Experience with Robot vacuums?

I have timber floors that seem to exist in a perpetual state of "dusty". I am looking into those robot vacuums (the little round ones that vacuum by themselves).
There seems to be a variety on the market- has anyone had any experience with these and would like to share their thrills and spills?
I am interested in the results across the price ranges- the one I am looking at is about $600, but a friend suggested that the cheaper ones do a similar job..... I don't want to buy cheap if it means I am throwing it out (or across the room) in a couple of months.....
thanks in advance.

No but the robot chicken is pretty good. :p

My parents have one. As far as i'm aware they haven't had any problems. and theirs goes from carpet to slate and back again without any issues. they just keep him docked, and then every now and again let him loose in a room and all done. It also knows to go back to the dock by its self if it is low on battery, and you can tell it different patterns to do or let it work out its own pattern. The only problem is they have chairs that have legs that go along the ground (itms), like a metal bar about an inch high that the poor little thing gets stuck on cause he tries to go over them... but just means mum puts the chairs out of the way when he does that room.

I ordered one from MSN shopping a couple of days ago, $160 including postage, usually about $350. Cute little red number, I think he's called a 'Beebot'. Haven't received him yet but I'll let you know how he goes. I have floorboards and carpet in the bedrooms, apparently Beebot will put himself back in the dock when he is tired...

our neighbours have one and love it so much they have named it, and treat it like a family member hahahaha!

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our neighbours have one and love it so much they have named it, and treat it like a family member hahahaha!

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yea... my parents have named theirs, its like a replacement dog for them.. (seen as the family dog passed away a year or so ago)

We loooove Roomba! I haven't been able to lift for ages so DH got me one. We have floating floors and he's great. Probably not as good as I could do with the big vacuum, but good enough that the dust doesn't give me stress. Picks up all the kids leftovers too. He tells me when he's stuck/full/needs to be recharged.

I googled the cheaper models reviews and that was enough to stop me going with the cheaper ones. We got ours for under $400 in a Harvey Norman sale though (down from $600).

lol I dont know if its the same for everyone...but the add at the top of the page for this thread is for a robot vacuum. =)

Lol... Robomaid, only $399!!

There is 1today on spreets deal that is a vacum and mop in 1, tempted to get it!

Issue is I need to have floor clear of toys for it to be able to work LOL

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We loooove Roomba! I haven't been able to lift for ages so DH got me one. We have floating floors and he's great. Probably not as good as I could do with the big vacuum, but good enough that the dust doesn't give me stress. Picks up all the kids leftovers too. He tells me when he's stuck/full/needs to be recharged.

I googled the cheaper models reviews and that was enough to stop me going with the cheaper ones. We got ours for under $400 in a Harvey Norman sale though (down from $600).

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This!!! Love our 'robie'. Agree that once a fortnight you still need to give it a proper vacuum but I love cleaning a room, sticking the robie in there and closing the door. By the time it's finished the next room is clean and waiting to be vacuumed :)

Wouldn't be without ours now! Even hubby likes it despite his original opposition!

Just bumping this as looking at buying one. Online discussion groups seem to say they need replacing every 2 years or so. . So perhaps not worth spending a lot. But I have a friend that has had an irobot for 6 years and when her kids were little she used it every day and it is still going strong. Is everyone's still going strong?

I have an irobot Roomba - have had for probably 4 years - I needed a new battery because I left it out of the charger for too long and that cost me about $50 - but otherwise still going strong. My parents also have one and have had for maybe 6 years - I think have also needed a new battery but still going strong. They also have the floor washing one. Quite a few family members have got Roomba's and none have had problems. I think I paid $450 from HN four years ago - it was the model about to be replaced, and often they go cheap when a new model is being brought out.

How do these machines go with animal hair? Our dog drops lots of hair & I'd prefer to vac everyday but it's a PITA. We bought a Dyson Animal about 10 months ago and it's starting to flounder, but it is good at removing dog hair.

I don't have animal hair sorry.

I have had issue with the company that makes roomba though. I don;t know that I'd buy another. They're managed here by a company called Brand Developers who are never available when you call and never return your phone calls.
DS spilt water on mine, and while it turns on, it needs a new motherboard. I'm not keen to ship my exxie vacuum thousands of kms for repair when they can't even return my phone calls.

I got a robomaid cause I have 2 indoor cats and was sick of vacuuming all the time and I love it. Picks up everything great, has virtual walls you can get to stop it going into certain rooms. The only thing I found was I have a cat play gym and the bottom is only about 1cm thick and it runs up it and gets stuck so I put another board under it and now it's fine.
It's quite funny watching the cats freak out when it comes out of its dock randomly to vacuum lol.
I agree that you do need to do a full vacuum every couple of weeks to get into all the corners but its great for keeping floors clean everyday. I didn't think it would work as good as it does, I have a power head Dyson and thought I would really notice a difference but its up there with it.
I suggest you get a good one, one you can set and docks itself cause its annoying if u r watching tv and its on. I set mine for when I am at work.
Good luck in deciding, best investment I made.

Ha ha. I have the robomaid banner at the top of my page too. I tried one years ago and it did a terrible job! I mighth ave to think about it again though. Do you know how they go picking up birdseed?

I have an iRobot Roomba and its awesome. use it for between vacuuming days. I have 2 inside border collies so it picks up most of the fur. I do find I have to clean the brush head a bit tho. I need a new battery for it now too. its 3 years old.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 ;)

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?

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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 ;)

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This is why I am considering one

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! :)