XV-15 Pet brush: long hairs --> roomba like maintenance

[olerass]

I recently purchased the Pet Allergy upgrade kit for my XV-15. I am very happy with the new HEPA-like filter, I can clearly feel that more air is pushed through and it doesn't need emptying as often as with the standard filters, but the brush is another story.

One positive thing about the pet brush is that it's almost completely silent. The annoying flap noise from the beater bar gone which is great since 90% of my apartment is hardwood floors.
The downside is that it seems to trap hair like a magnet. Every single time my Neato returns from duty the pet brush is full of hair wrapped around it. Not only that but there's a lot of hair in the belt-motor-compartment and stuck to the belt itself. I have to clean it with an upright vacuum after every single run. Compared to the beater bar this is like night and day. I usually clean the beater bar once a week and even then its only a few hairs wrapped around the middle. I haven't noticed Neato picks up more dirt/hair in the dirt bin with the pet brush, so I guess the hair wrapped around the pet brush goes in the bin with the beater bar.

I should mention that I did have a bit of a hard time fitting the brush into my XV-15. Apparently the plastic things on the edge of the brush (the guards?) weren't pushed all the way in when I received it and so it wouldn't fit in the XV-15. I had to apply a bit of force to push them inwards but its the same with the beater bar so I didn't give it much thought. Perhaps I have pushed them too far or too little? The brush does seem to fit perfectly with no space in either end.

I am curious of experiences from other pet-allergy upgrade owners. Do you have the same problem with hair trapping on the pet brush? Also I have tried the pet brush with several different filters (standard, Kobold VR-100, custom HEPA filters from ebay and the one from the pet kit); none of them affects the amount of hair wrapped on the brush. Perhaps I should mention that my girlfriend has quite long hair (~40cm) and it is almost entirely such hairs that seem to wrap around the brush.

Attached are pictures of my Neatos brush after to different runs. The brush was completely cleaned between the runs.

[Wing Nut]

I suspect as soon as bristles are added to any rotating floor cleaning device it will start accumulating longer hairs. My ducted in-house system has a power head and that always has long hairs and threads wrapped tight around its drum, despite sock and jock lethal suction from its twin motors. As you mentioned, even the XV-11's flappy rubber beater eventually gets a few hairs twisted around the drum if someone or something in the house sports a crop of long hair.

Roombas are renowned for needing a brush clean after every run, but does anyone know how Samsung and LG robovacs deal with long hair? I can't really think of a solution apart from adding razor sharp stator blades between the bristles!

[piokrza]

The new design of the pet-brush consist bristles, so it would happend. I had Roomba 780 and Samsung SR8855. Hairs get tangled around brush bars as well, but in case of Samsung they were easier to remove (different brush design).

I suspect that until one of these manufacturers do not invent any soultion to pick up the hairs from floor without tangling or remove the hairs from the brush during their work, we would need to clean them reguralry

Ps. Take a look at new Electrolux BrushRollClean technology or Dyson Tangle-free Turbine tool -- I would be very grateful to see such or similar technology in ALL vacuum brush bars.

[JEfromCanada]

When I upgraded to the Pet Brush Kit, I immediately noticed a vast improvement to the floor & carpet (i.e. significantly more pet hair was picked up by the brush than by the beater bar). Our pets' hair was relatively short compared to a human hair, so the hair was mostly being removed from the brush by the powerful suction and transferred to the dustbin. I think that longer hair adheres to the carpet/floor until it has had time to be drawn around the brush multiple times, and of course, at this point, it will not be deposited into the dustbin.

The solution seems obvious. Have your girlfriend shave her head!

[olerass]

The new design of the pet-brush consist bristles, so it would happend. I had Roomba 780 and Samsung SR8855. Hairs get tangled around brush bars as well, but in case of Samsung they were easier to remove (different brush design).

I suspect that until one of these manufacturers do not invent any soultion to pick up the hairs from floor without tangling or remove the hairs from the brush during their work, we would need to clean them reguralry

Ps. Take a look at new Electrolux BrushRollClean technology or Dyson Tangle-free Turbine tool -- I would be very grateful to see such or similar technology in ALL vacuum brush bars.

That Dyson turbine tool looks impressive! A robovac with that technology would be really cool

When I upgraded to the Pet Brush Kit, I immediately noticed a vast improvement to the floor & carpet (i.e. significantly more pet hair was picked up by the brush than by the beater bar). Our pets' hair was relatively short compared to a human hair, so the hair was mostly being removed from the brush by the powerful suction and transferred to the dustbin. I think that longer hair adheres to the carpet/floor until it has had time to be drawn around the brush multiple times, and of course, at this point, it will not be deposited into the dustbin.

Which type of floors do you have? Are you sure it picks up hair better from your floors and not just your carpet? I guess if you did notice it picks up hair better on the floors, then you must have been able to see the beater bar didn't do a good enough job - either that it left hair on the floor or something else? I'm just curious because on my floors (hardwood) I don't see any hair or dirt not picked up by the beater bar and thus I assume it does a good enough job already. We have two cats whose hair I guess qualifies for "short hair" and those seem to be picked up just fine by the beater bar. The reason I bought the Pet brush was to avoid the noise, but if it comes at a cost of much more maintenance I'm not so sure it's worth it.

The solution seems obvious. Have your girlfriend shave her head!

I laughed a bit bit there

[JEfromCanada]

Which type of floors do you have? Are you sure it picks up hair better from your floors and not just your carpet? I guess if you did notice it picks up hair better on the floors, then you must have been able to see the beater bar didn't do a good enough job - either that it left hair on the floor or something else? I'm just curious because on my floors (hardwood) I don't see any hair or dirt not picked up by the beater bar and thus I assume it does a good enough job already. We have two cats whose hair I guess qualifies for "short hair" and those seem to be picked up just fine by the beater bar. The reason I bought the Pet brush was to avoid the noise, but if it comes at a cost of much more maintenance I'm not so sure it's worth it.

I guess I was generalizing. I can't say the new brush is significantly better on non-carpeted surfaces, but it is much quieter, and I think it may be better at picking up very fine dust. On carpet, however, the new brush is dramatically better.

[denodan]

Since the AeroVac 1 bin I put on my Roomba, I now get very little dust on my brush, but do tend to get some on the end shafts, but far less fluff on the brush at all, any there is that slight, just pick it off by hand, and the Aerovac works better then the standard dust bin.

Also do not get the little fluff balls, which Roombas leave behind, which I suspect is from the brush.