It is a good robot, but not for wood floor
922919
It is a good robot, but not for wood floor.
Trust me if you are planning to use it for wood floor, you better accept there will be a lot of scratches. If you use it for other, I'm highly recommend this robot.
2779463
Bought this little guy on sale at Walmart.com back in early 2013 and have loved it ever since.
Do you like clean floors but hate vacuuming? Get a robot.
Sure, it can't do edges and it can get stuck on things if you're not careful to give it clear pathing but who cares about that when you don't have to vacuum as often!? If I need to get edges I'll drag out the big upright beast...

Its great for pet owners like me - constantly sucking up the cat hair and food crumbs. Gets under furniture (if its tall enough) - gets under the bed easily.
You can block off areas you don't want it to roam into with the magnetic strip, or any solid object if you need to.

Just replace the filters, clean its dust bin, and check the under parts if you have long hair :) as it will tangle eventually, but its simple to pull out.

***Something bad that can happen*** : There is a known issue in the vacuum 'bot community called "dead mode" or "dim green light" which is a pain to deal with. I'm glad I didn't see this for 2+ years but I am now and I'm fighting to keep my baby alive. Apparently the problem lies with the capacitors on the motherboard which may pose a problem for those without the ability to deal with something like that. You can send it in for repairs but it can be costly. I'm currently calling around to see if any local computer/vacuum repair places are up to snuff for repairing our little robot minions.
4542837
I'm overall happy with this robot vaccuum. It will run for 3-4 hours on a single charge and return to the base. The dust bin is large but doesn't have an indicator when it is full. It does get stuck in certain corners when it  goes from carpet to tile and tries to turn around, so I just put things to block it from going there in the first place.  It would be really nice if it had those little "lighthouses " that make it so it won't go into a room . I have tile throughout my house with area rugs, and sometimes it gets hung  going from the tile to the rug.
When putting on the mop  and water tank, this robot literally just spins in a circle. I have tried to nudge it and it will go a few feet and then do the same thing. I have tried putting less water in the tank,  making sure the mop attachment was on properly, starting with a dry mop or starting with a damp mop but it still wouldn't work.  My tiles are your standard ceramic tile too.
2167925
Ive had it for a few days and so far so good.  It is pretty powerful, picks up a good amount of dirt and dog hair.  Does a good job keeping the floor from accumulating too much dirt, when used a few days a week.  However, it does appear to have some trouble navigating in the dark.  It didn't enter a dark room and got a bit lost under a dark corner of a sofa.  Also, it will push your dinner chairs aside.  So its best to place them aside on the days you schedule the robot.  Try to not change its environment too much.  Itll have to re-learn the room, otherwise.  This will lengthen the time it takes to clean, perhaps killing the battery before its done.

Its really a great product, itll keep your floor clean allowing you more time for other things.  Not to mention youll deep clean your home less frequently.  Good stuff.
3380801
Good for floor cleansing, but it does not work for carpet.  Overall it is fine, but not an excellent product
1420396
This is our first experience with a robotic sweeper so I wasn't sure what to expect. I read many reviews and did some research on which ones would have the best features. The Bobi has been very useful in just a few short months with two kids and a dog to clean up after. We have mostly hardwood floors and it does a nice job getting dust and crumbs. It doesn't compare to our Dyson on rugs and carpet though, but I didn't really expect it to. My biggest complaint is that the fan often gets clogged with dirt and the whole unit shuts off. It also gets stuck on one of my rugs with tassles. I try to block the rug and that usually works. It occasionally will get stuck on our thresholds between floor transitions as well.  Another piece I was disappointed with is the juice feature. When it starts blinking juice and moving back home it has a lot of trouble finding home. I have moved the home unit twice to alleviate this problem but it still has trouble each time. All in all, it performs well and does pick up most of what's on the floor. I wish the features worked better but it wasn't enough for me to return and replace the item. We are hoping to get lots of use out of it in the future.
1950187
This dog is really cute and pretty fun. It is smaller than I thought it would be, but not in a bad way.

This thing is really a pretty marvelous piece of robotics for the price. It can get itself upright in most cases and is pretty good about not running into walls. It can move quite quickly and acts like a real dog in a lot of ways. My toddler thinks it is great.

There are a few big cons, though. First, as you see in every review here, it is really, really, really bad at understanding commands. Either they made it way too hard to "train" it, or its speech recognition is horrendous. It is near impossible for adults to get it to do what they tell it to; forget about children having any chance. You should buy this product knowing that it will never understand a single thing you say.

The bigger con, though, is that this dog will pick up any dirt and debris and get it caught in its wheels. If you have any amount of dog hair or cat hair in your house, it'll get stuck in the wheels and make the dog practically immobile. This happened within hours for us and I'd say our floors are cleaner than most.

Considering the dog's voice recognition is unusable, they would be better off just having the dog follow the sound of your voice and chase you around. That's all my kid wants it to do. I think they really missed the mark on this product given the terrible speech recognition, but it is still a popular toy at our house.
658854
Even with some scratch on it, the robot is working fine. Good for an automatic second vacuum cleaner but still need the big manual one once a week. Construction is robust, even this model is pretty smart for finding the room size.
4087767
If the product description had been honest, I would have given this 5 stars, because it is very good at what it actually does. It is small, light, has good suction that is adjustable through 5 levels, and is very quiet. It did a great job on my vinyl flooring and, since the head lacks the rotating brushes typically found on vacuums, it can be used on hardwood and laminate floors without scratching them. I used the brush attachment to vacuum my mini-blinds and the crevice tool to get down in the seams of the recliner.

However, this vacuum is absolutely useless for carpets. So, if you have carpets in your house, it can't serve as your only vacuum. If you have only hard floors with no carpet, then this might be a good choice. Or, if you want a second vacuum for upholstery, curtains, and the kitchen floor, then you might find this useful.

Aside from what I consider to be misleading statements in the product description about the ability of this vacuum to clean carpets, my only complaint about this product is that the cord doesn't always retract completely and you have to pull it back out a few feet and try again.
3024025
The instruction is clear enough that my 10 year old was able to follow. I saw he and his younger brother re-assembled a couple of times but they were able to put the robot together by themselves in a half day.
It's a good toy but a little expensive since my sons only showed a little while of passion on it after it was assembled. Then just left it alone.

Some wires were tight for the length if you rotate the robot head around.

There were screws shaped differently which in my view, can be shaped the same to make the assembling process easier for young kid. My sons were looking for different sizes of screw drivers for different screws.

I bought the computer interface kit. Thinking of returning it without opening it, since it does not seem to have advanced features other than link the robot with a computer instead of a controller.
2451272
I gave this 5 starts not because it is the best robot platform.  It's not.  It is cheap and very simple.  It just two cheap motors and plastic wheels and a very cheap plastic "body".  The encoders are a disk with 48 slots that mount to the wheel axel.  So you get 48 counts per rev. BUT you need to buy the IR detecters. for detectors buy the "HY301-21" optical switch and connect it to the interrupt line on an Arduino and measure the microseconds between the slots on the disk.

Note this robot will NOT do anything at all except drive in a big turning arc and crash into  wall.  Not until you add a small computer to control it, some sensors the encoder detecters and write some software.  This is just the basic platform with no "brain" no sensor and not even all the parts you need to make the wheel encoder.
3492813
I also wish, like others have mentioned, that the trigger had a locking mechanism so one didn't have to engage it manually all the time. I have everything hardwood except for a tiled bathroom and that makes for a lot of trigger pulling time. It does a pretty good job but seems to dull the shine on the floor unless you use a cleaner supplement. It's awkward to do corners with the steam portion but I feel like my floors are clean when I am done. If I could afford one, I would get a robotic cleaner to do the work while I was away. This would get the 5 stars if it weren't for the trigger and the awkward cornering for steam cleaning.
2262679
BACKGROUND:
I was the owner of an early Roomba robot which performed well for years until something went bad within it.
Since it was old, I decided to buy a new one.

SELECTION:
I choose the model 650 because I was satisfied with the performance of my former Robot. Didn't felt like my needs required the more complex models, a HEPA filter. Besides, they are kind of expensive! However, your needs may require the HEPA filter for example.
I did some research tough. I did find the following helpful:
http://thesweethome.com/reviews/the-best-robot-vacuum-is-the-roomba-650/
There are many other useful reviews both here on Amazon, as on the web.

PERFORMANCE:
As many people has found, it works. Most of the time.
But be realistic: It's NOT Rosie from the Jetsons!
It will NOT eliminate manual cleaning. You will have to do it from time to time, as it can't deal with liquids, some stains, large debris, or some complicated obstacles.
It will NOT clean your stairs, your furniture, your sofa, your table, your pets, your toilet.
BUT it will keep clean the floors and rugs, and if they are clean, there will be less dust flying around the house and falling on your stairs, funiture, sofa, whatever. So maybe those chores will be easier for you.
My house has some moldings between tiel floor and hardwood floors. Roomba can pass thru them without any problems.
Its supposed to climb over thick rugs (but I don't have any rugs to test it). It can even vacuum some bar-stool feet.

I find the vacuuming works most of the time. I don't know where it gets it, but at the end of each cleaning cycle there's lots of dust, hair on the bin. That's good.
Cleaning of the dust bin is easy. I advice getting some soft brush, it will make cleaning easier and more effective.
Cleaning of the brushes and other parts is easy as well. Just follow the instructions as provided by IRobot.

THE NOT SO GOOD:
I feel like some plastic parts of the dust Bin are not rugged enough. They might break (but I hope they dont).

The warranty could be longer.

The Robot almost locked me out one time! On it's endless wandering, it pushed closed a corridor door, and just there and then it decided that all was clean and stopped cleaning. When I tried to open the door from the other side, I pushed the door a few inches, and the Robot wedged between the door and the wall. Too bad this model don't have a remote control, it would have helped me moving the Robot away from the door!.

And as both people and the manual have pointed out, you have to pick up power cords, shoe strings and things like that: Roomba likes to tangle them around its rotating parts!

LIFE:
I have used this for only a few weeks, so I can't say much yet about its long term performance (will update as required).
As of now, the battery holds its charge well, and I can clean half the apartment without problems on a single charge, without completely depleting the battery.

VERDICT:
I am kind of lazy sometimes. I also have a busy life.
This Roomba works for me. It doesn't replace all cleaning chores, but at least the floors are being taken care of.
I'm happy with it.

EXTRA INFO:
I don't know if all Roombas ship with the same charger. I bought my Roomba 650 at Amazon's USA web site. The charger it came with states on its label:
Model: 17063
(C) 2008-2012 iRobot Corporation
Input 100-240V - 50/60 Hz 0.66A".
Based on the above, this charger should work in most parts of the world.
It came with a detachable power cord suitable for plug-in at standard US electrical receptacles. I would guess that iRobot ships a different power cord in other parts of the world.
2081779
I've been running this Neato Botvac 70e for a week. After the first couple of runs in our 900sf condo I was concerned. The bot kept hitting some furniture pretty good - hard enough that I was concerned furniture and baseboard would be damaged over time. The limitation, as far as I can tell, is the laser scanner in the top turret is sensitive to lighting conditions, the gloss of furniture, baseboard and other objects. I have a glossy TV stand from ikea and the bot kept using it's bumper to "feel" the 4 foot long cabinet. It was a bit concerning, but no scratches. At the end of the cabinet the bot made a 180 and hit the ikea cabinet pretty hard, leaving a bit of white plastic scraped on the ikea melamine. I was able to polish off most, but a slight scratch remained. I'm amazed neato didn't include a silicone bumper around the entire bot to ensure nothing happens to customer furniture. In my mind this is a big oversight, especially considering customers will have valued furniture, like my wife's piano. This problem was pretty easy to fix with some 1.5 inch wide, 1/8" thick foam rubber tape I had lying around. I wrapped the tape around the sides of the bot, making sure not to cover any vents or sensors. Now the bot can hit whatever it wants during training, where this behavior seems to occur most. Another issue I've found is the "shag area rug detection" could be a lot better. Our area rug has about 1.5 inch shag and the bot struggles to get on top of the rug, then gets stuck. It would be nice if the bot recognizes it's struggling along the line of the area rug and adds that area to its exclusion area. I bought some neato magnetic tape and it's not a problem now, but this required more money. Thumbs down. Our main rug is a very low pile and the bot cleans it very well. It even sucked up dust right after we vacuumed with our new Dyson multi-floor. The rubber brush may act as a beater bar? Anyway, I was pretty surprised. The bot also picked up a ton of my wife's long hair. This is the main reason I bought this robot! She sheds like an animal. Sorry, honey. Our cat will be moving in soon, so I'll add more comments after that. Another area of improvement would be more graceful pedestal handling. The bot can get stuck on pedestals supporting tables or bar chairs. To solve this we just make sure to orient our chairs around the pedestal table in a way that creates a barrier for the bot. Speaking of chairs, the bot is very good at finding and negotiating chair legs and other "poles." The pole detection is good and it seems a lot of time was put into testing that feature. I suspect the bot works best in lower light conditions, but I'm not sure. This would make sense considering the laser scanner detector may have less noise to contend with.

Overall, if you don't mind adding a custom bumper, adding some neato mag strips, and manicuring your furniture setup a bit, the neato seems like a good performer. I want to give 4 stars, but the bot scratched my ikea cabinet. There really should be a rubber bumper included from the factory. I would also use ultasonic sensors instead of the mechanical bumper. With that said, this is a pretty cool product!
4134396
Pretty good but needs attention - This little robot does an excellent job of cleaning but it needs its water reseviour refilled about once an hour when used for wet mopping but the battery power lasts for about 2 hours so you have to go stop it, pull the little pad holder and refill it. It does, (very slowly) an excellent job of cleaning our wood floor, which is the pre-finished type. This means it has little grooves between the boards. The robot handles this with no problem. It does a good job on the edges and generally (but not always), recognizes spaces like hallways or narrow areas between cabinets in kitchens. Occasionally it will become confused or stuck. The little cube with a blue light that helps it navigate is still a mystery and I don't really see it doing anything.  For those of you that have the iRobot vacuum this little guy does not navigate as efficiently and is much slower.

Pros: Does a good job!  Runs very quietly  Gets the edges and around chair legs.

Cons: Needs a refill every hour on wet mop. Charger stand seems to be an afterthought and covers carry handle. Gets itself in trouble now and then.
1576743
I-Sobot is a fragile toy robot. It has many warnings about the many ways you can break it.

It is quite an entertaining little bot when YOU are controlling it. But if you put down the remote control and watch, I-Sobot just sits there, yawns a bit and then "falls asleep." For EVERY action that you want it to perform, YOU need to hit buttons or joy sticks on its remote. There are hundreds of key combinations, none of which are easy to remember. (I think there was one called A.A.A that did something fun.)

It is missing some of the key features that most robots have these days. It has no mode that will let it run on its own. It cannot sense the edge of a table and of course will break if it falls. It cannot sense something in front of it. It only has sensors that keep it from falling over, although with feet nearly as long as it's legs are tall, It does not need sensors that much. It has a small vocabulary of words it understands and it does pretty well with that if in a quiet room. It's own voice is not very loud which is a good thing as it is quite chatty. There is a program mode which is a bother to use.

If you are looking for a robot toy with a bit more "robotics" in it, the Robosapian and other Wowee robot toys are a much better bet. If you want to teach your older child (12+) about real robotics the Vex kit is the way to go.

If you are looking for something to ENTERTAIN a 8-13 year old that is VERY careful with toys or an adult that needs another bit of technology on his desk, this would be just the thing.

PS. You've got to love that first "review." It was probably written by the I-Sobot marketing team.)

[...]
3278661
this is my first robotic vacuum so I don't have the perspective of previous models or the roomba. It does a remarkably good job.... when it works. It's rare that I come home and it's finished the job. It either didn't make it back to the charger or it's stuck - and I'm diligent about getting everything off the floor. Also, it won't do the whole house. Granted, it's a fairly large single story home of 3,400 sqft. But it just can't make it back to it's charging station even if I place it in the middle of the house. I have to close off half the house and then have it do a side a day. So my request for the next version - a larger battery optional version for larger homes. Also, for the next s/w update - provide the ability to set the "return to charger" battery threshold because right now it just won't make it back. These issues aside, it really does do a great job cleaning and I like it for what it is so I probably won't be returning it.