iRobot Roomba Silver
by iRobot
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List Price: Our Price: $129.99 You Save: $70.00 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot Roomba Silver
Customer Review: Fabulous!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My household consists of 3 dogs (one of which is a Husky), a toddler, a husband, and myself. As you can imagine my floors can get very dirty very quickly. I bought the Roomba Silver and then found the Roomba with the self-docking feature at another store. I bought the second Roomba with the intention of returning the first one. My husband and I decided to have a "clean-off" to see which Roomba worked the best. They worked so well we kept them both!
Let's start with the cons...
1. The brushes have a removable bushing on one end. If you are not paying attention, it is very easy to loose the bushing when you are cleaning out the Roomba. The brush doesn't work without it. I had to dig through a very smelly trash can to find it one day.
2. If you have pets that shed a lot, you can count on emptying your Roomba after every use. Not a big deal, unless you forget to do it.
3. If you use your Roomba primarily on carpet, you can plan on buying another battery in about 6 months or so, depending on how often you run it. Of the 2 Roombas we purchased, one was used on carpet and the other mainly on hardwoods. The battery in the one used on the carpet died after about a year. The other is still going strong.
Neutral...
1. The self-docking feature is nice, but not absolutely necessary. The Roomba without the docking station occasionally ends its cleaning cycle in inconvenient locations, like under the bed, but it isn't that big of deal.
2. The Roomba is a sweeper and does not have the suction or capacity to clean deep down like an upright. I still break out the upright once a week for a really thorough cleaning. Do not expect to never vacuum again...
Now the pros...
1. The Roomba has a side brush that gets all of the stuff that accumulates where the baseboards and floor meet. In fact it does a better job in getting in that groove than my upright!
2. It goes where the upright can't. I love the fact that it vacuums UNDER the bed and other furniture.
3. The Roomba is "smart". It doesn't fall down the stairs. It can easily go from hardwoods to carpet to tile to throw rugs, etc without getting stuck. If it detects an extra dirty spot it will focus on that area until it is clean.
4. No more pet hair tumbleweeds! When my dogs are shedding during the change of seasons, I run my Roombas every day. I turn them on in the morning right before I leave for work and I come home to a clean floor with no effort on my part.
I absolutely love my Roombas. My friends and family have been so impressed with them they have purchased their own! I have saved so much time it definitely makes them worth the price.
Customer Review: Pet hair on hard floors? This will save your sanity...
Summary: 5 Stars
For copious amounts of pet hair on hardwood floors (cannot comment on carpet as I have none), Roomba Sage has to be the ABSOLUTE BEST BUY I have ever made in my life. Seriously, it did save my sanity. I do not mind vacuuming, it is not my least favorite chore - but EVERY SINGLE DAY? No thanks. I was afraid to spend the money...times are tough right now...will it work....will it be worth it? I decided that I'M worth it. So I took the dive. I never should have worried....
Does Roomba get every single nook and cranny? No. Does it get under every single piece of furniture? No. It DOES, however, get those fur bunnies that accumulate every day. You know, the ones that suddenly appear out of nowhere as soon as you finally get to sit down and watch TV??
Regular vacuuming of extremely hard to reach areas is still necessary, but SO much less often as the bunnies are sucked up before they get there.
I foster pets and currently have three dogs - one being a HUGELY shedding Akita - and five cats. Needless to say, lots of fur, lots of paw dust. I have owned Roomba Sage for only about two months, and have used it every day on a 12'x24' room with no problems whatsoever. No clogs, no breakdowns, etc. (Will re-review in about 1 year regarding longer-term durability.)
It is incredibly quick and easy to clean - less than 5 minutes. Lay out upside down on a sheet of newspaper. I gently use an old comb for wound hairs on the brush. (Don't forget the little wheel in the front - the only part that's a little tricky to get unwound. I use tweezers. And that only about every 4-5 uses.)
None of my animals are "afraid" of it, nor do they step on it. Great Dane jumps around it, Akita actually lets it bounce off of him. (He's so laid-back, God love him.) Kitties lost their curiosity after two days.
Charges quickly! I was so pleasantly surprised with that as I only clean one room at a time, and I let it run entirely out of power with every use.
Cannot comment on the electronic containment accessories - I simply use whatever I have around to block other areas. Move any cords and small items on the floor. (Big deal.)
Only one teeny, tiny downside: It is a bit noisy. So what? It is so well worth it you will not care one iota. Turn up the TV.
At first it's almost hard to do other chores while it's working, cuz you find yourself sitting there watching it work for you. It's a beautiful thing.
So RUN, RUN, RUN - don't walk - and pick up this little gem.
Sounds a little disturbing, but I named mine "Rudy". And I think I'm in love.
Customer Review: Wish I'd bought one sooner
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had my roomba for a week now and absolutely LOVE it to bits. My floors (laminate) are so clean I have not had to mop AT ALL and they are shinier than I have EVER been able to get them (even better than using a water and vinegar solution)! I have used my swiffer mop and broom and been stressed beyond belief at the amount of dirt that comes into our home (we live in the country) from people constantly coming in and out and worrying about my toddler playing on the floor and my baby getting ready to crawl in a few months. I have now said GOODBYE to both my mop and broom, am less stressed from all the cleaning and have more time to spend with my kids. I set trixie to work after my son has breakfast and again when we all go to bed at night and have her clean the various rooms throughout the day (3 bedroom house). She manages to do the whole house everyday with one charge in between cleanings. I do use the virtual walls she came with to close off areas into smaller sections so she does a better job but thus far I have no complaints. The first 2 times she cleaned we had to keep emptying the bin and cleaning the filter because of all the dirt and dust she collected (this is after we had cleaned them ourselves with swiffer broom and mop plus bissell vacuum), but after 2 cleanings of each room the only dirt seen is what is tracked in or food my son drops. I am no longer yelling at my son to keep his filthy feet off my bed and away from the baby (who's usually on the bed at the time) nor am I yelling at hubby for tracking mud and grass in. If he does, he just sets trixie up to spot clean and leaves her there while he comes to say hello to us.
We have been SO impressed with Trixie we actually ordered the dirt dog for outside and a scooba for our bathrooms as these are the only areas of our home that are not being cleaned everyday now and are still dirty (YES YOU NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE). I could put trixie in the bathrooms to clean the floors but I wouldn't want her sucking up even a little bit of water and getting damaged, hence the scooba purchase).
I think maintenance will be key to keeping these guys working (and the parts are a little pricey esp the batteries) but when you consider the cost of having a cleaning service do the job or what your time is worth to you, it's well worth the price and they pay for themselves very quickly after all time is money).
Now if only they could come up with a robot to do the counters and the walls....
Customer Review: My Roomba Rules
Summary: 5 Stars
If I could get them all to sit still, I could count the pets and small children in my house. The pets shed and bring mud in from the back yard. The children seem to drop things as they walk...I don't even know where the stuff comes from that they drop. Their pockets? And why is it always sticky? It's all pretty funny now that I have Roomba vacuum the floors every day. My husband thought this vacuum was silly until he found out how much he could capitalize on having bought me such a perfect gift.
We have hardwood floors and area rugs of different heights and materials. Roomba manages to vacuum rugs and the floors. It's funny that when Roomba finds a rug, it goes in a pattern to find out the rug's size then it cleans the rug before it goes back to its prior operation. I take the brushes and parts out of the bottom whenever I empty it because of the pet hair. It's amazing how well all of this comes apart and goes back together. It's pretty much stupid-proof. The only flaw with the Roomba is how much noise it makes. This may be muffled on carpets.
The Roomba does the daily work, to keep the floors from getting dusty and dirty. It also does yeoman's duty after family parties which I have almost every weekend during the summer. It's nice to be loading the dishwasher and cleaning counters, knowing that my husband is taking out the trash, and Roomba is vacuuming. It makes it much easier and more pleasant to recover from the parties!
The Roomba does not replace vacuuming completely. I bring out my Oreck XL every few days and this rotation works well. Because vacuums only tend to last a year in my house -- even Dysons, the test is whether I would buy another of the same kind. Roomba will be replaced with another Roomba when that day comes.
Customer Review: As Good As Can Be Expected
Summary: 5 Stars
If you read enough of these reviews, you will understand that this cannot entirely replace a standard vacuum. However, for keeping your floors 95% clean in between vacuuming this will work just fine. I only vacuum my house using a standard vacuum cleaner probably once every 3 weeks, so this is a big help in keeping the dust, dirt, and dog hair under control in the mean time. I have been using it on laminate and tile floors, very little on carpet. In my Office I have a very low pile rug and it has no problems with it. However, my family room has a pretty thick wool rug and the Roomba tends to get stuck on it when trying to move from laminate to the rug, or it will bump up against the rug and think it is a wall and bounce off, sometimes getting somewhat "stuck" in a confined area for maybe 10 minutes. So I don't use it too much in the family room, but it works great everywhere else. You do have to be careful about cords laying on the ground, as it can run over them and then drag whatever the cord is attached to. On the upside, it has helped me keep clutter off the floors a little better than I had previously. It does pick up a lot of dirt, much more than I was expecting. I usually just close off the room I want it to vacuum and let it work unsupervised, then come back in an hour to clean out the dust bin and filter and put it back on the charger. If you have a Harmony universal remote, you can program your remote to control this thing, too, kind of like a remote control toy car. It is useful for making it chase the dogs, but not a whole lot else. One thing not specified in the instructions is that you can pause the Roomba while it is cleaning by pressing the "Clean" button on top of it, and pressing that button again will make it resume vacuuming. Overall I'm very satisfied with the purchase.