By Solarx.110mb

This iRobot is just too cool. Putting aside the coolness factor, it is also a serious vacuum. Wife says it vacuums better than the big upright Eureka we have. I agree, and am very surprised because we have really thick and hard to vacuum carpet that only good vacuums can handle. When we built our home we made a mistake and installed dark red carpet which looks like you didn't vacuum after 24 hours. Now with this iRobot, we can run it every day and the carpet always looks perfect. It also goes from carpet to tile and back to carpet with no problem.
All I wish is that the company will design an iRobot that will do staircases someday.
You need to empty the dust bin after each use, but it is so easy to take out and empty. It takes about a minute. Then every week or twice a week check the brushes to make sure there is no hair on them, another minute. It is much easier to clean than a regular vacuum, plus you don't have to mess with any bags.
After you run it once or twice you figure out how to set everything up in the rooms so it goes nice and smooth. It runs for about an hour and always makes it back to the charging dock by itself, even when going to the other end of the house.
Baby just loves watching it go by itself. She calls it puppy.
This iRobot is definitely worth every penny if you can afford it.
I forgot to mention it is very efficient also. When charging it uses 30 watts, and usually takes an hour to charge. So it ends up costing less than half a penny for each time you let it run. When fully charged in stand by it is using 4 watts. I keep it unplugged, then plug it in a few minutes before I want to start it. I tested this with a Kill-A-Watt tester.

By Jen G "Mommy of boys"

I am a mom with three small children, another due soon, and a small dog. And a nice-sized house. A potentially dangerous combination! It is hard to keep up with all of the stuff that various people track in, drop, and find. So we tried this Roomba one year ago. We affectionately refer to the machine as Bot.

Bot is such a big help and allows me to keep something in this house relatively clean--on the floors at least. It does both carpeted and wood floors, so it means much less sweeping, and since we only have 2 rooms of carpet, we only have a hand vac in addition to Bot. It hasn't been a problem for the past year, and we are happy with what the combination does.

The corners that Bot doesn't get isn't a big deal at all to me. I sweep out the edges of the corners every now and then in a few places where it's tight, but there is a spinning brush that gets into the less tight corners pretty well. I haven't been bothered much at all by it. He doesn't fall down the stairs, but he doesn't sweep them either, so I have to do that--again, not a big deal (and not something I was expecting), but just more general things you'll still have to do.

I love the scheduling function. I set it to go off a 1 AM every day on our main floor, and then do a quick review of the floor to get anything that might get him stuck off the ground (blankets, socks, washcloths, etc.) He does his thing in the dark of the night and returns to his charger so he's ready for more work when we get up. I wake up in the morning to swept floors and empty him out before I take him to do his work for the day. We have a general schedule that gets bedrooms done once a week and the playroom and family room done twice a week, and then the main floor is every day. Plus if I leave the house, I often set him to go while we're gone just because I'm amazed with the dust and dirt he finds every night! He might miss a spot sometimes, but he'll get it the next time, so it works out well. The virtual walls keep him away from where he shouldn't go. He has a dirt sensor to hit the dirtier parts for longer. The first few times I ran him here, he filled up pretty quickly, especially on carpet. Now he can bot til he drops and then I'll empty him out. He's got an air filter, too, and the brushes and filters are easy to replace when needed.

It is a little loud, probably comparable to a regular vacuum cleaner. But we don't wake up from him doing his thing at night, and during the day, we just plan around anything that needs to be done. He's taking care of my room as I type this now!

I'm not sure how long these little machines should last, but Bot seems to be fine after a year despite daily use (often more than once since I run him every night and then usually one or two rooms most days.) And Bot has been ridden on and well loved by the small people in our house--although we try to keep him above the fray. He is even the star of my kids' Rescue Bot stories!

We did have a problem with it a while ago--the brushes stopped turning reliably. I contacted customer service via e-mail (within the 1 year warranty) and they had me try some things, and then sent me out the easy-to-replace part within a few days. The battery was damaged because of how hard it was working to get those brushes going, and after replacing the part, was still running for only about 30 minutes (should be 90). They sent me out a replacement battery and something to update the software--all at no cost to me. Very easy and customer service was great.

Other than that one issue--caused by repeated things getting stuck over the course of the past year, usually socks pulled from under the couch, I think-- we've had no problems. It has been well worth the cost, and if something goes wrong, we will absolutely buy another. They do go on sale periodically, and we find it well worth the price!

We LOVE our Bot!