skunkworks

Can’t imagine owning a Roomba; their cost, continual noise, and constant movements would be an irritant for me. Plus my multiple level house along with its inconsistencies would cause frequent interventions; it’s recharging maintenance times would be a pain, too

An electric Swifter along with a vacuum once -or- twice a week for 10 minutes does it for me. BTW, I only have one pet…a cat that’s brushed frequently and sheds very little.

sam_spider

I'm tempted to buy one just to see if our cat will ride around on it

Kyras

Gary, I brush my cats often, too, but I have to vacuum up tracked cat litter, still. The Roombas can be programmed for certain times of the day when you're not home so they don't annoy you. That's what my friend Jean does.

Lainey

Electric Swiffer?

boltonblue

Titan doesn't appear to be quite as bad as Gabe was for fur, that softer under-ticking fuzzy stuff but I'd bet it would kill off a Roomba pretty quick.
I can take a horse grooming bar to the dog and fill half a grocery bag.

tof

I thought I was doing a pretty good job of regularly sweeping and moping our hardwood floors, until I emptied out the Roomba bin the first time. Amazing how much cat hair I missed and it found.

As to expense, the 690 is considerably less expensive than iRobot's higher end models but only lacks features I really don't care about, like the automatic emptying of the bin into a bigger bin built into the home base. Also I think AJ got it on sale. But there are several parts that must be replaced from time to time, such as the roller brushes, side brush, and eventually even the caster wheels. Worth it for me, though.

I read a lot of reviews that complained about the noise but I'm surprised at how quiet it actually is. I can barely hear it through a closed door unless it is working just on the other side of the door. In fact it is so quiet I am thinking about getting an aftermarket exhaust system for it to make it louder and more powerful, and to annoy the neighbors.

S1997

Chuck S

I'm waiting for the one that can handle stairs as I don't want to buy three.

-- Chuck

boltonblue

I dunno, I'm waiting for GE to come out with the Big Boy Roomba.


and they are working on it.

dlq04

Good to hear so many own them and like them but there is no way one of those things could begin to clean our house unless it can move furniture and appliances, get into dozens of narrow openings around various cabinets, and can clean stairs, window sills, blinds, under the seat cushions, etc., etc. etc. We have vacuum cleaners on each of the three floors and there's no way they are going to end up in a garage sale.