Get the pet specific one if the dog sheds a lot. I love mine, but cleaning out the brushes every single time it runs is a pain.
That's kinda why I'm asking. If it's just a matter of enptying it every day, then I'm willing to spend the hundreds of dollars. But if I have to sit on the floor and pick dog hair out of it for 10 minutes every day, then I might as well just use my normal vacuum.
That's kinda why I'm asking. If it's just a matter of enptying it every day, then I'm willing to spend the hundreds of dollars. But if I have to sit on the floor and pick dog hair out of it for 10 minutes every day, then I might as well just use my normal vacuum.
It can become a bit of a pain to have to clean it out after every use, but they do provide the tools to clean out the brushes so it's not too bad. The brushes themselves aren't too bad to clean out, it's getting the hair out of the ends that is the real pain (hairs wrap around where the bearings slide on and off, tweezers work best to get these hairs out).
On another note, the one tool that comes with the Roomba is useful for cleaning out the brush in my Dyson after every use (the blade style one that cuts through hairs on the brush). Keeping the brush clean for each use helps get the carpet cleaner.
Last edited by Cuz; 12-14-2013 at 01:24 PM.
Reason: Added info
That's kinda why I'm asking. If it's just a matter of enptying it every day, then I'm willing to spend the hundreds of dollars. But if I have to sit on the floor and pick dog hair out of it for 10 minutes every day, then I might as well just use my normal vacuum.
Had/Have one, i've resorted to vacuuming by hand now, its pretty annoying as the layout of my house results in some banging and crashing and getting stuck under some furniture. I'm pretty picky when it comes to cleaning so the fact that it randomly goes where ever with the chance of missing something annoys the hell out of me. If you can sit back and say "meh it'll get those crumbs over there eventually" then the roomba is for you. It's not for me
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Had/Have one, i've resorted to vacuuming by hand now, its pretty annoying as the layout of my house results in some banging and crashing and getting stuck under some furniture. I'm pretty picky when it comes to cleaning so the fact that it randomly goes where ever with the chance of missing something annoys the hell out of me. If you can sit back and say "meh it'll get those crumbs over there eventually" then the roomba is for you. It's not for me
Yeah, it can be pretty frustrating watching it vacuum over the same area over and over until it eventually gets to the area it hasn't done yet.
Pet hair, one of the reasons I haven't got a dog or a cat anymore. Not that I got rid of my last little buddy but since his departure from this life, he hasn't been replaced.
Mine was great for pet hair and I cleaned it every other day. However, most people don't know how much hair can get trapped beyond the brushes. I took it apart once and was surprised how much clogged things up. Apparently this can lead to premature failure. Mine is the pet series as well.
On another note, there is a bit of a mod community for these things.They involve things from improving stock gears and bushings to controlling them with your cell phone.
A roomba will not replace a vacuum for carpets at least (cant speak to other floors). It does a terrible job against baseboards so much so that after about 18 months you will will have a noticeable darker carpet next to the baseboards. If you use it with carpet make sure to use a handvac or hand attachment from a vac to clean the edges of the baseboards.
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Neato VAC from Costco is awesome. Get the pet hair attachment (I have a yellow lab).
I second this.
We have a Neato and it's great. Originally ordered the Roomba from Costco, but with it's simplistic bump-n-turn navigation, it was useless and I exchanged it for the Neato.
We have 2 dogs and a cat, and after adding the pet hair kit it does a great job. Coming home to a hair free floor is a nice thing, even if they do re-hair it in no time.
I'm having to replace the batteries in my Neato a little over a year after purchase, but from what I've read this is a common thing with them.
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My roomba broke after about a year. And it wasn't great with dog hair. It basically only replaced basic kitchen floor sweeping and even then, I didn't find it did a very good job. Not worth it IMO.
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I like my Neato too, but it seems some days it just loses its marbles. I have it run each weekday, and I'd say 3 out of 5, it will go through my whole place and return to its base without an issue. 1 out of 5, it will get stuck on something and I'll have to free it when I get home from work. The other 1 out of 5, it just has no idea what's going on and finds itself lost in the middle of the floor or can't find its way back. It's actually kind of hilarious.
I like my Neato too, but it seems some days it just loses its marbles. I have it run each weekday, and I'd say 3 out of 5, it will go through my whole place and return to its base without an issue. 1 out of 5, it will get stuck on something and I'll have to free it when I get home from work. The other 1 out of 5, it just has no idea what's going on and finds itself lost in the middle of the floor or can't find its way back. It's actually kind of hilarious.
Yeah, stuck on a random thing is game it always plays. The kids looks for the Neato when they get home, it's like a game of hide and seek some times.
Our batteries are totally shot now though which causes it to act stupid and be pretty much useless until the new batteries arrive. It'll wake up on schedule, start vaccuming, but then ramdomly die in the middle of the floor like it doesn't even have enough juice to return home.
The other thing is to make sure you have the latest firmware for it. They improved the corner cleaning somewhat in one of the recent updates.
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I had one... they are great for the maintenace of your floors, but it doesn't mean you'll never have to vacuum properly again... its just a way to kind of keep up the appearence before your next full vacuuming job. For hairy pets it really can make a difference.
2 negatives for me, the latter being the reason I no longer have one.
1 - cleaning them is a bit of a pain and if you have carpet/animal hair the bin gets full fast. (pretty much every use)
2 - they were using NiCad batteris... I think they use NiMH now, but either way they both build up a memory and become useless in <1 year, even if you schedule it to run daily and have a charging station, the more than two decade old battery technology in a "futuristic Robot" is pretty brutal and I found it meant basically an $80-100 dollar per year maintenance fee (including buying new brushes etc...) Given they have these auto recharging stations it seems to me battery life (as in years it lasts) beats running time per clean. So for me until they switch to a battery technology newer than the 90s I'll not be buying another one.
Roomba Vacuums
