My neighbors said their house is "never" dirty. They have a Roomba. I may have to get one.

Sweet Betsy, haha. Yes, I think about Rosie, too. AND I told DH the other day that I am waiting for one that dusts!

My Neato cost about $250 at BB&B with a coupon. WELL worth it. I love that little sucker.

Every time this subject comes up I get the urge to go buy one too, but I stop and think maybe I have too much furniture. Also one rug with fringe. Floors are all hardwood. Just to have help picking up cat hair would be soooo great.

Does it go all over the house or stay in one area? I didn't know if you could program them to do certain rooms or not. I guess the fancy ones with wifi and stuff could do that.

Mine goes all over the first floor (I will also be taking it upstairs but haven’t done so yet). It came with a “barrier” that can be put down to keep it out of specific areas If wanted. I haven’t used it yet and don’t know why I would.

As far as the fringed ends of the rug, yes, I believe that would be a problem but you could probably turn the edges of the rug under and it would be fine.

I have 3 Roombas and love them. My house is open plan and large, with a mix of carpet and hardwood. Either the Roomba or Neato works well on hardwood but I found the Neato's battery didn't last long on carpet. It took too many trips back to the base to recharge so I returned the Neato. The Roomba easily runs for an hour on my carpeted areas before it needs a recharge.

As for rugs with fringe, the robots have no problem going over the fringe but it will look messed up and the robot may remove a few threads when cleaning. But, it doesn't do any more damage than a regular vacuum does.

Enjoy your Neato. I named mine Robbie!

I loved my Neato and really hate that it drowned in the flood. That's a good price you got. I would definitely buy a Neato again.

You get strips of magnetic tape that you can put down to keep it from going into certain areas. I thought it worked well.

I also want one when subject comes up. My 2nd home has laminate flooring w/area rugs. Is that a problem? Dogs have run of the house and we track lots from our sandy soil. I’m tired of sweeping!

We named ours Rosie! She was great, but we wore the poor thing out. Waiting for a good sale. Our neighbours hated theirs. Don’t know why. Maybe they’re fussier than us.

By the way, none of my pets are concerned about the Neato at all. They just ignore her (him?).

I run mine at about 3 pm. Those things will get stuck under something and you have to get it out.

We gave our Roomba away - the cons outweighed the pros. The dust bin is very small and if you have a hairy dog it fills up very quickly. It sucked up the fringe on my rugs and after untangling the vacuum from the fringe the fringe was shredded and several threads had broken off. It worked better on short fringe.

It did a decent job of picking up surface dirt from carpets but it isn't a substitute for regular deep vacuuming. It was fine on ceramic tile. The suction isn't very strong and it was unable to pick up dirt when one wheel was slightly elevated on an area rug and the other wheel on the tile. It was very noisy.

I used to put it in a bedroom and shut the door and let it run - it was low enough to go underneath the bed and get the dust bunnies.

My GF has a roomba but we leave the house when it's running as it's so noisy for so long...she still has to run around and vacuum the hard parts like corners and such or behind certain objects where it can't get.

I really prefer my vacuum system: DH! :)

I have a Neato too. Her name is Rosie, of course. She’s now 3.5 years old - still works fine. We love our Rosie.

Yesterday I saw a robotic lawn mower! Happily mowing a lawn, turned at the driveway and went back the other way.

For those that have Roombas (or other robotic vacuum) and aren't happy with it, I'm wondering how old they are. They've come so far. Perhaps a newer model would be better? Or, maybe you do have a newer model and it just doesn't work for your needs. That's perfectly understandable.

I certainly do still vacuum with my Dyson or my Shark. But the Neato keeps it looking good in between.

I would love to have one but doubt it would work in my old house. On the 180-year-old floors I have many hooked, braided, and oriental rugs. I just think it couldn't adjust to these but the idea is wonderful if I could use it.