Roomba Vacuum – iRobot Roomba Vacuum

Lowest Price

: 449.99

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: E. Brooks| Date:2009-07-12

SUMMARY:

Surface Used: Tile Floors
Sq Ft Cleaned per Use: 1000 Sq Ft (3 Rooms separated by 2 lighthouses)
Time to Clean Each Room: 20-30 Min.
Pets: NONE
Maintenance: Clean after every use. Used Canned Air to save time!


USAGE/REASON FOR BUYING:

I have exposed bricks that produce a ton of dust on the floors. This requires me to sweep/vacuum daily. Roomba is pricey, however for my situation, Roomba is a very acceptable and reasonable alternative to having to sweep up the dust every day. I decided to pay for the convenience of not having to do it myself. I can only attest to the ability on floors, not carpeting.

PROS:

*Convenience. Roomba does about 85-90% of the work. Remaining % is for having to sweep hard to reach places as well as keeping items off the floor that could potentially get in the way.
*Battery life works for me. Cleans all 1000 sq ft and docks to charge.
*Cleans under furniture. No longer have to move couches or beds to clean thoroughly. (Thank Goodness!)
*Frequent cleaning = less dust = A+ for allergies.
*Haven't experienced problems with side brushes yet.
*Maintenance of the Roomba takes less than 5 minutes. I had a bagless vacuum prior that required far more maintenance than the Roomba so this is not a con for me.

CONS:

*Cost. Appropriate for those who are paying for convenience. In retrospect, would have considered lower model since I don't use the scheduling like I thought I would have.
*Lighthouses were DOA. Pro: Amazon replaced Roomba in 2 days.
*Roomba doesn't detect my dark colored furniture well. Smacks into it.
*Roomba doesn't navigate my area rug very well. Does OK with smaller throw rugs.
*Dock placement was trial and error. Took a couple of times before finding a good location.
*Can usually traverse cords, however on occasion, the Roomba will yank the cord and the attached product. Could end badly depending on the situation.
*For my Roomba to effectively clean in a less time consuming manner, I feel like I need to purchase an additional lighthouse (which is an added expense).


Suggestions:

1. Clean Roomba after every use for places 1000 sq ft and more. I like to use compressed air like what you use for laptops/keyboards, to blow out some of the debris.

2. Place the dock in a very open and central area where Roomba can easily find.

3. Invest in lighthouses for larger floorplans to allow for Roomba to clean (and finish) one area at a time before moving on to the next room. Otherwise it will take forever to finish.

Bottom Line: I think the convenience factor makes this product worth it. I don't desire nor have the time to clean my floors like they require. I'm satisfied with my purchase.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Roseann Santella| Date:2009-07-09

I absolutely love the Roomba. It does a fantastic job and keeps the constant buildup of dog hair and tracked-through dirt in control on a daily basis. Make a few furniture adjustments and the Roomba is good to go unattended and returns to its docking station on its own. It's worth the cost. I haven't pulled out my ancient stand-up vacuum since I started using Roomba one month ago.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: M. Nichols| Date:2009-07-04

Wow - this is evidence that iRobot does its homework. Easier to clean than the old slide-out filter we had. Seems the cleaning is more thorough, and it appears to be 'smarter.'
We use ours during our RV trips as well as at home.
Even though this isn't the pet vac, it picks up the dachshund hair.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Techie Lawyer| Date:2009-06-25

My Roomba Discovery has been acting up lately (after vacuuming my condo 3x per week for 3 years) and I reluctantly put down the cash for this new model. Wow, am I pleased!! First, and most important, this model is about 1/2 as loud as the Discovery, I was watching a movie yesterday while the Roomba was doing its job in the same room, could never have done that with the Discovery. Second, programming it is intuitive and a cinch. Third, the docking station works much better with a easier dock and more solid electrical connection (though you need to anchor the docking station down, I used two small pieces of 3M double sided tape on my hardwood floor). Fourth, the vacuum pattern seems to be smarter. Fifth the unit is easier on my furniture.

Couldn't be more pleased!!!

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: S. Hopper| Date:2009-06-22

I received my Roomba as a gift from my husband 6 months ago and have been waiting to write my review. I read so many reviews before purchasing that complained about parts breaking and the machine not working after a few uses. So I wanted to make sure that my Roomba was going to live up to all of my expectations before finally submitting my review.

I have never had any problems at all with my Roomba. I think some of the problems I've read on here can be eliminated with these tips:

1) Roomba is not meant to replace regular vacuuming and I don't think they are built to be used every day. I use mine in between regular vacuuming, about 4 times a month in our 2 heavy-traffic rooms only.
2) Removing small objects and clutter from the floor before using Roomba will eliminate problems such as getting tangled and crashing into things. To me, picking up these items is part of cleaning anyway. If the Roomba is constantly running over things, that is bound to wear down its parts more quickly.
3) The lighthouses, virtual walls, and docking all work with no problems if you block Roomba off to do one room at a time. Letting it wander freely around multiple rooms will cause the battery to go down before it finishes and will cause it to wander forever before finding the docking station. I've never had a problem getting the Roomba to dock itself when in the same room with the docking station. And the battery always lasts long enough to do 2 rooms.
4) Clean the Roomba after each use. It only takes a couple of minutes, much less time than it would take to run a regular vacuum. This helps the Roomba and its parts run smoothly.

My favorite things about my Roomba:

1) I have back problems, so it cuts down on having to push and pull a big vacuum around (and the Roomba only weighs about 5 pounds)
2) It vacuums under the bed, end tables, etc, so no more moving furniture to clean.
3) I was very surprised and pleased with the amount of dust and particles it picks up. It has as much sucking power as my regular vacuum.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the performance of my Roomba and think it is worth the money. One more tip: the replacement filters are very expensive if purchased directly from iRobot. I was concerned about this since those have to be replaced every few months. But I found them on eBay at prices half of what iRobot was asking.

Review from Review from Amazon

Lowest Price

: 247.88

Brand

: iRobot

Model

:

Reviewer: M. Simmans| Date:2009-04-09

Love this product. It does a great job and does it easily (plus entertains my cats!)

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Brandie T. Hammers| Date:2009-01-19

I have two dogs (that shed alot). I was quite tired of hair all the time. Purchased this and so far, I LOVE IT!! I do have to clean mine everytime I use it, but it is so worth it. I recommend this to everyone.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Spotted HorseKG| Date:2009-01-16

I real enjoy my new "helpmate". It is effective at cleaning up dirt and frees me up to do other things around the house. It also saves me money so I don't have to hire a house cleaner to come in to clean which actually saves me money. It is simple and easy to care for and I have had no troubles with it. It was a great Christmas gift to myself. I deserve this. Thanks! for a great product.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: City Of Rocks| Date:2009-01-15

Well, first of all, most of the people who buy this product are people who either don't have the time to vacuum as much as they like, are injured and can't, or just would rather spend time doing something else. Which reason you choose will make a difference in whether you actually want to buy this.

If you want more control over your time, this may help you, depending on whether you have pets and whether you mind trading in vacuuming time for occasional brush cleanings. (How occasional? This will depend on the number of pets you own and how badly they shed.)

If you're injured and bending is not good for you, forget it. You will need to do plenty of that, as this vacuum brush and cleaning comb system with small dust receptacle will require lots of bending. Also the unit is quite heavy and it doesn't always find its base like it's supposed to, so you'll have to lift this to take it to its base.

Is time something you're short on? You will notice you don't have to spend your valuable time vacuuming as much, but you will have to clean the brushes each time you run the unit, sometimes even more often if you have pets. I have a carful of dogs, several of which are German Shedder, er, German Shepherd dogs. Under these circumstances, this vacuum can be a Godsend or a pain in the kiester, depending on your perspective. We have to vacuum every single day, of course, so we bought this to pick up the slack, which it does beautifully, provided we run it every time we come down in the morning, and then once again after the unit recharges. This vacuum is not perfect in picking up everything on the floor, but when you run it this often, what it doesn't pick up the first time, it will get the next time around. Friends are amazed by how well it works, but again, we run it a lot. It will not do a perfect job the first run.

Which brings us to the next point. Can you just run this thing and leave the house, then come back to a floor fit for guests? Don't count on it. I stay home while it's running. If you're planning on setting the timer and going to work and expecting a guest-worthy floor when you come home, and this is very important to you, this vacuum is not for you. Sometimes the brushes and sensors can be finicky, causing the unit to shut down. It will shut down if it feels the brushes need cleaning, sometimes whether or not they do, or the unit may catch on a slightly raised hearth or chair and shut down until you can free it.

At first I was disappointed that I have to clean brushes once or twice each run. (Even if the unit doesn't completely stop for a cleaning, I notice greatly reduced effectiveness if I don't clean the brushes a couple of times each run). But then I realized, stopping once in a while to clean the brushes is much better than the constancy required to vacuum the whole house manually. It cuts my housecleaning time down drastically. So cleaning the brushes is unanticipated maintenance, but we can actually have a spotless house with lots of dogs, without my having to do the vacuuming. I like that.

My biggest beef with this: durability. The side brushes don't last long. (Although, they've since redesigned these so the bristles don't fall out and the arms don't crack off.) The plastic casing for the front castor eventually doesn't hold the castor after you've removed it to clean the pet hair away from the pins. And there are a-l-l-l-l manner of nooks and crannies for that pet hair to find and wrap around. The battery doesn't last long at all. The sensors went crazy on one of the side wheels and we had to have it replaced. We dropped the lighthouse on carpeted flooring, and it hasn't worked right since. And the lighthouse chews your batteries. I highly recommend and use rechargeable batteries. So, you pay a lot of money for convenience, but the price is neither warranted by perfect function according to intended design (and therefore your expectation), nor durable parts.

This vacuum will not entirely replace your regular vacuum as the small unit does not have a powerful enough motor to give you a really deep clean: important for allergy sufferers to consider, and if you have steps, those you will need your regular vacuum to clean.

In a nutshell:

If perfect function is important to you, you'll be disappointed. If you're just looking to have some extra control over your time or spare your back a bit more, this can give you that. If you have pets and see regular brush cleanings a good trade off to the constancy and time required to actually do the vacuuming yourself, you can have a very lovely floor with greatly reduced effort. But I'd get a good warranty and expect to replace parts and batteries frequently. Then again, ours gets lots and lots of use.

Would I buy it again? With our multiple pet home, I guess I would. But I do expect irobot (the company that makes this) to make some strides in functionality and durability. If they step up to the plate, I'll be a fan. Otherwise, I'll expect a drastic reduction in price. And by the way, the price of replacement parts is an absolute rip-off.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: jc| Date:2009-01-13

After owning a Roomba 4000 series for almost 2 years and having some minor issues that the company resolved for me, I decided to purchase a new 500 series when the cost of a new battery and brushes for the old unit was close to the cost of a brand new roomba with a new warranty. I used the new roomba less than the previous model and the side brush was a problem. iRobot knows this and will replace the brush as often as you request a new brush during the warranty period of one year. The brush breaks often. No big deal. Apparently this model also has an inherrent problem with the front bumper. My 2nd roomba never made it to the one year anniversary and their customer support while available is generic and I was not pleased in the end with the outcome or service. My bumper problem cannot be fixed. If under warranty, irobot will send a whole new unit but if the warranty is void, then they offer a discounted program for a lower end model, I suppose to try to appease you. I was not happy with the customer service. If the customer service was better and they actually repaired the roombas and built them better, I might feel differently since when the roomba did run properly, it did a good job. I am just not prepared to spend $300+ for a new unit that works for one year and then pay another $100 for a lesser model to replace it. That gets costly. I am disappointed in the company.

Review from Review from Amazon