We picked up this iRobot Roomba because Sam's has the best prices in the world. The reviews pre-purchase were pretty solid. We did not get one with an automatic Dust Bin emptier because it doubles the unit cost and adds paper bags that you have to buy, throw away and replace $$.
For all of its smarts, it does some wonky things like going into areas it's not supposed to after you've created Spaces/Rooms. That does seem to correct itself over time, if you stand in the way of the areas that is not supposed to go into until it 'learns'.
Probably the biggest problem we have is that on some of our rugs it pulls up a large amount of fiber causing the unit to go back to its home base to be empty sometimes as many as three times in a 14x14 foot room.
A thing that should be at the top of the list upon emptying the Dust Bin, is to take out the paper filter cartridge and clean it well by tapping it on the floor to shake loose dust and then using a brush or vacuum cleaner crevice tool to clean because if it gets clogged, rug fibers will completely clog the unit which will cause multiple returns to home base to be emptied.
Once we figured that out, hardwood floors clean very well.
Another thing you have to do is at least after cleaning one or two rooms remove the rollers because any long human hairs or dog hairs get wound around inside the roller ends and have to be picked out like little Curly Q's that you might see on a baby's neck. Cute, but they will affect the operation of the unit.
It is amazing to see it dance its way around the legs of the chair to clean under it. The battery life is pretty good, but if you have it do more than 2-3 rooms in a row, it will go back to recharge which can take up to 1-1/2 hours (Think Electric Car). And, that's fine if you're not home and don't care.
Also found that before cleaning room you need to walk around and pick up things because it will skip an area if there's a shoe or any object out of place. At the end of the cleaning it will Review with you what it saw that was out of place and allow you to determine whether it was a temporary obstacle or a permanent new item in the room.
Customer service by email was basically a 24-hour reply. There really aren't many solutions to any of the problems that you have. They just give you an idea of what you need to wait for or try differently.
I gave it a 4 out of 5 rating because it requires me to do more work than I would like to have to do. Truthfully, I think that the portable Dyson that we have would do about the same job in about 1/10 a time, but then that's more work for me. We will continue to play with this, but I doubt I would buy another one.
Customer reviews for iRobot® Roomba® j9+ Robot Vacuum with 60 days of self-emptying for
