As a rommba owner I cannot believe how clean it gets the carpets and the floors. A little pricey though so I really do not think it is worth the money. The battery does not hold a charge long enough for what I need it to do.

Although I agree that the roomba isn't as effective as a regular vacuum, if you're like me and run it once every 2 days or so, your house will remain WAY cleaner than if you vacuumed it once a week.

Thanks for the article and the link back!

I thought that was one of the reviews where CR missed the point completely. The whole point about Roomba is that you don't have to push it around or spend time cleaning. You hit the button and leave and it does the whole job itself.

Who cares if it takes three times as longer than a regular vacuum? Or that you have to sweep the same spot many more times than a regular vacuum? You are not doing it, the machine is, so there is no marginal cost to you.

It works beautifully for us, and the fact that we no longer have to worry about spending our free time on vacuuming makes the price totally worth it.

I am a little disturbed that you quoted "a mop was faster and more thorough than the Scooba" from a May 2006 article, because that is a blatant error in reporting.

Mops are NOT faster than Scoobas unless you have discovered some kind of magical mop. Because without me, my mop doesn't do anything at all and even if I waited 10 years, the floor would not get clean.

Since I do not have one of these magical mops, I can get my Scooba to clean the floor on its own with much less effort and time of my own than I can get my mop to clean the floor with.

You may think that USING a mop takes less time overall - except that it is my time, and really, my Scooba has way more free time than I do, so I would much prefer to waste its time.

I got my 1st Roomba 3 years ago...loved it so much, I bought a 2nd one for the downstairs...haven't had to drag my full size vacuum downstairs ever since...my Roomba keeps the carpets VERY clean...I come home at lunch...send Roomba out to clean...go back to work...come home to clean carpets...it's fantastic. Now if only it could cook dinner!

I am apparently not very computer literate. Several CR articles allude to robotic vacuum tests but I have been unable to find any results. Lots of generalities but no specifics.

Any help in locating them would be appreciated.

Wow that is really cool, did you see though there is a few inch space surrounding the carpet? So I guess you have to go back and vacuum it with an upright.

Nathan R., The battery indicator light is what he's photographing. It is not on the edge of the unit, so the light never hits the edges. The Roombas do have a rotating brush on the edge that will hit all the corners. I'm definitely impressed with mine, even though I was incredibly skeptical. It does a good job, even on the corners. And like everyone here keeps mentioning, you don't have to do the vacuuming yourself.

No matter what...I purchased a Roomba 560 from iRoomba and have used itfor 1½ months now. I am more than pleased with "her" (I have named her Millie the Maid". She vacumes 4 rooms for me and does a wonderful job. Her suction is tremendous. I am a member of a small invitation only Internet Fourm and four of us have purchased a couple of different models and we all love them. I don't know what the lesser models do but my Roomba 560 is a god send. The best part is she does 4 rooms while I do other things or sit and read, and my back doesn't hurt one iota.

Yeaaaay for Roomba 560!

I received a Roomba as a hand-me-down. It had been little used. I love it. It doesn't compete with my canister, but I don't have to use the canister nearly as often. The Roomba gets the easy and visual stuff including dog hair... a big need for me. Every day I set it up in a room and let it go to work while I am away. My house looks much cleaner on a daily basis. While, I am not sure I would pay for one, it was a great gift.

I have Model 4220 and have had it for a few years. About a year or so ago it's lights have all lit up green but it won't run. The battery probably needs replaced but I haven't been able to find out where to buy a new one. They have batteries at Bed/Beyond but only for newer models. Can anyone help?

I, too, was unable to find the reviews of roomba. I'm thinking of purchasing one. What happens if it encounters objects on the floor? Does it eat them?

I own a Roomba 560 and I love it. My floors stay much cleaner because they are vacuumed much more often. It does a great job and is effective right up to the walls/edges. The lighthouses work great at containing the roomba inside the area that I want vacuumed at a particular time. I just put the lighthouses in position to let my Roomba know where to go. I highly recommend the Roomba.

I have owned 4 Roomba's each time hoping that the product has been improved. It is a great concept but a product that has proven to be unreliable and support difficult.
I have tried using the product on solid floors only, carpet only and two at a time to support the task. I have used the product over an 8 year span and history continued to repeat batteries that fail after only a few months of very limited usage, units would only work in some cases for 20 minutes or less. The latest unit lated two months just beeps and dies of exhaustion immediately as does my wife with the troubleshooting with the company so although it was under warranty it has been sitting in the garage for over a year on vacation resting.
Roomba has a cult like following, that like me to get the best results had to sweep the dirt to it if I wanted a clean floor even in the short time that I could say that it "worked".

I "LOVE" my irobot! I'm not at all sure if the ROOMBA is a different product however, my vacuum does a pretty amazing job. My wood floors have never, ever been so clean. There is virtually no lint and dog hair anywhere, not even in the corners.
Just one tiny problem...it's dinging up some of my furniture
pieces and seems to be chipping paint. Perhaps my pier 1 accents are not as quality as I had hoped? Just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same?

I've heard roombas aren't great with long hair. Anybody have experience with this?

When it worked, it did a great job. Unfortunately, after only 19 months, my iRobot Roomba 535 is unusable. I contacted, iRobot customer service and was advised that it was out of warranty and recommended that I purchase a new one. This is unacceptable that a purchase of this magnitude doesn't even last two year. IRobot should do a better job of standing behind its' products.

Thanks to everyone that posted a comment, it has been informative to revisit the idea of a robotic vacuum, and although there were some good points, such as "hey, IT does the work, so I don't have to..." yes this is true, so long as everything works exactly as it should. I, like many others found that after only two years of light use the thing would not hold a charge, and like the others with similar problems, the warranty is too short, and the replacement battery cost is too high. Maybe when the 'cult following' mushrooms to the point that it's got a longer life expectancy, or the replacement parts are more affordable, then I will go back and give it another shot.
Off the robot vacuum topic I was surprised that I could not find mention of a 'Filterqueen' vacuum on the CR site?? FQ is a bit of a rare item, and WAY WAY over priced, that's why I bought mine from a pawn shop. They PUSH these things on people as thought they were the Holly Grail of health care products and using any other vacuum is near suicide! So therefore, many people buy them without being able to afford them, and of course they end up pawning the damn thing, and voila, you can buy one near new for 1/5th the price! OK that's all, ciao!!

I've had a roomba for about 2 years now and would never go back to sweeping or vacuuming manually. I have had some parts wear out or break but the most of the parts are modular and are available at the irobot website for a pretty reasonable price. I did replace the battery once but I run it every single day. It's actually set to turn itself on every day at 1pm and it vacuums about 3-4 rooms and once it's done it goes back to the base to charge. You can set the days you want it to vacuum as well as a different time for each day and you don't have to be home for it.

One of the things that people are surprised by is that it cleans so well. gets right next the baseboard and cleans closer to the furniture then you would do manually (If you vacuum every day and you methodically get every spot then maybe you can match it)

The problem with the roomba is not the quality of it's cleaning but peoples expectations. I don't care how powerful or how great the filter is on any vacuum, if you vacuum one day, the next day your floor is dirty. Most people vacuum about 1-2 times a week, and in between your floor is dirty. The roomba doesn't take vacations or get tired. You can run it anytime so your floor just doesn't get dirty.

One thing that's amazing is that it goes under any furniture that has space under it. So you don't have to move tables and chairs or even sofas that are high enough. Say goodbye to the dust bunnies under your bed. The old style dustbin on the roomba would get clogged faster in rooms that haven't been cleaned in a while but they have a new style called aerovac that should work better. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it wouldn't clog and user reviews have been positive.

I would compare the roomba to a maid with a vacuum rather than a vacuum. A maid that you don't have to pay and one that doesn't complain. Although the roomba doesn't do windows either :)

It almost seems like the worlds best kept secret. My sister got a 400 series last year and loves it, I got a 500 series one a few months ago and think it is the greatest thing. I have wood and tile floors with area rugs and it does very well at both. My biggest ? before buying, was what level to buy or how much to spend on it. They range in price from 100 to 600. It is like buying a camera or computer. Not knowing more, I just made sure I one-upped my sisters and choose one that docks itself and had the larger trash bin. Got mine online HSN.com, they had the best price at the time. It really is a smart machine. I have only one negative. I want to get one for my mom and I am not sure she could handle the tech part of cleaning brushes. There are many little parts to take off and put back on. If you don't have some mechanical ability, you may have trouble. The company seems be good at providing replacement part. Best perk, it cleans under the beds.:)

ps: I named mine Peggy Sue

I have to agree with most of the comments and disagree with Consumer Reports. I don't know if u guys had a novice doing the report or there has been much improvement in the last few years in these devices, but my husband and I couldn't be happier. We have a dog and got the smaller pet series model and it picks up dust and hair MUCH better than either of our top consumer reports rated vacuums. We have an electrolux and a professional Kirby. As a test we vacuumed rooms with one of each vacuum then let Roomba do its thing. An hour later, the bin is full of dust and dog hair that the cannister and the upright missed. My husband has dust allergies and this has made a huge difference in his breathing, especially in the winter when we are cooped up in the house much of the time. I have friends and relatives that I've recommended these to and they are all similarly impressed. I just don't how all of these prople love this product and CR continues to ding it? I have to tell u, CRs inaccurate and incomplete reporting of the roomba's pros and cons has made me doubt the accuracy and independence of its reports. In fact, their whole vacuum reporting process i have found to be extremely flawed and unreliable. They haven't, until just recently, tested dog hair effectiveness and still don't test the long term usage of vacuums. Todays vacuums appear to be designed to do a great job for the first few months, CR rates them highly, then they die and the cost of repair is more than the product's full cost. Sorry CR, u should be doing long term tests on these products.

Wanted to address some of the questions above:
* long hair - I have long wavy hair and tho I haven't found this to be a real problem, at first, my hair got wrapped around the brushes which have to be cleaned. But apparenty the other vacuums were not doing a good job with my hair. After the first few weeks of using roomba, the hair is now less and we also clean out the brushes every 3 or 4th vacuum, so it's not a problem.
* battery life - the directions recommend to keep the battery charged. So being kept in a garage or otherwise uncharged will drastically shorten it's life. After 6 months we have noticed only a slight decrease in time as we charge ours 24 hours/day. irobot has replacement batteries with longer life. these r not cheap, but cheaper than replacing the Hoover wind tunnel after 13 months, which totally died and was highly recommended by CR! Also, no batteries are cheap - have u seen the cost of replacement batteries for cell phones, cordless phones, or computers? Battery technology hasn't kept up with the requirements of the electronics world; don't think it can be blamed solely on irobot.
* replacement parts - contact irobot (go to their website for customer support). they source parts for quite a while on discontinued models.
* warranty and customer service - I have found the CS to be well above other similar electronics. After 13 months, just 1 month past the warranty period, Hoover said "tough luck." However, u can usually purchase replacement parts for roombas, which r much cheaper and no need to take it to an expensive repairman. i would also talk to a sales rep at irobot and they may offer parts at a discount if just past the warranty period. I consider their CS to be on a par with that of Apple.
Edge cleaning - don't know what CR is talking about that the roomba is one of the worst at edge and corner cleaning. Most uprights can't even get into the corners. My pet series roomba gets dog hair out of the baseboard edges extremely well. Not sure what they were comparing it to. Perhaps the edging tool of a canister is the only thing that would do a better job.

As a loyal CR reader, I never thought I'd say this, but folks, don't listen to CR on this one. I think the vacuum people are "playing" CR...making an inferior product, but one that will get a good CR review as they know the shortcomings of CRs reporting.

First the first time, CR is absolutely wrong. This unit is amazing. I bought the Roomba 560 by iRobot. I had JUST vacuumed before I bought it. When I got it home I ran it in my living room after the battery was charged. I was shocked at all the cat hair, dust, dirt and pollen it cleaned up. My highly-CR-rated Panasonic canister vac didn't come close to cleaning this stuff. I live alone and have one short-haired cat so it's not like it's an overly dirty place with a lot of foot traffic.

I run Roomba every day whereas before, I only had time to vacuum once a week. My carpets look like a professional did them. It's a joy to have my house so clean. When my friend told me about hers, I laughed at her. She was with me when I bought mine and ran it for the first time. I'm not laughing at her now!! I can't say enough great things about it. My house is ridiculously clean and it looks like I'm a total neat freak! It looks like I pay someone to come in once a day. The fact that I can clean something else while Roomba vacuums means that my house gets clean in half the time.

Some folks have reported negative reviews in that while they love it, it's not long lasting. I haven't had mine long enough to speak to that, but I know that should mine every break down and need replacement, not matter how short a time I've had it, I WILL buy another one.

Side note: My cat, who always hides when I run the Panasonic, sleeps on the sofa while Roomba passes by.

Ms .Deneris , You are righr and I agree with all that you've said ,actuall I myself got the roomba 560 for my mom for mothers day and you know , this is a true vacuum cleaner, I've tried the entry level the 440 model and it works ,ok , so I've returned it to the store and got the 560 ,I've figured that ,yes, they would improve on the previou issues and make a better and improved roomba ! the philosophy I believe that never to buy certain electronics or even automobiles when it has just came out ,the reason theres always recalls
and were not talking about Toyota's here : ) so just to let others know that am on you're side all the way on this , now all I have to do is give her a nice name , any suggestions ?

I have a Roomba (the 562, I think) and like it quite a bit. I have one low-shedding dog and three roommates. Two of us have long wavy hair that is death to vacuum cleaners. I moved recently from a mostly carpeted apartment to an apartment with almost no carpet, and found that the Roomba does well enough vacuuming/sweeping that I'm considering getting a Scooba for the mopping.

My only complaint is that the brushes really do need to be cleaned every time because it picks up so much of my hair, and this is what limits the number of times I'll run the Roomba. The brushes generally take me about 20 minutes to clean, and it's a fairly dusty job.

It's pretty wonderful to hear the Roomba's cheerful "Yay! I'm starting to clean!" beep as I leave in the morning, and come home to clean floors!

I run my roomba at least once a day while I walk my dog - it's a win all the way around. I scooba a couple of times a week. Just like the adds say, they are PERFECT for maintenance.

The best part is no leaning at back-straining angles. Mop and vac handle angles are no good when you are over 5'8". My sis got a scooba. We love our robots.

Best bet is to purchase them at Hammacher Schlemmer, though - lifetime warranty and no shipping charges if something goes awry.

NOTE ON MAINTENANCE. Our Roomba started to make a thumping noise and would only run about 20 minutes. My son figured out how to take it all apart and lo and behold, there was a ton of dog hair all balled up around the gears. He cleared all that out and it's back to like new. About the only objection I have to the Roomba is how intimate I must now get with the dirt and hair off of my floor. Dumping the dust bin makes me sneeze, and picking the hairs out of roller ends is not my favorite task,

My wife purchased a Roomba 560 Pet in may 2010. We used it for one week and found it stuck several times under furniture. It was not cleaning in corners where the pet hair gathers. We have had the battery die and have had a very difficult time getting issues resolved with the Irobot company. As of today it is packaged in it's box and is useless. The company does not stand behind it's product and beyond the 30 day money back guarantee window you are screwed.

I have had the 550 model for almost 2 years. I did not enjoy it for the first year due to the Golden Retriever that always shed. I had to clean the brushes every cycle. The pet version should have been better for hairy dogs, I don't know for sure if they are. Unfortunatly, the dog left us, but at least the roomba can run much, much, longer on its own now. I have brought out the big vacuum, with the dirt sensor, after running the roomba, and the sensor reads clean. If I don't run roomba, the big vac will start at red (dirty) and turn to green (clean), so the sensor does seem to work. I am very happy with my roomba, and I too would replace it in a heartbeat.

As Irobots excellent advertising says: "let a robot do your dirty work." and it does. Beautifully. In fact, its working now as i sit here, sipping a fine micro brew and writing this comment.

And that is the point of the Roomba.

I have had my Roomba 560 for nearly 3 years now. I use it on my kitchen linoleum and the bathroom and occassionaly on the carpet. It is great for cleaning up while I do something else. The battery likes to be run and kept charged after use, so using it every other day or frequently is probably best for it. I have a small dog so pet hair are not uncommon. You have to empty it when it's getting full like any other vaccum. I do it normally when I do my weekly vaccuming and clean the collection tray and filter. They are also brushes and bearing parts that need to be cleaned particularly for any hair ( like any brush vaccum) but they are easy to install back as they only go in one way. It takes me about 15 min. once a month roughly. I am looking to buy another one with an automatic setting so it can work when I am not around. Will use it on tile flooring in one big room then. As everyone say, it does the job for you, not better. So you'll probably use it more often and the floor will be cleaner. I would recommend it if you don't mind the price ($150 to $400) iRobot is the manufacturer and they make all kind of robots, not just the Roomba and Scooba.