THE PLAN The plan is to run it during the day upstairs and to run it at night downstairs. The first problem we noted is that the schedule only seems to allow one time per day. This is ok since we have to carry it upstairs for the day runs. So, we just start it as we live in the morning. When we return, we put on the charger and let it clean at 2AM downstairs.
OBSERVATIONS The upstairs (approx. 1000 sqft) is a combination of wood floors, tile in the bathrooms, scatter rugs (bath style and oriental). Roomba did a good job covering an awkward area. We captured a full bin of hair from the dogs. The only problem is that it got caught in the toilet area after it managed to close the door on itself. It found out that it was too short to reach the handle to reopen the door. Roomba was able to clean under the bed and sofa. However, it was unable to get under the night stands and dressers. This was unfortunate because the floor and fur is still very visible. (We will have to consider replacing the furniture that we bought a month ago. I can see it is going to be a pain to clean under whether we have Roomba or not).
The downstairs (approx. 800 sqft) is all tile with scatter rugs (bath, entry and orientals). Roomba was able to get under the counters in the kitchen, under the sofa, the dining room chairs. Once again we captured a full bin of fur. Downstairs we had a few problems. Roomba managed to catch itself on a rug. Roomba announced that it needed help. It was also able to move a very light side table and an empty plastic dog dish. The bin was full of fur and even captured some large dog food nuggets. Roomba was also able to maneuver through electrical cords. We did absolutely no preparations before starting Roomba.
LIMITATIONS Roomba does not do windows, stairs and areas that are shorter than itself.
INITIAL CONCLUSIONS We are pleased so far. The machine does a good job collecting fur in open areas and low areas that are taller than Roomba. We will have to consider how to handle the light furniture and lighter carpets. We will also have to determine how to ensure that open doors stay open if we want it to roam unrestricted.
If you are a micro manager, you will have problems with how Roomba gets the job done. If you are results driven manager, you will find that the Roomba does a good job. It gets where it is designed to get, and it does a thorough job. Roomba does its job. Don’t worry about how it does it.
ONE WEEK CONCLUSIONS (11/23/2012) Roomba has been busy. We run it about 8 hours per day. We collect 4 full bins of fur every day! Neither my wife nor I imagined how much fur our dogs generated. We just moved from a home that was primarily carpeted to hard surfaces. It is not like they are big dogs. We regularly strip our dogs (pull fur with a comb). We are more than both pleased by the purchase. Even if we had a maid, we would still run Roomba regularly. I don’t think a daily maid service could keep up with Roomba’s vacuuming or our dogs fur production. It (or perhaps I should say we) does occasionally make a mistake. It has eaten two usb cords and a couple of loose threads on some oriental carpets.
THIRD MONTH CONCLUSIONS (2/15/2013) Roomba has not been needed as much. I would guess he gets about three hours of work a day. Once a day downstairs and twice a day upstairs. My wife and I agree that it has been a good purchase. Two unexpected consequences: our HVAC filters stay clean much longer and dusting need not happen as frequently. Roomba looks a little battle worn with superficial scrapes. However, the battery is still going strong. We spend almost no maintenance time. Every time we move Roomba, we empty the bin. We have had to do some major maintenance (more than five minutes) a couple of times. Long hair seems to collect and requires a careful unwinding. (We are all short haired except my daughter who visited at Christmas). The filter requires a little cleaning for optimal efficiency. Sometimes Roomba decides to complete the job under the bed or under a sofa. So, I have to call her. She is about as good as our deaf dog about coming when called. If we confined her to a single room, she would be much easier to find. She is infatuated with bathrooms. She still forgets that she can not reach the handle to open the door after she closes it. We try to remember to close the bathrooms before she begins her work.
FOURTH MONTH Conclusions (3/6/2013) Roomba has taken a beating over these four months. She has…
This review is from: iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuuming Robot – Robotic Vacuum (Misc.)
I have had the roomba 650 for about a year now and just got the XV-11 so I thought it might be good to let people know my experience with the 2. First let me say that I am a BIG fan of both but I will compare/contrast the 2 and hopefully help you decide if you are on the fence.
Cleaning: Both of them do a very nice job of cleaning and you will be surprised by how much dirt/dust/pet hair etc you get. While they are pretty even on this i give a slight edge to the XV-11 as it is a bit more powerful and will pick up “clinging” stuff better than the roomba. Both dust bins are comparable (in volume) with the Roomba being a bit bigger and easier to empty due to the XV-11 having to have the filter removed to empty. Not a big deal but Roomba a bit easier to empty. Winner = Tie.
2.) Battery life. Roomba wins here hands down with battery life, with a catch… The roomba easily runs 45 mins – 1.5 hours on a charge. Both will need a bin emptying either half way through cycle (roomba) or when it gets back to the base to recharge (XV). XV-11 is about 30 mins. However the XV-11 does say that the “Battery life will improve after a few uses” in the manual and since its new i have only run it about 4 times now. The catch is while the roomba lasts much longer per cleaning the XV-11 goes back to the base, recharges and then goes back out to where it left off and continues. So, while roomba last longer once, the xv-11 finishes any job started. Winner = Roomba
3.)ease of use/ Smartness. Both of them require you to pick up the floor a bit from debris, especially any type of chords, cables or tangle type of things. The XV-11 is WAYYYYYYYY smarter. The roomba goes around the room in a random pattern and bumps into things (gently) turns, re cleans the same spot and continues on its random way. It cleans this way very well and will get a room done. The XV-11 comes off the base and maps the room then proceeds to clean the room by avoiding obstacles and it does more of a smart pattern. It starts around the edges and then turns and cleans in a line, more like you would do it manually with a upright vac. I noticed it often cleans sections of a room in this manner and then moves on to another section but the rooms in my house are not completely square and have a lot of “stuff” in them. I think in a completely square room it would map, go around the edged and clean in a line back and forth, like the manufacturers video shows. In my experience it does this but in smaller sections, probably due to the barriers and furniture in the room. Winner = XV-11 NOTE: one thing my Girlfriend really liked is she said this when talking about the XV “That one looks like the room was just freshly vacuumed” i.e. the “lines” on the carpet looked like a person did it where the Roomba is very random and has a lot of circular lines and randomness.
4.) Who gets stuck more? The truth of the matter is they both do. The roomba gets stuck more often though. Roomba problem areas are chords, cables, speaker wire, video game cables, edges/angles and especially bad on sliding glass door frames. Now having said all that if you know the problem areas and block them off it will run flawlessly. So you are required to be aware of what it gets stuck on and block access to them. The Roomba has the electronic barriers that block off things like stairways (i dont have any in FL but most places do) and you can block off rooms to clean. I use the roomba for the living room/ family room area and block it off from the kitchen and front of the house. It works well in the area i that i define for it. I have speaker wires running on the floor around the edge of the area and it would ALWAYS get stuck on those wires and just keep running over them like it thought it needed to clean something. It also 100% of the time gets suck on the sliding glass door frame. The door frame has a slight dip and once it hits it and gets off its center of gravity it gets stuck. Another bad spot is angles i have a table that has legs that slope up, the Roomba tries to go up the leg to clean and again once it gets off its center of balance it gets stuck. Cool thing about the Roomba is it tells you “Roomba stuck please move to new location and press clean to resume” the XV=11 doesnt have any “voice” instructions but it does have a nice text display that tells you everything that is going on with it. With roomba at least you know its stuck cause you hear it. XV you just have to listen for it to stop working. Ok so now that i spent a LOT of time on the roomba getting stuck, the XV -11 does too, just not nearly as much. Again this probably goes to the “smartness” factor of the Neato model, it’s just plain smarter. By mapping a room and avoiding obstacles it hardly ever gets stuck, so far the only spot ive seen it get stuck is the angled table leg i described with the roomba, XV goes up the leg the same way and keeps trying to…
This review is from: iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuuming Robot – Robotic Vacuum (Misc.)
I have wanted a Roomba for years but it wasn’t until my wife and I bought a new colonial where the downstairs was all wood floors that I finally was able to convince my wife to get one. Am I glad that I did! Our Roomba is awesome.
I bought the 650 series, which is the pet version. We have a Jack Russell terrier which seems to shed non-stop, so there is little white hairs everywhere. The Roomba picks up the hair like it is its….well… job.
Positives:
The Roomba goes around in its random little pattern and does a great job picking up all the hair and dirt bits on our first floor which is roughly 1000 square feet. It negotiates furniture to include a kitchen island and dining room table. It picks up around 98% of the dirt and hair that is on the floor (more on the 2% in the negative section). It gets under our baseboard heating with its outside sweeper and really does an excellent job. With that being said, the majority of the area that it cleans is hard wood floors, with the occasion area rug. We have carpet upstairs but we don’t use it on that so I can’t really comment too much on how it does on large carpeted areas. If you look at the photos I have uploaded, you can see what it grabbed on one run and then the following day run.
After each run it backs itself up into its docking station and recharges itself for the next run. I would use the timer and do it at night but I enjoy watching it go around and go through its process.
Does it make noise? Yes. Is it loud like some people have stated. No. I don’t know how you could say that this is loud, it is not even close as loud as a large vacuum. I would compare it to a little 9v lithium battery hand drill that I have. It makes a noise, but you could watch tv as it travels by you with maybe one increase in the volume button.
Negatives: (minor negatives)
You need to think for it. We have to pick up our dining room chairs and the kitchen island bar stool and put them on the table so it can go around the table and kitchen island. If you have the chairs there, it might not be able to get under the table since it will bounce around on the chair legs and have a hard time negotiating the table and chair legs. I also have to block off an opening that is alongside of my recliner because the Roomba will go behind it and get kind of stuck back there for 5 minutes or so trying to get out. It did get out but I feel it is wasting time back there so I put some of my daughters toys in the way so it can’t get back there. I also close the door to my downstairs bathroom because of another person’s review that it sometimes closes a door and locks itself in their bathroom. I avoid that by just closing the door and keeping it from going in. I also have to pick up the floor for anything that would normally get caught up in a regular vacuum. Cords, shoes (and shoe laces) and other items that it will get wrapped up in.
It is a vacuum and it has the negatives of any large vacuums, the only difference is you aren’t there to bring it back over the areas that it might have missed. The 2% that I feel it doesn’t pick up isn’t because it “missed it,” it is because it is usually in a transition area where the vacuum lifts up. If I have a bit of dirt along the edge of an area rug it will miss it because it is lifting up in the front to go over the rug. We also have a thick tread “mud hog” matt at our side entry that grabs dirt clumps upon entering the side door. The Roomba doesn’t do that great of a job on the deep crevices but I just normally pick the matt up and shake it outside…all better.
Overall: If you take two minutes to pick up your area and plan ahead for you Roomba, your Roomba will make quick work of the dirt in the house. For the 2% that it misses, I grab a broom and a dust pan and sweep it up in 30 seconds. It is much quicker to grab that little 2% than to sweep my entire downstairs or do it all by hand with my other vacuum.
Overall, I love the Roomba. It’s fun to watch, great to help out around the house to clean for us and really saves us time so we can have one less thing to do when it comes to cleaning up the house.
If you follow the simple directions that come with the Roomba you won’t have an issue. It cleans and saves you time. So why would you not buy this?
Other people have said:
People have said its too loud – that’s crazy. It makes noise, but it is a machine and it’s a vacuum. The sound it makes is fine. Someone said they didn’t like picking up their dining room chairs – I don’t know how you would clean around them with a regular vacuum. You’d have to move them to do that anyway. Help you’re Roomba out. Don’t be mad at it because you don’t want to…
September 12, 2016 07:13
2,687 of 2,750 people found the following review helpful
Fights Fur Furiously, November 16, 2012
By Jack V. Briner (New Braunfels, TX USA) –
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuuming Robot – Robotic Vacuum (Misc.)
We just got our iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuum Cleaning Robot for Pets. It was simple to setup and charged in about two hours. We have run it once downstairs and upstairs.
THE PLAN
The plan is to run it during the day upstairs and to run it at night downstairs. The first problem we noted is that the schedule only seems to allow one time per day. This is ok since we have to carry it upstairs for the day runs. So, we just start it as we live in the morning. When we return, we put on the charger and let it clean at 2AM downstairs.
OBSERVATIONS
The upstairs (approx. 1000 sqft) is a combination of wood floors, tile in the bathrooms, scatter rugs (bath style and oriental). Roomba did a good job covering an awkward area. We captured a full bin of hair from the dogs. The only problem is that it got caught in the toilet area after it managed to close the door on itself. It found out that it was too short to reach the handle to reopen the door. Roomba was able to clean under the bed and sofa. However, it was unable to get under the night stands and dressers. This was unfortunate because the floor and fur is still very visible. (We will have to consider replacing the furniture that we bought a month ago. I can see it is going to be a pain to clean under whether we have Roomba or not).
The downstairs (approx. 800 sqft) is all tile with scatter rugs (bath, entry and orientals). Roomba was able to get under the counters in the kitchen, under the sofa, the dining room chairs. Once again we captured a full bin of fur. Downstairs we had a few problems. Roomba managed to catch itself on a rug. Roomba announced that it needed help. It was also able to move a very light side table and an empty plastic dog dish. The bin was full of fur and even captured some large dog food nuggets. Roomba was also able to maneuver through electrical cords. We did absolutely no preparations before starting Roomba.
LIMITATIONS
Roomba does not do windows, stairs and areas that are shorter than itself.
INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
We are pleased so far. The machine does a good job collecting fur in open areas and low areas that are taller than Roomba. We will have to consider how to handle the light furniture and lighter carpets. We will also have to determine how to ensure that open doors stay open if we want it to roam unrestricted.
If you are a micro manager, you will have problems with how Roomba gets the job done. If you are results driven manager, you will find that the Roomba does a good job. It gets where it is designed to get, and it does a thorough job. Roomba does its job. Don’t worry about how it does it.
ONE WEEK CONCLUSIONS (11/23/2012)
Roomba has been busy. We run it about 8 hours per day. We collect 4 full bins of fur every day! Neither my wife nor I imagined how much fur our dogs generated. We just moved from a home that was primarily carpeted to hard surfaces. It is not like they are big dogs. We regularly strip our dogs (pull fur with a comb). We are more than both pleased by the purchase. Even if we had a maid, we would still run Roomba regularly. I don’t think a daily maid service could keep up with Roomba’s vacuuming or our dogs fur production. It (or perhaps I should say we) does occasionally make a mistake. It has eaten two usb cords and a couple of loose threads on some oriental carpets.
THIRD MONTH CONCLUSIONS (2/15/2013)
Roomba has not been needed as much. I would guess he gets about three hours of work a day. Once a day downstairs and twice a day upstairs. My wife and I agree that it has been a good purchase. Two unexpected consequences: our HVAC filters stay clean much longer and dusting need not happen as frequently. Roomba looks a little battle worn with superficial scrapes. However, the battery is still going strong. We spend almost no maintenance time. Every time we move Roomba, we empty the bin. We have had to do some major maintenance (more than five minutes) a couple of times. Long hair seems to collect and requires a careful unwinding. (We are all short haired except my daughter who visited at Christmas). The filter requires a little cleaning for optimal efficiency. Sometimes Roomba decides to complete the job under the bed or under a sofa. So, I have to call her. She is about as good as our deaf dog about coming when called. If we confined her to a single room, she would be much easier to find. She is infatuated with bathrooms. She still forgets that she can not reach the handle to open the door after she closes it. We try to remember to close the bathrooms before she begins her work.
FOURTH MONTH Conclusions (3/6/2013)
Roomba has taken a beating over these four months. She has…
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September 12, 2016 07:17
1,473 of 1,538 people found the following review helpful
Roomba 650 vs Neato XV-11, November 10, 2013
By coolhandluke2222 (Florida) –
This review is from: iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuuming Robot – Robotic Vacuum (Misc.)
I have had the roomba 650 for about a year now and just got the XV-11 so I thought it might be good to let people know my experience with the 2. First let me say that I am a BIG fan of both but I will compare/contrast the 2 and hopefully help you decide if you are on the fence.
Cleaning: Both of them do a very nice job of cleaning and you will be surprised by how much dirt/dust/pet hair etc you get. While they are pretty even on this i give a slight edge to the XV-11 as it is a bit more powerful and will pick up “clinging” stuff better than the roomba. Both dust bins are comparable (in volume) with the Roomba being a bit bigger and easier to empty due to the XV-11 having to have the filter removed to empty. Not a big deal but Roomba a bit easier to empty. Winner = Tie.
2.) Battery life. Roomba wins here hands down with battery life, with a catch… The roomba easily runs 45 mins – 1.5 hours on a charge. Both will need a bin emptying either half way through cycle (roomba) or when it gets back to the base to recharge (XV). XV-11 is about 30 mins. However the XV-11 does say that the “Battery life will improve after a few uses” in the manual and since its new i have only run it about 4 times now. The catch is while the roomba lasts much longer per cleaning the XV-11 goes back to the base, recharges and then goes back out to where it left off and continues. So, while roomba last longer once, the xv-11 finishes any job started. Winner = Roomba
3.)ease of use/ Smartness. Both of them require you to pick up the floor a bit from debris, especially any type of chords, cables or tangle type of things. The XV-11 is WAYYYYYYYY smarter. The roomba goes around the room in a random pattern and bumps into things (gently) turns, re cleans the same spot and continues on its random way. It cleans this way very well and will get a room done. The XV-11 comes off the base and maps the room then proceeds to clean the room by avoiding obstacles and it does more of a smart pattern. It starts around the edges and then turns and cleans in a line, more like you would do it manually with a upright vac. I noticed it often cleans sections of a room in this manner and then moves on to another section but the rooms in my house are not completely square and have a lot of “stuff” in them. I think in a completely square room it would map, go around the edged and clean in a line back and forth, like the manufacturers video shows. In my experience it does this but in smaller sections, probably due to the barriers and furniture in the room. Winner = XV-11 NOTE: one thing my Girlfriend really liked is she said this when talking about the XV “That one looks like the room was just freshly vacuumed” i.e. the “lines” on the carpet looked like a person did it where the Roomba is very random and has a lot of circular lines and randomness.
4.) Who gets stuck more? The truth of the matter is they both do. The roomba gets stuck more often though. Roomba problem areas are chords, cables, speaker wire, video game cables, edges/angles and especially bad on sliding glass door frames. Now having said all that if you know the problem areas and block them off it will run flawlessly. So you are required to be aware of what it gets stuck on and block access to them. The Roomba has the electronic barriers that block off things like stairways (i dont have any in FL but most places do) and you can block off rooms to clean. I use the roomba for the living room/ family room area and block it off from the kitchen and front of the house. It works well in the area i that i define for it. I have speaker wires running on the floor around the edge of the area and it would ALWAYS get stuck on those wires and just keep running over them like it thought it needed to clean something. It also 100% of the time gets suck on the sliding glass door frame. The door frame has a slight dip and once it hits it and gets off its center of gravity it gets stuck. Another bad spot is angles i have a table that has legs that slope up, the Roomba tries to go up the leg to clean and again once it gets off its center of balance it gets stuck. Cool thing about the Roomba is it tells you “Roomba stuck please move to new location and press clean to resume” the XV=11 doesnt have any “voice” instructions but it does have a nice text display that tells you everything that is going on with it. With roomba at least you know its stuck cause you hear it. XV you just have to listen for it to stop working. Ok so now that i spent a LOT of time on the roomba getting stuck, the XV -11 does too, just not nearly as much. Again this probably goes to the “smartness” factor of the Neato model, it’s just plain smarter. By mapping a room and avoiding obstacles it hardly ever gets stuck, so far the only spot ive seen it get stuck is the angled table leg i described with the roomba, XV goes up the leg the same way and keeps trying to…
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September 12, 2016 07:58
489 of 516 people found the following review helpful
Why would you not buy this?, May 16, 2015
By N K Maine –
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuuming Robot – Robotic Vacuum (Misc.)
I have wanted a Roomba for years but it wasn’t until my wife and I bought a new colonial where the downstairs was all wood floors that I finally was able to convince my wife to get one. Am I glad that I did! Our Roomba is awesome.
I bought the 650 series, which is the pet version. We have a Jack Russell terrier which seems to shed non-stop, so there is little white hairs everywhere. The Roomba picks up the hair like it is its….well… job.
Positives:
The Roomba goes around in its random little pattern and does a great job picking up all the hair and dirt bits on our first floor which is roughly 1000 square feet. It negotiates furniture to include a kitchen island and dining room table. It picks up around 98% of the dirt and hair that is on the floor (more on the 2% in the negative section). It gets under our baseboard heating with its outside sweeper and really does an excellent job. With that being said, the majority of the area that it cleans is hard wood floors, with the occasion area rug. We have carpet upstairs but we don’t use it on that so I can’t really comment too much on how it does on large carpeted areas. If you look at the photos I have uploaded, you can see what it grabbed on one run and then the following day run.
After each run it backs itself up into its docking station and recharges itself for the next run. I would use the timer and do it at night but I enjoy watching it go around and go through its process.
Does it make noise? Yes. Is it loud like some people have stated. No. I don’t know how you could say that this is loud, it is not even close as loud as a large vacuum. I would compare it to a little 9v lithium battery hand drill that I have. It makes a noise, but you could watch tv as it travels by you with maybe one increase in the volume button.
Negatives: (minor negatives)
You need to think for it. We have to pick up our dining room chairs and the kitchen island bar stool and put them on the table so it can go around the table and kitchen island. If you have the chairs there, it might not be able to get under the table since it will bounce around on the chair legs and have a hard time negotiating the table and chair legs. I also have to block off an opening that is alongside of my recliner because the Roomba will go behind it and get kind of stuck back there for 5 minutes or so trying to get out. It did get out but I feel it is wasting time back there so I put some of my daughters toys in the way so it can’t get back there. I also close the door to my downstairs bathroom because of another person’s review that it sometimes closes a door and locks itself in their bathroom. I avoid that by just closing the door and keeping it from going in. I also have to pick up the floor for anything that would normally get caught up in a regular vacuum. Cords, shoes (and shoe laces) and other items that it will get wrapped up in.
It is a vacuum and it has the negatives of any large vacuums, the only difference is you aren’t there to bring it back over the areas that it might have missed. The 2% that I feel it doesn’t pick up isn’t because it “missed it,” it is because it is usually in a transition area where the vacuum lifts up. If I have a bit of dirt along the edge of an area rug it will miss it because it is lifting up in the front to go over the rug.
We also have a thick tread “mud hog” matt at our side entry that grabs dirt clumps upon entering the side door. The Roomba doesn’t do that great of a job on the deep crevices but I just normally pick the matt up and shake it outside…all better.
Overall:
If you take two minutes to pick up your area and plan ahead for you Roomba, your Roomba will make quick work of the dirt in the house. For the 2% that it misses, I grab a broom and a dust pan and sweep it up in 30 seconds. It is much quicker to grab that little 2% than to sweep my entire downstairs or do it all by hand with my other vacuum.
Overall, I love the Roomba. It’s fun to watch, great to help out around the house to clean for us and really saves us time so we can have one less thing to do when it comes to cleaning up the house.
If you follow the simple directions that come with the Roomba you won’t have an issue. It cleans and saves you time. So why would you not buy this?
Other people have said:
People have said its too loud – that’s crazy. It makes noise, but it is a machine and it’s a vacuum. The sound it makes is fine.
Someone said they didn’t like picking up their dining room chairs – I don’t know how you would clean around them with a regular vacuum. You’d have to move them to do that anyway. Help you’re Roomba out. Don’t be mad at it because you don’t want to…
Read more
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
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