2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Love it...but spring for the extended warranty!!
Date of Review: Aug 25, 2009
The Bottom Line: Unless you have OCD & obssessively vacuuming with a high-quality upright daily is normal for you, YOU NEED THIS.
2 kids = lot of crumbs = no match for Roomba
The Problem: Everyone in my family hates vacuuming, so it doesn't get done. Then hubby does it, & b!tches about it...but the rest of us would still rather hear the b!tching than do it ourselves. That's how much we hate it. And our old upright is on it's last wheels. So I started researching the Roomba.
Based on a review I read online, instead of taking advantage of internet deals, I purchased my Roomba 560 at a Sears store & paid the extra $52.50 for the protection plan. I got it charged up & after that excruciating wait I finally let it loose in our apartment. Dumping the bin was enlightening & disgusting all at the same time, & it was really easy to clean the filter & brushes. Love the little tool they include to remove hair...wish cleaning my upright's brushes was that easy!
It cleaned our entire 2 BR apt on a single charge, I cleaned it & let it recharge, then ran it again because it was pretty bad under those beds. Then the brushes stopped turning. Couldn't figure out why...took it apart & nothing was blocking them & they turned freely with my hands.
Well, Sears has a 30-day exchange policy & the protection plan covers Day 31 up to 2 years. Since we were on day TWO I exchanged it for another. We were going out of town for the weekend, so I scheduled the new one to run after the initial 16 hr charge, just knowing we'd return to 4 beautifully vacuumed rooms.
We returned to find TWO beautifully vacuumed rooms, with poor Rusty hung up on the base of a fan, pooped out. Oh well.
So I am still experimenting to find the best placement of the towers for our apt layout, but in general it has performed much better than I expected & I do feel the extra $52 is a good investment. From what I hear, you can only file a claim one time for replacement, so if it does conk out on me I hope it's as close to the end of the 2 years as possible. That way I can use the full store credit to purchase the newest model that's out there, & I would rather pay any cost difference plus new protection plan cost than buy a brand new unit.
For now, I am satisfied that although I paid slightly more than $400 with the plan & tax, I am guaranteed a working Roomba for at least 2 years. I might even considering a Scooba one day...
