iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver
by iRobot
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Our Price: $349.00
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Category: Home
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Product Details
Manufacturer: iRobotBrand: iRobot
Edition: Kitchen
Model: 560
Color: Black
Publisher: iRobot
Studio: iRobot
Music Label: iRobot
Product features:
- Vacuuming robot picks up dirt and debris with the touch of a button
- Easy-to-empty bagless dustbin; fine-filtration system traps allergens
- Anti-tangle technology; gentle-touch bumper system; built-in cliff sensors
- Self-charging Home Base, 2 Auto Virtual Walls, an extra filter, and more included
- Measures 16-3/4 by 21 by 5 inches; 1-year limited warranty
Description of iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver
Cleans routinely, so you don't have to. 500 Series robots offer the latest innovations from iRobot with unprecedented efficiency, coverage, and cleaning performance.Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver
Customer Review: My house has NEVER been this clean
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had the Roomba 562 for over 2 weeks. We have a cat, dog, messy bird, and two kids, so I schedule and run it every day. I am VERY happy with it - and my husband, who was not sold on the idea of buying it - is a major convert. I like it so much I often run it more than once a day - once in our main living area, and again in another corner of the house - an upstairs bedroom, the basement, etc.
Maybe it's just that I'm used to a broom . . .
We have wooden floors and three 5' x 8' area rugs. It moves effortlessly from surface to surface and cleans places I never do - like under the couch and beds, behind the doors, between the toilet and the wall, or in the front entranceway. Our furniture is high (Sigmund can go under anything with a 3.75" clearance), so it essentially hits all the corners and cleans under everything. It has negotiated wires fine AS LONG AS THEY ARE PLUGGED IN. It does fine around tricky stair edges and works fine around music stands, random teenage shoes, and miscellaneous books lying around our floor. I cannot believe how much it picks up daily - my rugs are absolutely splotless and my younger son's dust allergy is entirely gone.
What I worried about and what happened . . .
I did a lot of research before buying this. I was worried that (a) my house was too cluttered with wires and small toys (b) I'd have too much pet hair (c) it would run out of steam before it did our entire downstairs (we live in a comfortable bungalow) and (d) cleaning the dustbin and brushes would be a major hassle.
I found:
a) Sigmund has no trouble with normal clutter like shoes, books, boxes, music stands, or banjos. It did pick up my son's Legos, but I just pulled them out of the dustbin when I emptied it. No problem.
b) The pet hair was no problem - even the first time I ran it. As others have said, it picks up a little less every day as the house gets cleaner and cleaner. The house was basically neat when I first started it. I set it to clean the two main rooms (living and dining) first before I let it wander more broadly. It cleaned them fine without stopping on a single charge, then moved on to the kitchen. MY hair was more of a problem. I have long hair and it will tend to wrap around the end of the brushes. The 562 comes with a brush cleaner that works well - easier than cleaning a hair brush. I clean the brushes every three days or so. It takes less than two minutes.
c) The first few days, I set Sigmund cleaning the living room, dining room, and kitchen, because I was worried about it running out of battery before everything was clean. It did just fine and returned to base to charge. After those rooms were spotless, I just did the kids' rooms and our very messy library. Now, most days, it can do all six rooms plus the bathroom. When one or another room is a real mess, it may not make it through all of them.
It is very easy to close one or another door if you have one room that's your priority for the day. The kids close their doors when they've left their toys out and don't want them bothered. I close the library door if I want it to do they kids' rooms or the kitchen. The 560 & 562 come with two pillars that make the roomba finish one area before moving on to the next. That significantly increases its efficiency.
d) Cleaning the dustbin is exactly like emptying a dustpan. I don't understand what people were complaining about. You pull it out of the front, shake it over the garbage pail, and stick it back in. What's depressing is just how MUCH dust comes out of it - was my house really that dirty for all these years?
What I really didn't expect . . .
When the floor is really, really clean it is much easier to keep the rest of the house clean.
The kids pick up their rooms so that Sigmund can clean it. For two weeks! This is definitely a record!
What it doesn't do well . . .
If you have LOOSE cords, the roomba will eat them and turn itself off. So if you have a USB cord hanging out from your computer the roomba will try to suck it up and it will wrap around the brush and turn off. As long as they're plugged in, you're fine.
It won't pick up long, thin, stiff things. This includes straw from a broom or paper from a shredder. If I notice it, I pick them up by hand.
It can miss things deep in a corner or just at the border of the floor and a carpet. I just kick those spots out towards the center if I notice and it picks them up the next time through.
It is important to remember that the roomba works on probability - it doesn't get every single spot every single time. It gets most spots every single time. But over the course of a few days, most places are hit every day and every single spot is hit a few times. I sure as heck don't vacuum or sweep every day. My house is infinitely cleaner than it was before.
I am very very happy with the unit.
Two things to remember . . . It's a vacuum cleaner, not a cleaning lady. It doesn't do stairs. And any given day, you might be able to do a marginally better job vacuuming than it can. But it will spend 2 hours vacuuming every single day. Will you?
Update at 2 months:
The Roomba worked consistently in my 100 year old cement basement, made my mother's condo immaculate, and did my mother-in-laws very dusty attic. It also did under all of their furniture - something they can't do because it is difficult for them to move the furniture at their age.
It worked perfectly around all the wires of an in-home dialysis system.
The lighthouses are very useful to organize and concentrate cleaning. At least once a week I will keep Roomba in just one room to make sure it gets every spot.
Although I had wanted a Roomba for years, what finally pushed me into getting it was that we just couldn't get rid of a massive flea invasion. The animals had been pestered for a full year (even with all the veterinary flea killers and frequent, serious cleaning). Although they never bothered the humans in the house, I was spending hours every week combing the animals. ROOMBA GOT RID OF THE FLEAS. Fleas breed with eggs and the larva feed on shed blood. All of that is in rugs, in cracks in the floor, and in odd little corners. Roomba took my cleaning just that one more push over the top that we finally got rid of them. What a blessing! That by itself was worth its price.
IMPORTANT: Many reviews of older Roombas say that spare parts are not available. THIS DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE TRUE OF NEW MODERN UNITS! All of the parts on this machine are modular and you can buy the spare parts through Roomba on their website and also purchase some through Amazon. I haven't needed them yet - mine is still fairly new, comes with extra brushes, and is under a full year warranty. However, every part can be exchanged. The review in several computer magazines also mentions this modular feature. The videos on their site are great. It is my understanding from those reviews that this is a new feature in the 560 series.
Update at 4 months . . . Some observations, suggestions, and warnings . . .
I have now had the opportunity to watch Roomba perform one or more time a day for several months. Some observations:
It works superbly on floors and area rugs. These become spotless over the course of a few days and Roomba almost never gets into trouble. It works well, but has more problems, with deep wall to wall carpeting. For example, my mother has a very deep Berber style carpet. It did wonders for its cleanliness and the rug really needed daily cleaning. On the other hand, the long threads that shed from in the carpet did make it more of an effort to clean the brushes.
Almost all of Roomba's request to 'clean the brushes' came from my leaving something big on the floor - a plastic bag, a 3" lego piece just the wrong size, or a yard or two of ribbon. In other words - the same kind of thing a regular vacuum cleaner would have trouble with. Worst thing that has happened so far is that it tried to eat the pull off of some drapes and then turned itself off. I had to disassemble the wheel to untangle it. My fault - I should have put it up on the window sill.
Again, long hair and threads that wrap around the ends of the rollers are Roombas greatest enemy. The new (?) tool for cleaning the brushes is great - one swipe and it's clean. However, that will not clean the tangles of long hair, dust, or wool that wrap around the end of the brushes. I typically need to clean these every three days or so (a 2 minute job). BUY A LONG PAIR OF FORCEPS. They nip right into the small spaces, pull everything out, and make the job very easy. Without the forceps, it takes me ten times longer.
I noticed that after two months Roomba was giving me a slight hesitation every once in a while. When the company called to check if everything was going okay, I mentioned this. They told me to reset the Roomba (push two buttons simultaneously). The problem was fixed.
WARNING TO PET OWNERS (Gross, but important): If your dog ever messes while you are out, this is not a good time to schedule Roomba. We had been home all summer and Roomba ran every day at noon. When our scheduled changed in the Fall, the dog was home all day alone. One day, she obviously needed to go out before we got home and Roomba ran right through it and tried to clean it. NOT a pretty sight - thank goodness it was on a wood floor, not the rug. Good news, Roomba is definitely modular, it all came apart and cleaned up very quickly with water. The worst were the wheels. Think of cleaning sneakers after walking across a cow meadow.
In any case - if your dog EVER has this problem, I strongly recommend scheduling Roomba to run at night, when you're at home and you know that will not be an issue.
--------
I am continuously amazed at how much cat and dog hair, dust, and miscellaneous stuff Roomba picks up every single day. Certainly more than a very full dustpan and with only a 30 second bin dump of effort on my part. The air in our home is very noticeably cleaner. Interestingly, the animals have stopped sleeping on their beds and started sleeping on the rugs because they are cleaner and more comfortable. And my son now runs to pick up his Legos as soon as he hears Roomba start - saving my feet infinite pokes in the dark. I can't imagine not having it - despite it's cost. And my husband tells me at least once a week how happy he is we bought it.
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