iRobot Roombas

[kenny]

Does anyone here have a roomba? Just curious to how well it works. I want one just to keep the floors clean in between my actual vacuuming and mopping. The strong canadian dollar is causing this impulse purchase :rofl:

[Majestic12]

I have one and I love it.
The one bad thing about it is it catches cords and wires, and sometimes rug frilling. So if you want to use it, you have to keep your stuff off the floor.

[kenny]

which model do you have?

[szw]

These are great. As said, you gotta keep cords and stuff off your floor which is a good habit anyways.

Also got a SCOOBA which is a wet one that works well too.

[kenny]

Man I looked at the Scooba too... would be weird have two little robots roaming around the house though lol

[Altezza]

My brother has two of them. His wife loves them since she doesn't have to clean up after the kids.

[soupey]

ive got mostly hardwood floors and possibly getting a thicker rug or two, will this thing be able to get over the edges between the rug+hardwood?

[Kritafo]

I have 2 of vacuums and the scooba, the older red one and the new one, the scooba was bought last Christmas. Bought an extra virtual wall. I have had very few problems with it not docking (new one) We run one upstairs and one downstairs.

Wouldn't live without them. I program them to run when I am gone, I have worked out all the little things such as picking up my throw rugs so it doesn't suck up the fringes etc.
shoe laces etc. We do run the new one on the Berber in the living room, it's a little slow but it amazes me every time. I clean it out.

Run mine every day if not twice, 2 kids and a dog.

Run the scooba every other night in the kitchen dining area, and yes it does transition over our hardwood to the Berber with no problem

[Fafa]

Ye i have the Roomba and it kicks ass.. i just stick it in a different room in the house every day and just keep rotating through. Keeps the place looking good and i dont hafta do anything... never heard of the Scooba tho, sounds pretty sweet... where can you pick one of those up from?

[SilverGS]

Have the Roomba from Costco. That thing is awesome. I may get a SCOOBA as well.

I have Hardwood and thicker carpet and it is usually fine in going from one to the other. Sometimes it does get to the carpet and then turn around because it can't quite make it but that only happens 10% of the time or so and it just keeps going the other way like it hit a wall or something.

Keep rugs and what not off the floor. Occasionally it may wedge itself under a couch or something if the couch is just the right height

[megavolt]

I tried one like 2 or 3 years ago (when they first came out) and turned out my carpet was too thick for it. Has the design changed at all since it was released?

[SunniSunShine]

these little things can get mighty expensive it seems

[codetrap]

How does the dog react to it?

[Ripper]

Ordered myself a roomba 560 today :thumbsup:

[Boost Infested]

works great! i like it!

[kenny]

My Roomba 560 arrived today so I tested it out... I love it! This thing maneuvers around objects pretty well, and slows down as it approaches an object so it doesn't bump it as hard.

When it detects an extra dirty area, it spins around and does a quick spot clean and then resumes the regular cleaning. For the main floor which is where my dog runs around the most, it took about 35-40 minutes or so to finish and return to the charging station.

I emptied the dust bin, and the thing was loaded with dog hair haha... I was lazy tho and haven't vacuumed in about 4 - 5 days :D

I highly recommend this thing to everyone! :thumbsup:

[4DoorGTZ]

So a throw rug ontop of carpet is a no go? How about throw rugs in like the entryway ontop of tile/linoleum?

Other then Costco, anyone know of another local place that carries these? I guess there's always online.

[benyl]

Originally posted by kenny
My Roomba 560 arrived today so I tested it out... I love it! This thing maneuvers around objects pretty well, and slows down as it approaches an object so it doesn't bump it as hard.

When it detects an extra dirty area, it spins around and does a quick spot clean and then resumes the regular cleaning. For the main floor which is where my dog runs around the most, it took about 35-40 minutes or so to finish and return to the charging station.

I emptied the dust bin, and the thing was loaded with dog hair haha... I was lazy tho and haven't vacuumed in about 4 - 5 days :D

I highly recommend this thing to everyone! :thumbsup:

Does it know when it is about to fall down a flight of stairs? Or do you have to use a virtual wall? How well does it clean hardwood (or do you have hardwood)?

[SunniSunShine]

on the website it says it has stair detection but the techonology depends on how good of a model you get, haha it would be funny if it fell down the stairs and landed on its back, it would look like a turtle on its shell

[benyl]

Roomba 415 is $169 @ dell. Today only:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&cs=cabsdt1&l=en&sku=A1304568

[kenny]

Originally posted by benyl


Does it know when it is about to fall down a flight of stairs? Or do you have to use a virtual wall? How well does it clean hardwood (or do you have hardwood)?

It has a "cliff detector" so it wont plunge down a flight of stairs but I haven't tested it. I got the Roomba to keep the main floor clean in between my actual cleanings. The Roomba (560 anyway) comes with 2 virtual walls/lighthouses but I'm not using either of them yet.

My floor is polished concrete so dust / dog hair show up pretty quickly and the Roomba was great, pretty much as if I swept it all up myself. I would assume hardwood would be the same.

[SilverGS]

I would imagine if your rug doesn't have and loose threads at the end or corners that can get caught in a vaccum it may be okay. Stiffer rugs would probably be fine. The rug has a problem with is then and moves a lot so the corners get vacuumed up into the roomba and it stops because it gets stuck

[benyl]

anybody know what model of Roomba Costco is selling? Nothing on costco.ca

[speedracer]

Originally posted by benyl
anybody know what model of Roomba Costco is selling? Nothing on costco.ca

I thought costco had the Koolvac which is a copy??

[boi-alien]

Originally posted by benyl
anybody know what model of Roomba Costco is selling? Nothing on costco.ca I think they're sold out at costco, I was going to pick one up there, but I ended up buying online from the US.

[Kritafo]

Costco didn't have any left when I was there on Wednesday because I was looking to see the model and price for a family member.

[SunniSunShine]

umm with that Dell Deal, it doesnt really say what it comes with, will it come with the charging station and stuff?... i really want one now haha

[Kritafo]

I would assume it comes with the charger if you click on more product details it says 2 virtual walls and talks about the APS battery charger....it's a great deal...I with I would have got my second one for such a great deal.

[MikeHL]

fyi there are on sale @ dell just for today
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/days_of_deals?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs

[4DoorGTZ]

Just ordered one from Dell, nice and cheap to test out. Might get a better model (with the scheduling) if this can handle the house as is.

[sneek]

they are kind of dumb. I don't like mine much. We got ours at costco when it was on sale, but it just doesnt know what is what. It bumps into EVERYTHINGGGGG!

[kenny]

OK, so I decided to test it out a bit more for anyone interested:

Cliff Detection: This feature works as advertised, I was a bit worried the first time so I stood guard on the edge of the stairs. It rolled right up to the edge and then changed directions before falling over.

Wall/Object Detection: The 500 series is designed to not bump into things at full speed. Whenever it approaches anything (dog leg, human foot, wall, etc it slows down to about half speed so the bump is lot softer. Once it hits the wall, it changes directions.

Anti-Tangle: Whenever the unit sucks up speaker wires the unit detects this and stops the spinning brush. It then changes directions to free itself. This feature worked quite well. It went under my couch and sucked up my rear speaker wire and tugged on it for a couple inches. The side spinning brush then stopped and the unit changed directions. I then set the unit next to a pile of clothes and it sucked up a little stringy thing and got stuck and again the unit stopped the brush, changed directions and pulled itself free.

Changeover from Lino to Carpet (roughly 8-10mm): Not a problem, just rolled up over the edge. I decided to see how much of a height difference the unit can roll over, and it looks like about 15mm is about the best, anything more and it has trouble climbing. If there is a rounded edge it climbs over with ease. For those with a rug on their hardwood floor I don't think the unit will have a problem as long as its heavy enough to resist the push from the Roomba.

Changeover from floor to Towel laying on floor: Hit and miss, sometimes the towel would slide along the floor preventing the unit from rolling on top of it, while other times it got on fine. Whenever the unit senses resistance, it changes directions.

Returning to Dock: My roomba had trouble finding where the dock was since i hid it in a corner. However, once it rolled by the dock, it had no trouble redocking to charge. I moved the dock under the middle of the couch so the light beams can reach further out to the rest of floor and now it has no trouble returning to home.

Hope that helps! I'm thinking of getting a Scooba now so I don't have to mop as often :rofl:

For anyone deciding to get one, get a 500 series, don't get the older generations. I love this thing haha.

[Kritafo]

i have the newer one and the Roomba Red I love them, the red bumps into everything but its not hurting anything so I don't mind.

I love the scooba as well, but I just did a big clean of the floor yesterday and thought it would be filthy but it really wasn't the scooba does a great job of maintaining once your wash your floor..and I mean hands and kneeds scrubbing, not a mop...it has been 2 months and the floor wasn't that dirty...2 kids and a big dog.

[CaptainReboot]

How do dogs react to this? We have a small dog. She barks at our Dyson on occasion, but overall it doesn't really bother her that much.

[R-Audi]

Where is everyone ordering from? Or are they available locally?
I would be looking for the Scooba....

[Ripper]

Originally posted by R-Audi
Where is everyone ordering from? Or are they available locally?
I would be looking for the Scooba....

I ordered mine directly from the company... www.irobot.com

[atomic]

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[CaptainReboot]

I got the 530 model at Linen and Things. There was a 20% off coupon in the flyer so I used it. So it ended up costing $279 before tax. I saved $70 with it :thumbsup:

[4DoorGTZ]

My Dell order for a Roomba is out of stock and delayed shipping till the 30th. (ordered when it was on the day of deals page)

[szw]

Originally posted by R-Audi
Where is everyone ordering from? Or are they available locally?
I would be looking for the Scooba....

Costco sells them

[atomic]

my roomba battery was dieing slowly slowly . and suddenly last week it's a no-go .. lasts about 5 seconds now . serious :)

so i went online . back-order for those batteries . grr . lots of place sell replacements . so i went to battery depot off macleod trail by chinook . bought 12 sub-c nicad's for $59 .. i rebuilt my battery and it's working fab-o-f'n-listic . 3,000 mha too so it lasts WAY longer ......... yeah!

but the coolest thing in the world is they also have these 7.2v 2000mha li-ion packs that are the size of 2 double a's .. the pack also includes a pcb for charging , which means hello!!!! only $25 so i'm using those mofo's for my homebuilt robots . they're pretty amazing !

problem is i used to use the battery weight of the sub c's for weight distribution lozloid . now these tiny liions are so light i have to redesign a tad

in short, battery gone in ur roomba? go to battery depot , bring the battery . they'll rebuild it if ur not able to do it urself (it's cheap for them to do)

[soupey]

the warranty service on these guys is amazing, i told them that mine was running into things unusually hard and the sensor lens cover thing was falling off (truth, not a lie), they sent me another unit (less the battery and dust bin), and now shes back up n runnin, this thing is definitely awesome!, only issue i have is that i have table chairs that it sometimes gets caught on, other than that its great!

[atomic]

Originally posted by soupey
the warranty service on these guys is amazing, i told them that mine was running into things unusually hard and the sensor lens cover thing was falling off (truth, not a lie), they sent me another unit (less the battery and dust bin), and now shes back up n runnin, this thing is definitely awesome!, only issue i have is that i have table chairs that it sometimes gets caught on, other than that its great!

it's good until your year is up :(

they've replacd mine twice . now it's out of warranty . i'm on my own! i don't really mind, i'm leaning towards buying a scoomba and replacing the brains of my existing roomba with a pic

[szw]

Originally posted by CaptainReboot
How do dogs react to this? We have a small dog. She barks at our Dyson on occasion, but overall it doesn't really bother her that much.

My dogs were fine with them, a little curious but they stayed out of its way. I have a 2y/o nephew thats terrified of the roomba and now is scared of all robots. Kinda sad since I robots are awesome and i can't buy him transformers now.

[atomic]

Originally posted by szw


My dogs were fine with them, a little curious but they stayed out of its way. I have a 2y/o nephew thats terrified of the roomba and now is scared of all robots. Kinda sad since I robots are awesome and i can't buy him transformers now.

the 2 y/o will eventually learn to love robots as i will take over the world with them!!! muh HAH AH HAAHASAHHAA *zap*