OT: Best robot vacuum?

dahliaclone

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Mar 4, 2007
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Minneapolis
Our (basic) iRobot Roomba recently bit the dust and we are looking for an upgrade. The old one was ok, not great. We have some carpet that is high pile and some hardwood floors and two pets. Lots of pet hair.

Any suggestions on which brand/version to look at? Preferably under $600 or so. Willing to spend that much if it actually works.
 

MeowingCows

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Jun 1, 2015
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Iowa
I love my Roomba i3, but I don't have 2 pets and tough carpet like you do, so you may need a little beefier one. That said, for the price I paid (I think around $275 after sale from Target a few months back), it's awesome and has solid features. Only thing it struggles with is loose/tall rugs that slide on the tile I have, it tends to push those around instead of go up and over.
 

Bader

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Tried a couple different levels of roombas that did nothing with Bernese Mountain Dog hair other than move around piles of roombarf.

Bought a roborock S4 max and have been very happy with it. It cleans much faster and uses LiDAR sensors to detect an approaching obstacle, as opposed to abusing the bumpers.
 
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knowlesjam

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Oct 21, 2012
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Papillion, NE
We have the irobot roomba 960...it works well. Lasts about 70 minutes or sooner if it fills up on cat hair. Works very well on hard surfaces...gets just about everything. Easy to clean, fairly quiet. Replacement parts (filter and roller bars) are expensive.
 
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SCNCY

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Don't buy the Hoover Rogue. I am not even sure if they make them any more, but the software behind it was awful. Could never get the thing to work right.

On the other hand, I am very interested in this thread too as we just closed on a house with all wood floors with a single hound/lab mix.
 
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MeowingCows

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Jun 1, 2015
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Iowa
Yeah, our Roomba ingested one of our apple charging cords...not good. The daughter lost charging access due to it being her cable left out.
I take very strict steps to make sure my floors are free of items like this before running it (I don't have mine on a schedule). Worst mine has done so far is try to eat a loose dryer sheet.
 

mynameisjonas

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Jan 19, 2019
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I used to own one around 8 years ago and it sucked. if The technology has taken A big jump I may have to revisit. I have hard wood floors.
 
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NickTheGreat

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Jan 17, 2012
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Central Iowa
I have a Roborock S6 and use it on my kitchen/dining which is LVP. It has a mopping option and works really well for this.

I also don't use a schedule as I try to arrange the chairs in such a way to have less blind spots, areas between chair leg and table leg that won't get clean. And make sure no Barbie's or hair ties end up in the bin.

It has one of the better cleaning algorithms in the category. It takes a perimeter of the room and fills in the area in a manner than makes sense. Not like a drunken college student wandering around your room.

It is a part of the greater Xiaomi company, so depending on how you feel about China being up in your business may be a thing. But lets face it, that's a bigger issue than robot vacuums . . .
 
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coolerifyoudid

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Feb 8, 2013
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KC
Friend of mine has one, their dog took a soft dump in the house (when they weren't home) and the robot proceeded to smear it all over the place.

Were you able to stop laughing long enough for your friend to finish the story?
 
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RedlineSi

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Jun 20, 2006
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Twin Cities
Our (basic) iRobot Roomba recently bit the dust and we are looking for an upgrade. The old one was ok, not great. We have some carpet that is high pile and some hardwood floors and two pets. Lots of pet hair.

Any suggestions on which brand/version to look at? Preferably under $600 or so. Willing to spend that much if it actually works.

Everything you need is right here:

 

Sousaclone

Well-Known Member
Apr 29, 2006
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North of Seattle
I've got a Roomba 981 that I got on an Amazon sale last fall. I like it.

I've got a ~1100SF apartment that is basically all contractor grade carpet (no pets). Even after running it weekly for 6+ months at this point, it still manages to beat enough fluff and crap out of those carpets to fill completely up and stop. Midly annoying since it always does one half of my apartment first and then switch over to the other side.

It's one of the mostly smart mapping ones. I think it's only gotten lost or stuck 2-3 times and only eaten one charging cable (which really is my fault, not the machines). It automatically swtiches suction modes when going from carpet to hard surface.

I'd think with lots of pet hair you may want one that has the auto empty feature?

Also, I'd wait until the end of June for Amazon Prime Days. Might be able to score a good deal then.
 
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Arkansas Cyclone

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Nov 25, 2006
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Bentonville, Arkansas
We got a roomba 960 when we moved into the new house. I love how it vacuums in straight lines and it does a pretty good job almost every time. It actually shows a pretty good amount of precision which is impressive. But every once and awhile it goes into "drunken" mode and tends to bounce off of everything in site which usually means it's rollers are clogged with hair from two females in the house.
 

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