Originally posted in October 2009.
When I was a little girl, I was confident that I would not have to clean up after myself as an adult. It wasn’t that I thought I would be rich enough to afford a live in housekeeper (though of course in my mind that would also be true, dahling). Rather, I was certain that pretty much everybody would have a robot maid, just like in the Jetsons.
Let me be clear; I WAS CERTAIN.
Time passed. I was getting older. The new millennium came. College was ending for me and I was facing…THE REAL WORLD! Soon I would have to go out and purchase my robot maid since I would be living on my own.
Only, it turns out that robot maids still didn’t exist. WHAT?!?!?! Yes, as a 21 year old, I was genuinely dismayed. So I sucked it up and learned how to do basic housekeeping, but only to bide my time until those robot maids hit the market.
And then it happened.
ROOMBA! While it wasn’t a robot maid, it gave me sooo much hope for the future! Roomba would be the first step toward fulfilling my dreams. It only does the vacuuming, but hey, that’s a start.
I didn’t get a Roomba for the first few years it was out, because it turns out that robot maids are pricey. But when we realized that we were ready to start a family last year, it made our Christmas 2008 wish list. I simply didn’t feel right about bringing home a bundle of joy in 2009 without my pseudo robot maid to help out around the house.
My husband has very generous and kind parents, and because of them, Roomba was under the Christmas tree last year. Yippee! I remember the moment when I realized that I would NEVER have to vacuum again. It was beautiful.
When we got our lovely vacuuming robot home, we put him right to work! Our Christmas tree had dropped quite a few needles, so we thought this would be the perfect test. Roomba vacuumed in our living room (an average size living room) for 45 minutes, running around seemingly at random looking for dirt. Roomba wasn’t as loud as a standard vacuum, but he wasn’t quiet, either. That’s ok, as long as the job gets done, right? Well, the job didn’t really get done. The little tray that holds the dirt/debris filled up, so we had to stop and empty it. Then it went back to work for maybe another 20 minutes (after being charged, because it has also run out of energy). It still didn’t get everything up. But we forgave it and decided that Roomba was probably ideal for more everyday vacuuming. To be fair, it isn’t every day that we have tree needles all over our floors.
The weeks passed, and we kept hope alive for little Roomba. But what we found was pretty consistent with our experience on day one. Our findings were as follows:
1.Roomba takes FOREVER to clean a room (20 minutes, at a minimum).
2. Forget about staying in a room while it is being vacuumed. It is too loud and Roomba will run into you.
3. Roomba gets tuckered out pretty quickly and has to be recharged after doing 3 average size rooms. Having to constantly recharge the Roomba really lengthens the amount of time you spend trying to get your house vacuumed. We try to vacuum the whole house on one day, and it really does take all day to get it done.
4. Roomba DOES NOT do well if you have a house that actually gets dirty. We have 2 cats. Roomba gets cat hair stuck in it on a regular basis, and has to be cleaned out. The debris tray is also teeny tiny, which means that you frequently have to empty the bin.
So basically, Roomba is ideal for someone with no children, no pets, no mess, who lives in a 3 room house and doesn’t mind leaving them while vacuuming happens.
Oh my little robot maid, I had such high hopes for you, but what I’ve found is that just getting out an upright vacuum and doing the job myself is much less of a hassle.
photo credit: Eirik Newth via photopin cc
I was pretty disappointed in my Roomba. To be honest, I don’t even remember what model I had, but it only lasted about a week with how hard we are on our carpets. We have 5 rescue dogs and 2 kids that love making messes together. We get a professional carpet cleaning two times a year and still constantly have messy carpets. We were hoping the robot would help but alas, we are out of luck. Oh well, looks like more manual vacuuming for us haha
“Roomba is ideal for someone with no children, no pets, no mess, who lives in a 3 room house and doesn’t mind leaving them while vacuuming happens.” Yup! That’s me! I love my Rosie! She’s not perfect but she’s great =)
Love! ,we bought ours 2013. We have dark hardwood floors and a white German shepherd. We had no idea how much hair this type of dog sheds!!! We turn our Rhoomba (we call ours Alice) on at night when we go to bed and again in the morning when we go to work. Unbelievable the amount of hair and sand it picks up daily. If you are looking for this little unit to do the thorough vacuuming that you would do…that isn’t going to happen. BUT it will do upkeep and daily cleaning so you only have to vacuum once or twice a week. It really is a great addition and I don’t ever want to be without one. Our model is a 770 especially for pet hair.
I’ve had my Roomba for about two years and I’m still in love with it. I have three pugs who shed like buffalo, and yes, the tray needs frequent emptying, but that’s because it’s picking up a whole lot of dog hair. The first few weeks after my Roomba arrived was the only time I had to practically follow it around to keep up with the tray emptying, because the Roomba was getting dirt and hair that my vacuum cleaner was missing. Gradually the emptying frequency turned into once or twice per use. I recently moved from a small house with tile and hardwood floors to a large house with lots of carpet. Again I’m having to empty the tray more than I’d like because in addition to the pugs, the Roomba is pulling up amazing amounts of dust and carpet dirt that even the professional cleaners had missed. I turn the Roomba loose in different rooms on different days and the carpet looks better with each cleaning. The Roomba comes with handy tools that make it easy to get pug hair out of the brush and beater. And while I’ve needed customer service only once when a wheel spring broke, they were great and sent me a new Roomba. When this one dies, I’ll give it a decent funeral and get a newer, fancier one. I will say that the Roomba has me trained to tidy up electrical cords and trailing plants, but it does a great job of keeping the vacuum cleaner in the closet!
We just bought an irobot roomba from Kohls ($280 after sale price and coupon + $50 kohls cash back). We are in love! The roomba fits under 90% of our furniture — including the treadmill. It is not loud and it is amazing the dog hair it picks up! Who new two chihuahuas could shed so much??? It did a great job on our hardwoods, tile and carpet. I would venture to say they have improved since 2008. Maybe “Rosie” deserves a second chance? Our “Eva the Cleaning Diva” is going in the will! Haha 🙂
I love mine !
I LOVE my Roomba! It’s set to go off every night at 1 am so no one has to ever hear it. I do have 2 younger, dirty children and 1 dog that sheds alot. I do not have it run through out our whole hose, only the main living floor which is a craft room, entryway, small powder room, family room and kitchen. it works well on the run under my dining room table but does not get along with a furry, shag rug that our sofas sit on.
I’m sorry to hear of your bad experience as I love mine!
That’s disappointing, but thanks for the honest review. I’d love a robot maid of my own, but I’ve been concerned about its ability to clean up after my furry friends who seem to shed their weight in hair on a weekly basis.
I love this post 🙂 Sorry that your “Rosie” was an imposter. My MIL tried to talk me into buying a very expensive Neato from Costco–I’m assuming the results would have been similar to using a Roomba, so I said no thanks, I’d vacuum my own floor and spend my $300 elsewhere!
I am glad I did not waste the time or money. I could not imagine. I have three cats and two dogs. NO KIDS, but I think this is not a match for my house either..Plus we have 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a bunch of other rooms also bottom line too big. I could never finish cleaning that house with just one roomba and with that price…no thanks I will PASS. I think Roomba just broke my heart as well.
I appreciate hearing an honest opinion on the roomba. I have 2 cats also and I don’t think it would work for us either…plus the cost.
I KNEW it was too good to be true. Oh well…my dogs would haved “killed” it anyway. Thanks for the review.
Oh yeah, good point. I don’t know how a dog could possibly resist it! Can’t speak from experience, but I would imagine that it would be a quick target!
Wow! This is a real honest review! I very rarely see a honest heart to heart review! Thanks for letting me know about roomba. Always wondered what was the fuss all about…
Yes, I’m afraid it is true…more hype than it is worth…at least for us!
No kids? Check. No pets? Check. No mess? Welll, check-ish. (None on the floor, at least.) 3 rooms? Yup. And why leave the room when you can sit on the sofa or bed or kitchen counter and read or watch the zen-like progress of the Roomba?
Sounds like you need to get one, Julie! 🙂 I know they are a good fit for some…just not us!
Oh dear, oh dear! My hopes have been dashed – I was planning to get one. But on the bright side, you saved me some money. BBL, time for ME to vacuum!
So sorry to dash the dream! Maybe one day we really all will have robot maids like the Jetsons! Alas, I don’t think we are there yet!
I got one for Christmas and love it! Maybe they are better than they were? We run ours every day and it still gets pretty full. 🙂
Maybe so! The one I’m referencing was out in 2008, so perhaps they have made some improvements!
Thanks for the extremely honest and thorough review. I've always wondered how well Roombas *really* work.
Also: I wouldn't mind having a robot maid like the Jetsons. Goodness knows I need one! Especially for the floors and the bathroom.
stephanie@metropolitanmama.net
Have you tried contacting Roomba customer service? They have been great to work with. My MIL has one and when hers stopped holding a charge after a few months they worked with her to problem-solve and when nothing worked, they sent her a new battery free of charge.
I have the Roomba 500 series robot and have had a great experience with it. We've used it for the past year and a half. While I agree that it takes a while and needs charged between big jobs, we've just adjusted our routine to make this work for us.
Instead of trying to vac the whole house in one day, I just do one or two rooms at a time. I probably run it every other day or so in different rooms so that the whole house is being vacuumed every week or so. We've not had a problem with the battery losing its charge before the job is done.
We usually do leave the room while it is running. While it does require some upkeep (emptying the dust bin and cleaning the brushes after every couple uses), I find it still beats lugging a vacuum around the house. And I especially like that it doesn't put a lot of dust/odor into the are like my old-school vacuum.
We got Roomba's mopping cousin Scooba about 6 months ago and have been happy so far. I like that you can use a vinegar/water solution instead of the clorox solution they want to sell you. Now my laminate floors get mopped 2-3 times a month–I won't tell you how long it was between moppings before Scooba!