FYI: Cheap Roombas seem better than expensive ones. I have a random one which bangs around the house for a long time, and the house ends up clean. Push a button, come back an hour later, and you're done.

I like the simplicity.

I agree with this that they are better, but actually before the expensive roomba I had a cheap roomba and it worked terribly. Insisted on shoving itself right under the perfect height furniture. My house is pretty basic. But my brother had similar roomba and I know he had better luck than me, but now has a shark.

I have a cheap (well, also old, there wasn’t too much else back then, it’s 10 years old) iRobot Roomba 620 and am very happy with it. Extremely repairable, which is not something I read about modern ones of any manufacturer.

I have a successor, almost identical, but perhaps two generations newer. Upgrades:

- Bigger, better dust bin

- Slightly less dust makes it into the HEPA filter

- Slightly better / cheaper roller design

... and similar details.

A friend gave me their smarter vacuum (which they didn't use), and I hated it:

1) It tried to overthink things and was pretty demanding.

2) It didn't clean as well. My Roomba has a pretty anaemic vacuum, but cleans very well by virtue of going over every place many times in random directions as it bumps along for 30+ minutes. The smart vacuum plotted a course which covered everything once, finished up in record time, and nothing was actually clean.

What's odd is that even now, 2+ decades after launch, so little has improved. What I really want is "cyclone operation," as in any modern dumb vacuum, so most of the dust doesn't make it to the HEPA filter. The design is stupid simple:

- Air comes into a circular container from a hole in the side, so the air spins.

- Suction comes out a hole in the top at a half-way point in the radius of the dust container, while most of the dust wants to stay at the inside or outside

- If you're even more clever, you put the suction at half height, because dust naturally goes to the bottom.

The annoying thing is cleaning or replacing filters.

I had one and it got trapped and strangled itself regularly and ran over things and was totally useless. I pretty much wouldn't recommend those basic robot vacuums.

The "run over things" is almost a feature for me. I run the Roomba a few times a week, and I need to tidy up before. Mess never builds up. It means I keep my floors clean!

The "gets stuck under furniture" is a bug. However, I don't have much furniture at Roomba height. If I did, it'd make the device useless.

I did the same thing and it broke 1 month after the 1 year warranty expired. A cryptic error that means buying a new brain for it. Ridiculous that a $800 robot breaks.

Bought two sharks for $300 each. Not quite as good, but so much cheaper. And doesn’t require bags.

I think they are utterly ridiculous. Get a decent canister vacuum that plugs into the wall and you'll have clean floors in 15 minutes (or less if your house is small) with no frustration, no ugly charging station to trip over, no batteries to catch on fire or require hazmat disposal when they don't work anymore, no apps, no accounts, no spying.

15 minutes how often? Once you spend 15 minutes 20 times that's a pretty significant amount.

I think it's pretty fair to assume that anyone buying a Roomba knows about normal vacuums, and still prefer the room as for reasons that are obvious.

( Also lol at the "batteries" that catch fire, as if that's actually a thing that people should worry about. Might as well be scared of your canister vacuum's motor burning out and destroying your house, or never buy a laptop!!)

Why is this downvoted? Sure, a bit emotional, but the content still stands. There are so many places where Roomba and friends cannot reach. I still was a washer / dryer than can fold my clothes and change the sheets on my bed. That seems like an almost impossible task for a robot.

It's not 'a bit emotional', it's a tantrum with as much logic as saying why have a washer/dryer when you still have to hand wash some stuff.

Folding clothes, changing sheets, load/unload the dishwasher. Those are the things I'd pay good money to automate away. As much as I hate to vacuum, it's far down my list of the chores that annoy me most.

Meanwhile, e.g. loading and unloading the dishwasher annoys me enough that I must admit I have considered replacing my dishwasher with two slimline or drawer ones so I can use stuff out of one while filling the other...

I know someone who has two regular sized dish washers. They are super happy about it.

Great. Ours vacuums and mops, and don't tell me you can do both in 15 minutes.

There's nothing worth buying more than free time.

Honestly? This isn't even a question of time. My house could take 5 minutes to clean and I still wouldn't find motivation to do it every week. Here I just push a button and at least the floors will be cleaned and mopped, and when I have more motivation I can clean in a deeper way.

I think you're mad about something but I can't quite pinpoint what, because it's not frustrating, the charging station isn't that ugly and is out of the way (because the robot knows how to get back to it), and lithium batteries have not been a real fire hazard since the note 8. I agree that using them in the first place is kind of Not Nice for the planet, but since you brought up the points of frustrating and tripping over stuff: do you somehow think using a wired vacuum is a pleasant experience?

I run my robot daily and every two weeks we pay someone to come clean. Robot mostly does a good job of keeping the floor clean during those two weeks, but it can't do the counter tops, clean the toilets or dust everywhere.