Author Topic: IRobot Roomba  (Read 3238 times)

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IRobot Roomba
« on: December 16, 2015, 02:55:33 PM »
Recently picked up a roomba (870) on sale at Costco. At first I wasn't all that impressed, it would run and leave little uncleaned spots of crumbs. But then I realized our whole main floor is just too big for a single cleaning cycle. It would end up in the bathroom or front door area and spend half is time there before getting back to the kitchen/living room. It came with two virtual walls that I now use to restrict the area and its great. I schedule it to run everyday while we're not home. Our floors look clean all the time and the house overall looks cleaner because of it (I should mention that we basically never cleaned before unless someone was coming over). It's surprising how much dirt it picks up each day, even though the floors look clean. It also had a spot mode that cleans a 1.5m radius while dealing with obstacles. That's nice as I can put it wherever my daughter eats to clean up crumbs and it works its way around table legs or counters.

Overall, there's still lots of room for improvement with floor coverage and navigation, but where it does clean it cleans very well. Pretty pricey (even on sale) but I'm happy with the purchase.

ober

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Re: IRobot Roomba
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2015, 07:54:59 AM »
Thanks for that.  I always wondered how those would work out.  If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay?  We have spent anywhere from 200-450 on a vacuum before so I'd be comparing to that range.

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Re: IRobot Roomba
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2015, 10:42:43 AM »
I *love* my Roomba.  My place is too big for one robot so I have it clean the living area regularly and then move and trigger it manually when I want it to do the back rooms.  Virtual walls and lighthouses are a must to help it, especially if you have large open rooms.  It can get wedged under my cabinet lips so I keep it out of kitchen and just do that part manually.

iRobot's CS is also really damn good.  Not too long after I got it the thing rolled through some soft cat poop (fuck you cats!) and got fried while I was trying to clean it.  They sent me parts to swap out (everything except the main board is user swapable) and eventually sent me a new main unit.  No charges as long as I used their prepaid boxes to return the unit.

It is a great daily maintenance unit.  Only real gotcha is that it can get caught up on some weird things like cords and furniture center stands.  So you do need to think about how to make the area robot friendly.  Also, things like paper and tissue are light enough for it to suck up but too big for it to handle.  So you'll see tissue wrapped around a roller, pieces of paper with chewed up corners, etc.  Also, if you have pets you do have to go dehair the unit from time to time.  It is super simple, just pop off the front wheel remove the hair and pop it back on, and then open the roller assembly and do the same for the rollers.

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Re: IRobot Roomba
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2015, 03:17:18 PM »
I paid $550 CDN on sale from $650. That's probably in the 450 - 500 range in the US. There are cheaper versions with fewer features (eg, no scheduling our virtual walls)

The one I have has a "new" vacuum system that is supposed to get less stuff stuck in it. AeroForce instead of the older AetVac if I remember correctly. So far I haven't had any problems with things getting stuck.

It fits under my kitchen cabinets fine which is good cause that's the main place I use it. It has got stuck a couple of times. Once it knocked over a broom then got stuck on to of it (maybe out of spite?). Once in was half coming off a play mat and got wedged under a storage bench. But overall it makes out quite well.

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Re: IRobot Roomba
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2015, 03:20:19 PM »
I should also mention that I've only run it once upstairs where we have carpet. It cleaned really well but it pulled up a lot of carpet fibers. I'd be a little worried about running it on carpet really often, I don't know if it would wear out the carpet... On the other hand maybe there were just lots of loose fibers and it won't pick as many up on a second run.