Veritaserum Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I have six children and two cats. Sweeping is constantly needed in our hardwood floor kitchen. We don't have any rugs in there, but there are chairs, table legs, and stools to navigate around. I'm wondering about getting a robot vacuum specifically for the kitchen, but I'm reading mixed reviews about navigation around furniture legs. I'd probably block off the kitchen so that the unit is only running in there. What device do you have? How does it do around furniture? Pet hair? Crumbs? Dropped pieces of cereal? Do you love it? Do you recommend it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Sorry not sorry. http://youtu.be/So4rAFTPIUs 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camelfeet Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I'm meh about mine. I have all tile in my kitchen/dining/living area. It does a fair job at getting all the cat hair and navigates well around chairs and table legs. I just find that unless you run it at least once a day, it doesn't leave a house "guest ready" if that makes sense. If you are using it in just one room though, it should do a fair job. I don't use mine as much anymore, but before it would be running for 40 minutes then head back to its charge station. So we have this noisy-ish robot running around for an hour and interrupting schooling and I just thought that I probably could have done just as well with a regular vacuum in about 7 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandragood1 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I found it too noisy to run during school time, but I have an open plan house without carpets or curtains. It does a decent job, but you have to clean it out regularly. I'd advise purchasing one from Costco and trying it out. They are a 100% return policy so you can return it if you don't like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 My older five kids will be in school this year. I'm thinking this would run while I'm out taking them to school. Costco doesn't sell the model that gets the best reviews (Roomba 650), so I ordered it from Amazon. I'm super overwhelmed by life right now and the kitchen's constant crunchy floor is just one more thing pushing me toward the edge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 i liked my Roomba for my wood kitchen floor while it lasted. . . but the lifespan wasn't so great that I'd buy another one anytime soon. I just bought a miele, and it is so lightweight I don't mind getting it out. it's also faster and can be made quieter. is has options for great bare floor tools (and I just bought the flexible long crevice tool.) my 10yo will get it out and vacuum stairs. (and other stuff.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I bought a Neato in June and I love it. It does well navigating around things, including chair legs. I put the chairs on the table (seat side down, restaurant style) when I run it, but it would do fine if I didn't. We have a cat and a long haired dog and it does well with pet hair. The dirt bin holds more than I thought it would. I have an open plan house so I let it do all of the tile floors at once. I could mark off the kitchen if I needed to. It comes with a small length of magnetic strip and I ordered more. If I had to pick a con, I'd pick noise level. It's not quiet and you know when it's running. I have this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrittanyM Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I have the Neato package from Costco. DH got it for me for Christmas and I love it. It is on a schedule to run every night at 8, which is the kids bedtime, so they pick up before bed and when the vacuum turns on they know it is time for bed. It does do pretty well around chairs and such for me, we have wood laminate flooring. The only con is that it can't get under my cabinets so I have to sweep that part out so he can pick it up. It's still worth it though, my floors are so much cleaner than they used to be! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truscifi Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I have a Roomba. I have had it for several years. It runs daily after general pick up and does a pretty good job. I actually use it the most in the dining room because it is so much easier than sweeping under the table. I bought ours through Hammacher Schlemmer to get the lifetime warranty because they do have a kind of high failure rate, and I'm glad I did because we have already replaced it through them once. The biggest down side for me is that I have to replace the battery about once a year. It is annoying because I always forget and then have to wait for the replacement when the old one dies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 We mainly use ours in DD's room as a pick-up-the-toys incentive. She is allowed to run it and watch it run, if the toys are picked up. It is priceless for that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 We mainly use ours in DD's room as a pick-up-the-toys incentive. She is allowed to run it and watch it run, if the toys are picked up. It is priceless for that. I wonder if my kids would find that incentivizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypatia. Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 We've had one for several years for use in our tile kitchen, dining room, and entryway. Some models come with something they call lighthouses, which act like a virtual wall. We put them in the doorways between the dining room and kitchen, so Roomba will finish all of one room before moving to the next. We have 6 kids and (*quietly mutters a number larger than 2*) several cats. The kids sweep and then we run Roomba each night after dinner, it helps keep things under control. It's motivation for us to keep the areas Roomba-ready (hey, things are chaotic, it doesn't always happen) and definitely keeps the house looking much better. Now I just need a Stair-ba, or something that automatically vacuums the stairs. Without an attitude. <side-eyeing my 10 year old> 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 We have a roomba. We move it from room to room, but generally run it in the kitchen / eating area at least once a day. It cleans everything (pet hair, cereal). Often we put the chairs up on the table (inverted) the way I was taught to do in elementary school classrooms at the end of the day, because sometimes it spends too much time under a chair or two, looking for the way out. That means it would be spending less time doing the whole room -- which isn't a big deal, but I like to just get things out of the way. It goes on a schedule, and I don't worry if it goes with the chairs down whenever that happens to happen. Keeping the floors above an below a set of stairs really well cleaned tends to reduce the need to vacuum the stairs for me. It helped me be a cleaner person in general, because I tend to do a quick scan of rooms and tidy things off the floor as a matter of habit now. I also tend to keep fewer things on the floor and my rooms are simpler and look less cluttered/crowded. There is a very real pleasure for me in the feeling that I have started my dishwasher, started my roomba, and perhaps started my washer or dryer full of clothes... It's like having a little robot army working for me: just a few simple steps of work on my end, and they finish all the tough jobs while I put my feet up. In a previous (smaller) house, I paid for monthly house cleaning, but in this house the roomba has made all the difference. I find I don't need the help any more, and things rarely get all the way 'out of hand'. (We use the phrase "Roomba-ready" too. That's funny.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Yes, and I LOVE it. Mine is a newer version, I got it in May of this year I used it daily, sometimes twice a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I have six children and two cats. Sweeping is constantly needed in our hardwood floor kitchen. We don't have any rugs in there, but there are chairs, table legs, and stools to navigate around. I'm wondering about getting a robot vacuum specifically for the kitchen, but I'm reading mixed reviews about navigation around furniture legs. I'd probably block off the kitchen so that the unit is only running in there. What device do you have? How does it do around furniture? Pet hair? Crumbs? Dropped pieces of cereal? Do you love it? Do you recommend it? I do have a Roomba and mostly use it for the kitchen and garage entry area. I do love it. I generally take the chairs out, though, because the area around the table is often messiest and I don't want the Roomba struggling around all the legs. I think mine is in the 500 series; it is maybe 3 years old? It is my second Roomba. My first Roomba died earlier than expected and I didn't like that, but this one seems to be lasting better. My only irritation is that Roomba always gets stuck at the edge of my fridge. If I were handling it better, I would block it off so it would stay away. I think it senses the Mother Lode of dirt under the fridge and tries to no good effect to reach it. You will have to empty the collection bin every time and do brush maintenance/hair cut out from the brushes every month or two. Some people don't want to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Now I just need a Stair-ba, or something that automatically vacuums the stairs. Without an attitude. <side-eyeing my 10 year old I hear you on the need for a Stair-ba. I saw on a TV documentary once that the inventor of Roomba also invented a machine that crawls over the surface of a commercial airplane, looking for bolts that could be loose, to tragic effect. It made me think, "Hey! If it can crawl all over the surface of a plane, there can definitely be a vacuum that crawls up the stairs!" I am imagining it is cost-prohibitive to use this technology to vacuum stairs, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeAndTheBoys Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 We've had one for several years for use in our tile kitchen, dining room, and entryway. Some models come with something they call lighthouses, which act like a virtual wall. We put them in the doorways between the dining room and kitchen, so Roomba will finish all of one room before moving to the next. We have 6 kids and (*quietly mutters a number larger than 2*) several cats. The kids sweep and then we run Roomba each night after dinner, it helps keep things under control. It's motivation for us to keep the areas Roomba-ready (hey, things are chaotic, it doesn't always happen) and definitely keeps the house looking much better. Now I just need a Stair-ba, or something that automatically vacuums the stairs. Without an attitude. <side-eyeing my 10 year old> I have a Stair-ba. The six year old doesn't roll his eyes quite as much as the olders--- b 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeAndTheBoys Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I love my Roomba for the living areas--it goes through our living room, foyer & laundry room. I don't let it go in the kitchen because: 1) it knocks the cats water bowl, and 2) it's the perfect height to get snagged under the counter. I love it because my boys track dead grass in the house all the time through this high-traffic area of the house, and there is hidden cat fur. Roomba keeps it looking nice. I DON'T like it because it isn't good on edges--about half the time before i run it, I take the broom and sweep edges of the floor into the center to "help" it. I don't like it in the dining room because it gets stuck on the chairs. I don't let it go upstairs because the boys always have blocks and projects out and it's not worth clearing it all up just for the roomba. I don't let it go in our bedroom because there are too many cords out. BUT for the high-traffic living area, to be able to run it every day or two, it has been worth it. I wish I could work out kinks and use it in more areas of my house though. Probably when the kids are older and things are more organized--does that happen?? b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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