Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I always thought these were gimmicky. But I got one for Christmas and liked it so much I bought 2 more. I have all hard flooring, no carpets, and 2 dogs, a cat, and two birds that all contribute to mess. So I had to sweep everyday or I'd get those pet-hair tubleweeds blowing around. Having to sweep all the time I get lazy and let it go; or when I do it I spend an hour or 2 sweeping or vacuuming. These robots save me hours of time and get the job done better because they are relentless. I set them on a schedule and they do it everyday completely. I have one robot that I manually have to empty the cup everyday. He's in the bedroom, since I'm in that room every day that's convenient enough and only takes 2 minutes. I bought an i3+ and an i4+, they self empty and I have to change the bag about once every 2-4 months. I don't mind the cost of the vacuum bags because they give me so many hours of my time back. The first one I got is the little guy. The little guy's name is Finigan. Finigan isn't too smart. He vacuums in a random pattern. I started with him in the main part of the house. He did a great job but his battery usually ran out before he considered himself done. So the space is a bit more then he likes. He did a great job though. But I loved it so much I got more to cover the whole house and moved him to the smaller bedroom area. In the bedroom suite (bedroom + bathroom~350sq ft), he spends about 45 minutes zipping around to cover everything. When his battery is low he docks himself. I have to empty his cup everyday. At first his cup was usually about 3/4 full to full. The first day it filled and he stopped. I had to empty it and re-start him. After a few months of daily vacuuming, the cup is about 1/4 full each day. So I switched him to a MWF schedule. He's still about 1/4 to 1/2 full each use. He even goes under the bed and keeps that clean. It's really great. The i3+ is Dixie. Dixie does the downstairs. Dixie is smart. She goes in straight line patterns and covers the entire space using a very planned straight line methodical routine. The first day she poked around learning. It was about 1.5 hours. After that, the entire job was planned out and she did the whole thing in about 45 minutes. She has no problem when certain doors are opened vs closed. When it's open, she goes in and vacuums. If it's closed, she skips it. Her cleaning time varies from about 45 minutes to 1hr 15minutes depending on whether the extra rooms are included (doors open vs closed). She drives back to her base when done and docks. And the base sucks out what she collected. I love the base, it means I do not have to tend to her everyday. I actually only need to change the bag about every 3-4 months. There's not a lot going on downstairs. The litter box is there and so the cat pays visits. But we aren't down there daily tracking things around. Thanks to Dixie, there's no fur balls, hair-tumbleweeds, dust, or dirt. Always a nice clean floor. It's awesome. Her map in the app shows where she found 'extra' dirt. Usually right in front of the litter box. It's so awesome not having to sweep up litter daily. I have her on a MWF schedule too and that is more than enough to keep the place clean. I recently got Nick, an i4+ for the upstairs. He's quieter. He's like Dixie in is planning and map reporting, so he's smart. It's very cool. He also gets the job done quickly. First day was like 1.5 hours learning. Now he's done in 50 minutes. The base sucks everything out so I don't have to tend to him as much as Finigan. He's in the main part of the house and it gets the most dirty. The dogs spend all there time here. The cat is up here most of the time. And we have two birds who send seeds everywhere. It's amazing how far from the cage those birds can flick seeds. And their feathers and drift everywhere too. Nick takes care of all that. I do need to manually get under the couch and behind and under furniture which I do once every month or so. But this robot is awesome. Saves me the day in and day out sweeping and vacuuming. Having robots spend 3+ robot labor hours each day vacuuming is an awesome human labor saver. Once they've hit the whole house for a month or two I'm able to step them back to MWF schedules. Their brushes do a great job in the corners, better than me sweeping or vacuuming; mostly because they hit those corners every day and spend the time swirling that brush to work on it. That constant day in day out effort pays off over time. I really can't imagine going back to manually doing this. I look back at the hours I spent doing it thinking that was Neanderthal days. I look forward to telling my grand kids how I used to walk to school uphill in the snow everyday, dial rotary phones, select music off of CD's I had to manually put into a machine, and now, that I spent hours sweeping the floors in the good old days.