Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is great for day to day maintenance. We have cats and a lot of trees and it seemed like the floor was always covered with cat hair and leaves. I looked at reviews for several robots including the Neato. I finally decided on Roomba in part because I just don't like the Neato aesthetically but, mostly because a video review showed the Roomba was better at picking up leaves and reviews all over the place raved about how it does on pet hair. I really love that it doesn't have brushes. In my house, I think brushes would deteriorate in perforamce quicker than the rubber extractors it uses. Things you need to know before purchasing: Unless you live in a cord free, kid free environment you will have to do some planning to allow Roomba to effectively and efficiently do scheduled cleanings without hangups.Things I do each morning: 1. Make my boys close their rooms off (they also have the option to keep their floor completely free of foreign object so door closed it is). 2. I flip my kitchen chairs onto the table. I do this so the Roomba can get under the table freely to clean. I can leave them down if I don't want it to clean under there. 3. I lay my bath mat on the edge of the tub (my mat is really thick and for some reason, Roomba can cross it fine from one direction but from the other direction it gets under the edge of the rug and just kind of pushes it up. It does fine on my sink rug in the kitchen I'm assuming because it isn't fluffy. 4. I make sure any cell phone cords (or other really skinny cords) are up out of its reach. It will sometimes grab skinny cords and they will wrap around its rollers. this doesn't hurt the Roomba but could potentially damage the cords. You also have to watch it with flat extension cords. We have the light houses set up at the kitty dishes and one under our bed to keep Roomba out from under the head of the bed. The reason for this is we have a sleep number bed and Roomba gets hung on the hose sometimes and it's a bit of a pain to fish her out. We just keep these set up all the time and switch out rechargeable batteries as needed (so far we haven't needed to). It takes maybe two minutes of prep in the morning before Roomba starts her cleaning cycle. I could cut it to more like 10 seconds if I didn't want her cleaning under the table. There are a couple of other things I do when I'm present when Roomba cleans. I move my desk chair out so she can get under the desk and I open and close my closet door so she can clean behind the door or inside the closet. I maintenance the machine at least every other week which takes maybe ten minutes. I empty the bin after every cleaning but, after it had cleaned a couple of times it takes two cleanings to fill the bin. the first time we had to empty the bin halfway through the cleaning. Parts are super easy to attach and detach. It gives you an instruction book but it's almost a no brainer without it. Nothing difficult about caring for this machine. The cats have varying reactions to it. One is terrified of it (she's a classic scaredy cat though), one barely acknowledges its existence and the other two view it as a mild curiosity that they keep their distance from. It's pretty loud on carpet but it's quieter than our upright. When I use my upright behind it. The upright picks up very little (I'd say about a woman's handful of loose debris. If you close your hand on it that would condense to about the size of a super ball. I should note here we only have two carpeted rooms and the Roomba only runs in one of those. My upright is supposed to be abel to do bare floors but it doesn't do a very good job so I don't bother. I should also note Roomba does a pretty good job on picking up loose litter from the litter bins. It will not quite replace my broom, though :(. All in all my floors are cleaner with less work and she's largely unobtrusive but according to what prep you're willing to make and what results you expect YMMV. We're very pleased with it.