Customer reviews from store.irobot.com
iRobot - Roomba Bagless Robotic Vacuum Cleaner - Black/Silver
Average customer rating
4.2
(436 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 436 reviews
5 Stars
223
4 Stars
147
3 Stars
34
2 Stars
15
1 Star
17
90%of customers recommend this product.
(
378 out of
422)
Customer Reviews for iRobot - Roomba Bagless Robotic Vacuum Cleaner - Black/Silver
Customer Rating
4
Good But Not Perfect
on December 30, 2011
Posted by: Josh
from Saint Petersburg, FL
If you think all you have to do is buy a Roomba and your floors will be clean with no effort from you, save your money. This product works very well when you follow a few simple steps every time you use it. First, prep the area. While Roomba can deal with a lot of obstacles, there are a few things that are sure to cause problems. Shoe strings, cords, throw-rug tassels and openings just slightly wider than the robots body. Often, Roomba will free itself from these problems but a lot of battery is wasted doing so. Second, clean Roomba regularly. It honestly takes me 2-3 minutes a day. If every time the vacuum finishes, you empty the bin and remove any hair and string that winds on the brushes, you will have years of repair-free operation. Ignore it and that paperclip Roomba found under the desk is going to end up causing a problem. Third, open or close doors fully. A charged Roomba is strong and will readily close doors trapping it's self in closets or bathrooms. Fourth, and likely the most important - CHARGE THE BATTERY FULLY THE FIRST TIME BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING. It's natural to want to see the robot work but by doing so, you've drastically shortened the battery life. Almost as important is to let Roomba run until dead every time and cool down before recharging. It's okay to use a charging base and have Roomba scheduled to go out at a certain time but pick the base up so the vacuum can't find it when the battery pack begins to drain. The battery that comes in the robot is a NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) battery and is susceptible to "memory effect". Over time, the battery will think it is dead when it isn't due to higher and higher "bottoms" being set. Letting Roomba run until it dies each time and once in a while (monthly or so) letting it sit dead for a couple days, will help prolong the battery life. When my original iRobot battery was new, it would run for 52 minutes on 80% carpet and 20% floors. It failed after ~13 months. BUY AN AFTERMARKET BATTERY when your original battery fails. They cost half as much for stronger batteries. My aftermarket battery is rated at 3500 Mah and runs for ~70 minutes even after 2 years of use. When new, it ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes and cost me $35 online. Do your research and buy replacement parts from other then iRobot - they overcharge drastically. However, be careful when purchasing the actual robot, iRobot will not honor the warrantee for robots not purchased from authorized dealers. It still may be worth it - it was for me.
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient, Gets Hard To Reach Spots, Modular Design, Set and forget
Cons: Factory Battery, Needs Regular Cleaning, Noisy, Parts Are Expensive
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
4
Great time saver occasionally gets stuck
on August 12, 2010
Posted by: slam_to
from Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I've had my Roomba for about 2 years, and it's quite convient to have. I don't have to manually vaccum the carpet for months at a time. Over the two years, there have been a few quirks. Occasionally it does get stuck on low lying objects (ie. 1/2" high) such as the base of my speaker stands, or the rear support of an armchair. One of the wheels will get stuck and be unable to move. A few times I'll have to come home and pick it up get it out of it's jam. The front bumpers do leave a bit of a mark eventually after years of use on furniture. A static charge builds up on the front bumper and will transfer dust to some walls and stairs. I ended up taping some foam padding to prevent this.
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient, Lightweight
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
5
It vaccumes, I don't
on January 25, 2010
Posted by: Ed
from MA
Verified Purchase:No
The only thing it's lacking is a method of locating it once it gets stuck/full and is nowhere to be found. I tend to release our Roomba, Stanley, while I go out on errands, but when I come back, he's not in the charger, and I can't hear him anywhere, chances are he got something caught in his brushes... but I have trouble finding him. It would be nice to have a way of making him make a noise remotely. Perhaps a "locate" button on his dock or remote that would make him chirp on command, so I could go find him quicker and set him back to work.
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient
Cons: Heavy
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
3
Within its limitations, it can be useful
on February 21, 2009
Posted by: Corey
from Tulsa, OK
We have an uneven ceramic tile floor with fairly wide grout/mortar lines and the Roomba handles that well. It gets stuck or lost about 80% of the time it cleans, so part of the afternoon activity is to find the lost robot. This does provide a few minutes of entertainment for our 3 year old with a flashlight. :-)Where it cleans it does a pretty good job and for it to clean for about 1-1.5 hours means about 5-10 minutes of changing and cleaning the Roomba, brushes, bins and bristles, with more involved cleaning (~20 minutes) every couple of weeks.It is really more of a sweeper than a vacuum. It seems to vacuum on smooth floors as there is just not enough power for much more than lightly sweeping carpet. It does do a great job of picking up people and pet hair, whether it ends up in the bins or wrapped around the brushes to be picked/removed manually, it is certainly not on the floor anymore. The brush cleaner shipped with the unit is not very useful, IMHO. I use a stainless steel pet/animal comb for cleaning the brushes. It works MUCH better when cleaning the hair/strings/fuzz from the bristles mostly because you can clean from the direction where you have better access to the bristles. I am not sure when the supplied brush would be useful. So far it hasn't been...The Roomba is not a fan of dense carpet at all and in the living room we have an area rug about 10' x 12' that gives it fits. There is too much friction for the Roomba to navigate when it gets on the rug so it wastes a lot of time and battery charge thrashing start/stop/start/stop/turn/turn/start/stop about on the margins of the rug. This rug is in the middle of the room and so it would take at least three or four lighthouse/wall units to attempt to create a barricade for it to avoid the rug entirely. It is not a deep pile rug in any way, but the rubber pads on the bottom of the Roomba case near the battery seem to be acting like a brake. (maybe by design?) Anyway we have another rug that is a short shag that does not bother the robot nearly so much. It does drag the motor down and so drain the battery much more quickly. It dies on that rug, under the bed pretty fast if it hits the legs very often getting back out. Putting down a UV visible line on the floor to keep it away from similar obstacles seems like a better plan than buying 7 or 8 lighthouses that end up costing more than the Roomba..The Roomba really does not like our floor receptacle and gets high centered rather often if there are cords using the outlet. I will try re-wiring our lamp cords to use low profile plugs to see if that helps. Under the furniture, taping down the electric cords and phone cords with clear packaging tape keeps the Roomba from getting tangled up and doesn't tie up another lighthouse on permanent duty.The ability to clean under furniture is great and probably my favorite feature, though it does get lost under beds quite frequently.The navigation and obstacle avoidance algorithm seems too simplistic and not very adaptable. If there are chairs or tables where two legs are spaced too closely for the robot to enter/exit, but two legs are not, they become frequent Roomba nets and trap the poor fellow.Navigation also has issues with obstacle of certain shapes where it will give up too soon and miss the exits by repeating the exact same pattern of behavior. It seems to need a few more navigation options when running into obstacles.The battery pack should be a quick change design so that when we find the lost robot we can swap batteries and send it on its way again instead of waiting 3 more hours. Removing the base plate and changing batteries when we have no way to recharge them outside of the Robot is a poor design. You also must then reset the clock and reprogram all of the schedules.It is very loud when operating.I agree that in the beginning it saves no time at all because watching it navigate and clean the house is so much fun. :-) That is good for a few hours of enjoyment the first week.The 6-arm brush for cleaning corners is very fragile and our first one began losing arms the first couple of days (ours came packaged sort of wadded up and rubber/vinyl fatigue was probably worse). The replacement parts are fairly expensive and last only a few weeks. Costs are about 3X what our other vacuums run as far as consumables go after about 2 months of use.The return to dock feature only works in some cases. Many times it does not work when you have to pick up the robot to remove the tissue, cloth or errant toy from the brushes. It also has what appears to be a software bug where it can be sitting directly in front of the dock and if you push the Dock button it will spin around in a circle looking for the dock (that it can obviously see) and never dock. If you plug it in directly to the power supply for a couple of seconds or manually place it in the dock until the lights flash/fade, and then attempt again it will work fine most of the time. If not, then removing the base plate and the battery for a minute or so will restore it to normal docking behavior. You also must then reset the clock and reprogram all of the schedules again.[...] They also told me I should be turning off all my fluorescent lights in the rooms when Roomba was nearby because they might confuse the sensors, and that all of their recommendations for things they suggested were online. (which I could not find in searches and they could not provide any links to.)Overall, if you have tile, linoleum, hardwood, etc... and few obstacles as well as plenty of the lighthouse modules to help it find its way back home, it works well and can be a very good if rather expensive timesaver. If you have a single room like this, then it will probably do an excellent job. The more complex the environment, the more trouble we seem to experience.I would recommend this unit but only with lots and lots of reservations.
Pros: Cleans Under Furniture, Good for simple floorplan, Good for small areas, Timer helps avoid noise
Cons: Can Get Stuck, Can't swap battery easily, Consumables are expensive, Frequent Maintenance, Frequently gets lost, Frequently gets stuck, Lighthouse is expensive, Loses Charge Quickly, Loud Operation, Navigation needs work, Poor carpet cleaning, Slow to recharge
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
5
Great little robot
on May 21, 2012
Posted by: Louie
from Taylor, MI
I've had my 560 for almost three months now and it is a wonderful machine. After the first week, it picked a lot of dirt. I've heard some complaints about having to empty the bin, but I think it comes with not understanding that the robot is cleaning every day (if set) and that it will eventually reach a point that it will pick up dirt and dust over a daily period. This equals to the bin having less debris than the first week of cleaning. I have a dog who sheds and the 560 removes the dog hair daily. I notice no more dust and hair accumulation along my baseboards, especially on the hardwood floor in my kitchen. Okay...so the 560 does get stuck occasionally, but those instances are far fewer than those where it reaches its docking station. It's no hassle for me to simply pick it up and put it back on it's charging station. I understand technology and that it evolves. Compared to the positives that the 560 has given me, I easily overlook the negatives.
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient, Lightweight, Powerful/Good Suction
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
1
Love-Hate Relationship
on November 15, 2011
Posted by: Deanna
from DC Metro
This is the fourth or fifth Roomba I've owned in almost a decade. And therein lies the problem. I have never had a Roomba that has survived more than 18 months. They all break. When I saw the new module design for the 560, I was excited - sure this would help keep my Roomba alive longer! Within the first 12 months I has to replace three different modules. Then, 13 months after I purchased my Roomba, a non-replaceable part broke. So off it went to my Roomba graveyard. I love these robots! When they work there's nothing better. But I'm sick of buying a new one every year.
Pros: Easy To Use, Efficient, Lightweight
Cons: Unreliable
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
4
I love Bruce (my Roomba)
on August 5, 2010
Posted by: DLTripp
from Tempe, AZ
I love my Roomba!I wanted the 562 Pet Series, but none of the retailers in my area had it in stock. So, I bought the 560 model at Fry's Electronics - which was a steal at [$], new (not remanufactured). Then, I simply ordered a High Capacity Sweeper Bin from iRobot.com. (It came with the Vacuuming Debris Bin.)It does seem to need pretty frequent brush and filter cleaning, but I have three cats and a dog, and I live in the dusty, desert Southwest, so I don't think that's surprising. Also, I actually kinda like sitting down to work on it; certainly WAY more than I like changing my big upright's bag and filters. Ugh!If I were going to suggest an improvement, it would be to put two cleaning tools ON-BOARD: 1. The brush cleaning attachment that comes with the unit, and 2. A combination Phillips-head screwdriver (for removing the Sidebrush) and pick (for nudging debris out of tight areas).
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient, Lightweight
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com
Customer Rating
5
Best Robot
on April 6, 2012
Posted by: Technology Dude
from Arcadia, Ca
The robot is very good to use. It's very efficent and fast working. Every hour's clean a gigantic Dust Bunnie hops out from the bin!
Pros: Easy To Empty, Easy To Use, Efficient, Fast, Lightweight, Long Power Cord, Powerful/Good Suction
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting store.irobot.com