ModChick
Drama Llama
True North Strong and Free
Posts: 5,062
Jun 26, 2014 23:57:06 GMT
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Post by ModChick on Jul 18, 2015 2:36:59 GMT
I've been wondering as well. Hopefully you'll get some good advice. I just can't see it being enough with 2 shelties and 3 cats in my house. I'd want it as an in between major vacuumings as well.
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Post by padresfan619 on Jul 18, 2015 2:42:01 GMT
A family I nanny for has one. They have all wood floors throughout their home and two dogs who shed a ton. I run it through the house during nap time and it gets all of the hair up. I'm not sure how it works on carpet. And I do have to make sure to move their dining room chairs out of the way or else it gets stuck in between the legs and turns itself off.
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,478
Location: So Cal
Jun 26, 2014 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by caangel on Jul 18, 2015 3:18:26 GMT
Love ours! It is programable so goes automatically. Our dog is mostly outside so I can't comment on the hair. But it does great keeping up with the kids.
We've had it for over 2 years. Recently we replaced the battery (with an off brand from amazon about $40 I think). Good as new.
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anniebygaslight
Drama Llama
I'd love a cup of tea. #1966
Posts: 7,394
Location: Third Rock from the sun.
Jun 28, 2014 14:08:19 GMT
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Post by anniebygaslight on Jul 18, 2015 6:00:26 GMT
I had one. It broke after a year or so. It didn't do a brilliant job and one of my cats was terrified of it. Also, it set the burglar alarm off.
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Post by crazyquiltlady on Jul 18, 2015 7:57:14 GMT
We had a "Neeto", a different brand of a roomba. Worked great at first. Picked up cat fur very well and was so thorough i thought about buying a second one for the upstairs. But then took on a brain of its own. Got stuck under the couch and couldn't free itself, started vacuuming the same rooms over and over and wouldn't do other rooms, and finally would charge all night, I would send it out in the morning and after ten minutes it headed back to its base saying it needed to charge.
I liked it and would like another one, just maybe the actual roomba and not a knockoff.
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Post by justjenpeas on Jul 18, 2015 9:14:34 GMT
Yes. My husband bought for me at costco. I love it.
My favorite thing is I can turn it on and let it do its thing while I clean the house. We have mostly tile, carpet only in bedrooms and our main living room. It works amazing IMO and we have had over 3 years. I love that I can set the sensors up and basically lock it under beds to vacuum completely under.
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Post by farmdpea on Jul 18, 2015 14:06:05 GMT
I've been wondering as well. Hopefully you'll get some good advice. I just can't see it being enough with 2 shelties and 3 cats in my house. I'd want it as an in between major vacuumings as well. This is how I use mine. I've never set mine up to come on automatically (I need to do that), so I don't use it as often as I should. I still like to use the broom (especially in the corners and along the edges of rooms) before I mop. Also, be aware that it can get stuck under some furniture. My bedroom furniture is just the wrong height...it can get under it, but can get stuck, too.
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samsfitmom
New Member
Posts: 3
Jan 13, 2015 22:21:13 GMT
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Post by samsfitmom on Jul 18, 2015 14:23:28 GMT
We have one for every floor. Love them! We have carpet upstairs and wood and carpet on main floor. I have them programmed to go every day. Not only does it help with cat hair but my son has to keep his things picked up and his room clean so that Lucy and Ricky don't eat them.
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Post by Dixie Lou on Jul 18, 2015 16:08:16 GMT
We like ours for in-between sweeping and mopping. It gets up a lot of dog hair.
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Post by Kate * on Jul 18, 2015 16:57:41 GMT
Our Roomba runs almost everyday on an automatic schedule. The floors are all tile and it definitely has been useful. Maintenance is a bit more work than a regular vacuum though. You have to empty the dirt tray after every run. Every so often you have to remove and clean the rollers and cut all the hair off that gets tangled in there. Also the little spin brush, unscrew and remove hair from under it, or it quits turning. And the filter needs to be washed quite often too.
Oh, it will chew up wires for electronics so you have to keep those out of its way.
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Laura
Full Member
Ruby Slippered Pea
Posts: 139
Jun 25, 2014 19:55:02 GMT
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Post by Laura on Jul 18, 2015 18:15:54 GMT
I have a Roomba IRobot 880. We have had it for about a year now and I love it! I will tell you that it's not perfect. We bought it primarily to keep our downstairs wood and tile floors swept. We have three dogs (only one who sheds) and two cats so between their fur and the dirt they bring in from outside this thing is absolutely worth it. It's programmable so we have it set to run three mornings per week. It runs about an hour and if it doesn't get stuck somewhere it dutifully perches itself back onto it's charging dock when it's done.
It does have to be baby-sat though. If I notice it's stopped running then I'll usually go to find it stuck someplace and it's usually stuck in the same place every time so unfortunately it doesn't have a memory and doesn't learn the room. Most of the movements are random. It drives around until it bumps into something and then turns around. Sometimes it gets things stuck in the rollers (it loves cat toys and my husband's Bose headphone cords) so you have to go around and make sure you pick everything up, including water dishes because it will bump and slosh!
Because it has random movements it will miss places so it won't be perfect. This is especially true if you have a lot of space to clean. We let it do our living room, kitchen, dining nook, entry way and office and it only goes for an hour so sometimes it misses places. There are times when I will go behind it and sweep up a bit more (close to walls and in the most distant hallway) and then there are times when I just wait until the next time it goes. Sometimes I let it charge up and push the button to send it out again. You will be amazed at how much this little thing picks up. I empty the hopper every time it gets done and I pull a large chunk of fur out and then dump a bunch of dirt out of it. Every time I empty it I'm amazed and I'm thankful that this is a task that I don't have to do myself. My floors stay much cleaner having this thing than if we didn't have one and I was trying to do it myself.
One thing that I didn't know when I first got it was the importance of cleaning out the wheels. There are the two big wheels that drive the thing around and the bar rollers underneath that sweep up the stuff on the floor as well as a brush on the side that sweeps the dirt into the underside so the bar rollers can pick it up. All of these rollers need to be kept free of hair and long objects. My daughter and I both have long hair so I have to make sure that the rollers are free from hair. Once, before I knew to do this, I found a big wad of hair wrapped tightly around the middle of the roller and it had cut into the rubber of the roller which is pretty soft. The sliced rubber doesn't seem to affect the functionality of the machine but now that I know that can happen I make sure to pull the hair off each time it makes a cleaning trip around the house. You also need to pull the hair out of the ends of the rollers and occasionally you need to unscrew the yellow side brush to pull out the hair that might accumulate under that brush as well. This is what I mean by babysitting. You have to keep the rollers clean and free of obstructions and you have to make sure it doesn't get stuck anywhere. One time our daughter called my husband at work to tell him that there was this horrible smell coming from our guest bathroom. When we got home we found out that apparently one of our dogs had pooped in the bathroom and the Roomba had driven itself into the bathroom and proceeded to track poop all over the bathroom! What a nightmare! Thankfully I have a handy and resourceful and thoughtful husband who cleaned up all that mess!
Having a Roomba IRobot can mean some maintenance and prevention but it's worth it in the end. If my Roomba died I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one in a heartbeat even as expensive as they are. Try to buy one of the top of the line ones, they are newer and have better technology and produce better cleaning results. I hope you will love yours as much as I love mine!
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 18, 2015 18:38:58 GMT
I would like ours more if we had fewer shedding pets. The container bin that holds the debris and hair that gets sucked up is pretty small, and with multiple pets it gets full really fast. To be fair, the Dyson has to be dumped five times for each level of the house due to all the shedding, and I wouldn't expect the Roomba to compete with that. But for what it is, it does a decent job of vacuuming (even on carpet). Ours gets stuck under the couch if I let it go under there, so I've just started blocking that area off with a rolled up rug.
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Laura
Full Member
Ruby Slippered Pea
Posts: 139
Jun 25, 2014 19:55:02 GMT
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Post by Laura on Jul 19, 2015 1:34:12 GMT
I'm glad to know you're getting one Clara. You won't regret it.
Which model did you end up getting?
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Post by femalebusiness on Jul 19, 2015 2:56:18 GMT
Yes. My husband bought for me at costco. I love it. My favorite thing is I can turn it on and let it do its thing while I clean the house. We have mostly tile, carpet only in bedrooms and our main living room. It works amazing IMO and we have had over 3 years. I love that I can set the sensors up and basically lock it under beds to vacuum completely under. Ohhh, it would be worth it if all it did is vacuum under the beds. I hate the dust under the beds. I'm going to have to check into that.
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Post by AN on Jul 19, 2015 3:01:55 GMT
I had one and sold it, it was almost as much hassle to clean out the rollers as it was to just vacuum. But I hear they have maybe gotten better since then, and I only have one cat so it isn't intense daily vacuuming.
I had to run it when I was home because it would shut doors in the house (trying to go behind the door) and since the cat followed it around monitoring, he would get stuck in the room with no access to food/water/litterbox.
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Post by librarylady on Jul 20, 2015 16:34:20 GMT
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