Comments on: Sucking it up with the new Roomba

Cats and spare change, take notice: there's a new Roomba in town.
Photos: iRobot's new 'robust' Roomba
Video: New Roomba put to the test

[aaroberts]

Maybe it terrorizes YOUR cat...

Mine just finds it mildly annoying and doesn't like being bumped. Then again she doesn't like being bumped by me either.

[AndrewRich]

Same, pretty much

Our cats basically ignore it, which is really surprising considering how quickly they disappear when we roll out the Dyson.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

My cats play with it...

Two of them will deliberately lay in it's path and then try to grab the small brush which comes out on one side. My third (oldest) cat just ignores it now though she was scared by it the first few times it ran.

[inachu]

This is awsome!

Maybe I'll buy one and just put it in the parking lot and scare the cats away from my car.

[menty666]

Sorry, cat friendly

I have both a Roomba (sage) and a Scooba and like them both. My house has seen a massive reduction in pet hair tumbleweeds from using them on a a regular basis. My two cats? They sit on the couch out of harms way and watch until they fall asleep.

[GGGlen]

Mmmm, cats.

Is there a way to reprogram the Roomba?
If you could include "Cat Detection/Cat Attack" circuitry, I'd buy 1
for Christmas.
2, if they disposed of the evidence.

;-)

[nrhinela]

Love the roomba

Good review.

I have had one for about a year, and just love it. ( I had last year version) I had to install an os patch and new brushes, but that's it.

One of the big benefits is the low profile allows it to clean under couches, tables, etc....things that otherwise would wait for a major cleaning. We definitely notice a difference.

When mine gives out I will look forward to the next version. However, the old one works well enough that I am not tempted to upgrade based on the incremental improvements.

[areiku]

Vacuum cleaner - said it all

Cleans vacuum

[obn2006]

Yeah, right.

Why would anyone believe the tech shills (excuse me, "reporters") who push these tinky fugitives from Sharper Images catalog of "neat toys" that don't work.

We read the glowing reports of the first models of these units -- but quickly found out what a truckload of hogwash they were.

It would be greatly surprised to see an improvement in the effectiveness of these devices or the trustworthiness of "product reviews" like this.

[dahnb]

Do you own 1 or are you just a Hater?

I have one. It's cut vacuuming by 90%.
It works!
So what's your problem?

[natejohnstone]

Does warranty cover "killed by cat?"

My cat tries to kill anything that frightens it (a somewhat feral Siberian Forest Cat). And especially if this robot puts up a "fight," my Chewbacca might just do his best to destroy the thing.

So those of you who have one--any thoughts? Is this thing pretty solid and well built, i.e. not in danger of death-by-kitty? If it's not in mortal danger, will the robot still manage to vacuum if it's being attacked?

[woodygg]

better

if it attacked it dumbs$$ owner.

[thedreaming]

Love my Roomba!

We got one for Christmas during black friday. It vacuums the floor and plays a happy little tune at the end. We normally let it do its thing alone while we do other things. Rarely do we have to monitor its process. I'll tell you this, it picks up so much dirt, it makes me feel like a dirty slob sometimes. I keep asking, "Where is all this dirt coming from?"

[jdavidlove]

Clogged by Dog Hair

I loved my Roomba, but there was one serious flaw and after going through about 3 of them, i had to give them up. THe problem was dog hair. The old versions would perpetually get dog hair wrapped around the axles of the cleaning brushes and sometimes the wheels until the machine would stop running. Cleaning it was a nightmare as even with the tool, the hair was tightly wrapped around the axles even if you cleaned it every day (Which is not my idea of acceptable). The cleaning job was a real mess which outweighed the benefits of the machine. If this machine was designed to repel dog hair in the axles of the wheels and cleaning brush, it is definitely worth it. If they haven't figured that out yet, then don't get it if you have a long haired dog. It will be more trouble than it's worth, and it'll eventually be rendered useless due to the hair slowly breaking the machine's motors down.

I have a roomba for last six months (don't rem the model# but it was the latest model when i bought it - some 550). Anyways, I have both good and bad things to say about roomba. Good new sfirst, it helps to keep your room clean. The particular model has a scheduler, which works as a wake up call for the chorus. since it does it every week, the room stays clean through out (if you are a procrastinator like me, this especially helpful). Here's the bad news, it's not totally hands free. My Rooba is addicted to cleaning under the sofa. At first I was excited (this was touted as an axciting feature for roomba). Later I realized that the machine is not cleaning in the middle of my room, also i noticed that roomba likes to clean more near the walls that in the empty space in the middle. Unfortunately, in my case (and in most others cases as well) most of the dust and dirty usually is in the middle of the room or in the empty space. Also roomba doesn't do verywell with hair. As with most other vacuum cleaners, the hair winds up on the rotating stuff. But unfortunately roomba stops working once this happens, which is every 5 minute in my household. So my rooba experience is so so...still i will buy one if they correct because i believe mundane task of house cleaning is something technology can solve for us!