Vacuum or Carpet Sweeper??

[Phil]

I've been tempted to purchase a Roomba. However, the advertising refers to the Roomba as a "vacuum" - which implies that it operates using suction to pick up dust, etc. It appears from the comments of others that it is really a "carpet sweeper" - using brushes to sweep dirt into a tray. Could someone clarify this for me.

Many thanks -

Phil

PS The reason why I'd like to know - "vacuums" work great on carpets and hard surfaces, "sweepers" work great only on hard surfaces. My house has mainly carpeted floors.

[robotreviews]

Phil,

The Roomba is most definitely a vacuum. Take a look at the second page of our review for a detailed description of the Roomba's cleaning process. You can read the full review here, or skip to the section that describes in detail how the Roomba picks up dirt here.

The Roomba works great on everything from hardwood to medium pile carpet. It doesn't work well on deep pile carpet or area rugs with fringe, but for everything else it works surprisingly well considering it's small size..

Craig

[nadrick]

check here

[RTC]

The Roomba like any vacuum uses a combination of suction and rotating beaters to clean. But it also has side brushes to do edge cleaning that vacuums don't do.

I have the older 980 model, which has "carpet boost" that raises the power of the suction when running on carpet.
I have no idea why none of the other Roomba models have "carpet boost". It is wonderful as my apartment is all carpet except kitchen and bathroom.

The dirt bin is not a tray, it contains both the vacuum suction pump and replaceable filter.