Here are a few tips if you're thinking about getting a Roomba (which you should!)

1. Wait until Prime Day or an equivalent sale. I bought this model for $220 (tax included). If you live in the Seattle area, watch out for the Amazon deals - Amazon vans will park random places for one day only to offload products at a steep discount. The Roomba is a regular for that rotation - I've seen this model sold for $140.

2. Do not buy cheap knockoff versions for replacement parts on Amazon. Buy only iRobot products (from them directly if possible). There are a lot of versions of fake products from Chinese companies sold on Amazon. These parts are crappy and could impact the performance / lifetime of your Roomba. One example of that is the replacement air filters. The cheaper versions do not seal correctly, so dust gets into the small cracks and other mechanisms within the machine. Replacing your vaccum will cost a lot more than a $10 air filter.

3. Clean your air filter with a toothbrush after each use to reduce the clog of dust. Replace the filter every 3 months.

4. Do a deep cleaning of your Roomba every 6 months. Use a mini flathead and a small phillips to take off the front cover (you'll need to take off the small, yellow spinning brush first using the small flathead). Be careful because the threads of the tiny screw are mounted in plastic casing. Very easy to strip. Clean out all the hair around the small screw that attaches the spinning brush (after 6 months, this can cause the brush to stop spinning - 90% of the time, it's just hair - side note - this motor is also replacable for only $15 on the iRobot website).

I've noticed a fair amount of negative reviews discussing the shelf life of Roombas. People are making comments like "My cats killed our Roomba" etc. I'd like to set the record straight for this awesome company. Basically, in life, you can't get things for free. You can't expect your car, for instance, to function well over time without regular maintainence. Most people hate car maintanance, so it has become widely accepted for most people to pay someone to fix / clean their car. And, for most people this makes a lot of sense. We'd rather spend our time doing other things besides changing the oil, checking the tires, checking the radiator, maintaining the engine and so on.

For vaccums, the mechanics are much less complex than a car. However, they still incur a ton of wear and tear like dirt, cat hair, female hair, dust, and eveything else that lands on the floor. Over time, even the best vaccum will break or need repairs if it is not well maintained. In the old days, we had vaccum repair shops because people hated working on their vaccums. Then, everything possible became automated and outsourced. We could have Roomba repair shops that cost $30 to do a tune up of your Roomba. People would probably pay it. But, rest assured, the same people complaining about paying for that would be the same people who complained about the amazing Roomba - the vaccum that does its job with very little work from the human. The only thing is doesn't do well is clean itself. What we need is a cat Roomba.

My closing thought is this one. Spend one hour every three months maintaining your Roomba, and you will save yourself 50+ hours a year (a whole work week) of vaccuming. That's very simple math, but it will require some effort on the part of the human. I purchased mine on Prime Day 8 months ago. I did my first deep clean (along with the regular air filter cleaning with each use) and she is gently purring like the first day I discovered her :-).

I do not own securities in iRobot or work for them. This review is completely of my own writing.

The only problem is how it gets trapped easily. Somehow can't get out of the shoe tray, and gets stuck underneath the coffee table whose legs create an arch at the bottom. Other than that great.

This is ok for helping with the dog hair, but you still need to go behind it and get underneath and around certain areas. It is much larger than than the Deenkee I purchased a few years ago and doesn't fit under my my cabinets. It gets pretty rough on the furniture. I wipe it down, but it doesn't seem like it has a good sensor. It has moved chairs around and gotten stuck.

Our old Roomba died after about 7 years and this was a great replacement. Easy to set up and does a good job picking up hair, dust, and small debris.

I thought this had the mapping feature but does not - it works well and as intended but is all over the place vs cleaning in a pattern and does not have mapping features so you can't block off areas in a room. It's worth paying extra for the mapping feature.