Light weight vacuum cleaner

I've got an Oreck which is a light upright and love it.

Those of you who have a roomba - could I please ask where you buy your filters, brushes etc.? Ebay have some that look cheap - but they are coming from Hong Kong and I am not sure about the import tax when they arrive.

Any thoughts?

Robert the Roomba has just efficiently cleaned our spare bedroom and is chugging its way round the bathroom as I write - brilliant!!

I have been drip-feeding DBH with the idea of getting one, Mishap. I read about them a few years ago and coveted one, as I have a huge vax and dodgy hips and knees, so getting it up and down the stairs is really hard and I have to wait for him to get home and carry it for me. I can still use it for stairs and floor-washing and carpet-cleaning though, but even if I end up having to have a Roomba as a birthday present, I think it would be worth it.

Well, he's just said yes, so which model should I be going for? I don't need to programme it. I suspect it will be whatever is cheapest... I am so relieved though, looking at my carpet was getting very depressing as it needs vacuuming pretty much every day. It doesn't get it though.

We paid £299 for Roomba 620 on amazon - it cleans, but you can't programme it to work while you are out and it does not have a warning of a full dust pan. If you want those features it will cost another £100.

We decided that we were capable of setting it going just as we leave the house (assuming we wanted it to work while we were out) and that we can check the dustpan. I reason that we have just saved £100, and try not to think about the £299!!

It has spring cleaned our upstairs today, and tomorrow the downstairs gets its turn!

I have been following this with interest as well. I would really like one but DH doesn't think we need one. We have tiled floors throughout the house and especially in the summer time, a lot of dust and grit get walked in. Sweeping it up doesn't seem to get rid of all of it and vacuuming to get rid of it properly is really hard work.
Are they very noisy? I have been wondering why you need to set it to come on when you are out.

Filters? Brushes? I've never changed mine yet in three plus years. I just take them out, clean and wash them, leave them to dry thoroighly and put them back. Simples!

A lady after my own heart! - but my OH likes to go by the book.

Throw it at him Mushap

No Dusty not noisy and it's not obligatory to set it to work when you are out. But there is just something very decadent satisfying about coming back to a cleaned house.

There was an episode of Jonathan Creek, where a funeral urn containing ashes got knocked over in a house, and before it could be cleared up it vanished [the pile of ashes] and they thought the house was haunted; it was a Roomba, doing it's stuff and then putting itself away quietly!

Oh yes, I had forgotten that! So funny. I don't think it was my 'feminine' wiles that persuaded DBH, I think it was a youtube clip he saw of a cat wearing a shark outfit sitting serenely on a Roomba as it wandered about the room!

Just read all your comments re vacuum cleaners. Can anyone recommend a vac that can do normal floors and stairs without having to be carried and that has a long enough flex to reach from bottom to top of stairs, or one that has a long tube that reaches form bottom to top of stairs. I find I cannot carry my dyson pull along model to do the stairs, my upright dyson (ancient dco4) has not got a long enough tube to reach. Im reluctant to have to buy a third one but I need my stairs done with a white cat and a red carpet it needs done desperately.

A red carpet ethelbags , wow, you must feel very VIP walking along that! Sorry can't help as I don't have any stairs.
janerowena we have all been made happy at one time or another by seeing a cat wearing a shark outfit, I mean what's not to like?

roses: I laughed at that I didn't think of a red carpet as being for a VIP when I bought it I just like red, correction, DID like red, until I saw the mess with white cat hairs.

Thank you Aka for the information re noise. I had a feeling that might be the reason for going out, the idea appeals to me as well. Not that I'd think that any member of GN could be decadent of course.
I don't really need one but I really, really want one.

I think I'll have to get DH to watch some youtube clips with me.

Our house is cleaner than it has ever been!

Next question, are they heavy? I'm thinking the postage might be cheaper if I get one when I'm next in England. Mishap could you get Robert to hop on the scales next time you use him?

ethelbags1 My vax is on wheels, but is too heavy for me to carry downstairs now (dodgy hips). However, it lives under the stairs so all I will have to do is plug it in and the hose is so long when extended that I can use it to do the stairs, and just use the new Roomba for everywhere else, when I get it. So I was thinking, maybe you could just buy an extension hose for whatever you have now? There are kits that you can buy on Amazon that fit most vacuums.

Dusty - the specs say 3.6kg.

Thankyou.