iRobot 56001 Roomba 560 Vacuum Cleaning Robot iRobot 56001 Roomba 560 Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Pros: it cleans on a schedule, decent battery life and quick recharging.

It does do a great job with pet hair. I have 2 kinds of swiffers (wet and dry), upright vacuum, broom and a shop vac and they are all needed. The roomba is the only one that actually get 85%+ of the pet hair up.

you could clean better yourself, but why bother.

Cons: can't see metal or dark objects. The soft bump only works with very wide lighter colored objects. It will slam into everything else. It "learns" nothing. It's basically like those toy cars that drive around and bump into things.

rotating brush is junk and easily broken and falls off all together.

Other Thoughts: irobot greatly over charges for simple upgrades and accessories. You'd think steve jobs ran the company or something.

Pros: As a child you dreamed of a robot that would do your work for you, and now you can own one!

The Roomba is a near perfect product that does what it says it will do. It is well designed and built. The company that makes it, iRobot, is a military grade supplier and is truly the Google of vacuum cleaners. A great company, a great product, and for the price of a machine that you have to push and pull all over the place, this one will do the same job by itself! You can't lose with a Roomba, they are just that good!

I bought the last Roomba for my aging parents, one of whom has allergies and serious breathing problems so they could use it in their bedroom. At their age they really can't vacuum under the bed and the Roomba does it with ease. It has helped reduce the dust they breathe and has lessened their allergy symptoms. That alone would be worth any price.

The Roomba has slightly more conversation appeal than a signed coffee table book by Robert Frost.

Cons: No cons: they work and they work well.

Here is the skinny on the Roomba: You use it every day and it keeps your floors clean. It will not pick up the kid's toys before it vacuums. It will not tuck your children in at night. It is a vacuum which works unattended and nothing more.

The first week that you have a Roomba doing your floors you will need to empty the refuse bin several times per vacuuming session. After a few days you can empty it less until you only need to empty it once a day. Maybe, if you keep your floors pretty clean anyway, you can just empty the bin once a week - but probably every other day. Here is how to decide if you really need a Roomba, you ask yourself this question: "Do I have floors"? If you answered yes to that question and don't buy a Roomba right now then you might as well give up your telephone, electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing because you, my friend, are living in the land that time forgot. If you can afford it, buy one now.

Other Thoughts: Seriously, other thoughts? i can't believe that there isn't a Roomba in every house and office building on this planet! Why the heck wouldn't a person buy a product that did an integral housekeeping chore by itself for the same price (or much less) than a manual product?

I challenge you with this statement: "If you need to buy a vacuum cleaner and you don't get the Roomba, you are absolutely insane". I mean, I suppose you could use a telegraph instead of a telephone, you could use an outhouse instead of a bathroom, and you could crank your own electricity, but why in the world would you spend up to $2000 on a manual product when you could get a product that did not require hardly any input from you to do its job?

A Kirby for $2500? Puh-leeze. When you own a Roomba you can roll your eyes at anyone who owns a vacuum that doesn't clean your house by itself.

Pros: It cleans, so I don't have to. When I first bought the vacuum, it sucked up an amazing amount of dust and other dirt that had embedded itself in the carpet.

Cons: Easily gets stuck in corners and loops. Comes with minimal instruction, such that placing the light houses was a guessing game. I didn't see the documentation in their forums until after I spent countless hours figuring it out. It thinks that thick rugs are walls. Months after I purchased it, I bought a thick area rug for my living room not realising that it wouldn't like it, and now it can't clean my living room.

Other Thoughts: I have used a lot of different vacuums. The ones that are easiest to maintain and use are the old style bag vacuums. Too bad the only ones that you can find in this style are "commercial grade" (i.e. expensive).

Pros: The out of box setup is a breeze. You can set the schedule and clock in under 30 secs. I gave this to my wife for her birthday. She looked at it suspiciously, but decided to give it a try in just the kitchen. I randomly sprinkled a few piles of salt around the kitchen and then scheduled the roomba to start up the following morning at 0600am. I came out to the kitchen around 650am and we watched it for several minutes. I even happened to be there when it docked upon completion. Overall we were very impressed. It picked up absolutely every pile of salt with the exception of one that was smeared in the corner under the cabinet. So, at least it touched it!!!!

Cons: I don't like anything with consumable parts. So not picking on the roomba, but it would be nice not having to replace brushes and filters. But, not a huge negative. I have had it get stuck in a loop if the virtual wall isn't aimed correctly. Basically, the VW pinned it in a corner. It was actually more funny than frustrating.

Other Thoughts: I'm still not sure how this little beast can handle four rooms, but for the kitchen it's proved amazing. We have 2 little ones who demolish the kitchen everyday. My wife would swiffer every night for about an hour. I really am convinced that it has at least taken that duty from her with 100% effectiveness. I would recommend this product, but no matter how great of a product you will never be 100% happy. We've had a cleaning lady assist a few times when our schedules were too busy and even a great cleaning lady will not clean as good as you want. With a little bit of patience and tweaking, it will prove to be a nice tool. Also, the arguments about cables and wires is true, but seriously, folks you can work around that stuff by getting the cables out of the way. It's not that bad.

Pros: Seems to pick up dirt/pet fur pretty well for its size. Has a neat feature set, including scheduling, and the capacity to "learn rooms" and charge itself when necessary.

Cons: This robot couldn't find the charging dock if its life depended on it. The manual says something like "Roomba will clean the same place several times in order to ensure maximum clean." In truth, the robot just goes on random paths and occasionally cleans the same spot.

From what I've seen after 4 cleaning cycles, the robot has a difficult time learning the room, repeatedly gets stuck in the same places, requiring me to get it unstuck, has a hard time differentiating between rooms, even with the lighthouses, and will spend 50% of its battery life in a depressing attempt at finding the charging dock, which is stationed right in the middle of the room for it. Eventually the battery will die, and I will have to pick it up and bring it back to the charging dock myself.

I feel I could have built a smarter robot using a Lego Mindstorms set.

Other Thoughts: Was a nice and tempting Christmas present. Has a really big "cool!" factor, but the performance has been absolutely nothing like I was told it would be.

Pros: EVERYTHING. The old roombas were amazing, and this one is even better! Can't find anything bad about these, try one, and u'll LOVE them! If you don't want to spend the $350 for the 560, look elsewhere(like HSN) for the 530, its about $250, or if you want the older model(which works perfeclty also) you can get the roomba red for as low as $100!

Cons: None - except the battery's in my previous roombas only seemed to last about 1.5 years with my roomba running about 5 times a week. The new roomba 560 has a different battery pack, so we'll have to see if it lasts any longer. Eithor way, for running 5 times a week, lasting over a year is not bad. if you run your roomba only once or twice a week, your battery should last over a couple years.

Other Thoughts: I own 3 roombas. a roomba red, a roomba 2.1, and now the new roomba 530. I did not get the 560 off newegg, but the 530 is exactly the same, without the scheduling function. All my roombas are still running strong! I've had my red over 2.5 years and my 2.1 roomba about 2 years. If your rooomba dies after about 1.5 years, you probably just need a new battery, that's all mine needed, and they are going strong still!