Me and my wife bought our first Robotic Floorvac awhile ago because our daughter is about to start crawling! While we try and keep our floors clean, our two dogs and cat have a different plan.
They tend to track in dirt and shed on the carpet.
Keeping up with them tends to be a chore.
We went with the Roomba 560 model as it has just about everything we would want with a product like this.
It works as advertised and we will definitely keep it, my wife couldn't live without it now, but there are some areas that I think need improvement.
Here is a quick breakdown of the pros and cons.
Pros 1.
Quieter than a standard vacuum.
2.
Seems to learn the room dimensions quickly.
The virtual walls and lighthouse feature are very nice.
3.
Can use every day to keep the floors spotless.
4.
Extremely easy to use as it is just a push of a button (or even better when you program it) 5.
Doesn't get caught in the area rug tassels.
6.
Have successfully used it on hard wood, vinyl, carpet and even on the garage floor a time or two! 7.
Cleans under furniture which use to happen infrequently.
8.
Our pug loves the thing! He chases it around and around.
It cracks us up!! Cons (Things that need to be improved) 1.
No warning that it is full.
This is the one area that would be a huge improvement.
I feel like I need to interrupt it all the time to check if it is full.
It would be great if it had some way to gauge how full it is.
3.
Reliability.
The brushes break every other month!! When we first got our Roomba we were going crazy! The thing seemed to fill up really quickly and the battery life seemed to be a bit short.
On top of that it was having troubles docking.
You too may start to have these problems when you first buy the unit but the issues seem to quickly go away.
The battery life lasts long enough to do about three rooms, and once I got the unit programmed it would just park it's self on its charging station and I never had to worry about it again.
Also, the battery life seemed to start lasting longer after about the first week.
I am not sure if the carpets were cleaner so it was working less or if it wasn't using as much energy once it was done learning? The bag life will also start to last longer.
Once you start running the Robotic Floorvac once a day or every other day like us, the bag seems to last for about the same length as the battery.
The Floorvac is able to clean about three rooms or 900 square feet without having to be emptied.
The thing that will never go away is the brushes breaking on you every other month.
My wife and I have had quite a lot of trouble with them.
They spin at such high speeds that they seem to catch on little hairs or bump furniture that it eventually will cause them to snap right off.
At first it was really irritating! I contacted iRobot to complain and to see if there was a way to resolve the issue.
They told me that there is no fix and sent me some free brushes.
Though, the brushes breaking is a pain in the neck and adds up in money I still feel the unit is worth it.
The brushes only take about five to ten minutes of my time, every other month and aren't any more expensive than I would be paying on vacuum bags for a conventional vacuum.
Plus iRobot seems to be willing to send you free brushes every time you call to complain! I felt a little guilty after the second phone call so I decided I will just buy them next time.
So even with the added cost and time, I feel that I am still saving money over a normal vacuum, and I am saving hours and hours of my time over the course of a year than if I had to vacuum myself.
Anything that can save me time and money is worth buying! (I would recommend buying the unit with extra brushes.
It is nice to have them on hand.
The brushes are always on backorder no matter where I seem to order them.
It is no fun to have your intelligent floorvac out of commission.
If you always keep a spare set then the hassle is very minor.
) Time and money are nice, but my wife and I both agree that we seem to breathe better in the house.
The house is getting vacuumed nearly four times per week now that we have this Robotic Floorvac, and even underneath furniture is getting vacuumed which use to rarely happen.
We also feel more at ease knowing our baby girl is crawling on a clean floor.
Whether there is actually that much less dust or it's in our heads, I don't know, but I do know that either way we are breathing easier.
I wanted to warn people that a robotic floorvac is wonderful, but it still does require maintenance and time.
If you are planning on buying a robotic floorvac and think that you will never have to worry, fix, empty a vacuum bag then you are mistaken.
The unit needs to be emptied, occasionally help out of a corner, and have new brushes replaced.
In the end...
My wife and I love our Roomba so much so that we have a Scooba to clean the floors and even different model of these robotic floorvacs to clean the shop.
They tend to track in dirt and shed on the carpet.
Keeping up with them tends to be a chore.
We went with the Roomba 560 model as it has just about everything we would want with a product like this.
It works as advertised and we will definitely keep it, my wife couldn't live without it now, but there are some areas that I think need improvement.
Here is a quick breakdown of the pros and cons.
Pros 1.
Quieter than a standard vacuum.
2.
Seems to learn the room dimensions quickly.
The virtual walls and lighthouse feature are very nice.
3.
Can use every day to keep the floors spotless.
4.
Extremely easy to use as it is just a push of a button (or even better when you program it) 5.
Doesn't get caught in the area rug tassels.
6.
Have successfully used it on hard wood, vinyl, carpet and even on the garage floor a time or two! 7.
Cleans under furniture which use to happen infrequently.
8.
Our pug loves the thing! He chases it around and around.
It cracks us up!! Cons (Things that need to be improved) 1.
No warning that it is full.
This is the one area that would be a huge improvement.
I feel like I need to interrupt it all the time to check if it is full.
It would be great if it had some way to gauge how full it is.
3.
Reliability.
The brushes break every other month!! When we first got our Roomba we were going crazy! The thing seemed to fill up really quickly and the battery life seemed to be a bit short.
On top of that it was having troubles docking.
You too may start to have these problems when you first buy the unit but the issues seem to quickly go away.
The battery life lasts long enough to do about three rooms, and once I got the unit programmed it would just park it's self on its charging station and I never had to worry about it again.
Also, the battery life seemed to start lasting longer after about the first week.
I am not sure if the carpets were cleaner so it was working less or if it wasn't using as much energy once it was done learning? The bag life will also start to last longer.
Once you start running the Robotic Floorvac once a day or every other day like us, the bag seems to last for about the same length as the battery.
The Floorvac is able to clean about three rooms or 900 square feet without having to be emptied.
The thing that will never go away is the brushes breaking on you every other month.
My wife and I have had quite a lot of trouble with them.
They spin at such high speeds that they seem to catch on little hairs or bump furniture that it eventually will cause them to snap right off.
At first it was really irritating! I contacted iRobot to complain and to see if there was a way to resolve the issue.
They told me that there is no fix and sent me some free brushes.
Though, the brushes breaking is a pain in the neck and adds up in money I still feel the unit is worth it.
The brushes only take about five to ten minutes of my time, every other month and aren't any more expensive than I would be paying on vacuum bags for a conventional vacuum.
Plus iRobot seems to be willing to send you free brushes every time you call to complain! I felt a little guilty after the second phone call so I decided I will just buy them next time.
So even with the added cost and time, I feel that I am still saving money over a normal vacuum, and I am saving hours and hours of my time over the course of a year than if I had to vacuum myself.
Anything that can save me time and money is worth buying! (I would recommend buying the unit with extra brushes.
It is nice to have them on hand.
The brushes are always on backorder no matter where I seem to order them.
It is no fun to have your intelligent floorvac out of commission.
If you always keep a spare set then the hassle is very minor.
) Time and money are nice, but my wife and I both agree that we seem to breathe better in the house.
The house is getting vacuumed nearly four times per week now that we have this Robotic Floorvac, and even underneath furniture is getting vacuumed which use to rarely happen.
We also feel more at ease knowing our baby girl is crawling on a clean floor.
Whether there is actually that much less dust or it's in our heads, I don't know, but I do know that either way we are breathing easier.
I wanted to warn people that a robotic floorvac is wonderful, but it still does require maintenance and time.
If you are planning on buying a robotic floorvac and think that you will never have to worry, fix, empty a vacuum bag then you are mistaken.
The unit needs to be emptied, occasionally help out of a corner, and have new brushes replaced.
In the end...
My wife and I love our Roomba so much so that we have a Scooba to clean the floors and even different model of these robotic floorvacs to clean the shop.
Source...