iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver
by iRobot
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver
Customer Review: What's Not To Love? Go out and get one...
Summary: 5 Stars
Well I couldn't be happier with our new Roomba! I got the 562 from irobot as it was a pet series...we have two tiny dogs that shed like crazy but from what I can tell the difference is that it has a bigger debris bin (which we haven't used yet)
I HATE HATE HATE vacuuming, the dogs bark, one of them attacks the uprights (to the point that he broke it - he's 6 lbs) as soon as it's plugged in and the baby cries. It's overall just a hassle. Not anymore...this machine is brilliant. The baby doesn't cry, our Chihuahua doesn't attack it and I can have a cup of tea while I watch it go :)
I spent a long time reading reviews and really wondering whether a machine could really be all that and finally I jumped in with both feet. I couldn't have spent my money better. Many people seemed to have high expectations that this machine is going to do something more than vacuum. That's all it does but because you want it to do the best job possible you have to tidy away and make sure there are no electrical cables on the floor so it already looks neater and tidier. I did not vacuum daily but now that I can schedule the roomba to do it daily our house is going to look like Mary Poppins is staying over! I have so far used it twice (without vacuumming with an upright first as lots of people do) and it has done an outstanding job. It hasn't got stuck, isn't loud like a regular vacuum but more like a bathroom extractor fan (I can have the roomba going as I lay my 11 month old down for a nap and she'll go right off without a fuss), it's thorough and it couldn't be more cool that it self docks (yes, I think we would have kept it just for that feature alone).
My husband was seriously sceptical about getting this but within 2 mins of seeing it go he said he was looking forward to having visitors over so that he could show them how well it worked! It took me 5 months of persuading him that this machine was all that (even though I didn't know for sure myself) and 2 mins to confirm that he loves it.
It is a simple set up...plug in the charger, pull out the battery tab and place the roomba on the ground. Press the dock button, it makes some R2D2 noises and gets going to find the dock so it can charge. Once charged off you go! You get extra's in the box, 2 more filters, a set of brushes and two of the 3-arm brushes and a brush cleaner.
You can use it to spot clean an area and it will then get that area and a 3ft radius so as to make sure it has caught everything. If it's just doing a regular clean and you feel it missed somewhere and aren't sure it will come back that way again you can lift it up (it will stop vacuumming) and put it down where it missed a spot and let it clean and carry on.
We have an open plan home we have it vacuum the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallways and it must go over it all several times. It takes about 45 mins. I should also add that we have ceramic tiles, hardwood floors and carpets and we have no stairs in our home. If you really want to see it do a good job try to sit down and stay out of it's way or alternatively move out of it's way when it comes your way.
The virtual walls that come with it work well as we leave baby's door open and use the virtual wall. You just need some C batteries for it.
The cleaning of this machine was what I was dreading but really it's not all that much of a problem. You take out the bin and shake it into the trash can, you take out the brushes and clean them as you would a hairbrush although it does come with a brush cleaning tool if you prefer. All in all (if you're being ridiculously thorough) it takes no more than 5 mins. Wash your hands and you're done vacuumming.
We watched in fascination yesterday as it did it's first clean and really other than a couple of corners that it won't get (because it's round) we were sold. If you're on the fence and can't decide I hope that this review is enough to make the difference.
I know what they say...if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Not the case with the Roomba. Give it a go...
Now, I want to try the scooba!
Customer Review: Hubby got a gold star for this one!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had waxed poetic about my desire for a Roomba but never thought I would ever get one, since I have a hard time spending that much dough on myself. I have a serious clean floor fetish...which means that I spent a lot of time vacuuming. Well, hubby decided to get me this Roomba 560 for a very early Thanksgiving present. I think he had ulterior motives besides wanting to get me something so super-cool (like spending time with him on the couch instead of vacuuming while he tries to watch the game LOL). We immediately named the Roomba Frackin' Toaster (all my BSG peeps will understand) and set him up with a little home by the back door.
So let's get down to brass tacks here. The first couple of times around the brushes needed a lot of attention, but we expected that. I found the little orange brush tool to be very useful in cleaning the brushes out. I wish they made one for my Dyson! Then I wouldn't have to spend so much quality time with the scissors on it. It did a FANTASTIC job of vacuuming up the kitchen floor, especially around the pedestal legs of our kitchen table and the carpeting actually looked better than it does with my regular vacuum. I did notice some Roombarf, but a quick trip to the message boards provided the answer to that and the hairy brushes. The AeroVac upgrade is available which provides a much larger dust bin and puts the vacuum at the brushes resulting in much much cleaner brushes, no Roombarf, and I would imagine no more emptying of the bin mid-cycle (if you have that problem currently). It is another $46 bucks, but considering that we got this baby on sale at a brick and mortar store with a 20% off coupon on top of that we were still ahead of the game. In fact, it's still cheaper than my Dyson was!
As far as the baseboard brush goes, they must have changed it from the previous reviewers models, because our brushes are made of a very flexible rubber material. So far we haven't had any trouble at all with them, but we've only had it for a few weeks.
In a nutshell:
Pros:
Very quiet: It has about as much volume as a fan or bedside noisemaker.
Convenient: You can program this bad boy to go off in the middle of the night or while you're at work or hit the button for a spot clean if you made a mess somewhere.
Quick: I find that the maintenance only takes me about 1 minute in the morning now that Toaster has been on the job for a bit.
Effective: It does a great job on tile and carpet. Toaster even gets around legs, baseboards, and under furniture. If you flip your table chairs up onto the table before you go to bed (if you have it programmed) or before you set it off it's especially effective..just like if you were vacuuming yourself.
Fun: It's really cool to watch it map the room and then do it's thang.
Cons:
It takes Toaster longer to vacuum a room than it would take me, but who cares because I'm not doing it now.
Price: It is expensive, but not as expensive as some high-end vacuum cleaners *cough*Dyson*cough*
Consumables: You do have to replace the filters, although you can prolong their life with a handy-dandy can of compressed air. And like every other rechargeable battery on the planet (and in space), you will eventually have to replace it.
Animals: It may scare shivery little dogs, at least initially (my in-laws' dogs found it disconcerting). My cat just looks at it and moves when Toaster is about to hit him.
Dust bin: The one it comes with works fine, but I wish the AeroVac came standard on it.
So right now Toaster is tied for my favorite toy with my sewing/embroidery machine. It even picked up most of the needles from our fake Christmas tree off the carpet. I will update this review in a few months to give a longer term view but right now I gotta say it's the best $$ we've spent in a long long time. I even used it to vacuum out the back end of our SUV.
Customer Review: We love our Roomba!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a mom with three small children, another due soon, and a small dog. And a nice-sized house. A potentially dangerous combination! It is hard to keep up with all of the stuff that various people track in, drop, and find. So we tried this Roomba one year ago. We affectionately refer to the machine as Bot.
Bot is such a big help and allows me to keep something in this house relatively clean--on the floors at least. It does both carpeted and wood floors, so it means much less sweeping, and since we only have 2 rooms of carpet, we only have a hand vac in addition to Bot. It hasn't been a problem for the past year, and we are happy with what the combination does.
The corners that Bot doesn't get isn't a big deal at all to me. I sweep out the edges of the corners every now and then in a few places where it's tight, but there is a spinning brush that gets into the less tight corners pretty well. I haven't been bothered much at all by it. He doesn't fall down the stairs, but he doesn't sweep them either, so I have to do that--again, not a big deal (and not something I was expecting), but just more general things you'll still have to do.
I love the scheduling function. I set it to go off a 1 AM every day on our main floor, and then do a quick review of the floor to get anything that might get him stuck off the ground (blankets, socks, washcloths, etc.) He does his thing in the dark of the night and returns to his charger so he's ready for more work when we get up. I wake up in the morning to swept floors and empty him out before I take him to do his work for the day. We have a general schedule that gets bedrooms done once a week and the playroom and family room done twice a week, and then the main floor is every day. Plus if I leave the house, I often set him to go while we're gone just because I'm amazed with the dust and dirt he finds every night! He might miss a spot sometimes, but he'll get it the next time, so it works out well. The virtual walls keep him away from where he shouldn't go. He has a dirt sensor to hit the dirtier parts for longer. The first few times I ran him here, he filled up pretty quickly, especially on carpet. Now he can bot til he drops and then I'll empty him out. He's got an air filter, too, and the brushes and filters are easy to replace when needed.
It is a little loud, probably comparable to a regular vacuum cleaner. But we don't wake up from him doing his thing at night, and during the day, we just plan around anything that needs to be done. He's taking care of my room as I type this now!
I'm not sure how long these little machines should last, but Bot seems to be fine after a year despite daily use (often more than once since I run him every night and then usually one or two rooms most days.) And Bot has been ridden on and well loved by the small people in our house--although we try to keep him above the fray. He is even the star of my kids' Rescue Bot stories!
We did have a problem with it a while ago--the brushes stopped turning reliably. I contacted customer service via e-mail (within the 1 year warranty) and they had me try some things, and then sent me out the easy-to-replace part within a few days. The battery was damaged because of how hard it was working to get those brushes going, and after replacing the part, was still running for only about 30 minutes (should be 90). They sent me out a replacement battery and something to update the software--all at no cost to me. Very easy and customer service was great.
Other than that one issue--caused by repeated things getting stuck over the course of the past year, usually socks pulled from under the couch, I think-- we've had no problems. It has been well worth the cost, and if something goes wrong, we will absolutely buy another. They do go on sale periodically, and we find it well worth the price!
We LOVE our Bot!
Customer Review: A Worthy Successor to the Roomba Line
Summary: 5 Stars
We have two Roombas plus a Scooba in our house. When one of the batteries on one of our Roombas finally reached the end of its life cycle, we decided to donate that Roomba to a friend and to get ourselves the new top of the line - the Roomba 560. We got this right when it first came out, but we waited several months before posting a review. It's pretty much impossible to review one of these Roombas after only a few days! It takes weeks if not months to start to see how well they last over time, and what breaks down. Believe me - been there, done that.
So now it's many months later, and I have to say, we are quite pleased with the improvements of this Roomba over the previous generations of Roombas. So first, for those who don't even have ANY Roomba yet (hard to believe!). Roombas are awesome. We have cats, and we work from home so we're home all day. It is AMAZING how much dirt and dust and junk collects in the carpet every single day. Who really has time to vacuum their carpets twice a day any more? With the Roomba, you set the scheduler to do it while you are asleep. You wake up in the morning, the carpets are clean, the air is fresh, and you empty out the dust bin. It is just wonderful.
Even those without pets might be amazed how much lint and such the Roomba will find every morning for you.
I have a noise meter and have done several tests with the noise meter. The Roomba is much quieter than other regular vacuums. It is NOT silent - it can't be! How could it vacuum up dirt and be silent? But it is quieter than the alternatives, and heck, you're sleeping anyway. I can easily sleep through a Roomba running.
Now, on to the improvements of this new Roomba over previous models. First, it has a cool feature where the speed drops when it senses it is approaching a solid object. The old Roomba would just run full tilt into an object - wall, couch etc. - and then turn around. This one slows down so that it hits the object gently. Sure the old Roomba wouldn't dent the walls with its powerful force, but still, it's nice to have it be gentle on furniture and your building.
Next, for better or for worse, the new Roomba is much more aware of when its bin and brushes are getting grungy. I admit I didn't clean my other Roombas as often as I should have. And it led to problems. This new Roomba will actually stop and warn you when it's getting full and when the brushes should be cleaned. If you're a procrastinator like I am, this is a good thing. If you're a clean freak that empties the bin every time, and cleans the brushes every time, then you probably won't even notice this feature.
The anti tangle technology is nice. The previous Roomba would start to eat a cord and just keep going until it was really stuck. This Roomba at least tries to get itself untangled. Still, I don't recommend leaving cords and strings and things lying around. You're just asking for trouble if you do.
The new system uses a "lighthouse" instead of just a wall. With a lighthouse, you mark out a room so the Roomba finishes with that room completely before going on to the next room. They are like section markers. We tend to just use walls, but if you have two large rooms the lighthouse feature might be really helpful for you.
After several months of running we have had NO problems at all with our Roomba. No broken brushes, no falling off pieces, nothing. It is still going strong and we are very pleased with it.
Highly, highly recommended! I am happy to give personal advice and I even have videos of Roombas on my website. I love Roombas, they have saved me countless hours of work, and they make my home a much cleaner and easier-breathing place to be.
Customer Review: I'M IN LOVE!
Summary: 5 Stars
Our old sweeper was seeing her last days. Not only was she aged but had lost her muscle, was stubborn and a real pain in the back to push around. We were in the market. My mother has an older model Roomba that I had never really paid much attention to. That is until the day I went over to clean her floors, no small task. Half-way through vacuuming her house with a Mickey Mouse sweeper, I eyed her Roomba sitting in the corner looking a bit dejected. What the heck, I decided to unleash the little dude for some playtime. Even though I was already halfway through sweeping, I turned the little guy loose. He was running circles around me and devouring everything in his path. I was so impressed, I knew I had to have one.
After extensive looking and research, there he was, gleaming in his black and silver suit, beckoning me to try him out, to take him home. He was dubbed model 560. When he arrived, I had Goosebumps. Here he was, ready to be my right hand man, to help me lead a clean life. Before I could take advantage of the little guy, he had to charge for 16 hours, the longest 16 hours of my life! Finally, it was time and with great excitement he was ready go to work. But wait, how could I expect so much from an object...he had to have a name! I knew it would come to me and it had to be something special so I decided to watch him do his stuff while I savored the pleasant task of picking out a name for him.
I pushed his button, he responded with pleasant musical answers and then off he went, here, there, all over, chugging along. I, on the other hand was unable to do anything else other than watch him, marvel at his agility, his moves, the incredible dedication. He was supposed to be saving me time, letting me get on to other chores but I could not take my eyes off of him. I followed him from room to room, smiling, laughing, and picking him up from time to time to empty his little stomach so full of dirt. I was insane with joy! The floors were clean and I was exhausted from the exhilaration of watching in wonderment. This little guy left nothing uneaten...ah ha!!! His name would be Hannibal Lechter!
Well people, it has been a month and we are still as in love with Hannibal as day one!!! He has made a couple of mistakes, but to err is almost human. Once he became stuck under a low piece of furniture, (I about panicked) and a second time became entangled on a cord hanging from a piece of clothing. This almost cost him a body part and ate some of his rubber on one of his brushes. This injury may result in an earlier replacement than would be necessary. Other than these two things, his maintenance is a breeze. We dump his dust collector, brush out his filters, and always make sure his wheels and beater bar is free of hair. We have become quite accustomed to having him around, almost taking him for granted. At first, I was inclined to turn a light on for him when he was in a darkened room...duh! Now I just turn him loose and let him have his playtime. Just yesterday, I let him stay in the bedroom which is carpeted, shut the doors and went about my other chores. Three hours later, while doing some other tasks, I went back to the bedroom for an unrelated item. Yikes, I had forgotten about Hannibal, but there he was, sound asleep after having cleaned that carpet like it had never been cleaned before. He is amazing; we are in such awe of this little guy! Everyone needs a Roomba, just not for a little help but a whole lot of love. HE IS INCREDIBLE!!!