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I always thought these were silly but thinking about getting one as a gift. Any positives from owners or avoid it?

Great on hardwood/tile floors with no rugs. Great if there's no cords/cables on the floor. Pretty good cleaning - though it won't get tight corners where I've found dust likes to build up in.

It does a decent job on a hardwood floor with a rug, but it has a tough time getting up on our rug if it hits it head-on, and instead thinks its a wall and redirects itself. It will eventually get on top of it when it rolls on it from an angle.

On carpet, it's not the greatest, mainly because the thing rides very low to the ground, so it requires a lot of power to spin the brushes on carpet, thus cutting battery life quite a bit. These refurbished ones don't have the best battery in the world as it is, so it's not the best.

This one doesn't have edge detection either, I don't think - the newer ones do. That means that you need to keep it away from stairs or other drops, because it will just fall down them instead of avoiding them.

This doesn't say it includes the home base - but that is very nice. You set it to clean a room and when it's done it goes back to the base and recharges automatically.

There is nothing on this model to tell you the filter needs to be replaced or the dust bin is full - there is on the newer ones. I'd just recommend cleaning it out every 2 or 3 times.

Also, don't be surprised if you need to buy a new battery ($30-40) for the thing in 6 months or so - that's one of the downsides of buying refurbished. If you run it once a week or so it'll probably last longer.

And if you have a pet, I've heard mixed things. I'd say if your pet has long hair, it will not be good, otherwise it will be great.

Does a good job of cleaning carpets. It's effectiveness in part due to the multiple passes it goes through over the same spot. It's fairly quiet compare to an upright but definite have some noise. You can still watch tv with it running in the room without turning the sound up too much. It's a neat little toy/vacuum to have around. You really want to use it frequently at least a couple time a week. However if you want to maintain the life of the robot and battery be prepared to clean it after every three rooms. It takes 5-10 minutes to clean. There are two rollers that you have to remove the hair from and I like to vacuum the trash bin and the roomba with an upright after cleaning off the hair. That takes a minute to do. So if you think 11 minutes of maintenance every 2-3 rooms is worth it than get it. I will use an upright for deeper under the carpet cleaning every half year and let this go to work the rest of the year.

It's great on long pet hair. It has an edge detector. The new ones ( 500 and above ) are MUCH better with cords and rugs. They won't get tangled in cords and will climb onto, rugs, your leg, etc. They also cost more. If you get a new one, make sure you get one that can schedule, it is very nice to just set up a schedule and forget it. Same with this series. The virtual walls are virtual all right, virtually useless, as the batteries run out very very quickly. With the scheduling walls or the 500 series this is handled much more intelligently.

I love my Roombas (have several). The only issue I have with this, though, is that the few refurb Roombas I've gotten have all come with dead batteries.

#5
Did you try reconditioning the dead battery, per the online procedure? I have this exact refurb model and yep dead battery.

Buy.com has done better:
iRobot Roomba Scheduler 4296 - Factory Recertified for $120.

We picked up a reburb from woot for christmas. It was cheap, and worth the money to test if it was going to do the job. We have hardwood and carpet. Bought it mainly to keep the seed that our bird throws all over the hardwood floors. We set the virtual wall to keep it from getting on the carpet during daily runs. Every few days, we'll turn it loose in one or two of the bedrooms and the hallway. Battery has lasted well, and if we move the throw rugs, we have no problems with it. Am thinking of getting one of the higher-end models, with the charging station, scheduling and such. We really like this one.

Yeah. I tried doing their trick for convincing the battery to charge. Doesn't work. New battery, though, works like a charm. Makes the cost almost the same as new, though, once you add in the $60 for a new battery.

anyone has experience with the Scooba series?

We love our Roomba...#2 above gives a good overview, and yes, this one does have edge detection. They don't like rug tassels or carpet seams, but are great on hardwood floors. You do have a bit of a 'yuck' factor cleaning the brushes if you have pet hair. Dust bin is small and needs emptying often, as does the filter. Great for the 'oh that's cool' factor when friends are over, but don't throw away your upright.
#10, the Scooba didn't fare very well in Consumer Reports' testing. I've tried it on tile, and it was so-so.
The also have a gutter cleaning robot that looks cool...