One store that gives you a lifetime warranty, specifies the life span is 5 years..
iRobot Roomba 500 Series Robot Vacuums - RobotShop
They will fix you up if it has defects, but the consumables are all yours..
Not sure about these guys..
Roomba Robot Vacuums - Hammacher Schlemmer
I've seen the brushes and batteries on Ebay, maybe the parts aren't too unreasonably.?.
I don't like the idea of babysitting it. I can't stand the noise of our regular vac.
I hardly ever vacuum anything upstairs. Just use a couple of vacs in my shop.
And when I use the big shop vac, I have my shooting ear-muffs on..
We were talking about this topic at supper tonight. My wife thinks the new
hardwood cleaning job will give her something to do.
She said, "I didn't think it would have to be done
Every day".
I replied 'yeah, we couldn't see all the cookie crumbs in the carpet'.
Anyways, we are re-thinking the whole robotic vac idea.
Maybe, becasue I'm leaning towards the (very loud) $400 Neato..?.
Which acts more like a robot with some real programming..
I'm thinking of waiting a year to see if Neato becomes a topdog or goes
the way of most startups.