[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by uujudy

Bare, I have a Roomba. It has good points and bad points. First, though, you should know that it is not a vacuum cleaner. It's more like a carpet sweeper. It has a brush that sweeps lint and debis into a little cup, but it doesn't vacuum. It works better on floors than it does on carpets. I have a huge kitchen floor in Utah, and it's wonderful for the kitchen and back hallway. It tends to get stuck on throw rugs, so you have to pick them up before you use it. You also have to make sure your electrical cords for lamps and computers are off the floor, or it can pull the lamp down. When it bumps into something it turns around and goes in another direction. If you have fragile vases and pots on the floor you should protect them. It's a lot louder than I expected it would be. I thought I could turn it on and go to bed and get up to a sparkling clean house. Believe me, you can't sleep while it's working. Rrrrrmmmmmmm, bang, bang, rrrrrrrmmmmmm, bang, bang bang.....

On the other hand, after you have removed your throw rugs, the kitty dishes, looped your computer cord over the chair, lifted your lamp cords off the floor, and moved your bar stools to another room, it works all by itself while you're taking a shower, and it really does go back to the charger and plug itself in.

UUJudy, thanks for all the great comments. Your post was very descriptive and your comments about the noise the Roomba makes .. very funny.

The Roomba website has about ten different models listed, and a couple of the robots are (supposedly) for pet hair. I'm wondering what model you have. Also, the website said Roombas are programmed to avoid cords, etc. But I didn't believe it.

I'm not sure there is a Roomba in my future after all.