Experience with Robot vacuums?

[wysiwyg]

I am fairly sure that irobot do versions specifically for pet hair - not sure if available in Aus though.

[anney]

thanks ladies.
L&B - yes most Roomba models say they pick up pet hair but as wysiwyg says, they have limited models available in Australia. Seems that late last year irobot roomba changed their Australian distributer to "brand developers" that a PP mentioned. They put up the price and I hope the lack of service the PP mentioned is not indicative of their service level.

[bellany]

I have a Samsung navibot. Its 2 years old and going strong. I love it but it has trouble navigating the two baby swings now in our lounge so its not getting used much right now.
We only have a cat (used to have 2) copes fine with cat hair and my hair lol

[meow]

We recently got a roomba. I bought the model with hepa filters so it picks up more fine dust and detoxes the house better. We have a cat and I can see all her hair in it- seems to work well on that front. We run it pretty much everyday as the kids are forever turning it on. I love that the floors are always clean!! I'm surprised how little I have to pick up for it to still work fine. It pushes toys like matchbox cars and thomas trains out of the way (actually cleans them out from under the beds for me!) and goes around bigger things. Anything really little like lego pieces it picks up and I just collect them out of the bin thing when emptying it.

[nothing2lose]

The Choice report that came out this week was very damning of all robot vacuums stating their cleaning power is much worse than even an average standard vacuum cleaner.

[meow]

My floor is much cleaner with a roomba compared to the regular vacuum cleaner I had sitting in the cupboard all the time because I was a) too busy and b) hate vacuuming

[Tinks]

I've been considering getting a robot vac for a while now but was worried about it not coping with dog hair so it's good to hear that they do.

How often do you have to empty them? Is it just daily or after every room?

[Mumma T]

My floor is much cleaner with a roomba compared to the regular vacuum cleaner I had sitting in the cupboard all the time because I was a) too busy and b) hate vacuuming

This is why I am considering one

[LionsandBears]

We bought an LG Roboking a few months ago for about $750. DH was reluctant but he's been converted. There are pros and cons.

cons include:

• Illogical system (to me). It goes over the floor a few times before it gets fully clean. At first I watched it and was getting frustrated at it for not being efficient. Then I realised I wasn't vacuuming, so got over myself
• holds 1.4L of dust, as opposed to our Dyson which holds heaps more.
• can miss bits and can't clean corners
• freaks out the dog, though he knows to just move away. It sometimes looks like the bot is targeting him though
• can struggle to get up on our large rug. It works out how to do it. It may just take a few times. The more expensive LG model can climb 20mm, ours can only climb 10mm
• gets tangled in the tassels of the Turkish rug
• is not as deep a clean as a normal vac with the Dyson

Pros:

• I don't have to run a vacuum around every few days. I have SPD and vacuuming one room just kills me
• even though it doesn't clean as well as a normal vac, it goes back to the dock, recharges and comes back out again to finish the clean
• we can put it on in the living/dining at night. We close the door, it cleans that area. Recharges and does it again. Wake up to a clean room
• we can put it on when we go out and come back to clean floors.
• It announces when it's stuck/lost/needs recharging.
• it can fit under the beds, so less dust under there
• we only need to vacuum properly once every week or two.
• I don't need to vac as much!