Robot Vacuum Cleaners...

[JaxDad]

I've been battling a shedding dog for control of my floors, and he's winning! Big time!

Who has a robot vacuum cleaner? What make AND model? Do you recommend it?

Thanks in advance!

ETA: If it helps, my floors are hardwood with just a couple low-pile area rugs.

 

[puffkin]

I have a Roomba, we call her Susie. One of the lower end models and not a pet specific one. I run it a few times a week and it does an ok job. Definitely doesn't replace regular vacuuming but it definitely helps us "keep up". Our issues are more with crumbs than pet hair. We have tile and carpet and it doesn't have issues transitioning between the two. It does like to get stuck under my one sofa though. You also have to keep your floors free of clutter. Its a great motivator for my kids to clean up or Susie will suck up their stuff!

I do love my Dyson V6 Motorhead stick vac though (cordless). I use that almost every day in my kitchen. Does a great job and is quick. I do a full vacuum once a week, run Susie twice a week and spot clean daily with the stick vac and my floors for the most part look great with very little effort.

 

[mjkacmom]

I love my roomba, and she has replaced regular vacuuming. I run her at least once a day, if not twice a day - wish she'd do stairs! I hate dirt on my floor, plus we have a dog. I'm very diligent about cleaning the brushes and filter, and have replaced parts (not expensive).

If she broke, I'd be on the way to the store to get a replacement.

 

[tvguy]

We have an irobot, it grooms the carpet nicely. I never would have bought it on my own. My mom, out of Christmas gift ideas, bought it for us. But she later confessed she did so just because she wanted to see how our cat would react to it.

 

[RedAngie]

We have an irobot, it grooms the carpet nicely. I never would have bought it on my own. My mom, out of Christmas gift ideas, bought it for us. But she later confessed she did so just because she wanted to see how our cat would react to it.

I'm tempted to buy a Roomba just so my cat could ride it.

 

[WDWBarb]

I got a Roomba for Christmas and I was like, "Wha?" I have three dogs and a Dyson that I run several times a week and I wasn't even going to bother unboxing the dang thing. I knew it wouldn't stand up to my fur problem. But my daughter insisted that I try it (she was geeked to see a Roomba in action) so I caved. And since it has such a small "canister" (hard to call it that, but that place where the dirt and hair are sucked into), I swept with the Dyson first to make sure it didn't fill up too fast. I was very surprised at how well it worked! In fact, it picked up a LOT more off my carpets that the Dyson missed. Bonus - it gets under the bed It also has this little sweeping arm thing that gets under furniture. So I ended up loving it The secret is running it often so it doesn't have a ton to pick up and if it does miss spots here are there, it will most likely catch them next time.

So if it did break, I would go get another. The one I have is one of the pet models.

 

[mjkacmom]

I got a Roomba for Christmas and I was like, "Wha?" I have three dogs and a Dyson that I run several times a week and I wasn't even going to bother unboxing the dang thing. I knew it wouldn't stand up to my fur problem. But my daughter insisted that I try it (she was geeked to see a Roomba in action) so I caved. And since it has such a small "canister" (hard to call it that, but that place where the dirt and hair are sucked into), I swept with the Dyson first to make sure it didn't fill up too fast. I was very surprised at how well it worked! In fact, it picked up a LOT more off my carpets that the Dyson missed. Bonus - it gets under the bed It also has this little sweeping arm thing that gets under furniture. So I ended up loving it The secret is running it often so it doesn't have a ton to pick up and if it does miss spots here are there, it will most likely catch them next time.

So if it did break, I would go get another. The one I have is one of the pet models.

Lol when my mom got sick she reluctantly asked to borrow roomba. She and my dad are neat freaks, but found out they were living in a fools paradise when roomba got under all of their furniture and needed to be emptied. The rug under my dining room table has never been this clean - this machine loves to go in and around chair legs!

 

[dotfurio]

I have a Roomba- the pet hair model. We have tile floors and it's been amazing!

 

[MomofKatie]

We have 2 Neato BotVac D85s (Consumer Reports rated them best for picking up pet hair)- one for downstairs and one for upstairs. Our downstairs is all laminate with 2 low pile area rugs, and the upstairs is part laminate, part wall to wall carpeting.

They both do an outstanding job! We run them every day, and they have completely replaced our Dyson. They are great for pet hair- we have 3 cats and there are no more dust bunnies around at all. We replace the filters once a month, and we get replacements from Amazon for a great price (they are a generic brand).

 

[cijay]

I like the youtube where the cat rides by the dog and slaps it.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

We have a Bobsweep and love it. I was amazed at what it could pull up. Works great on our wood floors and low nap carpet. We have thicker carpet as well but it drains the battery too fast. I highly recommend it.

 

[aaarcher86]

We have a Bobsweep but they're sending us a Bobi since ours was faulty. When it was working it was the poo though. I vacuum every day thanks to our shepherd and this thing helped a ton.

We run it overnight while everyone is in bed.

 

[Jenheartsdisney]

We have a roomba, just a basic model from a few years ago.

We have it programmed to run daily and it does a great job picking up after our terrier and keeping on top of muddy feet on the carpet. It would definitely get replaced if it broken

 

[DawnM]

I had a Neeto. It worked very well, but I had a hard time using it because you have to pick things up before it starts......my lousy housekeeping skills (or desire) kept us from really using it. I sold it to a friend who is a better housekeeper than I am and it is being used daily.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Did someone mention robots that vacuum?

 

[Pakey]

I have the pet Roomba. I have two hairless dogs and my boyfriend has a black Labrador that sheds 3000 lbs of hair daily. I also have the pet Dyson. We have wood floors with one large area rug downstairs (I don't take the Roomba upstairs). At first, the Roomba wasn't able to manage the dog hair--I would have to dump the tiny canister about halfway through cleaning. But now, my little friend has gotten all of the little corners, under furniture areas that the Dyson had been missing and it's able to make a full cycle without being dumped. The lab is terrified of the little robot so I have it scheduled to run in the middle of the night when we are all upstairs sleeping. It runs every night and I dump it in the morning so that it's ready to go again.

I don't know how I lived without it. Disclaimer: I do not have a lot of clutter. Or kids at home. I don't have to pick up anything in order for it to have full access. I do try to remember to move one of my kitchen chairs away from the table so that the little guy has easy access--on occasion, he's wasted a lot of time stuck under the table between the 4 chairs.

 

[JaxDad]

Thanks to everyone who has responded thus far!

I am a little surprised that there aren't more critical reviews of specific makes/models. No matter what make/model people have, they seem to be generally pleased with them. This is somewhat true on the Amazon reviews too, although some are definitely higher rated than others. I always see Bobsweep Groupons and have wondered if it was worth the splurge...

 

[SMD]

I have the pet and allergy Neato. It works well enough with the function that cleans a rectangle if I keep moving it to the spots that need to be cleaned. But it doesn't reach baseboards because of it's own case, so you still have to vacuum those and around the edges of furniture. The reservoir is tiny and it gets tricked into being "full" by carpet fuzz or hair touching the top. And you have to set up barriers around stairs, flooring it can't handle, or anything it gets caught on. Mine can't handle the transition from carpet to tile because my carpet pile is too high. I'd love to set it and forget it, but it needs too much babysitting, even after I set up the barriers. And it's much louder than any other vacuum I've had. It was kind of fun in the beginning, but it's faster to just use the canister for me. I have to remove the whole area rug in the den to use it, or set up a barrier around the edge. Whereas with the canister I vacuum it, fold it in half, vacuum under one side, then the other in a fraction of the time. If you have a large open space without a lot of furniture it would probably work well, but for me, the ways it does work aren't worth the cost.

 

[dhardawa]

I have a Roomba 870 and three cats. I love it!!!

 

[design_mom]

I'll be the critical review. We had one, and I liked it when it worked, but it had it's drawbacks.

Mine is several years old and is the "Pet Series" Roomba but I can't find the box right now to tell what the exact model number is.

1) It did a good job (especially along the baseboards) as long as it was confined to a small enough area (one or two rooms). It comes with 2 'beacons' that you can use to form a virtual gate to limit how far it roams. However, our main floor has a very open floor plan and I really needed about 6 of those beacons. So we had an elaborate system of baby gates, kitchen chairs laid on their side, etc. to keep it contained. If it goes all over the house, it runs out of juice before it does a good job.

2) Even though ours is the pet series, we had to clean the brushes often or it would give an error message "Error! Please clean brushes." I have meticulously cleaned the bushes and now it will run for about 2 minutes before I get the "Error! Please clean brushes." message again. I am not sure if REPLACING the brushes would help or not. I hate to spend the money on replacement brushes if it won't. The current brushes ARE clean. I have really stopped using it for that reason. It is way easier just to vacuum than mess with it anymore.

3) It did a great job going under most furniture but our family room couch is just the right height that it would get wedged underneath it... and we have a chair that has a flat part against the floor that Roomba would drive over, but would sometimes get maroon on top of like a ship on a sand bar. If this happened, you had to rescue Roomba, or he would just quit and sit there. Sometimes he wouldn't get stuck at all, but sometimes he got stuck every 30 seconds. It just depends on how it chooses to go. (I could never figure out any pattern. It really seems like it goes till it hits something, turns, and goes till it hits something again -- very random... which is why you need to have it in a relatively small space so it randomly covers all areas. If it's too big of an area, it might clean one corner a LOT but never find its way into another corner.)