Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 50
 would be 5 star if it stayed working October 31, 2008
David D. Brown (NH USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This thing is way cool- when it works- which is probably 6 months of the last 13.
Like many others here I have had repeated problems with the side brush falling off- I have replaced the module once and have just ordered another one.
I have also replaced the power supply, the virtual wall, the main brush module- which is not working again as I write, the bushingless gear bearing holes having worn themselves too big for their gears to contact each other. I have just ordered another.
Each of these problems has resulted in a 4-12 week wait for new parts. Routine wear parts such as filters and brushes come with the same delay.
My 15 year old Eureka works perfectly. It has needed a new part every 3-4 years and each time I have found the part I needed in stock at the local vauum store for less than $15.
I purchased my Roomba when I constructed a new home instead of installing a central vacuum system. BIG mistake. If it worked as well as it did the first week I would have rated this 5 stars. As it is would rather have the central vacuum.
 Roomba irobot 530-560 not quite ready for primetime October 29, 2008
mark nw (NW WA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's like a child, what the heck is it going to do next?!? :-) Read on, you'll love the toilet paper unrolling incident.
Requires a lot of maintenance and prep. If you're a gadget freak and a tinkerer, you'll love it. I am, but maintaining it is getting kind of old now after about a year of 560 ownership. It was cool at first, now it's a dirty little high maintenance, unreliable child. I often see it stalled with a red or yellow flashing light, having once again choked on another problem. I hear it's better than the first iteration, but it needs to go back to the drawing board for further improvements.
P r e p a r a t i o n :
House must be cleared meticulously, good luck if you have children or pets. No socks, no shoes with laces, no pet toys or bones, no frilly rugs, no electrical cords, no bowls of water for the pets (it'll dump them and/or push them all around the room dumping them as it goes), no toilet paper touching the floor (it once unreeled a roll of TP until it jammed and stopped working) and no more moving furniture around once it has vacuumed a few times. (Seems to get lost) Will gobble up objects large enough to bind up the beater bars.
M a i n t e n a n c e :
Every 1-2 uses empty the container and clean the filter(s). EASY!
Every 4-5 uses you must inspect and clean all moving parts in the unit, requiring some disassembly. NOT SO EASY!
Main wheels, side sweeper brush, pivot wheel, beater bar(s). Various parts get so loaded up with string and long hair they will not function. Beater bars get felt-like fiber material loaded up in the bearings and will grind to a halt. Pivot roller wheel has often stopped turning due to hair and fibers. You need to listen attentively for a change in the noises it emits to hear that something has quit working. Otherwise it seems like nothing is wrong, but its' cleaning abilities go way down quickly. You also need to watch the side sweeper, it sometimes gets so bound up with hair and stringey things it stops working. Sometimes the irobot just shuts the sidesweeper off, so you have to guess what it's up to now.
Good luck to all the gadget freaks and people that don't mind its' idiosyncracies and cleaning the dirty little bugger, often. I've still got it, it works okay, but I spend a lot of time under the hood.
 irobot performance September 29, 2008
Raymond E. Miller
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
WE PURCHASED THE ROBOT CLEANER AND WE COULDN'T BE HAPPIER WITH THE PERFORMANCE AND WITH THE VENDOR WHO SUPPLIED THE DEVICE. WE NAMED THE ROBOT BERTA AND SHE DOES AN EXCELLENT JOB. SHE JUST CLEANS HER HEART OUT AND NEVER FAILS TO DO A VERY GOOD JOB ON BOTH CARPET AND TILE FLOORS. BERTA CLEANS TWO OR THREE ROOMS BEFOR SHE GOES TO HER STATION AND RECHARGES HER BATTERY, FOR A WELL DESERVED REST. THE BEST PART IS CLEANING HARD TO GET TO SUFACES SUCH AS UNDER BEDS AND SOFAS.
BERTA AND MY WIFE HAVE BECOME THE BEST OF FRIENDS AND I AM SURE SHE WON'T EXPECT A CHRISTMASS GIFT, WHICH IS MORE THAN I CAN SAY FOR THE WIFE.
 Splendid and amusing September 21, 2008
northkona (Kailua-Kona, HI United States)
We are amused! The Roomba 530 really works, although not as fast as you could do the job with a standard vac. The beauty, of course, is that you don't do the work, it does. It cleaned the home office perfectly, in about 30 minutes. Using the virtual walls, it has been assigned the job of cleaning a large Oriental rug, and it does not get hung up on the fringe. It is an amazing thing to watch, much stronger than you might think. Several other reviewers mentioned that after a couple of weeks, they could see that their house was much cleaner, with less dust. I already can tell that that will happen here. Since I work at home, I can turn it on every day and let it work on a specific room. It is astonishing how much dog hair and powdery dirt it vacuums up. In the first hour I emptied the dirt bins twice, so it is definitely doing its job. I bought it after reading the most lengthy reviews here -- those were very helpful. My purchase was mid-Sept. '08, and there was a free extra of a set of replacement attachments. If you can get in on that deal, I recommend it. Besides the extra brushes and filters, the box includes another virtual wall, so you can define work areas and let the little beast loose. The 530 comes with two virtual walls, so with the extra, you can cordon off areas very well. I didnt know it automatically took itself home, but it seems that when it gets full, or runs low on energy, it does take itself back to its Dock, parks, and shuts down for a recharge. Really, it's like having R2D2's cousin in the house. The 530 seems like a good model to start with, and is less expensive than the programmable ones, especially with the free set of replacement parts.
UPDATE: Another good thing about Roombas is that the vacuuming action isnt as harsh as a regular vacuum cleaner, so if you have old & venerable Oriental, silk, or Persian carpets, this is a much, much better way to clean them because it is so much more gentle.
Works fine for what it is September 15, 2008
Michael Vashkevich (Boston, MA USA)
Own 535 model for about a week. Use it every day. Works great so far.
I currently live in a carpeted 3br alone, being out to work 12 hours a day, so this thing is absolutely invaluable for me. I've read all the negative reviews, then bought it. $212.42 at hsn.com, + $34.95 2yr warranty (I guess you'd want it too). No illusions, prepared to spend some money for spare parts in (near?) future. Reviews are discrepant about the iRobot customer service, from "excellent" to "it sucks". I somehow more inclined to believe in the latter, but we'll see.
The thing is FUN to watch (and show to a guest ;o), but it does really good job too, judging from the amount of dust it gathers every time. Of course, have to spend 2 minutes cleaning it after every 2-hour working cycle, which is fair enough, if you ask me. Cut hair from the brushes with scissors. Remove all chairs, shoes, etc, from the room, place the base there, shut the door, then leave for a day. At night, find the room (supposedly) clean, and Roomba charging itself at the base. Cool!
Had to adjust the height of a sofa to let it under. 10 minutes of hard work, but I am a man in the house, am I not? (Remember, no illusions! It's NOT your regular vacuum..).
Have not used the lighthouse yet, the instruction is a mess, bought D-size batteries, but they do not fit, need C-size. But (!!) I found that closed doors work perfectly as well! Otherwise, it works too, but sometimes has trouble returning to the base from another room. Not really a problem, just works till the battery dies, then has to be charged for a few extra hours.
One of my rooms is a loft, and the robot feels pretty comfortable there, has not fallen from the stairs so far. Runs at full speed towards the abyss, then somehow manages to stop on the brink every time. Could not believe it at first, stayed "on belay" for a half an hour, but now feel comfortable leaving it working upstairs unattended (we'll see ;).
For a computer guy, it is really interesting to guess its algorithm from its behavior. My best guess it is completely randomized, with ~60% chance to go at a sharp (~15-20 degrees) angle after hitting an obstacle, and the rest is showing a "smart" behavior following a wall. Resulting in some room areas covered obviously better than others. iRobot says everybody's welcome to play with its programming through some open (?) API, but I did not investigate it yet. Depending on its computational power, it might be possible to apply some state-of-the-art AI algorithms to improve it. At least, make it remember the room configuration...
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