Quoted from CUJO:I have 4 pins on tile and 8 on carpet and was thinking about a robotic sweeper to get under all my pins and clean around the legs/etc.
Do they work well doing this? Are the pricier ones smarter and able to do a better job of it?
Love to hear some opinions on the best ones and the ones to avoid (probably the cheapest ones)...
Don't bother with any Roomba below the 800 series or almost all of the knockoff designs because they still use brushes. Cleaning the brushes SUCKS. The Roomba 800/900 and new E6/i7 series all have rubber rollers that require almost no maintenance and clean very well. Also, because they use the rubber rollers, cords aren't a problem on the newer Roombas while they are an issue on any robot vacuum with brushes, which is all roombas under 800 and most of the knockoffs.
We have the i7+ that empties itself and frankly it's dumber than the 960 we have in the back of the house, so for the price bump I can't recommend it, although the wi-fi strength mapping you can turn on in the app is informative about where the high and low spots are in your house for wifi. You should be able to get an 800 series one for $270-$300 on sale and a 900 series for around $425. Costco has the E6 now for $325, but I have no experience with that model. It should have rubber rollers.