iRobot Roomba 4210 Bagless Robotic Vacuum

Pros: Do not have to push around, decent cleaning abilities
Cons: poor Reliability ,still need a vacuum for quick pick ups,do a room quickly

The original Discovery we purchased worked well for about 5 months then had multiple problems. I-robot did replace the unit for free; however there was 1 month of down time. Second unit worked well for about 8-9 months then had to be reprogrammed after another 2 months failed and I-robot offered to replace it for a $95 out of warranty price. We decided that we could not rely on the unit and there was to much downtime when the unit malfunctioned. Recently purchased a good old vacuum, yes we have to push but it works! These units might be worth it some day but not until they are more reliable and can be fixed faster.

Pros: Does a good job, reliable, no effort on my part to vacuum, simple to use
Cons: initial purchase is expensive but no more than a good vacuum. It's my main vacuum.

I have two Roombas. I bought the first one years ago when they first came out and it still works fine. I decided to buy a second one last year for the upstairs so I bought the Discovery. The Roombas do 99.5% of my vacuuming now. I have tile and wood downstairs and carpet upstairs. They take a lot longer to vacuum than it would take me but who cares since I'm not doing the work. I simply turn them all before I leave the house and when I get back, it's all done. My Discovery has a remote so if I'm home and it's running and the phone rings, I just push the pause button an it stops while I take the call. The new Roomba (Discovery) even returns itself to it's charging unit when it's battery gets low. It's pretty amazing. I also bought the Scooba which mops and I'm hoping they come up with an affordable lawn mower next.

Pros: Easy convenient
Cons: not sealed for dust slow

I like the ease and convenience of the Roomba vacuum. It picks up more than what you would expect. However it is not a sealed filtered unit and lets enough dust through to create problems with my allergies if I'm home when it cleans.

This is not a huge issue but one reason I got the unit was with a thought of vacuuming more often to help with my allergies. Unfortunately any I time I use it and am home, it will be sneeze city for me. So I just turn it on and leave for work. The only problem is only room a day can be done this way.

Pros: my house is spotless, it gets under almost anything, no cords, charges itself
Cons: you need to be home while working the roomba

So I got the roomba a week ago, it was easy to set up and I'm not a reader, but I got through the user manual in about 10 minutes, charged the roomba then sent it on it's way through my house with wood floors, it picked up EVERYTHING! I was so amazed:) I got the roomba because have an 8 month old son who likes to eat things off the floor and it drives me crazy watching him 24/7, but now i have no worries! It's a good idea to be home while running the roomba because it goes under beds and other funiture and it got one of our socks stuck in it, so we had to get that out. I have 3 small dogs that live inside my house, and we ran the roomba with the dogs around and they didn't care at all, even when the roomba bumps off the them they didn't give it a second glance. I also have a small carpet in my babies room, and the roomba went over that too with no problem. So I'm thrilled with it!

Pros: Extremely easy to use; gets the job done. Just fun to have around.
Cons: Doesn't truly 'vacuum'; gets confused if something gets stuck in it's brushes.

If you have a dog, expect your roomba to get chased and barked at. Other than that, this thing is great! Push the button, leave the room, and when you return, the floor is clean, and Roomba has gone home to rest. Easy to use, easy to forget about. My kind of cleaning! I just wish they were cheaper so I could have one in every room.
Don't rely on this gadget to be the end all in your cleaning. It doesn't not replace regular vacuuming; it just gets the surface stuff. If you have animals, though, it is nice to have to pick up the fur on a daily basis, instead of have to drag out the real vacuum.
It is messy to clean the dustbin, but no more so than other bagless vacuums. You do need to watch that nothing gets stuck in the brushes, as it will confuse the little bugger, and cause it to stop. Seriously, this little guy is a great assistant, but it can not replace a normal sized vacuum.
I should add, that mine is a reconditioned unit that I bought from WOOT.com for $125. A great deal for a 'toy'.

Pros: Great for quick cleaning and jazzed up with a myRoomBud costume.
Cons: Battery life not quite enough to do two of our bedrooms.

Adopted two of these. The kids love them. We even bought myRoomBud costumes on eBay for each so the upstairs Roomba the kids call Buddy looks like a tiger and the downstairs Roomba looks like a Zebra was named Wabadoo (my six year old named it).

After moving to a larger house we found that keeping the rooms clean to be way too much work especially in the kids rooms. We bought a Roomba Discovery to see if we could cut down on the vacuuming and loved it so much we bought a second. One lives upstairs and the other down.

Pros: Turn it on and leave it running, wonderful for my laminated floors
Cons: Not a 'true' vacuum

I loved her from the moment I took her out of the box. I have had her for 4 months now, and she does a wonderful job on my kitchen and livingroom laminated floors. I have used her on low carpeting for just a quick once-over, but I leave the deep cleaning to my upright vacuum.

I am having a problem with her right now, though. She will start cleaning and run like she is supposed to for about 10 minutes, then she becomes confused and goes to the center of the room and runs in a crooked circle. I took her apart (as much as I felt safe) and cleaned her really well. I am thinking that I need to contact the Roomba people and send her in for service.

Pros: It is pretty
Cons: It is not reliable.

Well, I hate to interrupt the Roomba love-fest in here, but right now I have a roomba that just spins in circles. I loved mine too, but it didn't last. It is covered by a warranty, but iRobot tells me that the part I need is not in stock--so I am just out of luck until it comes in.

Pros: Goes under the bed and sofa - cleans thoroughly when given enough time
Cons: Doesn't hold up to any regular use without repeated (and unfixable) break-downs.

We bought a Roomba Discovery just before Christmas 2004 and we thought it did a remarkably good job cleaning up pet hair from our 3 dogs. It was a great way to clean on "in-between" days when you wanted to freshen up the house but not do a full clean.

BUT it broke (spins in circles and beeps)within about 5 weeks of fairly regular use. After calling iRobot and doing all the things the Support folks recommended, it still didn't work. So it went back to iRobot and they sent a replacement after about 3-4 weeks.

The replacement only lasted through 3 cleanings and then broke in exactly the same way. I am waiting for a response from technical support, but honestly, I just wish I could get my $250 back at this point.

This product is a great idea and really fun - I'd suggest you wait to purchase it until iRobot works out some of the technical problems. Maybe a model or two down the road....

Pros: When it works properly, it vacuums well - especially on hard floors.
Cons: Multiple units fail within first month of use.

While this is a great idea in concept, the quality of the iRobot Roomba is a failure. We have purchased two Roomba Reds from different stores. Each one of them worked perfectly for about one month, and then broke down. One would go 2 inches, stop, turn, go another 2 inches, stop, turn. The other started going in reverse all the time.

This is after numerous cleanings of brushes, sensors, etc., as much as can be done by a typical consumer without dismantling the unit and the electronics.

Either the Roomba should be labeled and priced as the world's first disposable robot vacuum, or a unit should be designed and built that lasts a reasonable lifetime for a vacuum. Don't buy this unless you also buy an extended replacement warranty.

Pros: Helps with dust and pet hair between regular vacuumings, good conversation piece
Cons: Less than perfect cleaning, gets caught up on objects

i bought this because vacuuming is not my favorite activity.
There are lots of reviews on this product, so I will just add a few points. Roomba works very well in uncluttered rooms but does get hung up on most types of rug fringe, small objects and some electrical cords, so some prep work is necessary prior to letting it free.
I think of it as having a 9 year old child helping me with the vacuuming - it is cute, tries hard, is more fun than regular vacuuming and does actually help you out, but certainly won't replace your housekeeper and needs supervision from time to time.
I do put it to use a few times a week between regular cleanings and don't regret buying it, but I guess I had higher Jetson-type expectations of my first domestic robot!

Pros: Cleans carpet well.
Cons: Difficult to clean. 2 machines developed the same fault.

We bought this machine because I was fed up with my Dyson's inability to clean carpet well. It worked well for a couple of months -- and cleaned carpet way better than the Dyson. However, it soon developed an inability to turn. I'd set it off, it would hit a wall, and then just sit there beeping pathetically. I phoned customer service, did the things they suggested (bongoing the wheels), and no joy. So I sent it back to them and they sent me a replacement... which developed the same trouble within a few weeks.

My carpets are nothing special -- just wall-to-wall fitted carpets of some kind of artificial fiber (polypropylene? We didn't install them, so I'm not exactly sure). So I can't believe the problem is with the carpets.

I think some kind of sensor is breaking or being covered with fluff that I can't clean out. The machine is very difficult to clean -- you need a pair of long tweezers to get the fluff out of it. Still, I prefer removing fluff to vacuuming, so I would give this 4 stars if it was something that worked reliably.

Pros: Does what it says it does. Cleans when you're not around. Customer support is great.
Cons: Not as durable as I would like. Cannot be run when sleeping nearby.

We have 4 young daughters and never have enough time to clean the house. The roomba has been extremely helpful in keeping our living room, dining room and kitchen cleaner. When we leave to take the kids to school, we turn it on. When we get back home from work the floor is clean. Before we had to run at least a sweeper every night to keep the house clean. With my kids, it was near impossible to find the time. Couldn't run a vacuum when they were asleep or had to help them with homework.

Now the Roomba will not replace your vacuum. We still gotta vacuum once a week. But at least the dust doesn't build up all over the floor everyday and we can spend more time with the kids.

Pros: It vacuums for you without any effort on your part.
Cons: None that I can think of.

I have 2 dogs and multiple sclerosis, so you can imagine the need and loathing of vacuuming that I have. This has solved both problems. I can set it and forget it, come back an hour later and the room is done. The dogs love it too. I have hardwoods, not sure how it would work on carpeting, but it works better than my other canister vacuum that I was using. I can walk barefoot again on my floors! I am not sure of the durability as I have only had it for 3 weeks, but I have already recommended it to family and friends. Best to let this work 1 room at at time, or sections of the house. Room will need some prepping just like any other vacuum session, for example I usual pick up and shake out my throw rugs and remove doggy toys on the floor.

Pros: It does pick up dirt and goes under furniture easily.
Cons: Messy to empty and the container holding the dirt is very small.

This is a nice toy and fun to have. The vacuuming that the robot does is equivalent to having a 3 year-old vacuum for you. You create a mess when you empty it and the container containing the dirt is very, very small. It's cute and I am keeping mine.