22 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
Is this right for you? Depends on what you can and can't live with
Date of Review: Feb 24, 2009
The Bottom Line: This can give you more freedom with your time, but I'd get a good warranty and expect to replace parts often.
Well, first of all, most of the people who buy this product are people who either don't have the time to vacuum as much as they like, are injured and can't, or just would rather spend time doing something else. Which reason you choose will make a difference in whether you actually want to buy this.
If you want more control over your time, this may help you, depending on whether you have pets and whether you mind trading in vacuuming time for occasional brush cleanings. (How occasional? This will depend on the number of pets you own and how badly they shed.)
If you're injured and bending is not good for you, forget it. You will need to do plenty of that, as this vacuum brush and cleaning comb system with small dust receptacle will require lots of bending. Also the unit is quite heavy and it doesn't always find its base like it's supposed to, so you'll have to lift this to take it to its base.
Is time something you're short on? You will notice you don't have to spend your valuable time vacuuming as much, but you will have to clean the brushes each time you run the unit, sometimes even more often if you have pets. I have a carful of dogs, several of which are German Shedder, er, German Shepherd dogs. Under these circumstances, this vacuum can be a Godsend or a pain in the kiester, depending on your perspective. We have to vacuum every single day, of course, so we bought this to pick up the slack, which it does beautifully, provided we run it every time we come down in the morning, and then once again after the unit recharges. This vacuum is not perfect in picking up everything on the floor, but when you run it this often, what it doesn't pick up the first time, it will get the next time around. Friends are amazed by how well it works, but again, we run it a lot. It will not do a perfect job the first run.
Which brings us to the next point. Can you just run this thing and leave the house, then come back to a floor fit for guests? Don't count on it. I stay home while it's running. If you're planning on setting the timer and going to work and expecting a guest-worthy floor when you come home, and this is very important to you, this vacuum is not for you. Sometimes the brushes and sensors can be finicky, causing the unit to shut down. It will shut down if it feels the brushes need cleaning, sometimes whether or not they do, or the unit may catch on a slightly raised hearth or chair and shut down until you can free it.
At first I was disappointed that I have to clean brushes once or twice each run. (Even if the unit doesn't completely stop for a cleaning, I notice greatly reduced effectiveness if I don't clean the brushes a couple of times each run). But then I realized, stopping once in a while to clean the brushes is much better than the constancy required to vacuum the whole house manually. It cuts my housecleaning time down drastically. So cleaning the brushes is unanticipated maintenance, but we can actually have a spotless house with lots of dogs, without my having to do the vacuuming. I like that.
My biggest beef with this: durability. The side brushes don't last long. (Although, they've since redesigned these so the bristles don't fall out and the arms don't crack off.) The plastic casing for the front castor eventually doesn't hold the castor after you've removed it to clean the pet hair away from the pins. And there are a-l-l-l-l manner of nooks and crannies for that pet hair to find and wrap around. The battery doesn't last long at all. The sensors went crazy on one of the side wheels and we had to have it replaced. We dropped the lighthouse on carpeted flooring, and it hasn't worked right since. And the lighthouse chews your batteries. I highly recommend and use rechargeable batteries. So, you pay a lot of money for convenience, but the price is neither warranted by perfect function according to intended design (and therefore your expectation), nor durable parts.
This vacuum will not entirely replace your regular vacuum as the small unit does not have a powerful enough motor to give you a really deep clean: important for allergy sufferers to consider, and if you have steps, those you will need your regular vacuum to clean.
In a nutshell:
If perfect function is important to you, you'll be disappointed. If you're just looking to have some extra control over your time or spare your back a bit more, this can give you that. If you have pets and see regular brush cleanings a good trade off to the constancy and time required to actually do the vacuuming yourself, you can have a very lovely floor with greatly reduced effort. But I'd get a good warranty and expect to replace parts and batteries frequently. Then again, ours gets lots and lots of use.
Would I buy it again? With our multiple pet home, I'll think about it. I like the robot but don't think it's worth anything near what they charge. So I do expect iRobot (the company that makes this) to make some strides in functionality and durability. If they step up to the plate, I'll be a fan. Otherwise, I'll expect a drastic reduction in price. And by the way, the price of replacement parts is unreasonable.
