iRobot - Roomba e5

One cat is part Persian, so yes. My girlfriend is not Persian at all, but has long hair, so yes. I have an ancient Roomba E5, but honestly, clearing the floor so it can bang itself against the walls for an hour is a chore. It's on its way out, so I'll probably get an L50 or X50 soon. I'm in the worse parts of the EU so consumer protection laws are there, but frowned upon.

Irobot e5 from 2019. Replaced battery and still going.

Older the better. Roomba e5 here for garage use. Twice a week. Been going for at least 3 years. Got it second hand because battery dead. First person had it for 3 years Aftermarket battery and all good. 6 years and still going.

A used iRobot Roomba e5 for 30€

We have an iRobot Roomba E6 for years and at one point it managed hair of 7 cats. It is simple, reliable and affordable. Very sturdy and designed for pet hair. Not sure if being sold still, but there is probably another equivalent available. We had an Eufy before that, and it started having issues and falling apart after 6 months.

I bought the Roomba e5 a bunch of years back. I always saw its software as not good enough. It would spin one way, whilst the brush would spin the same way too, and nothing would get picked up. The speed of the brush was also annoying as it would fling cat kibbles in locations where it couldnt possibly pick them up later, I believe they reduced it in later variations of the roomba. Never even released a software update for mine. It was too aggressive in hitting walls so much that it would hit the kitty water bowl and get the floor wet.

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.

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.

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!

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 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.