We just got a Philips CF8810 SmartPro Active Robot Cleaner.
It was easy to set up and get charging. There's lots of options for programming it to run on certain days at certain times, and different options to select for how much it sucks, and the cleaning pattern used.
But it can also be started on a cleaning run by hitting one button on the remote, and it cycles through all of the cleaning patterns automatically. If it detects a dirty bit, it swirls around on it a bit before moving on. When it's done with it's cycle, or when the "home" button is hit on the remote, it goes back to its charging station.
It handles walls and corners very well - the front brushes extend beyond the edge of the machine itself, so it's reaching out a bit to pull dust and dirt toward its sucker. It does great on the wood floor, and even handled a deep entry way mat area, though looking a bit slow and awkward there.
It's a lot quieter than a normal vacuum cleaner, but still a noticeable buzz with a fair bit of bumping and grumbling sounds. Due to the noises, rolling around, and spinning, we've named it Dalek
If using a program, I wouldn't run it at night, due to the bumping.
It bumps into pretty much everything, though gently. It has a bumper on the front which takes the impact first and it backs off before hitting anything harder. It shoves around light weight items regardless of size ... my flip-flops and an empty watering can were all pushed several feet in different directions
The only problem so far is that its brushes and wheels got stuck due to a bunch of my hair from the floor wrapping around them. This would probably be less of a problem if vacuuming on a regular basis, but it's been several weeks since we did a manual vacuum job before trying out the robot. At any rate, it was extremely easy to pull of the brushes to remove the hair, and removing the wheels to get my hair off the axles was also pretty straight forward.
Even after getting stuck and being turned off, and turned back on in a different location, Dalek went back to its charging station after I hit the "home" button on the remote. Kinda cute watching it slowly maneuver into position then back its butt into the docking bay
Dalek's a little too tall to get under our couch, but by about a centimeter or less. I think it managed to get pretty much everywhere else downstairs. We can probably screw in different legs to the couch to get it slightly higher.
It doesn't "remember" the area, so there's no problem with moving it somewhere else to start, such upstairs instead of downstairs. It shouldn't fall off of ledges, but we haven't tried that yet.
Removing the dirt trap is extremely easy. Bend over, pull off the cover, and grab the little closed bucket. Open the bucket and empty into the trash. It's just as easy to put it back in.
Hopefully my hair isn't an ongoing problem. It's 2-3 feet long, so can make quite a mess
I'll get the fiance to vacuum upstairs a day or two before we run Dalek up there, so he's not get too tangled all at once.
