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: i simply can't live without it!
Summary: 4 Stars
this little gadget just takes off and cleans every inch of carpet that it can reach. the only thing i have to do, is block off any area that i don't want it to clean; not that you can ever have too much clean. I only wish it would charge faster.Customer Review: Good Idea - Needs lots of attention
Summary: 3 Stars
My wife and I have a love hate relationship with "Roomba". We purchased our first 4 years ago and found that it's wonderful for cleaning under some furniture and the beds where other vacs do not easily reach. The initial robot broke after about 18 months and Irobot replaced it free with a newer model, the Sage. This robot lasted about another 18 months when it would not charge the battery, even a new battery and even after I called technical support and learned about holding down the power button. Technical support sold us a new robot for a hundred dollars plus shipping and this time it did charge our new battery. The vac then proceeded to run off the top out our stairs, something the other robots did not do, and broke. Irobot was nice about it and sent us a new robot for free, given that the other one had been used for under an hour and we paid to send them the broken unit back. The new one seems to work fine.
To purchase this vac you really need to want to devote some time to caring for it. It always needs to be emptied and the brushes and under carriage parts need cleaning frequently. This is definitely a high maintainence device. It is not for nothing that there is a roomba users group with considerable technical information and if you search ebay and the web you can find lots of stores selling batteries, some of which you can assemble yourself! They even provide the special screwdriver for the screws used in the battery.
The new robots seem to have fewer problems with dirt affecting the wheel sensors and maybe the treads don't fall apart so easily. So in spite of everything, our "roomba" does get under the difficult to reach parts of our carpeted bedroom - a really good thing
Customer Review: needs another sensor to avoid spinning its wheels
Summary: 3 Stars
The unit works fine, except that it's always getting stuck going from one place to the next such as floor to rug. I have some area carpets that are fairly thick and at the edge I've had to place the tassels under the rug so it won't get caught on them. This makes it a higher step up. So, it gets stuck sometimes and the wheels spin.
The issue of getting stuck always ends in the same way, the wheels spin, the sweeper brush spins (going over the same place until it gives up or finally gets unstuck).
IMO what it needs is a sensor on the little wheel at the front. If this is not turning, then the unit must be stuck somewhere. Then it could do some sort of unstick move, basically try to spin by turning the two wheels in opposing directions to change direction, then try to move. If this does not free it, then it could much more quickly detect it was stuck (and give a trouble signal), instead of thinking it was making a long straight run across a room.
I also think it's a lot of work to clean the roller brushes, and these parts are all plastic which don't appear that they will stand up to much use. I got mine on sale as a "toy" for myself. When it breaks, I'll probably just throw it out. So far it hasn't really saved me much work.
Customer Review: Not so cheap when the battery needs replacing at least once a year
Summary: 3 Stars
There is a lot I love about the roombas - I have two - but the battery life on the 400 series is very short. I am now on my third battery for my Roomba Discovery in just over two years. One more year and I will have spent more on batteries than on the roomba itself. This is a problem not unknown to the Irobot company - they have a page of helpful tips about lengthening battery life, but sadly this seems to be more window dressing than real help - I followed those tips for my second battery, and perhaps got one more week of life from it. My point is - when you buy a roomba, put aside at least $200 more to cover the additional batteries you will need to buy during the lifetime of the product.Customer Review: Disposable vacuum
Summary: 3 Stars
I had one for a year, used it once a week. I loved it, but I can't afford to buy a new roomba every year. Customer service was friendly, but couldn't help my problem. They told me to reset the battery. The issue with the roomba is that dust gets into every piece of the vacuum and eventually causes problems with the circuit board. Both times my Roomba died, it was on the charging station. I wasted $80 for a new battery, but the problem was that this technology has not yet been perfected. I'm so lazy that I might buy another one, but I'd do so knowing that I shouldn't expect it to last more than one year.