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Roomba? Worth it?
- Thread starter SamIchi
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pianoman
macrumors 68000
depends what kind of surface on which it'll be used. in my experience, it doesn't do a great job on carpet but does decently with hard surfaces.
in the end, it was easier to vacuum a room myself than to be prohibited from it because the roomba was in there. and even when the roomba was done, it hadn't always reached every square foot; also, it doesn't do corners well since it's, ya know, round.
in the end, it was easier to vacuum a room myself than to be prohibited from it because the roomba was in there. and even when the roomba was done, it hadn't always reached every square foot; also, it doesn't do corners well since it's, ya know, round.
dmr727
macrumors G4
I own one. It does the job, but it takes quite some time to do it. My place isn't very big - it takes the Roomba about 1.5 hours to do what I can do with my regular vacuum in about 15 minutes. The Roomba also doesn't clean quite as well - it's hard to beat a good 12 amp vacuum cleaner, especially limited with battery power only!
But you can schedule it to clean when you're away, so it doesn't get in the way. And it does surprisingly well around furniture and doesn't seem to get stuck. You just have to make sure you don't have loose cords and stuff lying around.
Another cool thing is that you can just drive it around with the included remote control if you want. I've thought about mounting a tray on top so I can use it to serve drinks to guests while I'm in the kitchen. Heh!
Honestly a real vacuum is faster and better - the Roomba is more of a jee-whiz device for geeks like myself. 🙂
But you can schedule it to clean when you're away, so it doesn't get in the way. And it does surprisingly well around furniture and doesn't seem to get stuck. You just have to make sure you don't have loose cords and stuff lying around.
Another cool thing is that you can just drive it around with the included remote control if you want. I've thought about mounting a tray on top so I can use it to serve drinks to guests while I'm in the kitchen. Heh!
Honestly a real vacuum is faster and better - the Roomba is more of a jee-whiz device for geeks like myself. 🙂
They are definitely worth it if you don't have a house with a million elevations. The newest model generation has a lot of features that have matured the Roomba. I could talk about the advanced features for.. well, at least a few paragraphs.
But really the biggest benefits are that (a) it forces you to keep things picked up in order to run it, (b) in the 20-30 minutes it takes you to get out the vacuum, run it, wrap it up, and put it away, you could have gotten 20-30 minutes of other work done, (c) it cleans more thoroughly by cleaning 90% of your floor daily than you attempting to do 100% once every week or two, and (d) it is only like 3" tall and has a side brush which altogether means that it will be able to access a lot more areas than you could with a vacuum (even with a hose).
They say that they'll last 3-5 years being operated daily.
Plus, they are so fun and cute and unpredictable.. something about being autonomous and a little bit random but also methodical. I dunno. I named mine, and consider him my anti-pet; he cleans messes rather than making them! I lubs him! 🙂
But really the biggest benefits are that (a) it forces you to keep things picked up in order to run it, (b) in the 20-30 minutes it takes you to get out the vacuum, run it, wrap it up, and put it away, you could have gotten 20-30 minutes of other work done, (c) it cleans more thoroughly by cleaning 90% of your floor daily than you attempting to do 100% once every week or two, and (d) it is only like 3" tall and has a side brush which altogether means that it will be able to access a lot more areas than you could with a vacuum (even with a hose).
They say that they'll last 3-5 years being operated daily.
Plus, they are so fun and cute and unpredictable.. something about being autonomous and a little bit random but also methodical. I dunno. I named mine, and consider him my anti-pet; he cleans messes rather than making them! I lubs him! 🙂