Do you have a Roomba vacuum cleaner? If so, what are the pros and cons of using one?

We’ve owned a Roomba of one shape or another for almost twenty years, currently have an I7 Roomba.
It does the floor in several rooms and hallways, 3 times a week. Dog fur is no longer an issue,

^^^^ Do you run it at night when you’re sleeping? I’d be afraid of tripping over the sneaky little sucker.

I don’t have one, but I know two people who have Roombas and they love it.

We run it in the morning 3 days at 9 week. Runs until 2 PM some days.

Is it noisy?

I looked into getting one a few years ago. The best price I could find after researching was at Kohls when they have the 30% off coupon on top of a sale. I researched reviews and I decided not to buy one. I have a sunken living room (steps down) and I would have to buy a beam thing that prevents the Roomba from going into the living room, because if would fall down the step, and other rooms where i didn’t want it to go, I’d have to buy the beam for that, too. The beam was about 80 dollars at the time, for each one, so when I added that to the cost of the Roomba it wasn’t a good total. I think I also didn’t like the idea of a thing running independently, possibly getting stuck somewhere and just whirring and whirring and getting hot, possibly blowing the motor.

Roombas are a combination taxi service and amusement park ride for small pets.

We have 2. They’re fantastic for generally keeping the dog hair and dust under control, but you will have to do normal vacuuming also from time-to-time. Imagine having a ghost do a 7/10 vacuuming job every day and then you’d occasionally have to give it a proper 9/10 vacuuming once in a while. It’d be much cleaner at any given moment than a house only doing the weekly vacuuming—especially if you have a pet. Cons are that it can get stuck on wires, coords from blinds, curtains that are too long and touch the floor, etc. Its suction is mediocre. But it manages to fill up the dustbin compartment and we’d otherwise be breathing that stuff, so it’s most certainly helping out.

@jca2 Roomba has a built in step barrier – - “All robot vacuums, including the Roomba model, have built-in cliff and proximity sensors. These cliff sensors can detect steep slopes and drop-off points, preventing the robot vacuum from rolling down the stairs or off the cliff.” – - https://smarthomeways.com/will-roomba-fall-down-stairs/

Can you trip over it?

@Dutchess_III yes you can, but just plant your feet and they will bump into you and re-direct themselves.

@Tropical_Willie I googled it to see what it was, and it’s called a “laser wall barrier.” Here they are on Amazon. Not sure if the ones you’re talking about still require it.

https://www.amazon.com/roomba-barrier/s?k=roomba+barrier

This is a serious comment; how often do you need to vacuum that you need a roomba? I live alone and my house gets vacuumed twice a month unless there is visible dirt or sometimes if company is coming over. The floors just do not get that dirty.

@janbb I have cats and I think if someone has pets or kids, or both, there’s way more dust and dirt than a single person can churn up.

@jca2 I agree.

@janbb three times a week with a dog that sheds (German Shepard/Black Lab mix) !

@jca2 The walls come with the Roomba. the vacuum unit has the “cliff sensor” built-in under the skirt, no additional equipment needed. My wife uses an older one for the upstairs, it stops at the edge of the top stair, it turns around . . . no trips from second floor to first !

@janbb ”...how often do you need to vacuum that you need a roomba?”

I bought my parents a Roomba years ago. They keep it on the 2nd floor. They spend most of their time on the first floor though. It Roomba’s multiple times per week (even though it’s very clean looking) and the dust bin is always full. I think houses accumulate dust very quickly.

My SIL’s mom passed away and she had a brand new Roomba still in the box. Since they don’t have carpet, they gave it to me.

That’s a nice thing to receive, @chyna!

I have two; one upstairs and one downstairs. There are no cons as far as I’m concerned. They are wonderful and I never have dust under furniture (especially the bed).

Is it noisy?

@Jeruba “Is it noisy?”

I think different models have different levels of noise. I generally set ours to clean when we’re out of the house. It’s moderately noisy. If you’re in a different room with the door closed, you can still hear it running, but I’ve certainly heard louder vacuums before.

It’s good to vacuum once a week, because dust and dirt ruins the carpet fibers. I admit when I had a large house with some rooms that I didn’t enter for weeks sometimes, those room I vacuumed only once or twice a month.

Pros :

It can fill in for you during those Sunday ( or Wednesday, or Friday ) morning hangovers.

Cons :

I think it may have an undisclosed AI link, and is sending my nude pix to nearby Chinese balloons.

Seriously, overall okay & very convenient. But can’t really deep clean, and will choke on some things… like hair.

^And hair is a problem at my house.

My biggest problem is we use Talc powder which collects in the bin and blocks the sensors that are used to automatically empty into the tower . . . .

I have to manually empty the bin and clean the inside of the bin with a tissue four times a week, we run ours Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Dog fur is NOT a problem.

I’ve been using one model or another for the last 20 years. They can pick up about 80–90% of the dog hair (if you have a dog that sheds all the time). That leaves 10–20% for you to collect by broom. You have to spend time emptying it out but at least it’s all in one place. The timer is nice. It’s a bit noisy but I set it to run when we are showering in the morning, so we don’t really hear it.