I have a Roomba. It works quite nicely on tile. I figured out after a few attempts that it does NOT work so well on plush carpeting, it kept getting stuck under a bed and picked up a lot of fibers as it's really more of a sweeper than a vacuum. All of my house is tile except the three bedrooms, so I set up a couple virtual walls to keep it out of those areas. The dirt cup holds quite a bit, but the little suction filter is very small, must be cleaned after each run, or every 2nd run at the most. Some of the parts are a bit flimsy and fragile, but they're OK if handled carefully when cleaning it. The docking station and scheduler is nice for programming it to run unattended a couple/three times per week. It doesn't get fully into corners, but it does run along baseboards. Corners can be either done occasionally with a traditional vacuum ... or sweep corners out into the room before a run whenever needed. Some adjustment of room furnishings may be needed to allow space around things and avoid the potential for getting stuck in some situations or possibly knocking over very lighweight nicknacks.

So far, so good with the Neato. Jo, I didn't get the connected version. I got the D80. I couldn't find a D85. Best Buy has them in the store. Plus, they gave me a $50.00 gift card. They had the connected version in stock, too. So, the price ended up being the same price as the out of stock unit at Amazon. The only difference between the D80 and D85 was the filter. Apparently, you can use the newer, better filter in any of the units. I've spend most of today playing with the thing. I don't think it will replace the vacuum cleaner, especially the Dyson Animal. I've got two collies and I didn't expect any robotic unit to do everything. But, I think it's going to significantly reduce the workload. I also have a lot of rooms with hardwood or tile with oriental rugs with fringe. She was able to handle all of them except one that had particularly long fringe and a really big carpet pad underneath. It does get hung up in a few places. I would check on her ever so often and found her hung up twice. I got her back on track and she just keep going. The space besides the toilet pedestals seemed to challenge her. I frequently emptied the bin. I vacuumed the filter with the Dyson to clean it. I was surprised by the amount of debris it managed to find. There were some areas that I thought were already clean, but she still found stuff and dog hair. I broke the house up into sections and did them one at time. She needed to recharge twice. But, I was running her pretty hard. The best part of the day was watching the dogs watch "Rosie". They didn't bark or attack, but sat there completely enthralled. I've always been a little strange when it comes to gifts. My husband gets off lucky. I like things like really good small appliances. If someone needs an idea for the holidays, I really don't think you could go wrong with this one. I'd get one of these for a guy, too. It's just too useful.

I have a Neato. His name is Rocky. This is my second Neato -- the first one gave up the ghost after about a year and a half which was disheartening. I have 2 dogs (one is a fur exploding shepherd mix) and 2 hairy cats. We run ours daily while we dog walk, and I'll say it replaces 80% of the need to vacuum. Maybe my cleaning standards are low, lol. Mine has no wifi and I don't use the scheduling feature; I just push the start button and let him go. The Good: The front corners and the little side brush are effective at getting into corners and running along the baseboards. The dirt hopper is large and it STILL gets filled each time I run it. I got the pet model with a rotating brush and it is very good at getting pet hair on both rugs and hard floors. It sits low to the ground and can get under pretty low clearances The Bad: He does get stuck a fair amount. We live in an old house and have black floor grates for our furnace...these tend to trip him up. He also gets tangled on long rug fringe, but not short fringe. He's temperamental and we have had to reboot him and calibrate the battery a couple of times. Overall, I wish he was less finicky but I can't imagine life without him. House cleaning is my least favorite chore and he makes a world of difference. I expect the robots will keep improving over time, and I fully expect to replace mine with another when this one goes. I'm hoping someone invents a dusting robot too.

I recently got a Deebot. It was the editors pick in CNET magazine. It was on sale at Best Buy for $200. I run it on edge cleaning mode a couple of times a week and it really controls the tumbleweeds of cat hair. In auto mode it rambles all over the house in a seemingly aimless pattern, but it does pick up anything around it. It can go from wood floor to rugs to tile with no problem. Donna