Initially I was a bit skeptical about robot vacuums in general because of the high 'gadget' content. I also thought, 'another device in the house'. But then I got busier and busier and wanted to give it a try, also because of the many enthusiastic reviews I read.
General-
My experience has been mostly positive. Don't expect miracles, it's just a vacuum cleaner, and how much time do you actually save at all, but still, it's nice to come back to the room where you put it to work, completely forget it, and then to see that it is beautifully clean. I also find myself putting it to work more often than I would ever have vacuumed myself, which makes me think the room is generally cleaner than before.
Charging station/charging/battery life
My requirement was to choose a robot that would return to the charging station itself, which seemed practical to me, and it is.
Then you don't have to worry about it anymore.
The charging times and the like do not matter that much anymore, because it will immediately start charging again.
Sound-
The noise is very annoying if you are in the same room, and certainly if there are several sounds around you, city sounds, someone on the phone, pets, the TV is on, etc. If there is still a vacuum cleaner constantly quite loud you don't want to be in that room anymore.
But there's a simple solution for that: Turn on the robot when you don't need to be in that room.
Then the sound is no problem at all.
Build Quality-
So far nothing has broken, but every time I lift the device I am afraid that something will break. This is because there are all kinds of plastic parts that can be detached and 'clipped' in/to the device. A handle to lift it would have been useful, but that is not the case. But all in all, this is really a minor issue, if you handle your stuff carefully, the build quality is more than adequate.
Cleaning results-
In general fine, in corners of course not good. You still have to do it yourself. Shocking and reassuring at the same time how much there is in the collection tray after one turn!
Price quality-
It remains a gadget in my eyes, but a handy one!
It cleans well, but don't expect miracles from it, or lots of extra time or anything. When you see him at work, you understand that quite a lot of development costs and technology and the like are involved. So I can understand the price. I can't say that the price is not in proportion, but if you compare it with other things in life that you use more often, it remains quite an amount, but that doesn't really say much about this specific robot. You just buy a perfectly working product that you can enjoy, but it is a 'luxury' that you may or may not be willing to pay for. That is of course a personal choice!
Hopefully this review will help you. You could have vacuumed your room at the time you read this, but with the Irobot at home you can multitask at will.
