Robot vacuum experience/reviews?

I'm at a dilemma and could use some real world experience from people that run robot vacuums.

Meet my millenium vacuum:





It's a Neato D7 connected. I have owned it for 15 months. Right now I have it scheduled to clean the most trafficked 3-4 rooms daily plus a whole house sweep each weekend. Generally I would consider that to be heavy use. As such I would expect the normal wear/tear parts expense like brushes and filters, with occasional tear down, cleaning, and reassembly. I would expect that much out of any robot vacuum. But on top of that I have also replaced the main drive belt once, the side brush belt twice, and a ribbon cable. Those are slightly more extensive repairs than a simple consumable part. At least those parts were relatively cheap, until today.
This morning the left wheel started slipping/chattering, which means I get to throw yet another part at it. Unfortunately for me, Neato doesnt sell individual wheel parts - I would have to buy an entire motor/wheel assembly at a cost of roughly 100 bucks.

Now we are starting to talk serious money. And it puts me at a cross roads. I suspect that the wheel stripped because this vacuum is a rather stubborn machine - it will get stuck in a corner and will spin to the point that it climbs halfway up the wall before finally calling for help. If the wheel can't take the abuse that the software puts it through, this might not be the only time I replace it.

So, my question. Do I replace the left wheel assembly and just accept that these things are a constant money suck, or do I cut bait early and buy a Roomba i7?

Anyone experienced with roombas? Do you guys feel the parts suck too?

 

I have a robovac but haven't had it long enough to make any reliability observations.

I was going to get the Roomba but ended up getting the Eufy

It's built by Anker and I've had good luck with their other stuff I've bought.

With 25,000 mostly good reviews I figure it should be OK.

With the cost of new ones vs the parts cost, I'd probably cut bait and try something else.

It seems like everything nowadays is engineered to go approximately 1.5 times the warranty period before conking out.

The Eufy has a 12 month warranty so I expect at least 18 months out of it.

GM may have came up with it but Planned Obsolescence seems to be quite popular.

 

I’ve had the same Roomba for over 10 years. the list of items I’ve replaced has been small.
Aftermarket battery $55
Brush housing/gear case $45
And the rest have been what I considered consumables, filters, brushes, and flicker side brush.
I’ve had to perform surgery on it a couple times to clean the internals, but no parts were needed. I thought it was done for once, but it turned out the cliff detection sensor window was full of lint and it refused to start, in the end it was a simple fix.
One great thing I’ve noticed, is all the parts are very “modular” where you remove 1 or 2 screws and the whole drive wheel assembly is out, no wiring harness, as the modular unit seats into a plug.

my opinion, if I had to invest in a new one, Roomba would be my choice.
Just my .02

 

I'm leaning that way. I just finished rebuilding both wheels. The teeth show a little damage from grinding, but hopefully the kludge repair will last me a few months before they finally bite it. However, I just discovered that the side brush motor is burned out. 50 bucks for that part, or 20 bucks for a flea bay salvage.

In my searches I discovered a reddit board with similar complaints about the whole Neato line. Now to go search if Roomba has even a fraction of those complaints.

 

I have a Neato and it’s nickname in the app is “Piece of Shit” if that tells you anything....

 

Always liked Rosey from The Jetsons. She sucked hard and could peel the cucumbers like nobody’s business

 

It's especially fun when your phone pings you during a work meeting to tell you the useless fucknugget is stuck.

 

Yeah, calling support was always fun “ So I see your robot here, um Piece of Shit. You say it just spins around in circles and beeps? Have you tried to reset it?”

 

Roomba 770 here. It’s 7 years old and still working better than a 3rd gen tranny.
I have replaced: original battery ($30-40 from Amazon), the brushes, and filters. I recently put new tire treads onto it as they were pretty worn down (use LEGO tires... there is a video out there). it runs great and I would buy another in a heartbeat.
The only downside is you cannot buy parts for it from irobot/ roomba other than the basic stuff. You need to use eBay, shop goodwill, etc if you need something unusual.

 

we had a Neato awhile back. lasted about 30 days before the battery took a crap on it. replacement motor lasted another 45 days. we opted for a refund through Amazon at that point. that thing was louder than a damn train too.