=>>> READ MORE!!! iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac Robotic Vacuum
Vacuum & Floor Care 5
Customer Reviews
3.9 out of 5 stars
(270)
3.9 out of 5 stars
5 star
133
4 star
59
3 star
21
2 star
20
1 star
37
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“Cleaning/Vacuum: Very Good: Picks up dirt/hair your regular vacuum cleaner misses. ”
“It can also go around chairs and furniture pretty easily. ”
“I loved my roomba while it worked, which was only 2 months. ”
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1,001 of 1,003 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsThings you might want to know before (or after) buyingJune 11, 2003
By J. Olshefsky
Update: after about 2 years of varying use (sometimes 5 times in a month, sometimes once in 5 months) the battery is pretty much dead. The unit will run for about 10 minutes and then die, even if it's freshly charged.-----I've had my Roomba for a few weeks now and I generally like it a lot. I hate vacuuming, or cleaning in general. I tend to avoid being messy, but dust and lint tend to collect no matter how diligent I am. I got a Roomba because I've got 6 rooms with wood floors and it has made my house a cleaner place. Here's some observations:- When you first open the box, the corner sweeper is covered by a piece of cardboard. This is tricky to get off without breaking the corner sweeper, so don't just rip it out.- It's about as loud as a blowdryer on the "low" setting, or an empty blender on slow speed (remember that it's on the floor, not next to your head, so it seems quieter.) You can talk normally over it, but it's loud enough that you'll probably want to be in another room. It's certainly not as loud as a regular vacuum cleaner.- The dustbin is somewhat messy to empty. That is, you're hands _will_ get dust on them and you have to be very careful to avoid spilling any when you pull it out. Also, if you don't push it in all the way it will fall out partway through the next cleaning--you've got to push it in so the curvature of the Roomba is uniform ... it also won't pull out unless you push the button.- The dustbin also has two compartments: one for the "swept" dust and one for the vacuumed dust. You've got to unclip the filter to get to the vacuumed dust bin.- Since the sensors work on infrared, it works better in the dark or in shadows rather than bright sunlight. I had mine stop after going too far over some steps because the sun was shining on the floor and it couldn't tell the steps were there. It didn't actually go over, it just automatically stopped and played it's "help me" tune. In general, sunlight will make it less effective.- It comes with one "virtual wall" which is just a battery powered infrared emitter. It seems to spread the beam out further than I'd like, so I'm finding myself placing it several inches outside a door to make the Roomba go all the way to the thresshold of the entryway. It's also sensitive to height--the virtual wall emits right at the level of the sensor on the Roomba, so the virtual door can't be placed more than a carpets-height (0.25" or 0.5cm) higher or lower than the Roomba.- iRobot suggests that you can tuck fringe under a carpet and the Roomba will go over it. I found it managed to suck the fringe back out and get it wound around the brushes underneath. I had to remove the area rug. It also has trouble with corners of an area rug even if it doesn't have fringe if the corners stick up more than about a quarter inch (0.5cm.)- It's really quite small. It was able to go under the refrigerator door (I could even open it and it barely cleared the top of the Roomba.) It can also go around chairs and furniture pretty easily. Although it's just a little narrower than the head on a regular vacuum, it can turn in ways that would be impossible with a rigid hose attached, so the Roomba gets in places you wouldn't already think of.- I have a couch whose bottom was ravaged by cats in the past, and the Roomba will get caught on the hanging fabric. I use the virtual wall to keep it out from under the couch.- It tends to miss corners, leaving a crescent of dust that is about half an inch (1cm) wide. It does run right up against walls, though, but it will miss going under low doorstops.- In general it seems to cover the whole floor ... you can tell it it's in the next size bigger room and it will run for longer, picking up more areas (I think that's all the room size buttons do--change the amount of time it runs.)- It's "artificial intelligence" is pretty good. It seems to run in 4 modes: spiral out, go in a random direction straight, follow walls, and zig-zag to cover a floor. At first it looks like it's just a bump-and-go kind of thing, but it doesn't get stuck in corners like a bump-and-go car would. If you watch it, you'll want to tell it to go to a particular area, but somehow it seems to always make it to that area at some point. Its pattern seems random and ineffective, but it does seem to get most of the stuff off the floor.- The bumping action is very gentle. You can get it to turn around by letting it bump into one finger. If you put an empty pint glass on the floor, odds are it won't knock it over, but it probably eventually will.- It's very good about not going down stairs. Mine hasn't fallen yet. The one time it almost did was when the sun was lighting the stair below and it couldn't "see" the edge so it got one wheel partly over and shut down.- You can use it in very small areas if you want. I put mine on a 4-foot by 4-foot landing (130cm square) and it worked fine.- You can't have clutter. As others have said, it'll suck up phone cords and papers. So far I've "Roomba-safed" 4 rooms. In the bathroom, for instance, I have to move the climbing plant on the floor and remove the bathmats. I tend to like having things off the floor anyway, and this has helped me have a reason to keep things tidy.- I was happy to have it go under the bed and get all the dust bunnies. The first time I had to empty the dustbin several times at first until it got it partly clean.
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