Thanks for the info.

BTW, which model did you buy? 530 or 580? For how much? Do they have the same cleaning power and just differ by accessories and features?

I'm not sure which one I have. I have a black one and I'm gonna say its the 530. The scheduler is the nice feature for me. I have it run mon, wed, fri at 2 pm (when I'm not home). I come home to a nicely vacuumed place. The part that is actually helpful to me about all of this is that I used to be a tad messy in my place. Now that I know the Roomba is going to be vacuuming on those three days I make an effort to pick up everything on the floor before it vacuums thus literally making my place waaaay cleaner than it's ever been. I paid about $320 and I think it's worth every single penny. The ones without the scheduler and built in charging base are only about $150 I think. For those you have to plug them in on your own and to vacuum you simply hit the "clean" button on top and it does everything for you. I prefer the scheduler because it does it all when I'm gone and I don't have to be there while its doing my dirty work .

Maintenance part..
On the days it cleans all I have to do is empty out the little dust bin. It takes about 35 seconds. On Sundays I take the rollers off the bottom and take out any hair/long strings etc that are caught up in there. That process takes about 2 minutes.

I had the Roomba Discovery for 3 years. I had to replace the battery then in the end it wouldn't work after charging, just went around in a circle. I tried solving the problem through forums and even IRobot. During the time it worked I loved it. I would advise getting it from here...http://www.Hammacher.com/..I did and it came with a lifetime guarantee. I told them my problem and they provided return box and refunded all my money. Hope this helps.

I have one and loved it. The parts aren't very sturdy though and 2 pieces that hold the rollers on have allready broken. In its' defense I have 4 kids and I didn't move any furniture out of the way.