We got the basic one (Roomba) for the little ranch house. 'Shoulda got the self-empty. Never could get the app to load and recognize it. (Hughesnet.) "She" and I have a love/hate relationship. I swear she does better when I threaten (at 2am) to take her outside and shoot her with the 12 ga. Mysterious error messages that I can't find a definition to occasionally. Never has enough juice to do the whole house, and it's a small house.

I bought a high end one about 18 months ago when Amazon had it significantly discounted. It is an EcoVacs Omni T10 that self empties and will mop when you put the rotary pads on it. It has clean and dirty water tanks that are easy to empty and fill. I use distilled water in it so there is no water scale in the machine or haze on the floor. I'm amazed at how much fuzz and dirt the thing picks up. I have a mix of carpet, tile and wood flooring. I don't have pets, but would highly recommend you get one that has avoidance detection to prevent the dog poop mess, if you have pets. Spare rollers, brushes and bags are cheap on Amazon. Be prepared to change bags frequently at first, because it goes where you likely don't clean regularly, (under chairs, couches and beds). Most of the time it will clean the whole house on a single charge, provided you have not set obstacles around the house that requires it to signifcantly deviate from its mapped paths. You will learn to keep your house picked up, so that charger cables and electrical cords don't wind up in the rotary brushes. Small grandkids leave small toys scattered that the thing will suck up. I also recommend cutting open the dust bag and checking for lost items (earings, jewelry, coins, marbles, puzzle pieces and small toys). If anyone has long hair, it will wind around the rotary beater bar, but this robot came with a cutter similar to a letter opener, which makes it easy to cut and remove the hair. I did have to put magnetic door stops in a couple of rooms so it couldn't get behind a door and shut itself in a room. Like some above said, it doesn't replace a vacuum but I don't use mine very often anymore. My robot cleans the whole house every week and the rooms I use regularly three times a week. Buy a good one and you won't regret it! Good luck

SIL told me Sat they were the best thing since sliced bread,

I think this is probably the norm for one. I just don't see how it cannot get hung up.

We purchased a roomba from Sam’s 3 years ago and are very pleased with what it does. We shut it down for the day whenever we leave home AND leave the dogs out , in case one of them has an accident. Ours keeps the dust and dander down considerably. Wife could sweep and mop in the morning and that afternoon when the sun goes down you could see the accumulation of dust on the floor. Now that the roomba runs daily, that is no longer an issue

Must set it up properly to run efficiently. Using the room dividers, and room labels will help speed up the process. Don't be afraid of technology......

Self empty? Where? how? I can see all kinds of problems with that.

We have one and I’m not real impressed. It gets hung up and we have to find it. I don’t have a problem with just vacuuming.

Like ours. We didn’t set boundaries just close a door if you don’t want it there. The dog poo/barf is a non issue if you don’t leave them in the house unattended. Legos bb’s etc is what trips ours up. Occasionally have to pull some pieces off and remove balls of hair. No regerts

I'm retired, but even I have better use for my time. Poor bastard.

If your dog regularly takes a dump inside your house, I'd work on that before I bought a roomba

Winner winner chicken dinner the least of your worries is dog hair

Same here. Got to run the Dyson every couple weeks and get the heavy dog hair