<p>We found out today that Astro can eat all the needles that fell from our dried-out Christmas tree. We had to empty the bin a couple of times, but we got to sit and watch The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain while Astro worked in the living room. Too cool. I’m even more sold than I was before – especially since our built-in vac system choked and plugged up on fir needles a few years ago. </p>
<p>(The previous owner sold built-in vacuum systems, so we have one. WashMom in particular hates dragging the hose around, so she won’t use it. Hence, my search for new technology to supplement our 28-year-old upright.)</p>
<p>We got a roomba for my dad. He can’t get around much, so I think it will be a good thing. We tried it out before we left. It’s really cute! Like a little animal.</p>
<p>His place doesn’t get too messy, though, except when we are visiting.</p>
<p>I never saw the movie, but I think I want to now!</p>
<p>Our Roomba had a little trouble with the fir needles, but I think it may be related to where our tree was placed. The needles were getting tangled up in the fringe of a rug, and being shoved under the rug. We had to babysit Roombe while it worked on the needles.</p>
<p>Amazon lists the roomba 560 for $342. Is this what you have and is that a good price?</p>
<p>How does the roomba figure out rooms that lead into one another? How does it clean under the kitchen table with all those chair legs?</p>
<p>Would our house overwhelm it? We have 2 permanent golden retrievers and frequently a foster golden. In addition to hair, they shred/chew stuff. Is there a certain size of debris that clogs the roomba? What if it ran into a tissue torn into 3 pieces, for example?</p>
<p>I have the top of the line Dyson and hate it.</p>
<p>$342 seems a little high, more like $260 or $280, but I’m not up on the models - WashDad’s your man. </p>
<p>I have to pull my kitchen chairs out - it can manuever around the chair legs and go under furniture, but it only gets a couple of chairs then goes back if all the chairs are still under the table. </p>
<p>We run it at night and during the day when we aren’t home. I set up a room much as I would to vacuum myself - pull all the chairs away from the table, move the lightweight stools, move the cords (it doesn’t like electrical cords) - then I turn it loose. It is very gentle on the legs of my good dining room furniture, much more gentle than a regular vac. In the living room, bedroom, I alternate running it with throw rugs down, then next time I move the throw rugs so that it vacuums under them. We don’t have pets, but the master bath floor is much cleaner between housekeeper visits, because I run the Roomba at least once in between. We broke a small potted plant yesterday in the midst of cleaning up the Xmas tree - we corralled the Roomba with a couple of chairs, picked up the big pieces of broken pot and dirt, then let the Roomba clean up the rest by running back and forth over the mess.</p>
<p>It is no replacement for a deep cleaning vacuum - it is not going to get deeper dirt out of carpets or rugs. It is great for eveyrday accumulations of dry dirt from outside, crumbs, hair, etc. It works best for me by running it a lot, moving it from room to room each day. I don’t fool with the pylons because i can close doors and corral it in the main dirty rooms. I would set it to go in the kitchen for example, come home from work, and it is dead/done, I open up the doors, push the chairs back under the table, its finished in there for a couple of days. Next day I do the family room.</p>
<p>MaryTn- If you have a Linens and Things you can go in with the 20% off coupon. The 560 was 349.00 but got almost 70 dollars off. It was just under 300 dollars after tax. I wanted to get the 530 which they list for $299 at Linens and Things so after the 20% would have been about $240 but they were out of it. They also had a model for $199. Costco was right across the parking lot and they had a 550 for 269.
I just plugged it in and now have to wait for it to charge.</p>
<p>I don’t have one yet, but I’m going to name it Alice.</p>
<p>Have to wait for hubby to do the research. (I told him to just read CC but it doesn’t fit his preconceived idea of research. Silly engineer.)</p>
<p>I do want to know how it handles moving from room to room. Our downstairs is pretty open, and moves from carpet to hardwood and back again. Will it do the carpeted area first, or bounce along between rooms?</p>
<p>Sorry to go off topic, but … hey, binx … how long does it take your H to paint a room?? My engineer H takes FOREVER … any imperfections in the wall must be spackled, then the wall must be sanded to perfection, the taping, the edging, the several coats … yeah, it looks great. But I just do it myself now! Hmmmm … do you think that’s the point in the first place?!</p>
<p>It’s very good about picking up pet hair, but its a lot of work to clean out the Roomba brushes, where most of the hair ends up. </p>
<p>I think the main advantage is for multi-tasking – a regular vacuum is going to do a better job but the Roomba can run while you are doing something else.</p>
<p>If you have a lot of pet hair in the house its not a good idea to run the Roomba unattended because it will stall if it gets too clogged with fur; however, the more frequently it is run the less likely the fur will become a problem.</p>
<p>MaryTN, the key thing is to look for a 500-series model. They all have the same basic platform, with more options on the higher-numbered models. Mine is a 530, and doesn’t have the ability to schedule cleaning for a particular time. The 535+ all have scheduling and different numbers of accessories. The $199 model is in their lower-performance line. The Roomba fans seem to strongly prefer the 500-series.</p>
Well, I guess it works… I usually do the painting. I have to do it when he’s not around, though. I have to admit, when he does it, it does look wonderful. It is the pride of our marriage that we actually once wallpapered a room together and stayed married anyway. Refinishing furniture is the one where we absolutely cannot work together - our standards are too different.</p>
<p>As for Hazel, that’s a bit before my time. (Oops, missed kelsmom’s post.) Alice was the housekeeper on Brady Bunch, my absolute favorite show (even before The Patridge Family), and Ann B. Davis was from Erie, so I have to name my Roomba after her character.</p>
I have to admit, when he does it, it does look wonderful. It is the pride of our marriage that we actually once wallpapered a room together and stayed married anyway. Refinishing furniture is the one where we absolutely cannot work together - our standards are too different.</p>