Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Other than the fact that Molly and Cassie, the resident felines, show no inclination to make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams by allowing me to dress them up in ridiculous costumes and riding around on this gizmo while being videoed, I have to say that I love my first Roomba. Well, what's not to like about a device that vacuums your home for you, while you get on and do other stuff? The home in question may well be the ultimate Roomba challenge (aside from a near-absence of stairs.) In addition to the aforementioned resident felines (and all the fur they discard constantly), there are little stacks of books and papers everywhere (I'm a freelance journalist). The Roomba shrugged its virtual shoulders and navigated around them with aplomb. It bounced over my power cords without stopping, disconnecting or swallowing any. The only casualty was one (loose) fringe on an area rug. It went under the bathroom vanity (shudder) and the tricky-to-reach space just beneath the kitchen cabinets. It tackled the loose bits of kitty litter tracked a few feet away from the litter box and the isolated bits of kibble. (Sigh.) The dust bunnies are retreating in terror. It doesn't work like a typical vacuum cleaner, going back and forth over the same spot until clean. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it suffers from ADD -- it rambles around and around, returning to the same place multiple times, but only after roaming ten feet away to check out some other corner. Eventually, it all gets done. I would suggest picking up odds and ends on the floor (cat food dishes that will spill?) before turning it loose, and moving any fragile items. The one problem I spotted was that Mr. Roomba likes to bang against furniture items that it can't go under, over or through, and in the case of one side table whose legs were set too close together for its width, and that is relatively old and small, this banging was forceful enough to tip over the lamp standing on top of it. So, something to be conscious of. On the plus side, it did climb the single small step (about three inches high) that separates my bathroom from the rest of my apartment as if it weren't even there. Noise wise, it's not quiet. On the other hand, it's quieter than a traditional vacuum cleaner -- perhaps as loud as an A/C unit with the fan turned to medium or high? Certainly an improvement on a traditional vacuum. And Cassie may yet come around to the whole "riding the Roomba" thing. Though at the moment, I think it's more likely that she'll end up stalking it and trying to devour it as prey. That's my interpretation of the current body language, at any event... UPDATE AS OF SEPTEMBER 2017: I am having a few problems with cat hair clogging the intake, that requires me to be careful and stop it and clean it out occasionally. And Cassie has progressed from "curious" to "freaked out." That said, I have adopted a new cat, Fergus, aka Sir Fergus the Fat. I don't WANT him to ride it, since, as his nickname implies, he may damage the thing. But he definitely sees it as something between his best friend and his next dinner.