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: So far love it...
Summary: 5 Stars
Received this as a 2009 Christmas gift and so far it has performed well. Love how it goes under most furniture such as beds which are not easy to vacuum under or other areas that my regular vacuum could not get under without moving heavy furniture. The light house/virtual walls take some getting used to on how to place for best coverage but seem to work well. It has easily transitioned from hardwood floors onto carpets, thick rugs, ceramic tile and laminate and over uneven thresholds. The onboard scheduling is great and helps me vacuum much more often now. I would not schedule it to run when not home as I have found two areas where it got hung up, one being a return air floor vent sunk in very deep carpet and it became off balanced & stuck...but it did sound a warning & then shut itself down after it was unable to free itself. So far it has even managed to go over electrical cords of lamps we forgot to move without problems but I read of others who were not so lucky and it makes sense it might become caught and pull an item off a table just like a regular vacuum. Amazed how full the dust bin is each time I have cleaned and am pleased how much easier it is to keep up with the dust bunnies which go with hard surface flooring. It is amazing how it "feels" it's way around chair legs, walls, stops before steps and goes the other direction...you'll catch yourself talking to it like it's a pet! Overall very pleased with how much easier it has made it to keep up with our housework.Customer Review: Roomba 560 Great little machine!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Roomba 560, July 3, 2008.........It must have been a special deal, since I only paid $270.00, and it's $350.00 today. I had been wanting one for quite a while, since I have arthritis and pushing a vacuum cleaner around is really difficult for me. I saw one at Overstock for only $120.00, granted one of the original, no frills type, but I thought I'd try it, and it worked great, although it wouldn't "climb" up on an area rug I have on top of wall to wall carpeting in my living room. I have a very large kitchen with attached family room, so began using it in there primarily. A few months later, Amazon had the Roomba 560 on sale, and since the literature about it said it would "climb up" area rugs and the towers to limit area to be cleaned I ordered it. It is a super little machine and I love it! My dog and cat were afraid of it initially, but soon got used to it and ignore it completely. It is also quieter than the cheaper, older model. I especially like using it in the bedrooms, it cleans under the beds and does a very satisfactory job. Granted you do have to do some regular vacuuming every so often, mainly around the very edges of the room, but Roomba really keeps floors looking great. You do have to clean the brush and empty the dirt cup, but that is easy to do and just part of regular maintenance. I still love my Roomba's and will definitely get another if one of them "bites the Review: Roomba is totally awesome!Summary: 5 Stars This is our first Roomba, I understand that this is a fifth generation so I can't comment on how this version differs from previous ones.
Overall it works great, cleans and returns back to it's base as described. There are only a few small pitfalls we've discovered:
- Documentation is a little sparse on how roomba actually works. For example, what if you leave roomba cleaning a locked/closed room? In our experiment it just kept on going for over 1 hour and wouldn't stop. Had to stop it by hand. Maybe we didn't wait long enough for it to consider the room clean who knows.
- we have a rug that Roomba does not go over. It's about half inch thick, but Roomba would not go on it, and once placed on top of the rug would not go off the rug. So we have to clean the rug first, then clean the rest. Only slightly annoying considering that marketing materials and other reviewers claim that it goes over their rugs.
- You really have to clean it after each cleaning to get the most effectiveness. Manual says after every third cleaning, but our house packs Roomba's dust compartment after each cleaning. The good news is that cleaning it is extremely easy. Remove the main dust compartment, then pull the lever inside to open a secondary dust enclosure.
Finally, our cats find Roomba extremely amusing. So it's a great cat entertainment as well :)
Customer Review: 5th gen Cylon, they have a plan
Summary: 5 Stars
This is our second Roomba, we had a Disco series (biglots $149, we got it on sale for $109) before this for two years. After over 600+ uses our R2 unit decided to join the angels :(
We love the roombas and they have been very useful in our house.
The 500 series irobots are about 50% as loud(not very loud) as the 400 series (discovery)and have a few cool new features. Examples are: better suction, better main brush, digital display, onboard scheduling... and a talking lady that actually tells you what the error might be, such as "please clean the main brushes". FYI, the older robots worked off "beeps" (e.g. - 1 beep after the uh-oh beep meant to clean the brushes). It should be noted that the Disco we had got stuck from time to time and could not dock with the charging station 99% of the time, however the 500 series (550 - from Costco $269) seems to always find its home and amazingly has never gotten stuck! The future is now.(har d har)
For those people who have never had a roomba, YES they really do work and no I don't have stock in the company (hmmm, are they publicly traded?). However it should be noted that our house is 80% hardwood and really does not have alot of obstacles.
Lastly, I tell you this... our robot runs everyday and still manages to find all sorts of dust bunnies and debris... it's actually kind of gross.
C & N
Customer Review: iRobot 500 is unvbelievable! You won't be sorry....
Summary: 5 Stars
I must admit, I was skeptical of the whole Roomba Vacuum thing, but when I saw that it was a "Gold Box" special at $199 with free shipping on Amazon I decided to give it a try. Well, first it is so easy to set up and get started. Just take it out of the box, charge it overnight and you're all set to go.
We have two small dogs and while I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the dust, dirt, and hair, apparently not. The Roomba picked up so much dog hair and dirt I was impressed (and disgusted) at the same time. In one day I cleaned our formal living room and dining room both of which are carpet. Then I did the hallway entry which is tile. Then I recharged and cleaned half of the basement. I recharged again and came upstairs to the master bedroom. After each room I emptied the dirt container and was just blown away at how clean it got everything.
I'm impressed with how it goes around the edges of the room in a straight line and moves and circles around bed legs, etc. It was great to have it go underneath the bed and vacuum in places I don't get to all the time.
It is currently cleaning the guest bedroom as we speak. When it's done it will return to its base and recharge. I love it!
I would highly recommend this product.