Roomba Vacuum – iRobot Roomba Vacuum

Lowest Price

: 446.95

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: C. Doeble| Date:2009-04-19

We purchased the Roomba and 24 hours after it arrived it was in use. At first I had my doubts if the Roomba could please my wife, who is a fussy clean freak, but after the first room was completed, by the Roomba, she was amazed and very pleased. Now every morning we wake up to a clean floor and we did not do the work. I wish the Roomba did not cost so much or we would have one for each floor, but for now we just pick it up and walk it to it's cleaning assignment on the second floor.

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Reviewer: Yin, Kuo-wei| Date:2008-11-26

In several ways a better design than the former models; cleaner, stronger, quieter.

By the way, the package "Roomba 580" at Amazon can be different from the package at iRobot.

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Reviewer: J. Adnot| Date:2008-11-25

Performs as advertised. I use it every day (scheduled) and sometimes another time after recharging. Seems to do a good job. I clean the waste hopper and around the brushes after each session and make sure to clean the edge sensors, as well. It finds its way back to the charging station most sessions, and is usually charged back up by the time I get home from work. It is good at not bumping into white walls (when the lights are on) but bumps a little firmly into dark objects/surfaces. Not a problem, yet. Noise is moderate, but not a problem as most cleaning is done when I am not there. My cat is pretty much used to it now. I got the free accessory kit without having to ask or pay.

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Reviewer: R. Kessinger| Date:2008-11-23

The Roomba 580 is well worth the extra bucks. The lighthouse capability for the Roomba to travel through a series of rooms and then back to the home station is the plus that makes the Roomba worth it, to me. Instead of moving it room to room on your own, you press start and get multiple rooms vacuumed with no oversight on your part. For anyone with kids or pets, this is a must-have. Don't be discouraged the first few times you run the Roomba, as it learns from all its mistakes and typically does not repeat them as it learns the shape of your rooms and where obstacles might be.

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Reviewer: Roman Budzianowski| Date:2008-11-08

It deserves 3 stars in terms of functionality, but because I am impressed I'll give it 4.
The main problem is coverage of a large room with a lot of furniture (coffee tables and chairs). It has a set of nifty heuristics to deal with obstacles and corners. However, it doesn't learn the shape and size of a room - it uses another set of heuristic algorithms for coverage. The result? It gets "stuck" in some parts of the room for a long time for no apparent reason, like a creature with a fried brain. It all depends on furniture arrangement in a particular room. I bet it works just fine in an empty room. It compensates for this deficiency by running for a very long time.

In summary:
- it works, but the vacuum is not very powerful so the results are not perfect;
- the dirt compartment is small - you have to empty it after each use;
- it takes a lot of time - you might not care until the battery gets weaker;
- you may need extra virtual walls if you have spaces with many doors/openings (or you can use strategically placed obstacles);
- you may have to temporarily move furniture, remove cables (it "eats" them);
- the fun toy factor is a plus;

My house is rather large, but not a mansion (3 bedroom with large spaces).

Review from Review from Amazon

Lowest Price

: 329.99

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: M Varghese| Date:2009-07-13

I have a Roomba 535 and its been running great for the last 4 months.
I am very happy with the purchase , the only problem I had was with the side brush , the one which comes with it ( red one with six hands has a design defect and will break within a month ) , I called support and they send me a newly designed brush ( white one with 3 hands) which does not have that problem. New brush - Roomba 500 Series Side Brush, 3-Pack

Overall very satisfied with the product , I switch it on and leave my apartment, when I come back the carpets look clean and new.

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Reviewer: W. Griner| Date:2009-07-10

I got this about 3 days ago and have cleaned my home about twice to get all the dirt. I've got hardwood floors and rugs, as well as 2 longhairs that shed - a cat and a wife. ;) I found cleaning hardwood floors very tiring because there are no brush marks to show you where you've been. I got tired of finding the dust bunnies after the fact.

The Roomba is not meant to replace your main vacuum. It can't - it doesn't have the dirt capacity or the battery power. But once you clean your home, it will keep it just as clean if you run it once a week, or more.

Let's start with the
CON: You are a slave to the Roomba.

If you want it to work properly, you can't leave stuff on the floor. Think of it as your cleaning lady. You have to pick up all the toys and make sure the Roomba has a clear path to every place you want it to go. The idea is not to challenge it, so you need to turn the dining room chairs over onto the table, so it can clean properly and not play pinball with the legs.

Keep it clean. Regardless what the instructions say, you have to clean the entire robot after every time you use it. That means emptying the dirt bins, cleaning the filter, and, especially, removing all the hair and dirt that gets stuck and wound up around the brushes, bearings, and idler wheel.

Use it often. Because it can't hold a lot of dirt you will have to use more often than a regular vacuum cleaner and have to clean it more often. Of course, some people are so in love with it that this is a pro and not a con.

You will still have to clean corners and crevices, especially around thresholds. Dust bunnies can be a problem if they get blown around, but as long as the Roomba approaches them from the front, they get sucked up.

It does bump into furniture legs, door edges, and ledges that don't rest on the floor. I haven't seen a paint scuff marks, though.

My dirt cup filled up and dirt spilled out a few times. I don't know if there is supposed to be some kind of signal. The only sign I had that something was wrong was that I heard some kind of laboring sound which probably came from the brushes.

PRO: It works as advertised.

Although the movements are screwy, it does seem to get almost all the dirt. As long as you get rid of the clutter and hide the cords, the Roomba will clean very well. It's not too noisy and, surprise, it doesn't scare my cat, like my vacuum cleaner does.

Cleaning it is straightforward. Pulling the idler wheel housing out is a little tough. Just make sure to pull everything apart to clean it and you will be alright. I think that some of the brush problems that people have reported might be due to the bearings not being cleaned. These are the little yellow boxy things at end of each brush. They will accumulate dirt and hair behind them that you can't see. These must be pulled off and cleaned.

The wall works well. The Roomba will stumble its way from room to room, even without a lighthouse. I can't say how well the dust sensor works, although I noticed that the Roomba would move in circles occasionally, indicating it found more dirt.

Best of all, you press the CLEAN button to start cleaning and it will go back to the charging base when it is done.

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Reviewer: Jeremy R. Gleason| Date:2009-07-07

I bought this about a week ago. It cleans very well, but I think there is a problem with mine. The battery life on this thing only lasts about 40 mins. The roomba makes no attempt to dock when the battery is low either, it will simply die.The only time it will dock is when I press the "dock" button. I have tried to change the docking location but to no avail. When it is working, it does a pretty good job cleaning. I have laminent floors along with 4 pets and it gets most of the hair up. I think it is neccessary for anyone with animals to clean the roomba after every cleaning. Aside from the battery life and docking issue, this is a great little helper to have around the house!

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Reviewer: Stephen Lerch| Date:2009-07-07

I purchased the Roomba 530 from another seller for a steep discount and I have to say I am in love with my new family member; Little Jimmy.

This robot can clean a floor like nobody's business. I've watched it maneuver under multiple chairs sitting around my kitchen table, grasp cables and realize it's grabbed a cable, then work itself off of the cable with ease. Under my bed has NEVER been cleaner (well, maybe it was cleaner when I moved in and vacuumed it the old fashioned way, but once the bed's in place, no upright will get under there, nor will any canister vacuum reach all the nooks and crannies).

One a single charge, which takes as little as 20 minutes, Little Jimmy can clean 3 medium rooms, and in my case, 4 rooms as they are smaller rooms than what he is rated for.

Something to keep in mind is that the manual recommends you charge your Roomba "overnight" when you receive it. This means leave it plugged in for at LEAST 8 hours before you use it for the first time, whether it turns green in 20 minutes or not. I've read online where people have experienced issues after receiving the Roomba and not heeding this advice where they had to have the battery replaced under warranty because they were a little too eager. Yes, it can be an excruciating wait to see your new little buddy sit there with a green light, ready to work and you not able to set it free, but fight the temptation and you shouldn't have any issues.

As far as problems, I have one. I have a throw rug that has 1 dark square, one light, one dark and so on. Little Jimmy has gotten caught twice on one of the lighter squares because he mistakenly thinks he's surrounded by a cliff. This is an issue with overly sensitive cliff sensors (this is the part that keeps the Roomba from taking a suicide leap down stairs). There is currently no fix for this and if you have very dark floors, you may be purchasing something you cannot use. iRobot has a 30 day return guarantee, so if you want to try it but aren't sure if the Roomba will clean your floors properly, give it a shot and send it back if it doesn't live up to expectations.

One feature I wish I had sprung for on a higher model number is the ability to use scheduling to tell Little Jimmy what day and time to clean. Unfortunately you need a 535 or higher Roomba to have this capability. It's all the better, though, as most rooms require a little work to make them Roomba friendly, meaning if you can get it off the floor, DO IT. If I had the scheduler I'd forget when Little Jimmy would begin working and leave stuff on the floor that could hinder him in doing his job.

Which brings up another point: clear clutter from the floor along with cables and cords. Sure, the Roomba can clean around most everything and can untangle itself, but ideally it shouldn't have to. And if you have cords for things that can be pulled from shelves or higher up locations, you run the risk of damage to the device AND the Roomba in the instance where it grabs the cable and drags the item down while untangling itself.

This model also lacks the ability to utilize the Lighthouse technology where you can place a lighthouse in a room and the Roomba will either clean the room completely before moving on or spend 25 minutes cleaning the room before moving on. I'd like this functionality, but given the price difference I couldn't justify it for the Lighthouse tech and the scheduling.

A caveat is that this vacuum requires more maintenance on your part. It's recommended to clean the Roomba every 2-3 uses. One the first 2-3 uses I would actually highly recommend you clean it EVERY use as it is bound to pick up more dirt than on later consecutive cleanings, which means later on down the road you can get away with not cleaning it so often. If you own a pet, expect to be pulling pet hair off of the rollers as it will wrap around some of the metal parts holding the brushes in place. It's not hard to clean, but it takes time to clean. For the time it saves you from having to vacuum every day or a LOT less frequently than you already do, it is worth the effort.

You will find with regular uses you won't need to vacuum so often anymore. You will likely still need to vacuum from time to time to ensure you have a clean house, I would say you will likely only need to do so, if at all, once a month, tops. With my house being mainly hardwood, I think I may one of the lucky ones and I won't have to vacuum much at all; probably 2-3 months between pulling it out. And I will have to manually vacuum the rug Jimmy can't handle.

Pros:

Cleans floors really well
Quieter than a regular vacuum
More free time for you

Cons:

No scheduling
Can't use Lighthouses
Doesn't get tangled but can pull things from locations while dislodging itself


I'd definitely buy again.

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Reviewer: N. Otterloo| Date:2009-07-06

If you are fortunate enough to have a significant other who cleans more than you do, you will find the gift of this little vacuum will earn you MAJOR brownie points ;-).

We've received great service from this robot. If you buy it, know that there are two pitfalls that will cause it to fail more quickly:

1. Not cleaning after every use: The brushes do a LOT of work and need to be cleaned regularly to prevent wear and tear. Not a lot of work, it becomes habit. Much better than vacuuming.

2. Not using often enough: This bot is made for maintenance cleaning (read - daily), not monthly or weekly. If you let your floor get so dirty that the brushes get clogged or the bin/filter get full before it is done, you will not get a good clean and you will wear your bot out. If your floors are consistently that dirty, hire a maid :-), or if you have hardwood, get a dirt dog.

Overall, very happy with this little guy.

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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

: 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.

-------------------------

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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: 379.99

Brand

: Trademark Global

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: