Roomba

[polyhymnia]

I desperately want a Roomba. Am I crazy to think that, instead of investing in a really good upright vacuum, having a Roomba and my good quality dust buster will be good enough??? We have a 2br place with carpets almost everywhere, and a cat. I hate to vacuum.

[nascarbebe]

:

I want a Roomba too

[avendesora]

A roomba is a supplement to a regular vacuum, not a replacement. It basically brushes the dirt off the top of teh carpet, without much sucking power. Having a stronger vacuum will actually pull dust mites, etc., up out the carpet.

Also, it takes me 10 min to prep the house for running the roomba - making sure there are no sneakers with laces not tucked in, picking up the hall carpet with fringe, picking up toys, etc.

I try to run the Roomba every night, but it's more like every other night. I still vacuum with a proper vacuum once a week.

Aven

[Breathless Wonder]

I love to vaccum, so I don't need a Roomba, but a Scooba...well, that's appealing!

[nascarbebe]

Aven, I have hardwood floors, does it work well on hard floors? That's why I want one. It's so hard to keep them clean with a dog and toddler around.

[lucyem]

I totally agree with avendesora. I have one of the original roombas. It really is a supplemental vacuum, not your main one as someone already mentioned. We have 2 cats, 2 dogs & 2 kids. The roomba takes care of the basics and helps limit how often I have to drag out the big vacuum. I do have problems running it when the kids are around. So far I have had 1 cat and 1 child attempt to ride it

[avendesora]

It does fine with hardwood floors.

Aven

[Barbee]

Originally Posted by nascarbebe

Aven, I have hardwood floors, does it work well on hard floors? That's why I want one. It's so hard to keep them clean with a dog and toddler around.

me too. i love my roomba. totally worth it

[LovinLiviLou]

We have hardwood floors, and roombas are our main vaccuums (we don't even own a regular one - just a little dustbuster thing). I am SOOOOOO in love with my roombas. We have 3 and a scooba: . We have one that lives in our den and automatically comes on every night at midnight. DH cleans up every night before he goes to bed (another plus!) and then it cleans while we sleep. We have another one in our bedroom that is automatic, too. And then we have a third which we move around and use where needed. I know that's overkill, but my DH got a great deal on the third one (it's refurbished), thus the excess. Now scooba . . . I'm not so sold on. I love the concept, but ours is the original model and it just is so finicky - something is always wrong with it. It works well, but my DH (who is thankfully an engineer) is always have to fix it. They do have a newer version out now, which may be better.

We have 2 dogs (one who sheds a lot), so we have to clean our roombas out thoroughly and regularly, but again, I so love my iRobots. They really make my life so much easier.

[polyhymnia]

Originally Posted by avendesora

A roomba is a supplement to a regular vacuum, not a replacement. It basically brushes the dirt off the top of teh carpet, without much sucking power. Having a stronger vacuum will actually pull dust mites, etc., up out the carpet.

Also, it takes me 10 min to prep the house for running the roomba - making sure there are no sneakers with laces not tucked in, picking up the hall carpet with fringe, picking up toys, etc.

I try to run the Roomba every night, but it's more like every other night. I still vacuum with a proper vacuum once a week.

Aven

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of I can't afford a Roomba AND a good vacuum cleaner, but our current vacuum stinks and I am tired of borrowing DP's mother's vacuum :P

I read that the new ones can handle carpet fringe but I don't know. We keep the floor pretty tidy. We mostly have carpet, the kitchen and bathrooms have linoleum. and the entry way is tile.

Ah well. Maybe I'll use the money I would have spent on a Roomba hiring a maid service for a deep clean :P

[*Amy*]

I disagree that it's supplemental. We have one and it is our only vacuum, and it does just fine. Our current house is all carpet, so we do have to empty out the trap a lot, but it really does get everything off the floor. Our previous house was all hardwood, and it did a fantastic job with that.

Go for it, I say!

[kittywitty]

How much are these? Do they do well at picking up cat/dog hair?

[*Amy*]

Ours was around $200. It does pretty well with pet hair if you run it daily or every other day and make sure to keep the sweeping brushes clean.

[Barbee]

there's an extra attachment you can get specifically for pet hair. i remember seeing it on the roomba website. we don't have it and our's works fine, but again, we have hardwoods so it's a bit easier.