Roomba Vacuum – iRobot Roomba Vacuum

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: 174.99

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Reviewer: Christopher Keys| Date:2009-06-30

The roomba 535 was, as I understand it, created for the Home Shopping Network by iRobot and was discontinued after they finished selling it. Based on the 530 model, it does have a noticeable upgrade. The big upgrade is the addition of the lighthouse technology. Lighthouse is an advanced virtual wall that ensures your roomba will clean the room it's in first, then move on to the next room and ensure it's cleanliness. The lighthouse can be switched as well to function as a virtual wall if you don't want the roomba to venture into a particular part of the house.

We've had our 535 for about six weeks now and we love it. It tackles daily vacuuming quite well and returns to its base to recharge when it's done. We have a 1700 sq ft home and it does a great job of handling the whole house on a single charge. It does require some daily maintenance, where you empty the trash bin and clean the brushes daily, but this takes only 1-2 minutes and is a snap with the included tool. It goes under our furniture and picks up anything that's hidden under there. It even pushed out a pair of sunglasses that we were missing.

Flooring:
We have 4 types of flooring in our home: Carpet, linoleum, laminate flooring and ceramic tile. The roomba covers them all and transitions seamlessly between each.

Pet hair:
We have 3 dogs; a maltese, a silky terrier and a german shepherd. We didn't realize how much dog fur was lying around until we sent the roomba off on it's task, now we see the fur as we empty the container. I've heard its a wiz with cat hair as well, but we're not cat people.

There are 2 cons with the roomba:

1. It doesn't replace your standard vacuum. With daily use of the roomba you're standard vacuuming job will be greatly reduced, and it will get deep into the carpeting that the roomba cannot. If you vacuum once a week like we did, we've dropped to once every 3-4 weeks now.

2. The roomba isn't great with corners. You'll notice that you may have a buildup in the 90 degree corners of rooms.

iRobot support:

As I sing the roomba's praises, I do have to point something out. After a week of use, our roomba started making a thumping noise. I contacted irobot's technical support and found that we had a defective brush housing. They sent a new housing out right away and it installed in about 5 minutes. They've designed the roombas with replaceable components, so they're easy to swap out if needed.

Other common questions:
What about stairs?
The roomba has stair sensor technology that will stop it & reverse it if it senses a drop off.

Can I schedule it to clean when I want to?
Not out of the box. There are programming tools to do it if you really want to. I just hit "Clean" before I leave the house for the day. There are other versions that have a schedule function built in (ie. the 560)

What about cords? Does it get stuck?
There are safeguards against cords as well as technology to stop the brushes if it senses a cord and the roomba pushes on and the brushes resume when the cords are no longer sensed.

On a 1 to 10 scale, I give it a 9, but on a 1 to 5 scale, I give it a 4. I hope this helps.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: H. Nguyen| Date:2009-05-14

I bought this item in Sep 2007. Used it very lightly. A couple of weeks ago, the light started blinking red. I thought the battery went bad and ordered an expensive set of authentic iRobot battery as replacement. Still the same problem. Tech support confirmed that the machine itself was shot.
The plastic construction of brushes is of lowest quality: easily damaged by tangled hair, etc.
A model (also 500 series) sold at Costco seems to be better made.

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Reviewer: Linda M. Breaux| Date:2009-05-01

I love my Roomba, it does a great job and I love to watch it work. You need to divide up your rooms by using the lighthouse as a virtual wall or put something in the doorway to keep it from going to another room. You will be surprised at how much dirt it picks up.

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Reviewer: UmitoYama| Date:2009-04-03

I, too, got this on special through Woot.com and though "Little Button" (yes, we named him) has only been with us for 2 days, he's already an indispensable member of the household.

Indeed, both my wife and I are already regretting that we did not bring one of these into the family earlier.

We used to vacuum once a week (if that) and there certainly was no joy in the task. Little Button? That is the sole purpose of his existence. Everyday, we can just hit the little CLEAN button and head off to the office or out to dinner and Little Button heads straight to work with single-minded purpose and relentless determination. Dust, crumbs, hair --- none stand a chance against this little guy. And for the first time in years, the areas under our bed and dresser are getting regular vacuuming attention. Goodbye 2cm thick layer of dust under the bed.

There's a great review for the 530 model that points out another great perk of Roomba: Aside from the obvious benefit of never having to vacuum again, if you're like us (okay, me) and not always good about ensuring that things are tidy and put away, you get the motivation of knowing that Roomba's ability to do a good job vacuuming is dependent on you keeping things neat and potential obstacles out of the way. I'd like to think that this a change that is going to stick.

As if all this weren't wonderful enough, once the little guy is done vacuuming, he finds his way back on his own to his charging station (though I have to admit, it's a bit creepy when we set him to work before we leave the house and then come home to find him docked and glowing softly in the corner).

Finally, there is just something mesmerizing about watching the Roomba putter around and do its thing, especially if there's an obvious patch of dust or hairball somewhere. You just sit there watching and wondering which pass is going to be the pass it manages to pick it up.

We are totally in love with our Roomba and planning to purchase more for family members (the mopping one for my wife's mom, the vacuuming one for my mom) and as wedding gifts for people we want to love us forever.

Roomba has already earned itself a coveted place in our pantheon of modern gadgets that have changed our lives for the better:

1. Toto C100
2. TiVo HD
3. Roomba 535
4. iPhone

Roomba. Rocks. We love you, Little Button.

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Reviewer: Courtney Robertson| Date:2009-04-03

I bought the 535 model on woot.com because I had read mixed reviews and wasn't sure I wanted to pay $300+ for a Roomba just yet. I've had mine for two weeks now and I'm not sure how I ever lived without it! I've got dark hardwood floors and a very furry Golden Retriever. I used to vacuum with my upright two or three times a week but since I've had my Roomba I haven't pulled it out once.

It's not perfect but it is supposedly a learning robot and it does seem to be doing better every time I run it. I now spend 3 minutes emptying the bin and cleaning the brushes instead of 20 minutes vacuuming (and moving furniture to fit my upright). The Roomba even gets under my kitchen table with the chairs still in place! And it transitions from hardwood to rugs without any problem.

If you're looking to fully replace your upright vacuum this probably isn't for you. But if need some help keeping the pet hair under control the Roomba is your perfect companion!

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: 200

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: iRobot

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Reviewer: JPV| Date:2009-05-29

you will know when this is running. i suggest you turn it on and leave the room, or better, leave the house and come back. you're not watching tv, reading, or listening to the yankee game when roomba's doing its thing.
other than that, seems to work fine and do a good job. picks up alot.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: J. You| Date:2009-05-17

I was as big a skeptic of the Roomba as probably anyone out there. My uninformed perception was that it was nothing but an expensive novelty and couldn't possibly clean very well. It wasn't until my boss (who's as pragmatic an individual as I've ever met) raved about his Roomba that I decided to give it a shot.

I've owned mine for about 2 months now, and I can't imagine being without it. There's a reason these things have such high ratings on Amazon- they actually work. It won't replace your regular vacuum, but it'll relegate it to the corner of your closet for a month at a time.

The Roomba isn't perfect though and brings some minor annoyances with it. As other reviewers have pointed out, bi-weekly or monthly maintenance is required to keep the Roomba functioning properly. Also, the manufacturer's recommendation is that the filter in the Roomba be replaced every month or two, and although the process is trivial, the filters are approximately 4 to 5 bucks a pop.

I've also found, as common sense would suggest, that the Roomba performs best when confined to smaller areas. I live in a small apartment, and the first time I used the Roomba I let it loose in the living room, and it haphazardly traveled from room to room until its battery died, never really doing what I felt was an acceptable job in any one room.

I've since altered my routine to confine the Roomba to a particular section of the apartment, and it does an impeccable job. I just carry it to whichever section of the apartment I want it to vacuum and turn it on before I leave for work. In this way, I cover the entire apartment in 3 day cycles. Note that there are other (more "capital-intensive" and elegant) strategies that people adopt for efficient Roomba cleaning- this is just mine.

My advice to any skeptics out there is to just try the Roomba for yourself. If you're not convinced that it's the next best thing since sliced bread, then you'll definitely be in the overwhelming minority. Also, if you have pets of any kind, the previous statement applies double to you.

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Reviewer: J. Powell| Date:2009-04-11

I live in an 900 Square foot apartment that has mostly hardwood floors, with a small area rug in each room. (with no fringe on the rugs)

There are basically 3 rooms that we use this for, the living room, the bedroom, small home office 10 x 10, and a long hallway.

Simply, this thing works, and works well.
Each time I set it down, in it's starting point, in the room, it immediately remembers the pattern of the room from it's previous cleaning.

It took me a while to sell my wife on this product, but after she saw how efficiently it cleaned under the bed, without her needing to get under there with swiffer's, she was sold!

The only real downside of roomba, seems to be the little extra time it takes to clean the unit. They provide a small tool for cutting hair from the rollers, and you can disassemble the rollers, but it gets a little messy. For me it's worth it, for a product that does such a thorough job. It really is very clever and ultimately a time saver in the end.

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Reviewer: S. Ho| Date:2009-03-30

I wonder why I didn't buy a roomba sooner. This Roomba is a basic model but it cleans well and is easy to maintain, and that's important to me. At $149, I still think it's good value (although I wish I had bought it when it was on sale for $70 something!). The only complaint I have is that the battery that came with it only runs about 40 minutes at a time. And that only cleans 1 room. I had to wait 2 hours for Roomba to recharge before cleaning another room. Also, the replacement filter is costly. But what I do is I wash the filter after each use, and it's like new again (while the filter is drying, another can be used). Rather than replacing the filter every month, I am hoping it will last for several months.

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Reviewer: Justin| Date:2009-03-07

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R12EQSQAYME7M9 Someone should have created a video review of this thing but so far no one has. So, I did it myself. You will probably find it in the description somewhere. Anyhow...

I won't bother telling you the things you already know from the description. Everything in the description is accurate except one thing;

The color! It's not even close to orange. Not even a little bit. It's red! I called iRobot tech support because I had a question about buying an accessory. I told them the product title said it was orange and they told me they don't make an orange one. Oh well, red will do.

Sure, you get to be lazy and not vacuum your floors and rugs but it comes at a cost. You must maintain the filter (3 for $20 bucks), and you must remove the hair that inevitably becomes tangled around the brushes, wheels, bearings, etc and inevitably you will have to replace those items. Maintenance is a breeze with this machine though. They sure made it easy. Comes right apart and doesn't take engineer to figure it out. It's all real basic. I'm getting quite good at doing it. In fact, it takes me about 5-6 minutes to complete the maintenance which is still a lot better than actually vacuuming my floors.

This thing is loaded with options that they don't give you and in order to use those options you must buy accessories (remote controls, schedulers, virtual walls, pet hair brushes, etc). However, it's SO fun. To me it's more than just a vacuum. In fact, this thing is bluetooth capable, it can whistle while it works. There's a ton of hacks for it for those of you who like to customize it.

Don't be fool though and buy accessories until you've had ample opportunity to test drive it a few times. Read the fine print about the "virtual walls" and you'll discover that if you've got a home base for this unit, the Virtual Walls may create conflict if they're not positioned properly. Plus, the virtual walls require batteries. I just used a piece of wood on the ground to keep the robot in the room instead of buying a $40 dollar virtual wall. If you're going to buy any accessories for it, I would recommend the home charging base (so that it may drive home itself) and the pet hair brush kit (both sold separately).

This thing is awesome and I just feel so modern having a robot clean my floors. My dog wants to play with it.

If my star rating should need to change or this thing falls apart or ANYTHING goes wrong, I will come back here and update this review for you.

Review from Review from Amazon