I am moving from about 650 sf apartment to 1600 sf. While the extra space will be nice, I am concerned about the logistics of cleaning this extra footage, especially with two cats and wife with chest length hair. They basically project a stream of hair 24 hours a day to all parts of the house.
Ok, that’s a detractment. Question is: does anyone have a Roomba or similar robot and how has it worked for you? I am particularly interested in what model to choose (if any), how often you need to manually intervene (like if it gets stuck or if you just need to empty the bag), and how it handles obstacles or transitions from floor to carpet.
I tried a roomba several years back… it was cute to watch, but it took so much supervision and opening up and cleaning filters and stuff that we ultimately gave up on it. Perhaps they’ve gotten better over the years, but I’m certainly not all that excited to go out and try one again
I second the motion on the Dyson. They are an excellent vacuum cleaner.
But if you want one that requires almost no input from you, forget the Roomba and get a Neato. A friend of mine has one, and he brought it over to my house. It worked just like advertised.
I don’t own a vacuum but I really should acquire one. My parents had a Roomba, I found it annoying and thought they are overpriced but watching how much it freaked out the cat made it worth it.
I’m sceptical about these robots. Looks too good to be true. Also, I think you need to have an impeccable apartment in the first place in order to trust one of these things to not pick up something that is valuable. Having 2 kids, there’s always legos, stickers, and what nots lying around that need careful sorting from the trash and dirt. What I’m thinking of getting is one of those wall mounted cordless vacuums that is bit of an in-between solution. http://www.dyson.com.au/store/product.asp?product=DC44-IRNKSBL For me, the hardest part (that seems insurmountable) about vacuuming is actually pulling out the hoover, unwinding the chord, and plugging it in, and the reverse to put it away. If I see dirt and I have one of these animals, it would just be a case of unholstering it from it’s mount and firing away. Cleaning becomes a series of small jobs rather a commitment to long chore.
Does anyone have a “quiet” vacuum to recommend? I do all my cleaning after the kids have gone to sleep, but my current vacuum is very loud and wakes them up every time I turn it on. I’m preferably looking for something handheld just for small cleaning jobs, and maybe cordless also.
I currently have a roomba (the pets version), it runs 3x a week automatically, and I’m always happily surprised at how much it picks up even though my hardwood floors look clean.
I find it pretty low maintenance, empty out the cartridge after each auto cleaning, give it a quick look over underneath that there’s nothing blocking the intake, and that’s about it.
on occassion, it gets stranded but it’s almost always been my fault, so you do need to make sure there are no random thin socks or thin power cable for example lying on the floor
bottom line, with animals walking around and shedding, I would absolutely recommend one of these auto vacuum’s. It will never replace a full manual cleaning by hand, and it was never meant to, but it’s pretty darn awesome keeping these in check