We exclusively run ours when someone is home. It often gets stuck in certain areas and near specific furniture. We try to prevent it as much as we can but we just don't trust it enough to let it run without a little supervision.

Edit: I am not looking for solutions. Running the roomba when we are home works fine for us and we do not intend to change the way we live or get a more expensive roomba to accommodate it. This is a perfectly fine workaround that suits our situation well. I only made this comment to point out that not everyone runs the roomba when the house is empty.

[–] ComfortablyGlum@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Absolutely this. Roombas are like stupid puppies; you think you have the house roomba proof, only to come home to find it stuck in some obscure corner, whining pathetically.

[–] sylphrin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Exactly! There's been a lot of times that our roomba has surprised us, getting stuck in areas that we never thought would be a problem. It just happened to approach it from just the right angle that time

[–] Polar@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why don't you fix those spots?

I have a couch that's like 1mm too low. The Roomba goes under it, but can't get back out. 3d printing a small "hat" for the Roomba prevents it from going under.

Once your house is Roomba proof, you're golden.

[–] sylphrin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

3d printing is not an option for us. Also one of the places that the roomba gets stuck is underneath a lazyboy chair, which needs to rock. We can't just permanently put something underneath it without sacrificing a main function of the chair. There's a lot of things around the house like this, where a temporary solution exists but a permanent one either wouldn't be appropriate, or just isn't worth doing.

I prefer having my living area comfortably set up for myself more than making it roomba-proof. I'm sure it's worth it for some people, but we don't share the same priorities.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think at least mid tier roombas have the self mapping tech, it would only be temporary until it created a map for itself, then it would avoid the lazboy automatically and you can use it normally

Also, he was talking about a "hat" for the Roomba, it would make it physically taller so it wouldn't be able to go under anymore

[–] sylphrin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You're right that I misread the hat part the first time, thanks. Still not an option for us though, and not one that would actually solve much in our case.

The lazyboy was just one example, there are other things (including areas of the floor itself) that the roomba gets stuck on. Just keeping an eye on the roomba when it runs is the easier solution for us.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

The 3D hat is on the Roomba, not under the blazyboy.

[–] camelbeard@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You probably don't have kids with Legos and other toys?

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Also, I have to clean up all the crap I leave on the floor before running it.