iRobot 500 Series Roomba Vacuum-Cleaning Robot with On-Board Scheduling
by iRobot
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 500 Series Roomba Vacuum-Cleaning Robot with On-Board Scheduling
Customer Review: Like a member of the family
Summary: 5 Stars
Treated myself to a Roomba for Christmas, got a much better than currently advertised price on Black Friday. I wrapped it, then punched holes in the box and wrote "air holes - do not block" when I put it under the tree on Christmas. Certainly kept the kids guessing, and hoping for a puppy ... Nope, the new family pet is Roomba, who they promptly named "Jedidiah", for reasons unkown.
I've noticed in other reviews, and my own experience, how easy it is to personify this little piece of equipment. He is indeed cute as can be, "talks" to you, and even provides entertainment. Does he clean BETTER than a regular vaccum or broom and dust pan? Probably not, but, he does get used more often, and in some areas (under couches) is more thorough, and therefore, the goal of a cleaner house is accomplished.
With 3 kids and 2 cats, there is always hair, dust, and cobwebs accumulating. We have a mix of hardwood, laminate, and carpet.
We clean him after every run, takes under a minute, and my 11 year old is very good at it. NOT a big deal at all.
Takes a little thought to plan out his route - I prefer to set him in 1 room at a time, think it gets done more efficiently than using the lighthouse.(Though when we tried out the light house, it did work in terms of letting it through after a set period of time. I just think he works better giving him 1 area at a time)
The virtual walls work great. He does indeed manage to spit out cords he encounters, but I still try to keep him away from them, particularly the computer cords.
His stair / ledge sensor works fine.
He goes over transitions / thresholds fine.
The only trouble he sometimes gets into is where there is a threshold that then goes down a step - he keeps trying to push over the threshold, only to then realize there is a step and get stuck. Nothing the virtual wall can't handle, once I learned to keep him away from there.
He does also get stuck on a raised heating grate sometimes.
He's NOT a maid or a live human being, he can't REALLY see if he missed a spot, and some of the criticisms really seem to expect he would. He WILL work best if you figure out where he needs to go and how he will do it most effeciently in your home, not just expect to turn it on and never think about it again and expect full maid service.
He's quieter than a vaccuum, but still not quiet enough to run if watching TV in the next (open) rooom.
Still, I can turn him on at bedtime, and with school starting again, plan to run him in a different area daily while we're at work and school. And the self docking works great (and is cute to watch :)), so he's recharged by the time you get home and ready to tackle another area in the evening or overnight.
It does require clearing the room - he doesn't fit between the chair legs of my kitchen or dining room chairs, so they have to be moved out. He fits under the couch in living room, but not the couches in the family room. And of course, all the clutter needs to be off the floor - but since the kids enjoy their new "pet", they are more willing to get to the clutter clearing for Roomba than they are for me!
The psychology behind it is interesting, but I have to say that all in all it works well, and will be used often. I am a little concerned at having read many reviews criticizing the longetvity. It's only been a couple weeks, but we love it so far, and I hope we have a long and happy life together.
As I told my kids, it's like having another child ... needs to be cleaned and fed, but he listens for the most part, and actually helps clean the house!
Customer Review: This Roomba is Great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Roomba during Amazon's Goldbox special about a month ago. As a single, young professional, this machine is perfect for me. I don't know how effective it would be to own a Roomba if you had a significant amount to pick up each day, such as if you have kids or pets.
The Pros:
- Does a great job at cleaning my one bedroom apartment. I'm shocked by the amount of dust the Roomba picks up and I've noticed that I'm not suffering from allergies as much as before, with my old vacuum.
- The on-board scheduling feature is easy to program and works every time. I set the Roomba to clean my apartment before I come home from work, so I always have a clean apartment to come home to.
- Cleaning out the bin and filter is very easy. In addition, the filters only need to be changed every 2 months, which is cost effective. This model came with two new filters, so you're set for the first 6 months.
- The bristles are easily accessible and simple to clean.
- The Roomba is a pro at getting to spots I normally have trouble cleaning with an ordinary vacuum, such as far back under my desk and under my coffee table. Also, the Roomba is very agile and can maneuver its way under my dining room table and chairs, which I didn't believe the Roomba would be able to manage.
The Cons:
- My Roomba consistently gets stuck under my 400 pound TV stand, which sits 3 or 4 inches off the floor. I don't really know how it does it, but it manages to slide under this tight space that it can't get out of. When I witnessed the first instance of this, I found the Roomba squawking and spinning around like crazy. It turned itself off almost immediately. Another time, I came home to find it trapped underneath my TV stand. As you can imagine, it was not a fun endeavor trying to get the little guy out from underneath the stand. I usually remedy this situation by sticking a few books underneath my TV stand so that it will sense something is there and then clean elsewhere.
- This may be a "no, duh" thing to say, but you probably won't be able to use this device to clean certain places, like in the bathroom. Not that I'd want to use this device in such an area, but I will warn you that another vacuum will be needed to clean that part of the house.
Overall, I'm absolutely thrilled to have a Roomba. It may seem like a luxury, but this little robot is well worth the cost. I feel that my home is cleaner than when I was vacuuming weekly with my old upright vacuum and the overall cost of maintenance is very low.
Customer Review: Roomba does its job
Summary: 5 Stars
After two months daily use, Roomba keeps our house much cleaner than before. Our house used to be generally messy - now it's generally tidy. Roomba cleans our living room, dining room, kitchen, hall and bath, daily Mon - Fri: hardwood, area rugs, linoleum, and tile. Roomba does its business at 10AM when the wife, kids and I are gone and the dogs are confined to the study. 95% of the time, I return to find the floors clean and Roomba back in its "dock" charged and ready to go. Occasionally it runs out of power before it finds the dock and one time it shut off due to a "brush error" - clogged brush. Every day I remove it's dust bin and empty the full or mostly full bin in the trash - takes about 20 seconds to do this and you never touch the dirt.
Our house is mostly harwood with a two dogs, a pug and a springer that shed LOTS and LOTS of short hair 24/7. Two messy teens as well as a messy dad. We are very pleased with Roomba's ability to keep the dog hair and dust bunnies banished from the home.
On the weekends, I put Roomba to work in the basement family room, master bedroom and study - tile, hardwood and area rugs- it does fine in those rooms, too.
I think the 551 model I purchased at Costco for $259 does the job; it's handling the pet hair fine without the special pet upgrade. Of course my dogs have short hair; I think those dogs that shed in clumps of long hair might need the pet upgrade model.
Roomba needs occasional fussing with. You need to position your cords where they won't tangle, you need to remove and clean the brushes maybe once a week; occasionally clean accumlated dust ,hair etc from its wheels and such. You have to be handy enough (and willing) to do these or I don't think Roomba will work out for you. Myself. I don't mind and our house is clean every day when I come home. Wife is happier, too. I spend about 2 minutes every morning doing "Roomba Prep" - picking up stuff that it might get stuck on, putting away our ocasional table that will waste a lot of Roomba time, picking up the magazine or papers that were tossed on the floor. This helps the Roomba and also contributes to our less messy house.
I am very happy with Roomba. It seems to be well built so I am hoping it holds up well.
Customer Review: I'm in love - updated still in serious like
Summary: 5 Stars
Two months after our roomba started giving us immaculately clean floors - he quit working - just sat and spun in one circle then nine beeps and stopped. Upon contacting the manufacturer - they said our model had been discontinued and they sent me a newer model to replace him with - we received within 2 weeks - the new girl (called suzie) does an excellent job and when something is wrong with her she tells you the problem not just beeping - she is a 600 series model. My advice here - make sure you use your roomba often - sounds like there are some manufacturing defects, but as long as it is still under one year warranty - manufacturer was great about replacing.
My roomba arrived yesterday, my daughter promptly named him Georgie and we put him through the paces last night. With only a partial charge I started him out (too impatient to wait) we set up the lighthouses so he would do three rooms (shut the doors to the other rooms). Georgie did an excellent job - fun to watch too. So we left - came back to find that Georgie had made his way to the third room and got stuck in my bathrobe which I left on the floor - can hardly falt Georgie for that.
Back to the charger he went. Later in evening with full charge I brought him back to my room with the floor tidy. He worked and worked and worked until beep, beep. I press the green button and he tells me he needs his brush cleaned - that thing was so full of cat hair it was unbelievable (must have all been under the bed) such a smart Georgie to tell me he needed help.
After a brief cleaning I brought him down to my daughter's room - which she is supposed to vacuum every Saturday - Georgie worked and worked again - after about 20 minutes I picked him up and brought him to the garbage can. YUCK - how could there possibly be that much crap in the carpet.
This morning Georgie started out when the timer told him to - was well on his way to finishing the great room by the time I left for work. Now if they only made a robot to clean the tub and do the laundry.
Customer Review: God's Greatest Gift
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this when it was on a crazy sale for approx USD 179. I was skeptical as to the performance, so I ended up only buying one. Now I am so regretting it. I should've gotten one for the folks as well. And while I'm at it, for the extended family.
When the Roomba arrived, I was eager to plug it in and hopefully to see it in action, but of course I had to wait at least a full day for the charge. Once it was ready, I took it on a run in my 4 room apartment just to see how it would cope with the furniture and some wires lying around. It does the floors well, but it tends to have a problem with small mats. It just ends up pushing those around. Another setback was that it seems to climb onto the low step of my speaker stands and would do a huff and puff to get on. I guess, the height of the speaker stand was a bit too low for it to bump the Roomba sensor.
If you want this product, you'd have to anticipate what you need to do to Roomba-friendly your home. It's not too difficult, just get most of your clutter off the floor and it should do fine. Before I had the Roomba go for its 1st run, I hand-vac'ed my crib first. After the Roomba was done, in was amazed to see even more dust in the bin. *I'm a neat freak, I vacced my floor twice before the Roomba had a go*
Cleaning this nifty house helper was pretty simple. No rocket science involved.
However, I'm an oversea's buyer, and 110V was not available. I had to use a different adapter for the Roomba, and it seems to be very touchy-sensitive on what gets plugged in. The home base says 22.5V....however I had to begin charging with 18v and work my way up to 22.5v at the end. A bit annoying but better than nothing. At least till I get a 240V to 110V converter. Then we'll see how it goes.
The schedulder if a cool function. I've got it rigged for noon every Mon, Wed and Fri. It's not too noisy either. So far it hasn't failed to find it's way to home base just yet.
Overall, an amazing buy. If there ever comes another promo, I'm buying 2 more.