I only know the Roomba. I have 4, lol. My first one 7yrs ago was from a thrift store. Then picked one up at Costco to have one upstairs and downstairs. Then picked up another at a yard sale for 20$. I have them set to run while we are at work monday wed friday. We have hardwood floors and they do a great job and fill their bins just about every run and now only use the central vac about once a month. They can be fussy but i am very handy and have taken them apart a few times, even the gear box. (not that difficult) ...then picked up a spare on e-bay for about the cost of a new battery. So three are all the same model. I've only purchased two replacement batteries in all this time. The main complaints i see are those that have way too much junk on their floors. Dirty clothing and such. And they will get stuck on rug fringe. They shut themselves off when stuck on something...usually a shoelace. No different than picking up for a regular vac. They are not for everyone nor do they replace your vac with much better suction, but after a long day at work, no-can-do listen to a vac or physically feel like running one. Gave one to parents and in-laws a few years ago. My dad runs his almost daily in their bedroom for his allergies. Had to show him all the quick cleaning tips. The first error codes seem to frustrate so many and why they are showing up at thrifts and cheap on ebay. (fine with me!) I enjoy taking things apart and studying. They do get lost on occasion and have to go look for them, but make it back to re-charge 9 out of ten times and will lock itself in the bathroom...one starts off in the bedroom, the other in the liv rm. They seem to meet up in the kitchen for a bit, then off on their merry ways. (DH's office is off limits, as it is aways a mess and door shut) We no longer have dust bunnies as they take care of it before they have a chance to form.

Robot vacuums work best in small spaces and 4,000 sq. ft is going to give it a hard time for sure. Whatever limitations it may have, at the end of the day, iRobotâÂÂs Roomba is still the best robot vacuum and changing to Neato or any other alternative is just not going to give better results. I couldnâÂÂt clearly understand why you canâÂÂt limit the Roomba to an area but I guess there is something wrong with your lighthouses and they are not working the way they should. There are two possible reasons why the virtual lighthouses may not be not working: 1-)They have a range of about 6â 6âÂÂâÂÂ. If the gap you set them to cover is larger than that the robot vacuum will find the spot where the lighthouse ray cannot reach and pass through. The solution to this could be to put two lighthouses 6 feet away from each other but two of those so close can confuse the robot. Another solution is to place some object in the middle of the gap where you do not want the Roomba to pass and place the lighthouses on both ends so their rays donâÂÂt make contact. 2-) Roomba 530 is not compatible with lighthouses. But if you have lighthouses they will still work as virtual walls. You need to set to wall. This post was edited by patricc on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 13:40

We've had a Rhoomba for about 8 years - got him a year, or so, after they first came out. I LOVE him! The little bristles do okay in the corners if you use him frequently. Probably not so much if the floor hasn't been vac'd in a month. Ours has been used 3-4 times/week ever since he's been a member of our household. I'd love to have one that returns to his charger but since he's still working - well, you don't toss out a family member just 'cause they are a bit long in the tooth! :) dcarch, we've had no problems with the motors. We've had no problems of any sort. It takes a couple minutes to clean after each use but we've got it down to less than 3 minutes for maintenance. One thing we did have to do was replace our area rugs with the no fringe type but that was in need of doing anyway. Rhoomba does NOT like fringe. Sometimes he disappears & we have to go on a search/rescue mission but that has gotten better the longer we've had the little guy. Enjoy your new family member, John. :) /tricia

I had to do a reset this morning on my vacuum. Yesterday, she started acting like a trapped animal, like she was having a panic attack. Forward, backward and circling in quick bursts, not seeing any objects, crashing into them. I cleaned all her wheels and brushes yesterday, docked her and hoped for the best this morning. No, she was still acting like a maniac so I held the "clean" button for 10 seconds til the letters "rst" showed up. Let go of the button, she made a new chime sound and she is all good again. This behavior could have been activated when I shut her in my bedroom Saturday and let her go til the battery light went amber. She felt trapped and she acted out : ). Happy New Year to all!