Roomba Vacuum – iRobot Roomba Vacuum

Lowest Price

: 32.99

Brand

: Roomba 500 Accessories

Model

:

Reviewer: A. Dent| Date:2009-04-10

These are worth having if your Roomba did not come with then or not with enough of them.

When set as a virtual wall, it will not allow Roomba to enter certain areas such as the bathroom.

When in Lighthouse mode, Roomba will pass through into another room and, after done with cleaning there, it will guide it back to the charging station.

Depending on how wide the passages you need to protect/signal, it can be set to 0-3ft., 4-7ft. or 8+ft.

It requires 2 C-cell batteries.

It seems to be 100% effective as a virtual wall when placed properly and close to 100% effective as a lighthouse.

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Reviewer: M. Daws| Date:2009-03-05

This item works in keeping your roomba in a contained space/rooom, just remember roomba will only work with 3 of these at a time. I did not know that until after I had purchased a total of 4 lighthouses.

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Reviewer: Dinesh Rajawasan| Date:2008-05-26

Works well, contains and guides roomba effectively. Nice to have option of Lighthouse and virtual wall together.

But wish I could give it power off a wall socket, not just batteries. Then I could forget about it completely!

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Reviewer: David Pfeffer| Date:2008-04-13

The Virtual Wall Lighthouse is amazing, turning on and off with the Roomba 500 series via RF. I use a network of 5 of these to keep my Roomba out of the bathroom and to let it know which rooms are which.

Definitely get these over the plain old manually-activated virtual walls. You'll forget to turn them off and they eat batteries. Also, the lighthouse works with rechargeable batteries and the manual ones don't.

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Lowest Price

: 269.95

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: X. Wu| Date:2009-07-09

It doesn't work as well as the menu says with in terms of automation.
1. The cleaning path is so random that some areas are repeated many times while some areas are not covered. The menu says it calculate its own efficient path, but it seems to me that it is randomly bounces against any object.

2. It is supposed to come back to the home base when it is done its cleaning cycle or battery runs low. Well, it cleans my room for a lot longer than 25 minutes(factory estimate) until it runs out of battery and dies without coming back to home base. Next time, I have to press on "dock" button hope it comes back to home base.

3. Even with two light houses placed at between rooms as instructed by the menu, the robot doesn't know how to come back to home base. I finally press "dock" button, but still I have to do a lot of interference to force it back to base.

It does do a good job on cleaning dirt and hair.

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Reviewer: Jerkat1| Date:2009-07-07

Bought one for my wife for Mother's Day. I used it more than she did. This thing worked great for about 2-3 months. After that, the batteries gained a memory and wouldn't work longer than 30 minutes. 3 months after that...one of the gears in the wheel broke and then all it would do is go circles. I threw the $400 thing in the trash and swore I'd never buy one again.

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Reviewer: Scott Lewis| Date:2009-07-01

This is an amazing product..I love it. It does a great job cleaning and all you have to worry about is the maintance. I highly reccommend the roomba to keep you house clean.

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Reviewer: W. Fisher| Date:2008-11-24

First let me say that I agree with people who say that the robot does a competent job of cleaning. You should SEE the dust bin after vacuuming! I am also in awe etc etc, but I'm going to try to focus on things that others have not mentioned.

My 550 (560 actually, I think...it came with a few more odds and ends in the box) is actually my second Roomba. The first was the Discovery SE, one of the 400 series. The 400 was pretty good with two exceptions: 1) It would not work on rug fringe. It gets hopelessly tangled in less time that it takes to say "Wait!" The second problem with the older 400 series is that the battery dies fairly quickly if you do not use it VERY frequently. I use it once/week and by second battery is showing its age.

In any case, the 500 series is advertised to be able to deal with rug fringe, and indeed it does so reasonably well. It is also supposed to be able to do 4 rooms using these "lighthouses" that have been previously mentioned. To summarize, these are little gadgets that put out an IR (UV?) beam that the robot can see; it generally will not cross the beam, so you can use the beam to mark off rooms. After a certain amount of time, the robot sends out an RF signal to the lighthouse, and the LH lets it through into the next room. Repeat for 4 rooms if desired. Then the robot knows how to find its way back to where it started to plug itself back in to recharge. Cool.

Here are the problems with the lighthouse scheme: First, the beam gets wider very quickly. So there is a fan-shaped area in front of each lighthouse that never gets cleaned. In other words, when moving between the two rooms, the beam gets shut off but when cleaning either side, the robot will not enter the fan shaped area that the beam covers.

The second lighthouse problem is that the robot seems to use time rather than room size or complexity to decide when to move from one room to the other. In other words, for larger or more complex rooms, it simply does not cover the room before moving on to the next.

A non-lighthouse problem that you should know about with the 500 series is that I think they must be lower-slung than the 400 series. My 500 robot is not NEARLY as good is climbing up onto a rung as the 400. The 400 got stuck in fringe, but without fringe, it is nearly flawless. The 500 tends to push the rug around, bunch it up, and even get caught if it bunches up the rug in a corner that it has not way to get out of without getting back over the rug.

You MUST be sure there are no cords on the floor. For example, a floor lamp, a computer power cord, etc. My robot has gotten caught when I forget, and nearly pulled down a few items with dangling cords.

And finally, I have one room with hardwood floor and a rug about 6 or 8 inches smaller than one dimension of the room. So there is a 6+ inch "valley" between the rug and the wall. The 500 series does not clean the 6+ inch valley well at all. It goes along it, but does not pick up dirt well. I think it is probably that the brush is on the rug on one side and on the floor on the other, but is touching nothing in the middle. I end up taking a dry mop and going along the valley and pulling dirt out into an open area where the robot can get it.

Given all that, though, the robot saves a LOT of work. If there is something special happening, I would probably bring out the hand vac and get all the little corners and fans and valleys that the Roomba does not reach, but for every-day/week vacuuming, it is way easier than doing it by hand despite its problems.
==========================
Update 3/24/2009: I've had two problems, both fixed/replaced under warranty. First, it refused to dock. It would nose up to the dock and keep pushing and pushing; then finally back up and try again. Repeat forever. Used email support (I think). After doing a bunch of tests that they requested, they sent me a new dock. All ok now.

Second, the robot started spinning in circles. Even if I used the remote to try to make it go straight, it would turn. Sounds like a drive motor on one wheel died or something. In any case, I think I phoned this time. After a bunch of tests, they had me return the robot (minus dust bin and top insert) and they replaced it.

Now it works well, and guess what? The new robot can get up on rugs much better than the old one. I don't know if there was a hardware or software change, or if my old one was defective in some subtle way that I did not know about. I guess I might give this new unit an extra star if I could.

Interestingly, my 400-series also had to be replaced once, but it has worked fine ever since. I hope that will be the case with this one as well.

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Reviewer: habblie| Date:2008-11-23

Have had it for a month now and I use it several times a week, almost every day. 5 people, 2 cats and 6 dogs make a lot of dirt! Roomba handles it well.

Likes...
* can vacuum daily, without really doing it!
* does a pretty good job. much better than me doing it myself, which i would only find time for once a week
* docks itself successfully most of the time
* stops and tells me verbally to clean it's brushes if they are full of pet hair
* lighthouses are a great feature
* sometimes it gets lost and needs help finding it's dock. i put this under "like" cuz i think it's cute

Dislikes...
* it's supposed to slow down prior to bumping into things. it does this sometimes, but for wide, solid objects only, like walls. it runs full-speed into table legs and other thin objects. half the time it runs into the wall at full speed too
* it's making a black line where it rubs on my baseboards. i put a row of felt furniture feet across the front. this solved the problem, and also helped with the full speed collisions (though it looks stupid).

Worth Mentioning...
* have to Roomba-proof prior to vacuuming. a very small sacrifice to having the bulk of the work done for me
* small dirt canister. but the brushes always need to be cleaned when it's full anyway, so if i have to pick it up to clean the brushes, might as well dump the canister
* you'll get your fingers dirty and a little greasy cleaning the brushes, so not a good option for germaphobes
* gotta take a regular vacuum cleaner to the rugs once a week or two. and i use a hand vac for the corners and behind objects as needed, every couple of weeks
* got mine at a "popular warehouse store" for fifty bucks less, where i can also return it at any time, even a year or more, if it starts to crap out on me


TOTALLY worth it. Would recommend it to anyone. Only gave it 4 stars because there are improvements to be made, but it's AWESOME. However, you will be disappointed if you think it's zero maintenance. It makes your life easier. But it doesn't think for itself or clean itself so it needs a little help and maintenance. Also makes a good pet. I call mine Sally.

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Lowest Price

: 28.5

Brand

: Tenergy

Model

:

Reviewer: Jonathan J. Kim| Date:2009-05-30

It was a life saver to read all the previous purchasers and their stories. I was ready for the hassle of replacing non-user replaceable part. That readiness was sure needed as I wiggled a big knife through the glued up battery casing.

I am happy with the result. iRobot is an excellent product and they didn't use cheapest possible battery for their Roomba but this Tenergy batteries are one of the latest and it does hold the juice very well. Now I have my casing glue removed, I can forever keep my Roomba going. I love you iRobot! I hope you do more! My next lawn mower has to be from iRobot.

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Reviewer: Wrigleyville Dave| Date:2009-04-08

I, like some of the other reviewers, only got about 10 uses out of this battery before it quit holding a charge. By this I mean, it runs for 1 second and sings "come and find me"... which isn't as fun as usual because he will still be sitting at your feet. I used the roomba's service mode to run the wheels continuously to drain the battery down to zero. After a long day-long charge, it again rain for 1 second and stopped. No gain. Sad roomba.

The pain part is that it took forever to crack open my old APS battery as mine was very thoroughly sealed shut. I would recommend trying to open your battery before buying a kit like this to make sure you have one that is easy to open. Once open, the new battery kit does not fit quite right and required some force to get it in the old battery case. Then the new wires do not come with friction fittings or any other kind of connector.. just bare wires requiring soldering skills.. and a soldering iron.

Spend the extra $$ and get an irobot NiCD battery.. roomba just may not be compatible with the NiMH or I received a defective product. 2 stars if all you need is the triangular screwdriver and a blue and red doorstop.

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Reviewer: Ralph| Date:2009-04-06

this worked amazing for about 6 months of light use - it would run and run and run.
too bad that a few weeks ago, the run time went from 1.5 hour + to only about 10 minutes. I know NiMH batteries dont last forever, but with this light use it seems like i should have gotten at least a year's use from this

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Reviewer: ItsRossTime| Date:2009-02-28

Originally, I was very happy with the replacement cells for the Roomba APS battery, but after about 6 months of cleaning 3x per week runtime has decreased dramatically. Now, my scheduler discovery won't run for more than 15 minutes regardless of attempts to discharge and recondition.

As others have noted, if you plan on keeping your Roomba running, either buy the iRobot OEM battery and have it last a year and a half (like mine) or bite the bullet and find Li-ion cells.

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Reviewer: Dew| Date:2009-02-18

These batteries got used 5 times and then wouldn't hold a charge anymore. Now that iRobot has lowered their battery packs I'll be buying them from iRobot.

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Lowest Price

: 149.99

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: fredct| Date:2009-07-11

We received a Roomba 410 as a gift. We used it once or twice and saw how it worked, liked it, but decided to upgrade to a higher model. This was because of some particular feature of our home, which I'll discuss below.

But first, a summary:

1) Very smart device. Goes around randomly, so it takes longer to clean than you would, but, you don't have to do it! It manages to find its way around basically everywhere. Very good as getting into tight places, and, at least eventually, finding its way out. Places where you couldn't vacuum easily, like under tables, shelves, beds, etc.

2) Picks up a lot of of stuff. We have area rugs, and the amount of carpet fuzz this little guy picks up is truly impressive. Its not a total replacement for ever vacuuming, but its pretty close.

3) Very convenient. If you don't take the effort to clean as much as you should (or even if you do), its a great time saver to just press a button and let the thing roam around for half an hour or so. Its a real time saver if you're so inclined.


Downsides?

1) Well, its not cheap. Especially the higher ones. Make sure its worth your while for the convenience.

2) This basic model doesn't have a lot of the more 'intelligent' features. Our biggest problem was it couldn't handle our rug tassels. It might be one thing if you had a small rug you could move, but our entire main room is covered with an area run that has probably 10-12 feet of tassels on either end. It would suck them up, and, while it could get itself off, would get stuck probably 20-25% of the time. This meant we were pulling it off and starting it back up every 10-15 minutes. A real hassle.

iRobot's advice is to fold the tassels under, but you have 20+ feet of tassels like we do, that's a major annoyance.

It also had trouble with even moderate bumps, such as where we have a cable wire going under a rug. I would only use this original 400-series if you have an home without any hassles, very few wires, bumps, or anything else to get caught on. If that's your situation, absolutely buy a less expensive 400 series. If not, splurge on the 500-series, which handles those situations like a champ!


So, I give it 4 stars because it does have the things it can't handle. But if your home doesn't present those kinds of obstacles, its a great choice.

(I will be posting a review on the 530 we got instead, but not for a while, because I want to see how it handles and performs over at least a few months first)

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Reviewer: Thomas Childers| Date:2009-07-10

I hate housework. I don'e even like to vacuum. This robot vac works as advertised and I love it. It entertains the cat as well!

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Reviewer: D. Alrabiaa| Date:2009-07-05

Since I'm not in the US I had a small problem with the charging cord, its supporting 120V only. Its not like most electrical products that's supports 120 and 240V. I bought a converter and its worked very well. That's it, other than that its great product.

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Reviewer: jk121220| Date:2009-06-29

When I bought the product I thought it would run a mission while I wasn't at home and I would seldom see it operate. Wrong!
It needs help on every mission. Sometimes it needs help five or six or seven times on one mission.
It gets stuck on the dining table legs (round bars along the floor). It gets part way on top of a leg, then can't reverse and get off of it. If I'm lucky that happens once. If I'm not, I get it off the leg, it moves about two feet then returns to more-or-less the same spot and gets stuck again. Sometimes it will get stuck on the dining table as many as five times in one mission.
It gets stuck on the entertainment center stand (a flat bottom less than an inch thick).
It gets stuck between a bed leg and the wall.
Its path is unpredictable. On one mission it will go into the kitchen. The next time it won't. (Nothing is blocking its path, it just never goes in the right direction.) One time it will go through a bedroom door, the next time it will pass in front of the open door repeatedly, but never choose to enter.
The bottom line is it doesn't save much time. Between getting it unstuck and cleaning it, it would be just as easy to vacuum the house myself.

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Reviewer: Mary Ferrin| Date:2009-06-27

iRobot Roomba 410 Intelligent Floorvac Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, Red
I recently gave this to my sister for her birthday. As her signature decor is red I bought a red Robot. She loved it and bragged about her gift to all her friends.

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Lowest Price

: 99.99

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: e.m.| Date:2008-12-30

I have wanted a Roomba for a while. I have a perfectly good vacuum (so I thought) but it was getting on in years and was cumbersome, plus I hate vacuuming and being a pet owner I really need to do it more than I would prefer (never). So when I found the basic Roomba very on sale I was suspicious and decided to research reviews first. In short, people seemed really excited about their Roombas. Its maybe the best reviewed product I have ever come across. These people seemed a little over-enthusiastic, but the few negative reviews seemed trivial so feeling confident I went and bought my Roomba (for $90). Now I am one of those crazy fans too. I am in love with my Roomba.
When I brought it home I ran my regular vacuum first. My house looked clean. Then I ran the Roomba and checked the dust compartment. I was both horrified and fascinated at how much junk was in there. Who knew I was living in such squalor and filth! It was weirdly satisfying to dump it all out. Every time I run it I am shocked at what it picks up. I haven't had the trouble with carpet tassels that others report - but it does try to eat my bath mats. On the occasion that it does get stuck, it is really quite good at getting itself unstuck and negotiating obstacles. Dump the dust compartment every time, clean it every handful of times - this will stay easy if you do it regularly. Don't clean it over the trash; it is so easy to disassemble (and reassemble) that the smaller pieces can fall out into your trash can which means you'll have to dig for them - obviously I learned this the hard way. I talk about my Roomba like it's a new puppy and am convinced that everyone needs to own one.

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Reviewer: John Q. Public| Date:2008-07-31

If you need to vacuum but do not all ways have the time you'll find that this will do The Job and Do It Well, it is not a toy or a another faddish gadget it works and works well.

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Reviewer: Just a reviewer| Date:2008-06-30

First of all, I like the roomba 400. It's much cheaper than the 500 series, and it gets the job done in my house.

One note about batteries. I have two same models. One has NiCD as opposed to NiMH battery, which is presumably standard in the more recently sold Roomba 400 model. However, there is one advantage to the NiCD battery: it doesn't self-discharge as quickly as the NiMH battery pack. With the NiCD, I can just recharge, take it out of the roomba, and leave it for weeks without losing charge. I just have to make sure to fully discharge it when it runs because of the possible "memory effect" of the NiCD battery type.

Secondly, the bottom of my walls where the roomba bumps into have black streak marks because the roomba runs into it too hard. Also, when I check after it's done vacuuming, I find that it's eaten up a lot of carpeting. I'm not sure whether all vacuums do it, but it seems more noticeable in the roomba because there are two separate compartments for fine dust particles and what the coarser brush picks up.

I've decided to deal with the wall streak by buying foam adhesives and placing it on the bumper. It's working well now. I bought it from a place called roombaexchange.com, and I would just prefer to buy my own if I could find any other place that has similar foam adhesives that I can just cut on my own because the one from roombaexchange.com doesn't cover enough on the top of the bumper guard.

Overall, while I like not having to vacuum manually, I really wish iRobot would have used more standard form for its battery because the battery's proprietary form is much more expensive than it has to be. In fact, there are aftermarket vendors who sell Roomba batteries, even longer lasting and lighter Li-ion batteries, with varying degrees of success.

I also wish that I didn't have to shell out a couple hundred $$ more for the 500 series which apparently bumps into walls without as much force. The bumper guard foam has been working ok, but I had to remove it when my roomba died on me, and I had to send it in for an exchange.

And that is another story. iRobot is slow with their customer service. Once you email them, they may respond quickly at first. Then their responses get very slow to the point where you are not sure whether they are ever going to respond.

Eventually, I got my RMA number after a week, sent it in, and received a new one under warranty after another week.

So beware. If you ever need customer service, you'll probably get frustrated.

For $100 though, the 400 model is much more cost effective than the 500 series, and I have two of them which I can use simultaneously.

When it works without problems, it's worth it. But once it breaks down, you're in for some headaches from their customer service.

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Update: After about 6 months or so, I have some new perspectives on this. There are areas under the wheels and the brushes that collect dust. In fact, the area under the wheels collected so much dust that roomba started to skip and then stop on its own a few seconds after I started it.

Roomba tech support did not give me the correct advice on how to fix this. Instead, after I used my home vacuum to clean the wheels thoroughly, it started working again. Requiring another vacuum to clean this vacuum cleaner is very poor design, but on the bright side, now that I know this, I vacuum the underside of my roomba about once a month and have had no problems. I don't know if the 500 series are susceptible to this problem, but I would still get a 400x series for the price savings.

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Reviewer: T. Hill| Date:2008-05-26

good for 30 days, Then the roller brushes fail. Bad service department when calling had difficult translation about product when talking to a manger he know what had happened to the vacuum. I sent the vacuum to them for repair. Four months latter no replay from comany.

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