iRobot - Roomba Pro Elite

Your experience must be with the cheaper Roombas. I bought a $500 Roomba and base and my experience was the same as yours. Hot trash. Sent it back and even that was a bad experience, they never refunded me and I had to do a credit card charge back. But then I bought a $250 roborock + base. Wayyyyyy better. Never have to tinker with it. Completes our kitchen, dining room, main bedroom, and living room in 35-40 minutes. Does multiple floors/mapping. Vac and mop. A lot quieter than the Roomba. Very clean floors, like I'm blown away at how well it vacs, the Roomba left little crumb piles  everywhere. I have not manually vacuumed anything since I've bought it other than to spot clean when my dogs destroy a toy or something. Overall there is a reason irobot is going out of business. Roombas are overpriced and perform poorly. But not all robot vacuums are created equal and other brands are both cheaper and higher in quality.

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'm an 83 year old electronics engineer. I'm part of an anti-Roomba cult. In 1963, I built 2 motorized turtle-like creatures, half the size of a modern Roomba, that would enter a room and bounce off objects until they found their way back out. For old times sake, five years ago I bought a 1st generation Roomba at a rummage sale that did the same. My carpets looked like they were vacuumed by a spider, spinning a web while on LSD. It's been done in spider labs. My Roomba was relegated to my carpeted garage, but managed to escape its light barrier. I caught it halfway down my driveway, on its way to the street. I donated it. Unlike Elon Musk, I like Lidars. My newest robot vacuum uses one, plus a camera, and hardly ever collides with anything. It vacuums in (almost) straight lines. DO NOT buy a robot vacuum without BOTH Lidar AND a camera that sees both visible and infrared light, so it can avoid objects in subdued lighting.

I tried to bring the iRobot Roomba (1st or 2nd gen) back to life but it still keeps going back a few inches then spinning around and pretty much staying in one place. I broke down and used the shopvac with HF cyclone and picked up half a gallon of stuff. Would have filled the Roomba several times over. The Roomba does not recognize the charging dock. The charger voltage is 22.7 plugged directly into the Roomba but when plugged into the base the base contacts only shows 2.8. I think the base contacts need to be activated to higher voltage by the little glass tower but that is not working. I took off the bumper and cleaned the little lights and windows and took the brush box apart and cleaned/lubed the little gear box but no luck. I am not sure I am ready for getting too the motherboard given the small dust compartment. I also took apart the charger and found the circuit board had a lot of corrosion, so I suspect that the Rumba motherboard is bad. I think I am stuck using a shopvac since even a self empty system would fill up fast.

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 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 first Roombas did this, but it is no longer possible without an app. Evolution, they call it.

I have the Dyson 15s and I am in love with it. Have the Dyson pet one from years back and it still works great. But upgraded to try the mop (submarine version) and it’s super nice. Hubby vacuums a lot and we got that as I wanted to try the mop as I mop and he vacuums lol 😂 so far a game changer. Have had no issues with the pet stick cordless version we got years ago and we had several dogs then (they have passed away now) but no issues. Have a Rooba too - like 1st generation on that- he is older - only issues I have had was his mapping when I moved furniture around he would not reset and so he vacuums 3/4 of the room and goes back later to get the other part.

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.