My wife wants a Roomba or other brand robot vacuum, but has no clue which one. I have no clue either, so I figured I'd tap the collective on this.

We have a dog that doesn't shed much most of the time.

Our floors are tile, cork, wood, travertine and carpet. The non-carpeted floors have various shape rugs.

No stairs, but a sunken living room.

Do they work or are they junk? If they do work, how well? What brands and models should I be looking at?

We've had a Neato Botvac for almost 3 years. Never a problem.

Our floors are all hardwood & 1 large area rug.

Only issue we had was when it sucked up a bit of water (melted ice in the kitchen maybe) & it got a little caked up in the debris canister.

Hosed out the bin & replaced the filter. Going strong since.

Vacuums just over 1k sq ft.
On the Eco setting it'll get it done on a single charge.
Turbo mode, it has to pause to charge around 75% through the job.

With carpets, I imagine it would draw a bit more charge, but have no direct knowledge there.

Also have no info on how it deals with a ledge/stair/step.

We have 2 Ecovacs Deebot units. Have had them about 2 years. So far, so good.

Don't you first need a cat to ride on it?

And some giant googly eyes to! Cats are a no go with our dog.

How loud are these things?

Have a roomba 891, it’s pretty good however have a shedding lab so have to empty the bin sometimes a couple times during the cleaning. It’s kind of loud especially when it bumps into the coffee table, trash can etc

We watched some vids like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fed8durfb4

And ended up with the Roborock E25 for $200. Works pretty decent for the price. It does need to be maintained for optimal performance but saves time if your footprint isn't too complicated.

Roborock E35 here. Purchased last fall. We are happy with it. Next one will be higher end model. The capability to map electronic fences and create routines for specific rooms would be nice.

Check out youtube there are some good comparison videos.

After some research we went with the Roborock S4. This thing is the shit! It does very well at mapping and the app works very well. Most of the house is tile.

We’ve had a Roomba for three years and I’ve loved it.

One thing to consider is the size of the area you’ll be running it. We knew the main floor of our house would likely not be able to be done in one cycle, so selected one that remembers where it’s been and then goes back and completes the rest of the area accessible after recharging 1 or 2 or more times.

I hope I am not butting in on the OPs post but how do these robot vacuums deal with cables and wires on the floor? Behind my entertainment system I've got dozens of speaker wires and cables on the floor.

We have had 2-3 Roombas over the last 10 years and they have all performed well. Wore the first one out after 7-8 years and the 2 we have now are in different parts of the house. I did have to replace the battery in the older one recently. They keep the floors clean.

All hardwoods/tile floors with some area rugs. Long fringes on rugs could pose a problem to them.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
We’ve had a Roomba for three years and I’ve loved it.

One thing to consider is the size of the area you’ll be running it. We knew the main floor of our house would likely not be able to be done in one cycle, so selected one that remembers where it’s been and then goes back and completes the rest of the area accessible after recharging 1 or 2 or more times.

Our Neato does this as well, it maps as it goes & can pause to recharge then return to where it left off & finish the job.

quote:

Originally posted by hberttmank:
I hope I am not butting in on the OPs post but how do these robot vacuums deal with cables and wires on the floor? Behind my entertainment system I've got dozens of speaker wires and cables on the floor.

The Neato [ours is ~3yrs old] came with some magnet strips that designate restricted areas & the vac will not cross them.
I believe the newer Neato can be 'geographically' restricted via the map once it's completed a cycle or two & mapped the area.

quote:

Originally posted by hberttmank:
I hope I am not butting in on the OPs post but how do these robot vacuums deal with cables and wires on the floor? Behind my entertainment system I've got dozens of speaker wires and cables on the floor.

It's no problem. From what I gather, many of them allow you to set no go zones from an app on your phone. The video bigeinkcmo linked above shows many of them in action.

Good information so far that's helping me narrow it down.

Watch Woot for a deal, they are regularly sold there at discounts, we have a Roomba, only things we replaced after a few years was a battery, filter, brush/rollers from normal wear.

Picks up a ton of dog hair and dust, especially under furniture.

Before you make a decision, google Roomba and Dog Poop.

quote:

Originally posted by 95flhr:
Before you make a decision, google Roomba and Dog Poop.

This is why I only run it when I’ve physically gone and checked the area. My cousins dog had the squirts and his roomba spread it all over their house. I’m sure that was a nice surprise to come home to

Thanks for the links, BigSwede.

How often do you have to clean hair out of the rollers? I have to do this on a regular basis with out Miele.

We've had our dog for a year now and she has yet to have an indoor accident. She also stays in her crate when we are not home, so despite her being part Malinois, the robot should be safe.

We have two Roombas and one died of unknown reasons after six years of service and the other one is still going strong. We did have one run over poop and it was not bad because we smalls dogs. Took the Roomba apart and it was easy to clean and it still worked.