Hopefully Electrolux will start making robotic floor cleaners to compete with iRobot. For its part, iRobot is tantalizingly close to having an “essential home appliance”, with its Roomba and Scooba products.
The goals are a quiet, low maintenance system, that sacrifices speed and noise for detail and self maintenance. Ideally, it works all night, most every night, emptying and recharging itself, whether it is dry or wet.
If they come up with a good enough system, furniture redesign would be worth it.
I’ve had - and replaced 5 iRobot vacuums. The bearings in the deck would get clogged with animal hair and melt.
Happy to say my Neato is on year three and going strong, no Roomba lasted more than eight months with me and I cleaned it very thoroughly...
We LOVE the Neato!