Has anyone tried a Roomba?

Friends who live in a modern, spotless flat have one and love it but for a farm?
I would get rid of all carpets and sweep and wash/wipe the floors.
I have a stick battery cordless dyson which only lasts for about 20 minutes and wouldn't cope with hay and straw.

I bought it to save my back from lugging heavy cleaners up and down stairs but I think I need one on each floor.

Sweeping with a brush is almost as painful for me as hoovering. It's the forwards and back movement with no resistance that catches you out.
I thought the hay and straw would be a problem. The Dyson doesn't like it either
I would prefer one made in the UK and not China (?) too.

Yes, it sweeps all the downstairs wooden floors when we’re asleep.

I don’t have one , but if I was in the market for one I would probably buy a Eufy .

Daughter has a robot one for upstairs. I’m not convinced that it does a good job as she has three catsad three children but she likes it and it encourages children to clear their floors when it is on the loose! I have an overpriced chargeable stick vacuum but I don’t rate it and have just bought a new upright vacuum for downstairs - time will tell.

We have a Roomba. We were sceptical at first, but it does what it says on the tin - we love it!

We have a Eufy. Worth every penny.
You need to risk assess the area for things like wires and anything it might get stuck on. It thinks sunny spots are a drop!!
After that you set it going and make a cuppa.
It needs emptying and the brush cleaning regularly but it saves all the heavy work.
It cleans really well. I use a long handled duster to knock dust off skirtings and higher for Eufy to pick up.
It cries if it needs help and docks itself when it needs recharging.
I now vacuum daily!!

It's excellent with edges but does miss a very tiny bit in corners...hardly noticeable.

I have a Roomba, it does an excellent job. I set it to vacuum 3 times a week, it does a better job than me pushing my Dyson around.

My son and DIL have one and are pleased with it but they have solid wood floors and no carpet.

I have forgotten the make of mine. I do not have any carpets but this one cannot get on or off rugs. It also has a tendency to clean one area 5 times and miss others. It is good as an extra, not as my main vacuum. I have a Miele downstairs and a Shark upright upstairs which was going cheaply on Amazon.

I wouldn't be without my Roomba, in fact I bought a secondhand one on Gumtree so I have one upstairs and one downstairs.

When buying the first one, like you, I thought they were expensive so bought one of the generic (cheaper) ones and that was a disaster. The first one lasted approx 30 mins before it died, the second lasted 15 mins and then the seller problems started. Thank goodness I had bought it on eBay as I had to open a dispute to get my refund. So after that experience I only recommend iRobot Roomba, rather than cheaper generics and have NO affiliation with iRobot. LOL

I have a Dyson rechargeable handheld for the stairs but the Roomba does everything else including floor rugs, except the longer, shag pile floor rug but I do that with the Dyson and really it's not a big deal.

The corners and edges are done properly because there is a rotating brush which extends past the side of the Roomba and this reaches into corners and along edges.

Because I'm retired I bought the less expensive model (531) which doesn't have programming, so I have to press 'clean' when I want the floors done...again, no big deal!

If you have pets, then a pet-model is recommended, I have friends with both cats and dogs who live in the house and they highly recommend the pet model.

Floors upstairs are carpet and downstairs polished porcelain tiles with rugs, I have since bought an iRobot Mop to do the tiles and that is great too. I just wish I had known about robot vacs when I had back surgery, as my floors weren't done for 12 weeks!

Hope this helps? good luck with your back.

Sounds like a great gadget- but not cheap.
One thing that comes across in the majority of posts is the advisability of an upstairs and a downstairs vac. I don’t know why that had never occurred to me -apart from where to keep the upstairs one. I have a Miele Cat and Dog vac in the garage- excellent but rarely sees the light of day as I can’t be bothered to lug it through and especially not upstairs and a Dyson cordless which lives in the coat cupboard. It is so easy to hoover up odd crumbs or bits of dirt that it comes out (briefly) most days.

Weighing up the pro's and cons I'm now less sure. I have a brand new carpet in the living room which hasn't lost its luxurious lovely thick feel, and most of the rest of the house is carpeted.
But it would save a lot of wear and tear on the old back - if it works.

I live in a bungalow due to my disabilities. Would one of these robots go through the whole bungalow, every room? all on one level but different floors eg bathroom & kitchen tiles, bedrooms/lounge carpets?

My son has one. I’ve watched it working and it goes over tiles to carpet no problem. He says key thing is to buy one that takes itself back to charge point, that way you don’t have a ‘dead’ object waiting to trip you up!!
If I was you, I would go to Curry’s or wherever with some straw, tell them you want a demo!! Then you’ll know for certain! ???

We have one - my son took up an offer of trialling one from somewhere and we used to put it on while we went out to do the grocery shopping.
I thought it did a really good job, personally. It was surprising what it picked up , including all the fluffy undercoat from the cat we had at that time.
Only thing was that I still had to do a whisk around the corners and skirting board ever so often and if you have throws over any furniture you must make sure it is all off floor level or the robot gets stuck on them!

It should do every room - you can usually set them up to do the whole floor space or just one room.
They have sensors on so can sense whether it's carpet or tiles etc.
You might need to stop it and empty the bin on it, as they don't tend to be huge.

Go for it gal! I've had one for 4 years, and it's brilliant! Ok, so it won't do the stairs (dalek problem ) but it will go under the beds, under the sofa and the sideboard etc and it's very thorough - much more than I would be! Keep your old vac for the stairs and the cobwebs on the ceiling.

Which best buys are Robot Roomba s9+ at just under £2000 and Dyson 360 Heurist at just over £1000! Next Irobot Roomba £697 then Miele Scout RX2, £445.

Hope this helps.

My sister bought one but was not impressed as she complained about how much tidying up she had to do first! Her family, with two teenagers, do have an obsession with technology so have various chargers plugged into most sockets with trailing wires which need removing first. She also has to barricade off the tv unit with all the wires connecting tv, broadband router, games machine etc as the roomba once tried to eat them!

I decided to get a cleaner once a fortnight instead of buying a roomba after my sisters experience, at £24 a fortnight it might cost a bit more ( depends on how long a roomba lasts as they are expensive) but it’s a more thorough clean and I don’t have to do anything other than wipe around the bathroom in between visits.

I have a couple of Shark cordless vacs, they are very much lighter than a Dyson (I had several over the years, wouldn't touch them again), battery lasts well and the dust collector is a decent size. They have accessories that will do edges and corners.
The base plate comes off very easily if something wraps around the brush bar. I think it would cope with hay but straw is a bit tougher.

When I saw the header I was presuming this was about a new dance or exercise move....hahaha. Wanders off in search of the charger for vacuum. I think I have looked everywhere except where it is...sighs.

I bought a Deebot off Amazon. Cheaper model than a Rhoomba with no GPS so it is fun watching its simple algorithms work things out. But it docks itself and, apart from cleaning the brush (I shed hair like crazy) and emptying the little dust box, it is brilliant. I have had it for over a year now. My husband thinks it is hilarious.