Wondering about a robot vacuum.

Have you bought one Lizbethann?

Pittcity. I note you said that it won’t fall downstairs. I live in an ‘upside down’ house so the upstairs living room is open to the stairs. Would it be safe to use in there?

NotSpaghetti, I'd go for a Neato, they're the best!

I have one I call Ruby Roomba. MY DH hates it and I love it. I bought it really early so it was really quite expensive at the time. I've had her for 5 or 6 years now and I'm happy with the it leaves the place looking clean and tidy. If it broke down I'd definitely buy another.

NotSpaghetti no. But we just bought joint presents this Christmas and I think I might have suggested getting one of those as neither of us likes housework. We saw a lot of the grass cutting ones when on holiday in Holland a few years ago. They looked great.

It has a sensor that senses drops. Mine also stops in bright sunshine when crossing from a light patch on the floor to a darker patch...the same sensor.

micky987

My friend had one about 10 years ago. She programmed it to hoover downstairs when they were all in bed at night. One morning she came down and was horrified to find the dog had had diarrhoea, the robot swiped it across the whole of the newly tiled floor (a huge area of over 200m sq) then the under floor heating had come on and baked it all in. It took days of scrubbing and different products to clean all the white grouting !!!

I’ve just told a similar story, though mine didn’t include underfloor heating. Just carpet which was equally horrible.

Pittcity Thank you.

Thanks for all this information. I often wondered if they’d be any good. I love the idea that it cleans right up to the kick panels or go under the bed, providing its high enough up. Does it move from laminated floor to rug?
Could be my cheer up item for 2021.

Mine does.
I've different flooring in every room, and rugs, and it manages them all.

Watch the fringes on rugs though. It can get tangled (mine hasn't. Yet!)

Could not live without Roomba! For anyone with a bad back, it's not a luxury, in fact, it's not a luxury at any time...life's too short to spend time vacuuming floors!

About 10 or 11 yrs ago I bought a no-name robot, it died within 20 mins, was replaced by the store and the second one died in 9 minutes!! Demanded a refund and spent the extra on a Roomba, should have done that in the beginning.

Since moved to a split level house so bought another Roomba on Gumtree as the man didn't like it and their cat was frightened. Now I have both cleaning at the same time, one upstairs and one down....it's heaven! Roomba cleans the low, level pile floor rug but can't get into the shag pile rug, other than that, nothing stops it.

Then when the one in the living area has finished, I set the Roomba Brava Jet to work mopping the hard floors.

Recently I checked out robot lawnmowers at a Husqvarna store but it would cost in around Au$5k...they still could not answer my question, what is to stop someone driving up the street (or walking) from stealing the mower. The only answer they could give was 'it will beep' ...so unless the thief is put off by 'beeps' he/she wouldn't be perturbed! LOL

For now I'll still to robot vacuum and mopping, my back loves both.

Well! I hope I have done the right thing. I had toyed with the idea of getting a robot vacuum as I have trouble with arthritis in mr neck and shoulder. My trusty Dyson is becoming more difficult to manage. Having read all the posts on here, I was convinced. I have ordered a Bagotte 600 — on offer on Amazon and with lots of 5 star reviews.
Until I read these posts, I did not know they could mop my kitchen floor too ?
The vacuum is arriving today and the mopping part in a few days. I shall be interested in my cats’ reactions. They go through the cat flap like rockets when the Dyson comes out.

Ooh, will you let us know how you and the cats get on with it?

Tweedle - do please give us an update on the Bagotte 600!

EilaRose

Could not live without Roomba! For anyone with a bad back, it's not a luxury, in fact, it's not a luxury at any time...life's too short to spend time vacuuming floors!

About 10 or 11 yrs ago I bought a no-name robot, it died within 20 mins, was replaced by the store and the second one died in 9 minutes!! Demanded a refund and spent the extra on a Roomba, should have done that in the beginning.

Since moved to a split level house so bought another Roomba on Gumtree as the man didn't like it and their cat was frightened. Now I have both cleaning at the same time, one upstairs and one down....it's heaven! Roomba cleans the low, level pile floor rug but can't get into the shag pile rug, other than that, nothing stops it.

Then when the one in the living area has finished, I set the Roomba Brava Jet to work mopping the hard floors.

Recently I checked out robot lawnmowers at a Husqvarna store but it would cost in around Au$5k...they still could not answer my question, what is to stop someone driving up the street (or walking) from stealing the mower. The only answer they could give was 'it will beep' ...so unless the thief is put off by 'beeps' he/she wouldn't be perturbed! LOL

For now I'll still to robot vacuum and mopping, my back loves both.

Re anti-theft for the robot lawnmower, I have to enter a security code into mine if I need to restart it for any reason. Also, it has GPS, so if somebody took it I'd know where it was! It's true that it was expensive, but less than the cost of replacing our elderly ride-on mower, which will hopefully keep going for years now that I only need to do bits and pieces with it, and not the acre of main lawn.

MissAdventure Reporting back as requested.

I am delighted with it thus far. I don’t have the tank for mopping, that is not coming until February.

The cats are more curious than scared. The female, much braver than her brother, follows it around at a safe distance.

Having played with it on the day it arrived, I left it on charge in the living room. During the night, I was woken by one of the cats thundering down the stairs and a low hum above my bedroom (upside down house). I decided it was fridge or freezer and went back to sleep. I went upstairs in the morning to a beautifully vacuumed living room and kitchen and robot jammed under the cooker. Obviously one of the cats, probably the female, had started it up while investigating. I turn it off at night now.

I haven’t tried it in the sewing room yet. It will be interesting to see how it copes with scraps of cotton.

Oh I'm so pleased you like it.

I took my washing out of the machine the other day to find my bath mat backing had totally disintegrated.

I took all the clothes out, shook them onto the floor, and set gloria loose, thinking it would be a good test - lots of damp, rubbery confetti.

She did herself proud.

I too have a Eufy - given to me as a present at Christmas 2019, when I was still struggling with a broken arm. House is a cottage (no stairs). Most days I shut the bedroom and bathroom doors and set it to work. When I change bedding I shut it in the bedroom to clear any fluff. Does a great job on carpet and equally well on the kitchen vinyl.

As a bonus, I empty the dust pan into the empty open fire and use it as a firelighter

I am still examining the options... does anyone use one around a lot of dining chairs? I have ten chairs (40 legs) around my table! Do you think it can pick up the tumbleweeds of dust that have been known to roll along the tiles under there?
Ideally it would be nice if I didn't have to pick the chairs up every time...

Mine was bought mostly to deal with the tumbleweed.
I also have a man sized muddy bike in my living room, which until recently was wheeled in and out enough times to drive me to despair.

It does all of that, and I just pull a couple of chairs out at a time and it deals with all the "under the table" grot, too.

Ok. I'm totally sold!
??

JaneD666...thanks for the update. The salesman didn't mention the GPS tracker but I had thought about buying my own tracker and fitting to the lawnmower...if I bought one.

Know about ride-on mowers, in a past house I used to mow 3.5 acres but that mower was too big once I moved into town and a smaller yard.

Will hire someone to mow the lawns for now and decide later what I'll do, just have to concentrate on several surgeries at the moment which means I'm unable to do the mowing.

Thanks for the info anyway, it's appreciated. ;-)

NotSpaghetti...I have a dining table with 6 chairs and the Roomba isn't bothered by them because the rotating brush on the right side sweeps around the legs on the porcelain tiles.

If you lived closer I would loan you one of mine to test. I do understand your apprehension though as I was the same, 10 years ago...now I couldn't live without one, or in my case, two.

Check Gumtree, you might find someone who doesn't like it for whatever reason, often it's because of their cat.

Thanks Elia. The prices are SO varied. It is hard to decide when you haven't even seen one working "in the flesh".

NotSpaghetti It will clean perfectly well round as many chair legs as you confront it with, but it might waste time cleaning them again when it meets them later in its random perambulations round the room. It doesn't distinguish between what it cleaned two minutes ago and the obstacles it has just met. Also if the chairs have close-set legs and are standing close together they might form a barrier and interrupt its progress. If that happens, the answer could be to move one or two chairs out a bit, as Miss Adventure does.