If you have hairy pets, the Roomba is going to be your new best friend especially if you get one of the higher end ones. My DIL used her first bonus to buy hers. It is the highest end Roomba you could buy. Named it Rosie (Jetson's maid!) and it's the best thing since sliced bread. Dog hair problems are gone. She even uses her phone to run it while she's at work. It docks itself when it needs charging or just stops and announces it needs to be emptied. The higher end one seems to have a higher capacity for pickup and is easier to dump and keep cleared out. I bought a mid range one for my little fishing shack and it does a better job than my vacuuming ever did. No problems from carpet to tile to hardwood either. Even goes over electric cords. It can get stuck if you have something that it can clear but is on a slant and it gets itself stuck in the wedge. Think treadmill. But that is a minor problem and easily monitored. Doesn't happen often. Emptying is easier with the higher end one as well. It is worth the difference to go with the more expensive model so I bought the best one for my other DIL after they treated me to a trip to DisneyWorld. They have two dogs and love it as well.