Is anyone here an aficionado of robot vacuum cleaners?

[Dave Gray]

Before I go deep into it on here, I have been interested in a robot vacuum cleaner for a long time, but there's a high barrier to entry and I really don't know what my needs are or what I should look out for.  Is anyone here passionate and can give me some pointers?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

They all automatically suck.  

[Spider-Dan]

I bought a Roomba from Costco about 5 years ago.  The model I got (i8) will create a map of your home the first time it runs, then you label each room and can tell it where you want it to vacuum.

It has worked... fine?  There's been a couple of times where I've had to troubleshoot it simply spinning in circles, either by rebooting, or by making a new vacuum schedule.  I did specifically get it from Costco because I wanted their lifetime warranty, and I wasn't sure how durable it would be.

[Dave Gray]

So, like....should I buy one?  Is it worth the cost?  Does it make a noticeable difference? Does it eliminate the need to vacuum for real or just serve as a stop-gap?

How does it deal with thresholds, closed doors, etc?

[Spider-Dan]

How often do you vacuum now?  Are you satisfied with the results from manual vacuuming?

On a single-pass, my Roomba isn't quite as thorough as a manual vacuum, but it's trivial to instruct it to do a second pass on high-traffic areas.  Most of my house is hard flooring where the Roomba does better.  I do make sure to turn lights on (it must be able to see to navigate) and clear the floor of obstacles before I send it on a run, and I don't even bother having it clean my office because of all the floor obstructions, but it does the rest of the house satisfactorily.  However:

1) I don't know if I would bother buying one for a multi-level home, as you would have to both carry it between floors, and have a solution (such as the manufacturer's laser barrier accessories) to keep it from tumbling down stairs.
2) I don't have kids in my house, and the performance would obviously be affected by the increased traffic.
3) I purchased the unit with the base that automatically empties the robot after each run, and I've only had to empty the base once in 5 years.  Having to manually empty the robot itself would certainly be much more annoying.

For the record, I paid $685 out the door in February 2021.  I was in the middle of (what turned out to be) an extremely expensive flooring upgrade at the time of purchase, so I wanted to "protect my investment" as it were.

[Dave Gray]

I don't really vacuum at all, as an ongoing thing.  That's part of what my wife handles, mostly.  I will spot clean if there's a dirty area I'm specifically cleaning or if I've spilled something.

But we have had a cleaning lady come through every couple of weeks and that stopped relatively recently.  I have 4 short-hair cats, plus we have a lot of in and out dirt, as well as I have kids.

So, just --- dirt, cat litter, hair...that kind of stuff.

I don't really expect this to take over entirely for traditionally vacuuming if we are cleaning, but to just maintain the day to day.

My house is one story, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that stuff will be picked up or uncluttered.  There are just too many people and too many variables for that.

[Spider-Dan]

I wouldn't expect it to, say, do a decent job vacuuming kids' rooms if there's stuff all on the floor.  They need a certain minimum amount of open space to be effective.

[CF DolFan]

We have 3 Golden Retrievers and a cat so we have to constantly vacuum. My wife has had Roomba (sometimes 2 at a time) and other brands but we have been using a Roborock daily for the last couple of years. It has easily outperformed all of the others we have had. We still have to vacuum once or twice a week but for the most part, the Roborock keeps the whole house in pretty good shape.

[Dave Gray]

I wouldn't expect it to, say, do a decent job vacuuming kids' rooms if there's stuff all on the floor.  They need a certain minimum amount of open space to be effective.

I specifically don't want it going into the kids' rooms.  Just common areas, hallways....big spaces to big up cat-hair tumbleweeds, dust/dirt in walkways, cat litter that got flung from the box.

[Fau Teixeira]

i really want the robotic lawn mower