I call mine 'Monica'. Check out my roomba-cam!
Written: Jan 23 '03
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Pros: Easy to use, vacuums very well with no effort, great price
Cons: Doesn't do stairs/baseboards, frequent emptying, can leave dirt when moving from tile to carpet
The Bottom Line: Although it doesn't replace a regular vacuum cleaner, this robot guarantees a cleaner house with little effort at a good price
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| isewell's Full Review: iRobot Roomba Robotic Vacuum |
What other vacuum cleaner has an internet fan club message board? I love my Roomba! I've been using it for about a week now and it's everything I had hoped for. I truly feel this is a useful product, at a great price point for it's features. iRobot obviously did it's market research well.
I strapped a digital camera on it and created the first ever "roomba-cam". Check it out at ianandwendy.com/roomba.htm
In this review I will talk about the problems with the robot, how it cleans, "carpet art", the "virtual wall unit", how to prepare an area for the Roomba, where to buy it, battery and recharging issues, hacking possibilities, and iRobot's support. In addition, I will address concerns with damage to furniture or carpets, and also give some 'usage tips' from my experience so far with it.
I always update my reviews, so if you ask to be notified of the comments on this review, I will update it as my experience with this product changes.
The most annoying problems
Let's get the negative out of the way with first and talk about the problems with this robot.
After every use, it is necessary to clean and empty about three different bins/filters on the unit. They are easy to clean, but it takes a minute or two, and I usually find myself breathing in clouds of dust as I do it, as it is bagless. It's not a bad idea to empty it outside directly into a garbage can. For those with severe allergies to dust, this could be a problem.
The cleaning performance is very good, but I've noticed that it tends to leave dirt in transition areas - i.e. when it goes from carpet to tile or wood floor. This is probably made better by cleaning it more frequently as described above.
I've heard a lot of people complain about having to frequently recharge the unit and express a desire for a Roomba that could automatically recharge itself in, but this just isn't really realistic at this price point. It's really not a big problem - it's easy just to get into a pattern of recharging it overnight and letting it loose on a room in the morning as you go to work.
It's hardly a big problem, but it is a little loud. It's not something you want running when you're trying to have a quiet evening. But it is a vacuum cleaner, after all! It's
not as loud as a normal canister vac.
I wish there was a button to have Roomba run until it drains its battery. The 'large room' setting will not drain the battery, and I'd like to just be able to leave it until it runs out of juice.
Finally, this is not a replacement to your normal vacuum cleaner. It won't do baseboards or stairs. In addition, although it does a very good job with corners, it's not perfect. I've thought about buying a little handheld cordless vacuum to finish the job and corners it misses and can't get into.
Cleaning Performance
I've been very impressed with the cleaning performance. At times it's frustrating watching it skip over the same debris over and over again, but it will eventually get it all. In the kitchen, I've found that anything that is sticky will not get picked up (no surprise). It will sometimes miss corners, or not do a great job with them, despite it's spinning side-brush which swipes dirt under the unit to be cleaned up.
It does a great job with long hair - sure, some of it does get caught up in the brushes/carpet beater, but surprisingly little. We don't have any pets, but people have reported that it deals with pet hair very well.
There are some areas that it will not be able to get into - like beside the toilet, or between the furniture and a wall. You will quickly get to know those areas, and have to vacuum them by hand.
How it Cleans
Starting up the Roomba is very simple. You turn it on, and select the 'size' of room you want it to clean.
The cleaning algorithm is a mixture of spirals, wall or object following, and just going straight until it hits something, and then bouncing off in a perpendicular manner. It does not try to map out the room. The combination of these techniques, however, works very well. it can be frustrating to watch at times, as it keeps just missing that one piece of dirt, but it will eventually get there.
It uses the bumper sensors, as well as an infared beam on the right hand side of the bumper so it can follow walls and objects precisely to it's right. It will also sometimes follow walls to it's left (usually when it's coming out of being "stuck"), but since it has no sensor, it goes forward a little, turns left and bangs against the wall, then goes forward again and repeats. It's pretty amusing to watch.
Carpet Art
Sorry, I had to put this in it's own section. If you have deep pile carpet, you will be rewarded with pleasant "carpet art" after Roomba is done. Because of its multiple algorithms for cleaning the room, it leaves strange patterns on your carpet from where it vacuumed. I like to call this "carpet art", and it can look quite pretty. :) I'm just waiting for a fan website to spring up where people submit their best Roomba-created carpet art. It's only a matter of time!
Hacking Possibilities
When I bought the Roomba, I thought it was begging to be reverse-engineered and hacked. I was right. Roomba mod web sites are beginning to appear: http://www.10k.org/jake/mod/roomba/index.html . I'm sure we'll see more in the future, as the fan base grows, like Tivo's did. It remains to be seen how iRobot reacts to such hacking attempts. Imagine being able to flash a new ROM with your own carpet cleaning algortihms.. Sort of like an open source Roomba. I can keep dreaming.
Virtual Wall Unit
The unit ships with a virtual wall unit. This little D-Cell battery powered devices (batteries not included!) shoots an invisible infared beam in a sort of thin triangle across the room, and creates a virtual wall. You can use this to restrict the Roomba to one area, without creating tripping hazards all over your house.
Although I have not heard of other people complaining about this, I have noticed that this doesn't always work too well. The power button is extremely sensitive, and it is easy to turn off by accident. I'm not sure if I have a faulty unit. I will update this review once I have more experience with this.
Risks to furniture / carpet
We have a lot of new furniture in the house and were initially concerned it would scratch it up, as it walks around and bangs into things. This has not been our experience at all, and nor have I read anyone anywhere complaining about damage or risks to furniture. It doesn't have rubber bumpers, but they are plastic and really stop very quickly and aren't forceful. We didn't realize just how lightly it taps the things it runs into until I let it run into my foot. It was not forceful at all, but it did tickle when it rotated and the side brush tried to sweep my foot under the unit. :)
We were initially concerned that the Roomba might eventually start scuffing up our berber carpet. Our carpet came with a warning from the installer not to use a carpet beater on it - and this is sort of what Roomba has (although obviously it's not as powerful as a direct powered carpet beater). To test this, we set up Roomba in a little 'pen' with a spare patch of carpet we had. We let it run for several hours, over and over again, on the same little patch. We then looked at the carpet, and there was no evidence of scuffing or wear.
Preparing the Area
The preparations that are necessary before you set it free in an area are not that different from the preparations necessary for normal vacuuming. Pick up any cords on the floor, any objects, etc. In the kitchen, depending on the width of your chair legs, it may or may not be necessary to move them. Usually, just pulling them out will help, as this will allow your little personal servant to vacuum around them easier.
I found it necessary to pick up some of the drapes we have that puddle a little bit on the floor. We found that the Roomba would drive over them and try to suck them up. It may also be necerssary to move any rugs with tassles (the manual claims that tucking the tassles under will solve it, but this is not our experience, as it manages to free the tassles). If it ever does get stuck, it will try to free itself, and if it can't, it just starts beeping a cry for help.
It does a very good job escaping from corners or uneven surfaces it might get stuck in. For example, it will often drive into the track that our sliding door runs in, but it does manage to back out and move on.
Battery
The roomba comes with a big NiMH battery. My first thought was that the battery would quickly develop a memory, the charge would be less and less, and eventually it would stop altogether. This is apparently not the case, however. iRobot claims that (unlike a lot of other rechargers) the Roomba recharges the battery very carefully, and conditions it at the same time. The whole process takes about 12 hours. It does not over-charge it. They say that the battery should last forever, although you can buy extra batteries and a quick-charger.
I have found that I get about 1.5 hours of charge out of it - slightly more then they claim. I'm guessing it varies depending on the pile depth of your carpet.
Usage Tips
Here's a few tips I've learned so far.
There is a slider on the bumper that you can use to adjust the "wall following distance". I have slid this so it is as close to the wall as possible. I have found this helps it to clean corners.
Sometimes one virtual wall unit isn't enough. To add additional walls, try laying a chair on it's side, or even putting it at an angle so Roomba can't get through.
Always watch Roomba the first time you run it in a room. This way you will see if it's going to get stuck on anything or suck anything up. You can then put barriers around those areas.
Manual and Support
The manual is very good - it's very readable, and at times humourous. They have obviously tried very hard to make it as "non-geeky" as possible. It's a short read, and really reads like a friend telling you about the product and things you should know and be careful about.
The support from iRobots is very good. There is a 1800 technical help phone number that is answered right away. The CSR was very helpful and knowledgeable. In addition, there are support options on the internet. The Roomba chat users group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roomba-users/) is frequently visited by a "community liaison" from iRobots, who fields questions and listens to improvements. If you buy it from a B&M store and have problems, they will just replace your unit. If you buy online, you might have downtime for warranty repairs until they send you a new unit.
Where to buy it
The Roomba is available from Hammacher Schlemmer, Brookstone, Sharper Image, and through an infomercial on TV. The price is always ~$200 . There are coupons available for Hammacher, Brookstone and Sharper Image that will help eliminate most of the cost of shipping (also try buying it through www.ebates.com) . If you have any of these stores in your area though, it's best to buy it locally - this will also help with any warranty issues you might have - or if you're not happy with it, you can bring it back. But I've yet to hear of anyone who did this! Roomba is very quickly addictive!
The three stores mentioned above all have "lifetime warranties" on the products they sell with "normal use". I have no experience with these warranties, but they might offer some recourse if it breaks a few years from now.
Conclusions
I am very happy with my Roomba. Although it's a version 1.0 product, they have done a great job working out the bugs and creating a usable, helpful robot. I hope we see more iRobots in the future.
Don't be scared off just because it's on an infomercial!
Thanks for reading.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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Epinions.com ID:
isewell
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Member: Ian Sewell
Location: Santa Rosa
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 19 members
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