iRobot - Roomba 890

I have three floors of primarily hard flooring to clean. Sweeping has largely ceased to be a thing due to my robot vac. It does area rugs decently as well. It’s not heavy enough to really get down in the fibers so I pull out the real vacuum every couple weeks and do over the rugs.  I don’t use the damp cloth “wiping” feature because my upper floors are slippery and the robot spins in circles over its own tracks once it has wet the floor. In my basement, my tiles are kind of rough and I don’t think damp wiping would be effective so I don’t use that part either. When it’s time to unleash the robot vac, I do a quick run around for any large enough items or debris that it’s gonna choke on and remove them. I sweep dust and debris out of the corners where the robot wouldn’t fit out onto the main floor. Then I run the bot and come back later to empty. (Usually done before 90 mins) They make ones with vacuum bases that empty themselves. It’s convenient. If you get a vacuum base, get one with washable base filters instead of a vacuum bag that needs replacing after every fill. My friend bought an expensive one that vacuums and mops with spinning pads that self empties, self rinses, and dries its mop pads back on its base with heated water. He seems to like it. His house is all wood-look tile. Unfortunately his has vacuum bags as consumables. I also worry spinning action might swirl some missed grit around on any more delicate flooring. I’ve got a Shark IQ with the self-emptying base(vacuum only),  a secondhand Roomba 890(vacuum only, manual empty every use), and a Yeedi K700 in white and rose gold coloring(he’s pretty). Yeedi has the optional mop bin with the wipe cloth I don’t use. And is manually emptied every use. They make it simple to pass a mop myself after the robot does its run. 

Roomba 800(?) pet series. First one just for gobs of hair; two dsh and 1 Golden. Works well BUT I do get well-rolled-up wads of hair left behind. Tightly wadded, easy to pick up though.

We have had roomba for 12 years now (first a series 8 , now a J7+). Couldn't live without, esp with kids, keeps the house clean with no effort at all, but you know this already. Buy something quality, sensors and software really make a difference, favor companies with solid software development. If i had to buy now, i would go for a roborock, the J7+ while very good, sometimes is just disappointing dumb. Also good brands have all aftermarket replacements parts, we keep reviving our roomba 8 from 10+ years ago.

I bought a new roomba in 2016 i think it was an 800 series. It was an absolute piece of crap from day 1. Would get lost, couldn't get up on its dock, would just spin around and move it along. Wouldn't run on schedule. And eventually got to where it would just run into things full speed like it's sensors didn't work at all. We did customer support and they just said to do firmware updates but never fixed. Gave to my sister who ultimately threw it away. I'll never own another.

Not aware of any random navigation models avaliable with a self empty station. At least none that are currently avaliable and work adequately well. Even budget models are more often including lidar and app functionality. Your options are going to be limited no matter what, and all the random navigation models are going to be the cheapest of the cheap now and unlikely to perform all that well. It might be worth finding a used irobot roomba e5 or 800 series model or similar. Those are about the highest performance random navigation models irobot ever made. You could also look for a 980 which had smart navigation but works totally offline if you prefer.

Yeah it was iRobot’s game to lose, and, well, they fucked it up royally in ways that will be case studied for decades to come. That said I have an iRobot 805 as my garage roomba and what an unstoppable little beast it is. Except for the fact that it gets stuck under my 911, it’s practically perfect for that use case.

I’ve had an 800 or 900 Roomba for decades until one died and then luckily somebody was upgrading and I got another one. The more fancier ones did not seem to clean as well and the newer ones with mopping. I only use on my carpet works relatively well, but it doesn’t get into the corner and against the walls as well. I’ll keep him until they die and then hopefully they will have something that works well on rugs.

I bought one a while ago for the novelty since it was a black Friday sale (and I suck at keeping a schedule to vacum. Didn’t have mapping but I thought it would be smart enough to still navigate just fine. Instead it just rams into things then randomly changes direction. Meanwhile, a coworker bought some  bootleg that cost a fraction of the price and it runs flawlessly. All the extra shit that roomba charges for in it’s higher tier models are included for free.  Never buying another roomba product. They’ve clearly just been coasting off of brand recognition.

I picked a roomba from vine and I'm constantly having trouble with the app. It took DAYS to set it up, and once done it has constantly sync issues. It works eventually, but it's one of those instances that paying for the brand name is not worth it.

Mine is named Robbie, I can’t keep the floor clear enough to use him. My goal for the weekend is to clear his path. Wish me luck!