iRobot - 614

I bought a 605 from Amazon warehouse deals in 2018. Dave is still going strong. Bought a couple of maintenance kits but he’s very useful on the carpets. Still have normal vacuum (Henry) and a lightweight cordless vacuum for my wife and kitchen. Will keep Dave until he’s no longer viable.

I have a "dumb" Roomba that I bought way back in 2016 on a Prime Day sale. It doesn't have any of the smart features that a lot of the newer models have. In general it's not perfect but I would say it does a pretty good job and if you don't like vacuuming as a regular chore it'll allow you to vacuum more often than you personally would which overall is a net positive. Since moving to a bigger place a few years back, I ended up buying a Miele canister vac so that I can efficiently clean different parts of my home simultaneously. So the Roomba is vacuuming one section while I use the Miele to vacuum another section. The smaller your place the more effective a robot vacuum will be as your primary vacuum, but if you have a bigger place you'll still have to charge the vacuum after one section, then move it to another location to finish the whole house.

Our Roomba 614 is going strong after 9 years. We've only had to replace the side brush motor and filters. We like that it's dumb, doesn't do any mapping, and is not wifi connected, but it still does a great job.

We have had an iRobot Roomba for 17 years. We initially bought the 535, it’s been upgraded with the new bin (aero vac 2) and running gear from the later 600 series It has had two battery replacements in its life, and has had a replacement main board once, which added the schedule feature. It cleans better than the 780 models relatives have. This Roomba, with replacements when things wear out, has outlived most other appliances we have. You can still buy the 600 series which is based on the same platform, and if ours ever became unrepairable, we would buy one. Heck, considering you can change all of the parts with a screwdriver and a bit of basic knowledge (how to plug/unplug things), a second hand one would be fine.

If it's just one room, get one of the old random bounce around Roombas with the bristle roller. 500 or 600 series. They're great at picking up litter and combing embedded pet hair out of carpet. I have a 692 I keep just for that. They're also super cheap because everyone wants the self-emptying models now. I see the older ones pretty often at thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace for under $30.

I have an iRobot roomba from about 2015. Still works great. It can connect to an app but doesn’t need to and has simple replacement filters and parts. Easy to clean. I did need to replace the battery once. I think the lower models with less connection needs must end up outlasting for this reason.

I’ve never understood this. I have an old Roomba 630 that “blindly bounces around” and it’s fine. Bought almost a decade ago and I still use it every day. Easy to get spare parts on eBay. I dread the day that it dies and I need to buy a cloud-connected model. How much better are these newer mapping / cloud-connected ones? Do they really add that much value?

I have one basic Roomba that moves around randomly and another that supposedly maps the space. The cheaper, random movement robot is vastly superior in all ways.

No robot vacuum is going to do well with stones and if there’s snow, it’s going to get wet when it melts. You’d probably want to get something industrial quality, like Makita or Pudu, but those are HUGE and probably will be too big for 600 sqft. If you meant pebbles when you said stones, you might have a better chance with one of the older iRobot Roombas (500-600/Professional series) with the high capacity sweeper bin. They are cheaper on eBay now and don’t have as many problems as the Dirt Dogs. I don’t think any household robot is going to clean up stones at all. And even if they somehow do, it’s going to get clogged in the auto emptying dock.

Older roombas are simple, reliable, durable, effective, and cheap. But they don't have smart navigation or mapping where you can ask them to clean specific areas. If you want navigation they become less cheap and less durable. I have a 10yo 600 series roomba and a new Roborock Q5. Q5 is great but I'm skeptical that it's going to last as long.