iRobot - Roomba 675 (Restored)

Older roombas are simple, reliable, durable, effective, and cheap. But they don't have smart navigation or mapping where you can ask them to clean specific areas. If you want navigation they become less cheap and less durable. I have a 10yo 600 series roomba and a new Roborock Q5. Q5 is great but I'm skeptical that it's going to last as long.

I have a roomba we named homewrecker because it leaves a trail of destruction behind it. It always knocks over something or gets tangled up in wires.

I bought a Roomba that can mop and vacuum (pricey models are great). I bought a bunch of replacement rags/mops on Temu for a few euros, and exchange them every now and then. All you have to do besides that is fill its water tank with clean water and floor soap. I also went on my Roomba's App, drew out a map of my house, and set a cleaning schedule for every single day on setting 'deep clean'. And he keeps the floors like 98% spotless, while we have 2 long-haired dogs and 1 short hair cat. We still vacuum and mop ourselves like once a week or so. But if need be we could easily skip that. The difference has been amazing. Googly eyes are optional. ;) Why do it yourself if a robot can do it for you?

I have a Roomba 564 Pet I bought when my son was 6 months old. He's now 14 and the Roomba would be still doing the job if this little bastard had not screwed the elly plaque's screwheads. I bought a new battery I cannot replace because of that (I'll Dremel them out after the Spring clean out). So it was working since 2011, August. The other Roomba, a 600 something bought on discount in a clearance sale when my son was 6 or 7, is still going strong. I wonder how the Dreame L50 Pro Ultra is going to perform. It is my Mother's Day present, but we're not done with the Spring-clean so it just worked in the living-room.

More complex vacuum and mopping robots with lots of sensors and fail points are probably going to last less long than a simple vacuum. I believe a lot of brands are heavily pushing mop + vacuum because they need replacing more and are more profitable. If longevity is important, I would think about vacuum only if you don't really need the mop. Brands change over time. I have an Irobot 676 which is working just fine 6 years, but they tend to get bad rep lately.

I got a Roomba 675 at a thrift store for $20 thinking I'd upgrade if I liked it, but the thing worked great to control my husky's shedding (plus two fluffy cats and tracked litter). It doesn't have mapping or and the self-emptying bin thing, but I love it.

Our roomba tries to keep up. Hal (main floor roomba) needs maintenance every few days. But man 2 days where Hal is off duty and you can see it. The tumbleweeds roll in. Hal doesn’t replace vacuuming or steam cleaning area rugs. He does however help keep the dusting down and limits the tumbleweeds . My better half will tell me don’t pause Hal he is doing https://preview.redd.it/7mmkuro4c1ef1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fd808d8cc6c7e830934f5fb947860ae71518915 Gods work ROFL. We have 3 dogs 2 super shedders GSD and Husky/GSD mix and 1 wire hair terrier. This year we have had to even vacuum dogs as well. They are so worth it! ❤️❤️❤️

We have had an iRobot Roomba for 17 years. We initially bought the 535, it’s been upgraded with the new bin (aero vac 2) and running gear from the later 600 series It has had two battery replacements in its life, and has had a replacement main board once, which added the schedule feature. It cleans better than the 780 models relatives have. This Roomba, with replacements when things wear out, has outlived most other appliances we have. You can still buy the 600 series which is based on the same platform, and if ours ever became unrepairable, we would buy one. Heck, considering you can change all of the parts with a screwdriver and a bit of basic knowledge (how to plug/unplug things), a second hand one would be fine.

I love my Roomba (no mop), and have owned it since Covid. Use my Upright e/o week, then Roomba 3-4 days each week. Am Amazed at the amount of lint/dust/hair/crud I find in Roomba on day-1 after 4 days of not using either. The upright bag needs replacing only once a year.

The newest generations of Roomba's seem to be much more competitively priced and seem to be a pretty good value. It was mostly there older line of product offerings from 2021-24 that was outdated and overpriced. I still have a Roomba 675 for my second floor, and while it is an old school low tech model, after 5 years it is still a workhorse, plus there is a ton of aftermarket parts available for replacing worn out parts and filters for cheap.