My wife and I work full time, we DIY most things, have not hired out much yet.
We have a cat; the hair gets everywhere; it drives my wife absolutely insane. In addition, I have some allergies, and without fully nailing it down, this may contribute to them.
We vacuum / clean every 1-2 weeks... seems we spend a large chunk of our limited free time there. By the next day after cleaning, the cat's 'tumbleweeds' have returned. I'm thinking maybe one of these devices would make my wife feel less like she has to be constantly cleaning.
We are well on our way to FIRE and have some cash to spare. I'm wondering if a roomba-like-thing is a good idea. We could set it to clean every couple of days, and presumably the cat hairs would be kept under control. Additional bonus is maybe it can help reach places that are hard to get with a conventional vacuum such as under beds, sofas... where large balls of fir/hair accumulate.
Comments? Personal experiences?
Which device is the the most mustachian? (not counting the human roomba - e.g. me).
1 year update (well, maybe 11 months).
I wanted to give an update on my experience with a cheap robot vacuum (Deebot N79) at the 1 year mark.
Overall I give this thing a 4 out of 5. It is not perfect, but it's a damn good value. Sol, I generally really like your comments on posts, but I totally disagree with you so far on this topic.
I would say that the Deebot seems to outperform my existing upright vacuum ( a hoover animal control something or other). It is certainly not as powerful by any means, but in practice me switching to the Deebot has resulted in a cleaner house and me spending less time cleaning. How is this possible? The answer lies in human laziness. In truth, I am too damn lazy. Deebot greatly reduces the barrier towards vacuum. I send Dee (as we call him) to do his job a few times per week, and his random pattern of cleaning at low power outperforms our upright vacuuming that tended to occur every 1.5- 2 weeks on average. I would even consider getting a second Dee for different sections of the house. Dee not only picks up a ton of dirt/dust/etc... it also reaches places I wouldn't normally reach, like under beds. Over all our dust levels have gone down a lot.
Dee is not perfect. The biggest limitation is that Dee is not spectacular with human hair (although he is great with our cats fur). My wifes hair gets tangled around the main brush and eventually clogs it. Every 5 or so sessions it is necessary to unclog all of the hair, which takes 5-10 min. Beyond this, the only time invest I put into Dee is pressing the 'on' button on occasion, as well as empty the dust bin, and helping Dee when he gets stuck. The only other real problem with Dee is that he works better in some places than others. In our kitchen/living room area he requires not help whatsoever. However, in our bedroom area he gets stuck under built-in cabinets which just happen to be the right height to do this. I suspect a more modern house would not have this issue at all.
If there is a robotic vacuum out there that does not get clogged by long (human) hair very easily, it would be a near perfect machine. If this thing exists, please tell me!
Thus, I emphatically recommend one of these to all the mustachians out there.
The only contingency I have on that recommendation is that I will come back again in a year and a few years down the road to see how the robot holds up. It does wobble on occasion when operating... I'm also curious how long the battery/components will last. So far we have not replaced anything and the performance has been good. If the robot suddenly ate-it prior to the 2 year mark, I might lower the enthusiasm of my recommendation.