9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
I'm vacuuming right now....
Date of Review: Jan 17, 2008
The Bottom Line: Everyone needs a Roomba, especially this 5th generation. They'll become as common as dishwashers.
Oh, this Roomba is wonderful. My mother has one of the earlier models, and one of the best improvements of the 500 series is that instead of deciphering "uh-oh" beeps to know what the Roomba needs, it speaks! "Please clean the brushes," it says, great when you first start using it, because it picks up some much stuff that regular vacuums don't that you have to empty the bin and pull stuff off the brushes after each room. And once it's been over every room once, maintenance is a snap, and my carpet and floors look and feel clean. It senses stairs, and stays away, pushes papers and socks out from under my bed, and gets the carpet against walls that I had to use a tool to reach with my old vacuum. This one does three rooms on a single charge (once it had been over each room once). And it's very quiet.
It's very easy to empty the trash bin, and to remove and clean the brushes. The key here is that you can remove the brushes to clean them, instead of digging around the dusty underside of a standard vacuum. And there are no belts to stretch or break.
Mine cleans my carpet, Pergo, marble tile kitchen floor, vinyl, and rugs. It works great on all the surfaces. The virtual walls are great, because you have to use them if you need a room cleaned quickly. Otherwise the unit will transverse all the rooms on a floor at once.
