iRobot - Roomba i6+ (6550)

I have mine scheduled to run at park time. I take my pup to the park in the morning and late afternoon and schedule the roomba to start at the time we normally leave. The downside is that my dog has identified the correlation. He's also figured out that he can make the Roomba move by bopping it (it dislodges from its cradle and starts up to re-seat itself). He therefore will bop the Roomba to tell me he want's to go outside.

I sometimes forget that my dog sheds unless my Roomba stops working for some reason. My place is mostly hardwood floors, with tile in the bathrooms, but I have a couple oriental rugs, big mat in the entranceway and some smaller mats in the kitchen and bathrooms. The Roomba has no trouble getting fur up off of any of those surfaces. There are places the Roomba can't reach (doors and corners) where fur and dirt will gather up, but that's quick work for a little handheld vacuum. I've had the Roomba I6+ just shy of 4 years now, and it's still going strong. It replaced a cheaper $200 Eufy that died in less than 2 years. If you haven't had a robotic vacuum before, here are some tips: \* You'll spend the first couple weeks robot-proofing your home, eliminating areas where your robot will get stuck. This will make the early days a little frustrating because it'll seem like the robot finds a new place to get stuck every day. Once these are eliminated, it'll run more smoothly. \* I've found that shorter runs are better than longer runs. The longer the run, the greater the chance that it will encounter a problem, get full or that it will run out of battery and have to recharge mid-run. That increases the likelihood that I'll have to intervene. So, I never have the Roomba vacuum everywhere in a single run. Instead, I have it do a single room (or area) each run and it does each room twice a week. Its runtime for each room is about 30 minutes and I schedule it to go at the time I take my dog out in the morning and late afternoon, so it does its thing while we're away. What's funny is that my dog has identified the correlation between the Roomba starting and us going to the park. He's also figured out that he can bop the Roomba to get it to start (when it's knocked off its cradle it starts to reseat itself). So he'll give it a bop if he wants to go outside. \* The docking cradle I have has a built-in vacuum bag, so the Roomba empties itself when it redocks after each run. The cheapskate in me hates that I have to buy the bags, but it does make the entire thing more convenient since I don't have to manually empty the Roomba's internal dust bin and can just swap bags every month or two.

We got a Roomba at Costco. I'm happy with it. Not sure the model--something like a 6+, this was a couple of years ago. I was advised to get one that was self-emptying. We did that and it seems like a good tip.

i bought an iRobot i6+ in 2020 and for my first robot vac i initially thought it was pretty good. i have mostly hardwood. but the app sucks, it forgets the map and by 2023 the battery degraded at least 25%. it would frequently not be able to dock itself and end up draining its battery which makes it lose wifi and then its a brick. it also rams into corners and things like super hard. i found customer service to be entirely unhelpful and when their cloud service would go down you can’t use the thing at all, not even manually.

We have a Roomba i6+ (old, not sure still being made) and recently added the i5+. They have mapping and self-emptying, which for me are absolutely essential features. We've had others without the self-emptying feature and I never emptied them regularly enough, which rendered them less effective.

I.had.the.same.exact.experience.

It's hard for people to recommend since few people would test their vacuums with this much fur. Picking up hair from hard floors is easy for any robot vacuums, even on low suction settings. I think the challenge will be keeping the bin from filling or the dock from clogging. iRobot roomba i+ and j+ series are suited for this as they have sensors that detect debris building up in the vacuum path and send the bot to the dock to auto-empty and resume. Whatever you get, you will likely need to run regularly and maybe one room at a time.

Check Facebook marketplace and the like, lots of people sell their like new or new ones. I got a Roomba + Braava combo for less than half MSRP brand new. I got it because I moved into a home with laminate floors instead of carpet, and it's been amazing. I have two cats, and so between their fur and the litter tracking, plus just life, the floors can get pretty dirty in just a couple days, to where I can feel it on my feet and I feel dirty walking around. Running my Roomba once in the morning everyday has kept everything feeling super clean, and I even have one that maps the house so I can have it just clean the kitchen after I finish cooking dinner. Like others said, it's not going to keep floors 100% clean, but it'll keep it a manageable 80-90% clean between your deep cleans.

Oh yeah, my mop doesn't heat the water at all. Doesn't compare to a proper actual hot mop, but it's more for just keeping it feeling nice between cleans.

What you need is a Roomba with a base: the "+" model. It self empties into the base. It changes your life. I have an old English Sheepdog

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!

We named our Roomba Harry. We have a lab/beagle mix.

Hi, I’m not a mom but my roomba with self-emptying base is a - and I cannot stress this enough - fucking lifesaver. I have three cats, have hardwood and carpet and the roomba is literally one of the only reasons my floors look even remotely clean. Beware: I owned one without the self-emptying base thing and I never used it because emptying it every time it was full was a barrier I wouldn’t get past. Getting the base where the roomba empties itself is a GAME CHANGER.

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 had a Roomba, and it did a good job. It died after 2 years though, and they don't sell repair parts. I kept it limping along for another few months until I gave up on it. I don't think I'd ever get another Roomba, but I would like to try another brand.

All the i and j7 and below series vacuums have the same motor. Only the s9 and j9 have more suction, the s9 is actually better suction. On hard floors any of them will pick up the hair. The s9 will do very well on the area rugs. Not worth buying the combo models.

I guess I’m the outlier here but I love mine. I have the self emptying, mapping Roomba. It mapped my space great and does a really good job cleaning. Self emptying is the best upgrade, as I previously had a much cheaper model and haaaated emptying that thing constantly.

I have a self emptying roomba vacuum. It runs daily at 9:30 am, recharges and empties itself, then finishes rhe rest around 2 in the afternoon. I live on a horse farm with 4 dogs and 5 cats and only if its muddy do shoes come off at the door. That robot is a wonderful thing.

Two huskies here. We have a self emptying Roomba. We run it 5 days a week. I have to keep up with the replacement parts, or it starts just wadding up hair and leaving it in chunks. But even that cuts manual cleaning time, because I can just take the hand vac to the chunks. We've had it since 2021.

Get a roomba with the self-emptying base station. Pays for itself 10 times over.

We got the Costco iRobot Roomba on sale (just sweep function) and it’s been really helpful. Definitely worth the time savings and it probably does a better job than our manual vacuuming. We don’t care for the mop function that much, just don’t want to deal with the water compartment

If you get a roomba I highly recommend one that self-empties into a tower. We run ours 4 days a week in our bedroom, the living room, front hall. Kitchen, dining room. It keeps the ACD tumbleweeds at bay between weekly Dyson vacuumings.

We’ve used a self emptying Roomba for years. 3 dogs, a Basset, a Lab, and a Terrier. All are moderate shedders and fur accumulation is a problem. All three are indoor/outdoor dogs and mud is a consideration for us. We have area rugs from Costco that help dry paws and pick up some dirt. We launder them at a coin-op each month to save wear and tear on our washer. The Roomba is fine for keeping visible areas tidy, but one pass on the floor and the internal bin will fill with fur and dust. We still vacuum with a stick vac in corners and under furniture, Roomba can’t reach. No mopping robot can keep up with mud from paws if you live in a rainy muddy area. Invest in a good Swiffer wet mop or a light weight bucket based mop.

I started with a eufy and it was pretty good on all hardwood floors. It would pile some fire up in the corners I could pick up. But then I upgraded to a roomba with the self emptying thing and I love it. The app and tutorials are very helpful.

Thats literally crazy.. I've had my roomba for like 5 years now.. We have 3 big dogs and a cat, in a small house. Still works great, I've replaced the brushes and obviously the filters on it but it still works awesome.

Robot vacuum. We have a roomba with the self emptying bin, SAVED MY SANITY.

I have a Roomba that I picked up from Costco. It can be controlled via app and it has a self emptying base.

I have the Wyze robot vac and a roomba self emptying vac. I vastly prefer the performance of the wyze vac.

We love ours. We have one for upstairs and downstairs. Don’t try to get a cheap one, we did that and went through a couple of them pretty quickly. Now we have two good ones (iRobot) with the bin that they self empty into when they get full. We have three kids, two dogs, and a cat that sheds more than both dogs combined, and having robot vacuums has been a game changer. Before we got the one with the bins, it would get full and need emptying before it finished a whole cycle. Now it goes and empties itself and then goes back to cleaning. It’s some trial and error at first. Just run it the first few times when you’re watching it to see where it has any problems. Then you can try to adjust any problem areas. Our upstairs vacuum doesn’t go into the bedrooms because the kids have lots of tiny Barbie shoes and stuff. We have them clean up good and just regular vacuum real quick every other week or so (and we keep bedroom doors closed so the pets don’t go in there to keep hair shedding out). But the robot keeps the main areas of the house from getting hairballs and dirty. We recently got a robot mop as well, and that has been awesome! I feel like it’s just like having any other vacuum. You have to get everything picked up off the floor before you start. You wouldn’t start regular vacuuming with things still on the floor. If there are areas that it gets stuck often, either block it off or try to adjust any problem areas. We usually pull all of the dining room chairs away from the table so that it can get a good clean under the table and around it. We run the vacuums & mop anytime we leave the house, and it’s so nice coming home to freshly vacuumed and mopped floors!

I bought one well over a year ago possibly on year 2. iRobot self emptying. If it only lasted a year I’d buy another one. It works as well as it did when I bought it. I replace the rollers and the brush thingy like twice. Get the iRobot replacement the knock off parts lasted like a week. I have all tile. Bedroom is carpet. If it runs everyday it’s not a problem on carpet. If it’s a few days of fur it creates nests I just hand pick up. I don’t have to do this if it runs daily. Completely worth it. I also live near a beach and it straight picks up all the sand too. It’s great. Never not having one.

I have one basic Roomba that moves around randomly and another that supposedly maps the space. The cheaper, random movement robot is vastly superior in all ways.