do i want a roomba? share the good and bad

get one! we bought an iRobot 2 weeks ago and my husband and I say its the best purchase we have ever made! seriously, I never thought I would be giddy over a vacuum lol. We have 3 dogs, hardwoods and tile and I would get pet hair tumbleweeds blowing across my living room floor. Now it is so nice to come home to a perfectly clean floor.

Ours goes room to room and also came with 2 "watchtowers"... If you set the watchtower in a doorway and turn it on the machine will not enter that room

Mine was a gift. I would never have bought it, but I love it. The only issue is my dining room furniture has low rails so I have to dust mop under some of the pieces the roomba doesn't fit under. It does a much better job than I expected, even with all the dog hair. I can see it working better with a more open floor plan than we have in our old house though.

I didn't care for mine. It got stuck under furniture a lot, and the tiny cup that holds the yuck filled up way too fast to be useful.

I so want one! I keep trying to get my husband to get the company to send him one to review!

On my second one. Three dogs, low shedders and it does a great job when run and emptied daily. Unfortunately the first one met with an unfortunate demise. We had a sick dog who had a poop "accident" and the Roomba ran over and through the pile of poop. It left little tire trails of poop all over until it finally got too plugged up to run.

We don't have the vacuum, but we got the iRobot Braava which mops. I really hate mopping and this thing works great!!

Have you posted about this before? I remember this story.....

I think so, it was just so outstandingly disgusting and unforgettable. I always kind of worried this would happen. Just don't get me started on the residual smell.

Dumb questions alert...our house is open plan but split level - what about stairs, does the Roomba know to stop at the top of a step? Also, how noisy is it? Wondering if it can be run during the night without waking everyone (there's no way our 2 dogs would "allow" the Roomba to do it's stuff during the day)

Yes, it stops at the top of the stairs.  It hovers terrifyingly for a few seconds, and then turns round and goes about its business.

We found that was too noisy to use during the night, and it sets the burglar alarm off if you run it during the day when you are out.  And it scares the bejasus out of the cat.   

Oh, and it doesn't do corners.

I have one and wouldn't buy one again. To me, cleaning it every time it runs is a pain and makes its own mess (especially when you clean the rollers). Because I have a cat, I only use it when I'm at home because Roomba will close doors and kitty has gotten trapped in a bedroom with Roomba when "supervising" it. It takes me about 30 minutes to give my house a very thorough, top-to-bottom vacuum - and I'd rather do that that fool with Roomba's shenanigans.

That said, I do still use it - run Roomba 1 - 2x a week and do a big vacuum 1x a week. But I've toyed with selling it and wouldn't replace it if died.