It’s time for an Ask the Readers post, and this time, the question is from me!
Lisey is really wanting us to get a robotic vacuum because she is tired of crumbs on our kitchen floor.
In fact, she decided that that would be her Christmas gift to the family as a group.
(I personally would probably not ever buy one of these, because a broom seems fine to me. The person assigned to sweeping just needs to actually do the sweeping more often. Ahem. But I’m fine with it if Lisey really wants us to have one.)
There are a million and one options out there, and she got pretty overwhelmed trying to figure out what would be the best one for us.
Pertinent info:
- we mostly have hard surfaces (tile and wood), but also a little bit of carpet and a few rugs
- we have steps going down from our main level, so it needs to know how to not tumble down the stairs
- we don’t need the fanciest, highest-level option. Mainly, she wants it to sweep the hardwood floors
I know there have to be FG readers out there who own robotic vacuums, so, tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly!
What have you liked? What have you hated? What features do you wish you had?
And thank you in advance!
LeAnn says
I bought the iRobot at Costco – because of their return policy – after I saw one in action at my Mom’s house. I am a single gal with no pets and Rosie works great for me. I have hardwood floors minus a few rugs. I love that she gets under the couch and I don’t have to. I saw what you wrote about the broom – I am a frugal gal who loves her broom and I would rarely get out the vacuum and just sweep things up. The vacuum was such a hassle. Bur Rosie is so much better than a floor and my floors just feel cleaner under my feet.
Rosie is a dream. Do I have to prep the house? Yes, but except for lifting cords off the floor and moving the living room trash can, it’s all normal pick up stuff anyway.
I also feel like there is something to be said for being able to wash clothes, wash dishes, and to vacuum all the while sitting in my living room knitting with a movie on. For me the price of the Roomba was worth not spending my time moving furniture to vacuum under it.
Jennifer Y. says
Sorry for the late comment, but I am such a fan of our vacuums that I wanted to share. Very sweet of your daughter to gift the family with such an appliance.
We have a DeeBot that I would highly recommend. We have had it about 4 years. We have hardwood floors and carpets. It works great on both. It does not fall down steps. We used to run it everyday and it really did a great job of keeping the floors clean. It likes to eat cords, so it works best if everything is off the floor, even small mats. This is the first and only e-vacuum I have ever owned and feel it is worth the price. This is a set it and forget it type of tool.
We also have a Shark stick vacuum. We use this for the kitchen and messes. This is my preference for quick cleaning.
Kristen says
No need to apologize! I see all the comments that come through, even on really old posts; I check them on my blog dashboard.
Marge Hannapel says
I owned an early version of a simple Roomba. I liked it because I could delegate sweeping a room to it while I did another chore. After a few years it had trouble holding a charge, so after my engineer husband nursed for a while, we got rid of it. About a year ago, I picked up an inexpensive robot vac from Aldi. It’s great for our tiled areas, and decent with carpet, and even senses when it approaches a dropoff, like a stairway. Sadly, it did not come with electronic beam “gates”, like the Roomba. The gate allows you to fence off areas that you don’t want the vacuum to enter. I have to put up physical barriers, which is a hassle. Hope these tips help.
be says
I’m late to the party, but I’ve owned a Roomba for several years. To help my “Baby” clean under the furniture, I’ve put some of rubber furniture cups under the shorter pieces. Yes, I really do have a stack of 3 rubber furniture cups under each dresser leg. Now my Roomba runs right under it without problem.
I also put my chairs up to help it run around easier. Anything to help it clean for me.
My Roomba is called, “Baby,” because when it fails to make it back to the charging station I’ll frequently call out “Baby, where are you?” Then when I find it I usually say, “Baby, did you fall asleep right here? Let me put you to bed.” Ridiculous I know, but it really does remind me of an exhausted young child who simply goes to sleep where ever they are at the time.
OregonGuest says
We have a big house and I wasn’t vacuuming as often as I should — our Roomba allows me to keep the house pretty well vacuumed on a regular basis (we have limestone plus a little bit of carpet). It does not replace what I would ordinarily do (use a suction wand on a regular vacuum to go along the edges of all the rooms, vacuum stairs, etc.). I don’t use all the bells and whistles, preferring to just turn it on when I’m home, do one room, empty it, then recharge for another day. I don’t have the laser blocker thingies, so I just put something in front of the stairs so Roomba doesn’t tumble down. I wouldn’t say it’s a replacement for a regular vacuum, but it’s a fantastic supplement.
On a side note, it scares the heck out of the dog (she’s afraid of most cleaning tools, as am I apparently) — I’m afraid adding googly eyes to Roomba would just send the dog over the edge.
Brandi Lang says
Hey! I have a Shark IQ XL, just got it for Christmas. I LOVE it!! My son named it Jaws, and I have since been referring to it as a him… I’m not sure why, my husband has NEVER vacuumed.
This Shark has an app and I can send it to clean with my phone, manage the map and zones, and receive notifications. I liked to vacuum before, I have an 11 year old Kirby, a beast of a vacuum that I feel did a good job when it has fresh bags, but we live in the country with an indoor/outdoor dog and two kids… lots of dirt, leaves, sticks, mud, hair, grass, etc… so I was looking for something a little more regular, and to be honest the crumbs under the table were my breaking point.
It does force you to pick up and fix the cord situations. Generally everything looks much neater, a very welcome and happy side effect of the gift. I have had a couple of learning curve issues; wifi connectivity being the first. But a simple restart and reload fixed it and then adjusting the furniture so that Jaws can successfully navigate behind/around/under has been the second. But I’m thinking that once we get each other trained we will be set. And, in my opinion my dirt colored carpet has never looked better. I would Highly recommend.
Rebecca in MD says
We have a rechargeable stick vacuum that we keep in the pantry. It takes less than 5 minutes to do our country kitchen. It does not use bags, but has a sturdy reservoir to collect the dirt and then empty periodically. It also has a floor and carpet option and does a wonderful job picking up cat hair.
Ruby says
You just reminded me that we had a corded stick vac when we had a two-story house. It lived upstairs and was used for light cleaning so that I did not have to carry our heavy main vac up and down the stairs very often. It did a good job.
Wyntyr says
I LOVE my Eufy!
I feel so blessed, a neighbor was moving out and had too much to fit in their car so was going to throw it and a few other things in dumpster, but I gladly gave it a home. I’m a single student with a roommate and two cats (one longer haired) and let me be honest, I hate cleaning and never vacuumed enough. Now I do much better, I just do a look around for cords and let Eufy do the dirty work. I never cleaned under couch before Eufy. I did not get the remote from the neighbor, but that was an affordable $8 replacement request from the company to be able to tell it to spot clean focus on an area or to focus on going along walls.
Worth every penny I didn’t have to spend. Maybe you can find one listed on offer up or other second hand?
Jackie says
I bought an iRobot two years ago (I don’t remember exactly which model) and returned it two days later. I found that it got stuck on furniture quite a but and didn’t do a very good job covering all areas of the floor. I bought a cordless Dyson instead and it was a life-changer! I vacuum almost every day and it’s so convenient!
Carol says
We have a Eufy. She is moderately noisy and does an ok job if used regularly. She does like to find and tangle herself up in cords on the floor. My only real complaint is that the collection container is small but using it more frequently would probably take care of that.
Lindsey says
We have the iLife from Amazon, we got it 2 years ago and it was $120 on sale. We didn’t have a robot vac before. It was a huge life upgrade and it works great. It checks all your boxes. I have a dog and we run it on our two floors once a week. I bought one for our in laws last Christmas and they love it too. Really no complaints.
Corrine says
We have the Coredy from Amazon. We got it on sale for about $130 a year ago. We also got the mopping attachment, which I think cost $30. Best money I have ever spent!!! It saves so much time (and stress) and can sweep in places you cant easily reach ie under beds, under couches. Ours can sweep hard surfaces and short carpets. It also has sensors so it will not fall down the stairs
You will never regret buying one!!
Alison says
Roomba, the parts are replaceable (I.e., it’s not a disposable vacuum. But get several of the virtual walls, we use those often.
Teresa says
Hiya,
…we have the Neato Pet vacuum…and we’ve had it about 5 years…we have a dog (a Jack Russell)…and a cat…we also have hardwood, tile and one carpeted room…we needed a vacuum that could run daily and just keep the hair and dander at a reasonable level…
The Pros:
This has been a good reliable vacuum for 5 years now.
It does a good job on all the floors – and we usually only do a full (Shark) vacuum on weekends.
We love its square front that fits neatly into corners.
It’s algorithm does clean the entire room and it can go under most of our furniture, sofas and beds and dressers, the dining room table and chairs.
It backs up and tries again if it runs into anything.
If its bin fills up it stops and beeps at you until you empty it.
It automatically returns to its base when it’s finished or if it needs to recharge in the middle of cleaning.
It came with replacement filters, a belt, and a replacement roller brush – but we’ve not needed to replace the brush.
It also came with flexible strips to keep it from going where you don’t want it to (i.e., down stairs) but we have a ranch house and have never needed them.
The Cons:
Sometimes the brush will fill up with hair (mostly mine) and it has to be removed and cleaned with scissors.
Sometimes when it moves from the hardwood hallway onto the carpeted den it leaves a single bar of dust/hair that it apparently had in its roller brush – it may or may not vacuum over that exact space again on its way out of the room so it may or may not pick that back up.
You actually have to empty the bin.
I hope that helps…
~Have a lovely day!
MM says
We have a Eufy Robovac 11S, two dogs, no children and hardwood floors. Absolutely love it!
It’s NOT loud, rarely gets stuck and is low-profile enough to fit under most things. For ratings and buyer guide info, I recommend Wirecutter. They are owned by the New York Times and do a really good job with non-biased reviews. That’s how we selected which model to buy.
Linda Sand says
We didn’t like ours. It chooses its path randomly so some places it would go over and over again but others it wouldn’t go at all unless we let it roam for hours. It’s so much quicker and more efficient to sweep with a broom. Or to vacuum with a standard vacuum. It was fun to watch it go plug itself in when its battery got low, though.
Jenny Young says
My husband gave me a Neato a few years ago after I had a severe back injury. I love mine.
It does not deep clean but it does a good job keeping the floors swept. And it cleans under furniture…I seriously love this part. It goes under my bed, under my desk, ect…places I may have gone years before without cleaning under them. My sofa is too low for it though.
It goes from a flat floor to the area rug with no problems. But I pick up my welcome mat & kitchen mat.
It came with some flexible rubber strips that you can lay at the top of stairs, in open doorways to keep it from going where you don’t want it to go.
The down side of mine is that it doesn’t do a good job on edges & corners. And it’s slow. It takes a good hour to do my small kitchen, dining & living room…an open area. The less stuff you have the faster it goes. And the more often it cleans it learns the area & is faster. My bedroom takes about 15 to 20 minutes.
And it does get stuck or confused if your family is bad to leave things in corners or laying around. In other words…the more of a minimalist you are, the better it works. It has trained me to really get rid of things on the floor!
Personally, if we were a busy family with kids I think it would be more of a pain than a help. We’re empty nesters with a dog & an occasional grandkid.
April says
They are loud like any other vacuum.
They get stuck under furniture that they shouldn’t get stuck under. Need those extra pieces to tell them to stay out of area.
I’d rather mine was programmed to run while I sleep.
They run in a random pattern. They clean 1/4 of a room then go to another room.
They have to be emptied daily. Hair gets stuck in brush like any other vacuum.
I bought an expensive good one. Pass.. not worth it.
Stephanie says
My dad just got a highly rated one off of Amazon. He has no carpet and two pets. He loves it.
Lindsey says
Thanks for this post as I have wanted to get one and felt overwhelmed by choices and research!
Robin says
We have a Neato that we got in about 2014 and we call it Mr. Neato
We have used it for our mostly hardwood floors (and a few area rugs). It does a good job at getting dust and crumbs off the floor, but I really only like to run it when we’re not home because it takes a long time. A feature I’ve always liked is you can set it to vacuum a small square (2’ x 2’-ish) if you have an especially dirty spot.
Cindi says
We purchased a Eufy robotic vacuum off Amazon over a year ago and we love it! We have a big great room/kitchen/dining combo with hardwood floors, and two dogs that shed. We run the Eufy every morning and it does such a good job. It’s a pretty basic model. It came with some strips you stick down to keep it from going anywhere you don’t want it to go (like down those stairs.) We have replaced the side brushes and filters (we purchased a multi-pack that should last several years.)
Lindsey C. says
I don’t remember where but at some point I was researching them too and found this one which seemed to have the best reviews at a reasonable price. It’s cheaper than the brand name and seemed to do better.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078MPFN55/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_sxI6FbYV2V4YM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Kim says
I have had a roomba for 5 years, the old kind that vacuumed in a random pattern and I had to empty the bin on it. My husband just replaced it with a new model roomba that has the app on my phone, vacuums in straight line, and empties itself. I didn’t know I needed all of that but it is great!
Ruby says
We have a Neato, which is square on one end and round on the other. It can get into corners. We named it Thing after the disembodied hand that butlers for the Addams family. We have three long-haired dogs, a long-haired cat and a short-haired cat so Thing gets a workout.
Just the pet hair alone makes having Thing worthwhile. Without him, I can vacuum and dustmop every day and still see tiny cat-dog tumbleweeds go rolling across the laminate and tile as soon as I put the tools away.
Barb says
The first one I got turned out to be just tall enough that it kept getting jammed under my couch. So the feature I recommend is “super slim”.
Kaitlin says
We have an iRobot i7 (named Jocko by my son, in case you decide it’s pertinent information). It creates a map of the house and we can tell it to vacuum specific rooms, and even schedule routine vacuums of specific areas. I like it best for cleaning up the bedrooms while kids are working on schoolwork. We rarely use it for cleaning up crumbs in the kitchen; I pull out the broom to take care of it most of the time. Robot vacuums are not as quick or effecient as humans, and I don’t like to use it in the kitchen (doubles as dining area, school room and craft area) because it is the busiest room in the house. I want the mess picked up quickly. That said, th rest of our house is so much cleaner because Jocko vacuums under couches and beds that our upright cannot reach. I have been pleasently surprised at how much cleaner our carpets are.
Kaitlin says
An additional note: Our vacuum hub empties the dust bin on the vacuum by itself, so we don’t have to do it. Totally worth the extra cost because it will empty out the dustbin every time it senses fullness, making the vacuuming effective for the whole job, not just until the bin is full.
Heidi Louise says
Just for a different perspective: I won one over twenty years ago at the office Christmas party, so my experience is from the horse-and-buggy days of their development. Hated it. The dust cup held barely a quarter cup of dirt, (and this was when my toddler son sprinkled Cheerios all over the house), and emptying it was a pain. I was brought up to believe that any constantly charging appliances are wasteful, and had no good place to dock it anyway. I will guess these concerns have been addressed in recent years!
Kris says
I have no information to add but I noticed that most people have a name for them. If you decide to get one, a contest to name it would be great! And maybe you could attach eyes to it to fit in with the eyeball theme in your house.
Kristen says
Oh, you KNOW it’s getting eyeballs and a name.
Elizabeth Anne Weber-Falk says
Cracks me up that so many have named their vacuum!
Sabrina says
I have a friend who was complaining that hers constantly gets lost. As she was talking, she said its name and suddenly I said ” Charlie?! You got a boy one?! No wonder it gets lost, you know they wont ask for directions!”
We have Rosie. My mom has Ruby (which is my grandmothers name)
Denise says
We have had a couple of non-Roombas and none of them have lasted very long. We have two 600 series Roombas right now and both are excellent. At least one of them can be controlled by an app and/or Alexa (maybe both we just right now only control the downstairs roomba we affectionately call Mrs. Gruen via app and/or Alex. The upstairs Roomba is named Mrs. Garrett.)
Our only issues with them are related to where/how we live. 1. We live on a lake in Florida and our house is constantly full of sand – we track in or the animals track in. SO much SAND and they pick up the sand fine but they fill pretty quickly. 2. We have three dogs, one of them sheds like mad and the dog hair does get trapped around the rollers quite often so we have to deal with that more than families with no sheddy pets. Also, the dog hair adds to how quickly the roombas fill and have to be emptied. Our living room/dining room/kitchen area is large and poor Mrs. Gruen cannot finish the entire thing without needing to be emptied. Not a flaw with the machine, just due to our sand + our darn dogs.
One other thing that is an occasional struggle is that they don’t always dock themselves properly. They get to the dock and it looks like they are docked but they’re just a LITTLE off so they don’t charge. You don’t realize it until they didn’t run on schedule. (And related to poor Mrs. Gruen – we used to run her at night but she would either fill up or run out of battery before she finished so she’d sit outside my mother in law’s bedroom and “complain” for hours. Our bedroom is upstairs and we don’t hear her but it was sometimes annoying to my MIL… so we switched her run time to help avoid that late night whiny roomba + whiny MIL issue.
Heidi Louise says
Is that Hannah Gruen? At the Drew household?
Sabrina says
We have a roomba (Rosie!) And mainly hardwood with area rugs. I love it but you do still have to vacuum sometimes. It helps to sweep next to baseboards so things are out to be picked up. It definitely makes the rooms look fresher
Warning though-if your kitty is going through hairball season, make sure there are no cat spitup places anywhere. Those are damp.
Damp Ick + Roomba wheels = Mess!!!
Sabrina says
Oh, and i got mine durong Amazon prime and had Credit card points so I got a reasonably priced one!
K says
We currently have a lower end Eufy, 3 cats, a dog, and lots of pet fur. If you have a pet, I would not recommend running a robot vac when you aren’t home. Our cats and dog will very infrequently have accidents or upset tummies… my sister warned me that when this happened to her and her vacuum ran, she had a mess spread all around the baseboards and furniture legs…ewww! So we love our Eufy, but only run it when we are home! Good luck with your decision.
HeatherS says
I started out with an inexpensive Eufy in order to see how I felt about it. I did a lot of reading of reviews before buying. I mostly have hard surfaces and a few area rugs downstairs, which is where I mainly wanted it to work. I get being irritated with the crumb issues, that was my problem also. Kevin, my robot vac, is great on my hard surfaces and I love him! He doesn’t do as well on the carpeted areas as he does on hardwood/tile but that’s ok, I don’t mind running the vacuum over the area rugs. I do spend time making sure the floor is clear and putting things up I don’t want him to suck up. We have an older home so he tends to get stuck on our floor registers sometimes as they stick up a bit. I only run him when I am home and awake for that reason. Sometimes he beeps for help when stuck and sometimes he doesn’t. He also seems to get obsessed with an area and keeps returning there so I need to redirect him once in a while. When I buy another one, I want one that not only returns to it’s base but empties itself into the base! He’s great with crumbs and cat hair. When buying, consider the areas you want him to go under and make sure the one you buy has a low enough profile to fit under those areas.
Jenny says
We have had our Roomba (Robi!) for about 5 years. The only trick with using it to remove crumbs in main living spaces is that you do have to “prep” the space – put dining room chairs off the floor, remove obstacles like shoes, etc. And it isn’t silent – not too loud, but some people might not like doing schoolwork nearby. I think it works best for bedrooms during the day and main living spaces overnight. So it just depends on when you want to get rid of your crumbs! It wouldn’t be efficient or practical to run it in the dining room after every meal like my 4 kids require!
RR says
We have 2 Eufys, one for each level. I’d definitely buy again. Floor are cleaner than sweeping alone for sure.
Beth says
I have now owned two Roombas and I love them. I would recommend getting the one for pet hair even if that isn’t a problem you suffer from but I feel like the suction is better. I had my first roomba for nearly 10 years. Since you are handy I will say we had to replace the sensors once and the battery once in that time. Replacing the sensors was a pain but it was $14 as opposed to $300 so we took the sacrifice. It has a good sensor so it doesn’t cliff dive and it can be blocked off with external sensors if need be. I can’t speak to other brands but I have never looked back!
BJS says
We got one as a family Christmas present to ourselves last year.
The parts I like:
– It gets underneath bookshelves, bureaus, nightstands, etc., which I can’t do when I vacuum. I absolutely love that feature.
– I don’t worry about it falling down the stairs. I think all of them have a sensor that prevents that, but I’m not totally sure.
– It’s like the dishwasher or washing machine; housework is getting done without me having to do it.
The parts I don’t like:
– Before I run it, I have to go around whatever floor it’s going to be on and make sure there’s nothing that shouldn’t be there (a stray pair of shoes, etc.).
– It’s a little bit loud, especially when it gets close to you. This might just be the model I have.
– This is silly, but it messes up the fringes of the rugs. Someone has to go around after it and fix the fringe. “Fix the fringe” is a new chore in my house as of this past year.
Overall I like it and am glad we spent the money to get one.
Bobi says
We inherited a roomba. I didn’t want it, hubby did. First it needed a new battery ($30) then it needed a brush set ($15.) We have primarily carpet with some tile and throw rugs. We’ve had it for about 10 months now and he cleans it which is a big plus. Here are my thoughts:
It doesn’t deep clean but is great for surface dirt & hair (we have lots of long human hair!)
We use our hand weights to block it from stairs and other obstacles but it is fabulous at finding nooks and crannies to hide. It has housed itself under recliners and various pieces of furniture on numerous occasions causing us to hunt for it.
I find it to be loud and annoying so we set it up to run when we go out.
It has grown in me. I call it the critter and since I didn’t have to pay for it and don’t have to clean it, we can live in harmony.
Carol g says
I have a shark, it’s about 3 years old. I have 3 heavily shedding dogs and it does a great job of keeping things clean. I have tile and hardwood and 2 walkoff mats. It really keeps the house looking generally cleaner.
sherrie says
We have all tile and hardwoods on our main floor (where vac lives and workds), four cats, I work from home and I hate to sweep. I do not attempt to use it on frieze carpet upstairs.
We have a Eufy79S. Pros: it is “short” enough to fit under our furniture to get the hidden dust bunnies. I can schedule it to run when we are not in the house. Overall, it does a great job and helps with keep me from walking on crumbs. My husband, allergic to cats, can breathe more easily since we’ve started using robot vacs.
Cons: It is too loud to run at night because it bumps into things. It operates in a random pattern so it misses a few spots daily. It tends to sling debris around, sometimes, instead of collecting it. It is not wi-fi enabled so I cannot remote start it from an app if I am away from the house. Because it’s not “smart” enough or GPS enabled, it can get stuck or spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get out of the prison that is our dining table and chairs. The remote appears to be “line of sight” which means I have to hunt down the vac to silence it when a Zoom call comes in.
We had a deebot and it seemed smarter; more capable of getting out of situations but it was too tall to fit under our furniture and seemed to have operational issues more frequently. We gave it away in non working condition but the recipient brought it back to life.
Something we learned the hard way: all robot vacs will drag anything they find around with them. My daughter feeds her cats raw food and deebot smeared raw, defrosted duck all over our floors one day when it scared the cat away from her feeding time. Floors and vac were in rough shape.
I don’t think I’ll ever be without a robot vac again, if I can help it.
Anna Chan says
My brother gave me an ecovac wet/dry vac for Christmas a couple of years ago, we named it Rodney. About 6 monthes ago the battery quit recharging and the company said that the replacement batteries were out of stock. Now I have a non-working robot vacuum taking up space in the attic, but it is so wasteful to just throw it out.
Pros: it had a timer and started vacuuming by itself
it really kept up the vacuuming and the floors were constantly cleaned
convenience of not having to vacuum
Cons: does not replace sweeping/mopping for a deep clean, but I usually avoid doing that anyway.
would get stuck under furniture and have to be rescued
would “eat” stuff it wasn’t supposed to like power cords and would have to be rescued.
I really miss ours since it’s been out of commission. If possible buy it through somewhere like Costco, they have an extremely generous return policy, if it stops working within 10 years of ownership , it can be returned for a full refund.
Rose says
Amazon/eBay etc often have third-party compatible batteries for all kinds of appliances. Look there.
Christine says
I love my robot vacuum. It doesn’t replace the big vacuum but does keep my house cleaner in between cleanings. It does a great job on pet hair and crumbs both of which are a constant at my house. It gets the edge of the wall by the base boards where pet hair and dust like to hang out and under cabinets and beds. You do have to watch out for cords though. I’ve had both a roomba and a shark. I liked both equally. No bells or whistles on either, just depended on price point. I bought my mom and MIL both the shark for Christmas. Kohl’s has a good BF deal with Kohl’s cash.
Maria says
We got the basic iRobot Roomba about a month ago. We have hardwood floors with area rugs. Overall it seems to do a good job. Not as good as you could do yourself but we run the Roomba more often than we would vacuum or sweep so I think my house is cleaner overall. The waste container is big enough for a full vacuum and it’s not a big deal to empty it after it’s done. We don’t have furry pets but we do have long hair and the hair wraps around the beater just like it does with our regular vacuum. There are little sweepy tentacles that help it catch things against the edges. It even vacuumed up a popcorn kernel that was in a corner under my kitchen cabinets! I don’t generally pick up my chairs or counter stools. It bumps around under the table for a while but it works just fine. It hasn’t fallen down the stairs either. It did get caught on our Christmas tree skirt and it got stuck in our small half bathroom one time. You probably shouldn’t watch it run because it does bump around the house in a crazy pattern that seems very inefficient but who cares as long as everything eventually gets vacuumed. The only real issue I have with the Roomba is that it’s louder than I would like. It’s not as loud as a regular vacuum but I’d rather not listen to it run for an hour. This wouldn’t be such a big deal as we could normally run it when we are all at work/school but with Covid we are home a lot more. Our model can be programmed to run at a certain time and you can even start it from the app. We started it from the app yesterday when realized we were all out of the house at the same time. We got ours at target. We price matched an online deal and got 5% off with our target red card.
Theresa says
Hi FG Family – We have a Roomba w/the self-emptying feature. It has cleaned our floors for the past year and I really like how the floors feel when done. Our house is all hardwood & tile with an area rug by the front door.
Pros: it eats up the dog hair; app is an easy feature & my favorite feature is setting the order/sequence of cleaning; keep out zones (like the Christmas tree!) can be added & removed; going under the furniture; sensing ability to avoid steps; self-emptying. I have not put it on a schedule as I prefer to be home in case of accidental ingestion of cords (ahem!)
Cons: it is a bit noisy; it ‘loses it’s mind’ sometimes & gets lost.
Because I prefer to make this easier on me, I put the chairs upside down on the dining room table (I cannot abide the banging around it would do while attempting to clean w/the chairs on the floor), drape lamp cords where it can’t eat them, and do some shifting of furniture before I send it off to vacuum. I would move the furniture if I were the one doing the vacuuming, so I don’t mind this task. I’ll start Mr. Butler, as we call it, on his rounds and then go get the cords etc out of the way while it’s cleaning another area. As areas are completed, I come back and set the chairs back on the floor etc. I am still amazed at how clean the floor feels and just how nice the house looks after each vacuuming session (and we’re not messy people!).
LDA says
I bought my Roomba probably close to 20 years ago when they first came out. I’m sure the features on mine are old school now, but as long as it works, that’s what matters. I did replace the battery a few years back & I just ordered a replacement parts package, both through Amazon. The replacement parts include filters & brushes for about $15. It has been more than a worthwhile investment!
Sara P says
We have a roomba and love it. I recommend you get it from Costco because of their great return policy. After 8 months the spinning thing caught caught on a shoe lace too many times to be fixed by us so I took it back, in the box I saved, to Costco just to see if they could maybe give me a new part. They let me exchange it for a née roomba!
I like it because it clean under the couches and keeps up with the dust bunnies. We are past the little toy phase at our house or else it would never work. Watch out for cords and phone charges though!
Beth says
We got a robot vacuum when we moved into a place with more carpet. I checked Consumer Reports and found that the Eufy 11+ was highly rated. It does not have some of the fancier features, like room mapping, or invisible fences. I’ve never controlled it via app. It does have powerful suction, the ability to avoid falling down stairs, and the ability to navigate very well without getting stuck on the toys my children leave lying around. Things that will defeat it: baby socks, shoelaces, thin fabric (e.g. a filmy curtain edge) and the like. But mostly it does its job very well, and brings itself back to the charging station. It can be programmed to run daily at the same time. We’ve really liked it. I got ours from Craigslist for less than $100.
Mar says
My kids bought Ecovacs Deebot for 135 on a lightening sale. Returns to charger when the battery is low, has all the typical bells and whistles. They bought that model due to its ability to handle pet fur as they have a Golden. They love it. It is very quiet. Works equally well on hardwood and carpets. They just use Alexa to tell it to run.
They use it during the week but still vacuum on weekends.
I would love to get one. Mainly for getting under beds. Under beds is where all the huge dust bunnies like to hang out.
Julie says
I have the Shark IQ robot with the fancy self emptying feature(retails for ~ 450 on amazon, I got mine for 300 or so by waiting for a sale and using a Kohls coupon). I previously had an Ilife A4. The shark does a much better job and I think is worth the money.
Pros:
It has mapping, so I can tell it to clean just one specific room, or a group of rooms. It comes with some boundary strips to put down around places you don’t want it to go, for me that’s the step into my laundry area, so far its never fallen off the edge.
The self emptying feature is great for me, I have several pets, so it empties at least twice during each cleaning, but that part probably wouldn’t be as vital for you, they do make one without it (model R101).
Cons:
I do think it makes my house feel cleaner, but it does not replace vacuuming or sweeping completely, I still get out the broom to really get along the edges under cabinets, etc. I think I vacuum my carpeted areas about half as much as prior.
Occasionally it will get tripped up over larger objects and stop. Bobby pins are notorious in my house for being the problem. I think this is a problem with most models, not specific to the ones I’ve had.
Whatever model you choose, adding on some googly eyes are a robot vac necessity!
Cindy says
I have this model too. I used a coupon and waited until it went on sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I really like it. It seems that my house is cleaner. I still have to get out the big vacuum once in awhile.
Rose says
The New York Times rates them: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-robot-vacuum/
I’m planning to get one when I move.
LoriB says
I have an iRobot and love it. Vacuuming is not my favorite job. Pros: I don’t have to vacuum; the vacuum does a good job. Cons: Slower to finish the task than typical vacuuming but it’s not hands on time so I can live with that; cleaning out the vacuum which means dumping the bin and less often cleaning out the hair that wraps around the wheels and beater bars (now that it’s routine it’s not such a bother).
I live in a split level home and the stairs are not a problem. The vacuum senses the edge and won’t go over. It is important to be sure there are not things in the way that will cause concerns such as little toys, cords, large pieces of paper. When I vacuum my kitchen I put my chairs up on the table so the vacuum can reach everything. There might still be a need for spot sweeping if those crumbs really bother you. I have been able to overcome that urge unless it’s a lot.
kristin @ going country says
“It is important to be sure there are not things in the way that will cause concerns such as little toys . . .” Yeah. Guess robotic vacuums are a no-go in this house.
Becca says
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever have a robot vacuum-friendly household…too many “little guys…”