I also had a Roomba…suction not so good, but its erratic cleaning pattern leaves portion of the floor that I wouldn’t even think of clean. Yippee.

And I have a Floormate, which is finicky but works o.k.

Also, the reason your Dirt Devil is shooting stuff out the back is that the rotating brush is meant to be used on carpet. On a wood floor, instead of combing things out from the fibers of the rug, it’s zooming faster without ruggy resistance and pushing stuff too quickly past the suction. Thus, it shoots out the back.

Now, I have carpets so I haven’t been doing too much blank-floor vacuuming. It might be best to look for a vacuum that’s meant for wood floors, like the Roomba. I know they make some smaller upright ones with a little less power that are specifically for floors because you don’t need as much suction if there are no rug fibers to pull stuff out of. Good luck!

Roomba’s are interesting… I’ve owned 3. Before this latest model, their reliability sucked. The latest model supposedly fixed that. They work great on hardwood, tile, concrete, etc. Flat out suck - in a bad way, for a vacuum, on carpet. You have to clean the roomba periodically.

Pets are baffled by it. My dogs want to kill it. My parrots are all convinced it primarily lives on parrot flesh. Still, the roomba does a good job. I can put it in what I swear is a clean room, and its compartment gets noticable amounts of pet hair, and parrot dander.

P.S - You seem to like birds. If you are a neat freak, never own any! I adore birds, but they are the messiest animals you’ll ever own.