the living room again due to how the Persian carpet looked.
They work nicely on either hard floor or wall to wall carpeted rooms without a lot of small furniture like chairs or end tables. Or you need to move them to another room. It's nice to run under beds.
Can you try one from somebody before you buy?
ETA: I should that it's only a supplemental vacuum. You still need a vacuum that has a set of tools to do baseboards, other tight spots and stairs.
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Jul 28, 2013 16:16:00 GMT -5
We tried one a few years ago. The cats HATED it, and would flip it over on its back (like a turtle) where it would just spin its wheels. It was sad.
(And it really didn't pick up cat fur)
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midjd
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 16:16:38 GMT -5
Post by midjd on Jul 28, 2013 16:16:38 GMT -5
Hah! I thought the same about our Maine Coon cat. She's been gone almost a year and we're still vacuuming up hair clumps Bonny, Craigslist is a good idea. I don't think I know anyone who has one or borrowing it would be a good idea, too. We only have one area rug (3'x5') and not a lot of small furniture so it sounds like it should be OK for our purposes. That's the other thing that's tripping me up. We already have a Dyson (which I LOVE) and although we got it for fairly cheap, I wonder how much I can spend on vacuum cleaners before I get into the "inappropriate" range. If the Dyson came with someone to run it, I'd have no need for anything else... Then again, if we get another cat, the Roomba may pay for itself in entertainment value!
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Jul 28, 2013 16:28:47 GMT -5
I don't know if Sears sells the rumba but if you buy a vacuum from them they give you 30 days to return if you are not satisfied. I did it about 2 years ago. I bought a canister for $300 and hated it so I returned it. MIL had recycled the box. I still got a full refund.
Sent from my MB855 using proboards
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 18:27:05 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2013 18:27:05 GMT -5
I think Target is selling Roomba. For sure they'll take it back. I just checked on Craig's List and here in the Bay area there must be over 25 listed for sale from $20 to $300 with several "only used a couple of times". One is even "new in box" at $80. Don't forget to ask about the "light houses"; these send an electronic beam and act like a door for Roomba. I did forget about the pet issue. MIL gave us hers because the corgis go nuts and their barking drives MIL (even more) crazy. Our cats hate it so we make sure they're outside before running it. But they hate vacuums anyway.
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vonna
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 20:24:56 GMT -5
Post by vonna on Jul 28, 2013 20:24:56 GMT -5
Hi Mid!
I got a Roomba about 3-4 years ago -- the professional series (I think 600? -- they have the solid red top, not sure they make that model anymore). Then, I ended up liking it so much I bought a second for our second floor.
Our roomba's basically run every day Monday - Friday. Downstairs, "Rosie" (one star, or lower deck) vacuums at 5 am. She handles one room of carpet with a fringed area rug on top, and the other rooms are hardwood or ceramic tile -- with several area rugs. We use a "lighthouse" to keep it out of our laundry room, because that is where the cat litter is, and occasionally our cats leave a surprise outside their box, and I can't stand the thought of our little Roomba dragging that little deposit around.
Upstairs, "Rosie (two star, or upper deck) is not programmed, but we try to run her almost daily, and she will vacuum any room that we haven't shut the door to (the kid's rooms are often not "Rosie ready.") She will vacuum under our beds, and handles our fringed runner, and somehow does not fall down the stairs.
Pros: I hate to vacuum, and I'm incredibly domestically challenged. Since our Rosies came into our lives, our floors actually always look clean, and we have two long hair cats (ragdolls) and two kids with multiple friends that spend a LOT of time at our house.
Cons: They sometimes get stuck and shut down on their own -- downstairs in the kitchen under the dishwasher, upstairs it sometimes jams under my son's dresser. They require daily emptying of the bins, and, for us daily cleaning of the brushes because of all the cat hair. And, they can't vacuum the stairs!
Overall, cleaning the bins daily is less distasteful to me than vacuuming, so the Roomba works for me!
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 20:38:29 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2013 20:38:29 GMT -5
Interesting. I just saw the Roomba for sale the other day at Sam's. I thought about it for about 5 seconds & passed. I really like our Bissell & it does a great job. Besides right off I know: 1 of our dachshund would be scared to death of it. Number 2 dachshund would probably flip it over. Our big girl would kill it. Our little girl (the puppy) would not only kill it but she would eat the damned thing & we would have to pay to get it out of her. I'm glad I passed on it.
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taz157
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 20:43:21 GMT -5
Post by taz157 on Jul 28, 2013 20:43:21 GMT -5
Interesting. I just saw the Roomba for sale the other day at Sam's. I thought about it for about 5 seconds & passed. I really like our Bissell & it does a great job. Besides right off I know: 1 of our dachshund would be scared to death of it. Number 2 dachshund would probably flip it over. Our big girl would kill it. Our little girl (the puppy) would not only kill it but she would eat the damned thing & we would have to pay to get it out of her. I'm glad I passed on it. I have thought of purchasing one of those, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. We are in the midst of purchasing a house and it's either tile or hardwood. We'll have to see decorating it on whether I get one. (FWIW, we don't have any pets anymore.)
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vonna
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Roomba
Jul 28, 2013 21:46:46 GMT -5
Post by vonna on Jul 28, 2013 21:46:46 GMT -5
The dust in the corners and tight areas is what bothers me the most and I can't see this machine catching those areas. It actually does amazingly well -- there is a brush that "kicks" the dirt away from the edges and corners so the debris can be vacuumed up. It can't get the top of the dust boards -- but it gets the whole floor!!
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 10:08:24 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2013 10:08:24 GMT -5
Door mat & taking off your shoes as you come into the house. Not a fan of Roomba. Cat hair clogs it up too fast & I'd rather sweep.
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 12:06:23 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2013 12:06:23 GMT -5
vonna said: That is one ugly visual!
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xia
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 12:37:47 GMT -5
Post by xia on Jul 29, 2013 12:37:47 GMT -5
I have an old Roomba, it’s the Discovery model and it’s name is Munchkin. It’s at least 6 years old, honestly I can’t remember when exactly I got it but it was the best $275 I ever spend. Timer is set to start each day at 1pm, so when I get home from work Munchkin is already done and sitting back on charger, all I have to do is empty the bin. Once in a blue moon I find it somewhere in the house “lost” squeaking it’s distress call so I have to rescue it. My house is combination of tiles and hardwood with several area rugs, only issue Munchkin has is fringe on one of the area rugs, insists it's dirt, so I never let it in to that room. I have 3 cats, they leave it alone most of the time and it cleans patiently after them. Perfect symbiosis. Jokes aside, I was also very impressed by iRobot’s costumer service, about two years ago Munchkin had somekind of computer glitch so after calling they customer support line they send us battery looking gizmo to reboot it with. Gizmo arrived overnight and included was return shipping label to send it back after we used it to reboot Munchkin. Few days after that we got follow up phone call from iRobot making sure all was well again. Anyways, I love my Roomba and when this one dies I’ll definitely get another one.
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Jul 29, 2013 13:31:41 GMT -5
Why waste money on a Roomba when you've got a perfectly good DH at home? If he offers up resistance, throw a tearful fit and accuse him of not thinking you're pretty enough, or some isht. He'll be a vacuuming pro in no time!
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Angel!
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 14:00:35 GMT -5
Post by Angel! on Jul 29, 2013 14:00:35 GMT -5
I have one of the original roomba's from like 10 years ago. I love it, but it just died . At least I think it did, one wheel hasn't been turning so it just spins in circles. I will have to take it apart to see if it is just clogged or something. It did a great job of surface cleaning and keeping everything looking nice. Even with 2 dogs I only pulled out my other vacuum maybe 1 time/month. The new ones look even better and I think are much better designed for pet hair. Plus they can run on a schedule and recharge themselves. You could also look at Neato, which is a similar robot vacuum. Since you have laminate you could also look at Mint which is a sweeper/mopping robot. I got my brother a Mint a few years back and he seems to like it.
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midjd
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 14:14:06 GMT -5
Post by midjd on Jul 29, 2013 14:14:06 GMT -5
Thanks for the input! I think I may grab one during my next Target run and give it a shot. I looked on Craigslist but only found a couple in our area, and not at much of a discount ($200+ for the $350 version). I'm glad to hear they've got some longevity - if I can get 10+ years out of a vacuum with frequent use, I'll be pretty happy. (That was my rationale for buying the Dyson after burning through two or three cheap Hoovers in under three years, and so far, so good...) LOL! He actually prefers to do it himself - he says my lines aren't straight. I'm pretty sure this is why I'm not allowed to mow the lawn, either. Pfft. But he is having two knee operations in the next two months (one tomorrow) so will probably be off vaccum duty for a while.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 14:24:17 GMT -5
Post by Wisconsin Beth on Jul 29, 2013 14:24:17 GMT -5
My son likes to stand on my roomba and ride it. He's at 40+ lbs and I discourage him from this. So mine doesn't get used a whole lot. Plus it's the non-programmable one. But I got it for like $100 off of woot.com.
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Deleted
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 14:28:52 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2013 14:28:52 GMT -5
But he is having two knee operations in the next two months (one tomorrow) so will probably be off vaccum duty for a while. Maybe if you would stop breaking your hubby, it would be a cheaper approach :-)
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midjd
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 14:39:21 GMT -5
Post by midjd on Jul 29, 2013 14:39:21 GMT -5
But he is having two knee operations in the next two months (one tomorrow) so will probably be off vaccum duty for a while. Maybe if you would stop breaking your hubby, it would be a cheaper approach :-) Touché! Beth, that is a funny visual! I'm impressed that a Roomba can cart a 40lb kid around. <<mental note to make duct tape Roomba harness for baby>>
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Peace Of Mind
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Roomba
Jul 29, 2013 15:01:15 GMT -5
Post by Peace Of Mind on Jul 29, 2013 15:01:15 GMT -5
We tried one a few years ago. The cats HATED it, and would flip it over on its back (like a turtle) where it would just spin its wheels. It was sad. (And it really didn't pick up cat fur) That is hilarious! I saw a video of a cat who would ride it around. I wonder what my little hellions would do. I know most would run and hide but since they don't pick up cat hair I'll never know. I do know somebody who had dogs swear by them but they need to be cleaned every day and the batteries need to be replaced often.
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nittanycheme
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Roomba
Jul 31, 2013 21:40:15 GMT -5
Post by nittanycheme on Jul 31, 2013 21:40:15 GMT -5
I have had 2 roombas, one lasted about 7 years and finally just died. I replaced it about 2 years ago with a new model. I liked the older models beeps better - it sounded a little like R2D2. But, it slowly wore out since I used it on deep pile carpet most of the time, and I think it just wore out the bearings and such. My new house is mostly hardwoods, with some area rugs without fringes, and it works great. We have a cat, and I think it does a great job at picking up cat hair. I really like it; as mentioned earlier, you really only need to get out the "big" vacuum occasionally. I have hot-water baseboard heat, so the roomba can't quite get all the way under the radiators even with the spinning brush, but it can get in the corner and such in areas where there aren't radiators. I do need to clean the brushes pretty regularly from the cat hair, but it came with a pretty cool round brush ring that works really well when you just run roomba's brush through it a few times. We also have a scooba; it works pretty well on my laminate floors. I really like gadgets, so I wish I had a reason to also get the gutter cleaner from i-robot, but it's not pratical for my gutter setup. I just bought that foam stuff to keep the leaves out of my gutters.
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msventoux
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Roomba
Jul 31, 2013 21:57:23 GMT -5
Post by msventoux on Jul 31, 2013 21:57:23 GMT -5
I bought one a few months ago and love it. I have 4 animals and hate vacuuming so I felt like I could never get the upper hand over the dust bunnies. Mine runs every evening after I get home and for the most part does an awesome job. It tends to lock itself in the bathroom, so I make sure it can't get in there unless I want it to. I really like that it can go under most of my living room furniture and beds, so whenever I move furniture now I don't get shocked by how much animal hair is lurking under there, it's all cleaned out.
I have half wood floors and half low pile carpet and it does well on both sides. I don't have area rugs so I don't know how it does with fringe, etc. The first couple weeks I had it I did have to frequently clean the rollers since it was picking up a LOT of hair, even in areas I had been vacuuming frequently.
It's kind of noisy, but I always run it when I'm home to watch it. I would love to have it run while I'm at work, but I don't trust that one of the dogs wouldn't have an accident or one of the cats wouldn't throw up and I would come home to a really messed up Roomba and a horrible mess tracked all over the house!
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Labcat
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Post by Labcat on Aug 1, 2013 15:02:20 GMT -5
We tried one a few years ago. The cats HATED it, and would flip it over on its back (like a turtle) where it would just spin its wheels. It was sad. (And it really didn't pick up cat fur) My cats just give it dirty looks and look offended if it bumps into them. I have 4 cats and it picks up cat fur perfectly (I think I have the 650 model). I do have to empty the bin out everyday but that is a small price to pay to keep the main floor fur-free. About once a week I take the rollers out and clean out any fur and hair. I have it programmed to run 4 times a week and it is only cleaning hardwood and vinyl flooring but I think it does great. About once a week I set it loose upstairs to clean the bedrooms (also hardwood). I would absolutely recommend it.
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TheOtherMe
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Roomba
Aug 1, 2013 21:58:54 GMT -5
Post by TheOtherMe on Aug 1, 2013 21:58:54 GMT -5
I had one and it was fine until I got a cat. Cat hair killed it. It tried to pick it up and it just couldn't do the trick. Also was pretty useless on carpet. I would run it and it would have hardly anything in the bin. Run a regular vacuum on the carpet and it picked up stuff.
If you have little carpet and no cats, it would be okay.
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yankee
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Roomba
Aug 2, 2013 15:55:41 GMT -5
Post by yankee on Aug 2, 2013 15:55:41 GMT -5
I've had one for 2 years and LOVE IT!!! My cats now think it is a special toy and sit and wait on a chair until it passes underneath and swats at it. They also have turned it on in the middle of the night by jumping on it and hitting the clean button. THat is always delightful to wake up to! . I have it cleaning about 1000 sq ft of laminated hardwood. I only run it when I'm home, but usually every other day. I find I have to empty the bin 1/2 way thru because it's full. When it is full it stops picking things up. That is probably why people think it doesn't pick up cat hair. My lab just ignores it and generally leaves the room it is working in. It doesn't replace the vacuum, but it is great at making things look like I vacuum every day.
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formerroomate99
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Roomba
Aug 2, 2013 16:23:30 GMT -5
Post by formerroomate99 on Aug 2, 2013 16:23:30 GMT -5
I'm violently allergic to dust and got one about 9 years ago for my carpeted apartment. That darn thing put so much dust into the air that I got sick and had to take it back. Not sure about hardwood floors or the newer models, though.
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