Remanufactured iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Assorted Colors
by iRobot
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Remanufactured iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Assorted Colors
Customer Review: R-O-O-M-B-A ~ .~
Summary: 5 Stars
Got my wife a refurbished Roomba together with other small things for her birthday. It was actually a joke since she never vacuums our house, I'm always the one who does the job. She was skeptical at first so I had to convince her a few times. First, I let Roomba clean our living room. Note, I have electrolux 2in1 handheld which I use for the bare floor and car. I vacuum my living room (wood floor) at least once a week. Roomba was able to pick up more stuff than my handheld vacuum. For example, we accidentally broke silica gel package and the pellets were everywhere in our house. Despite numerous attempts to pick up by hands we had used our hand held vacuums to clean them up. It's been a couple months since the incident happened and yet Roomba was able to find more pellets !!
Next was kitchen (tile), roomba was cleaning up massive bread crumbs, rice and other food drops. However, it got stuck in my dining table. I soon discovered it's not her fault, a newspaper plastic bag got tangled into her brush so she couldn't move.
Now is our bedroom (carpet), I have dirt and devil HEPA vacuum which works excellent and I ran it two weeks ago. However it can't reach underneath my bed and below my son's crib. I put Roomba at MAX and let it run for almost 2 hours to clean our bedroom and bathroom. Both wife and I couldn't believe our eyes, our bedroom looked pretty clean but Roomba proved us wrong. Roomba dust compartment was literally full, I cleaned her up real good including dismantling the wheels and filter. Note, I did not read her manual to do this, that's how easy things are in this vacuum.
Things to expect from your Roomba:
1. She cleans slow but thorough - please let her be this way if you want clean room result.
2. She can't work on the carpet with tussels - well, ANY vacuum will tangle up any tussels so don't expect Roomba not to do the same.
3. In my opinion the greatest thing about Roomba is the brush roller. Roomba is not just a vacuum but it's powerful cordless sweeper.
4. Roomba is relatively quiet compared to other vacuums and she can entertain my 11 month son very well.
5. Don't expect Roomba to be better than your HEPA, no way. But it can reach area which your regular vacuum can't. This is a plus !!
6. As a general rule of thum to prolong the battery life, run roomba at full so the battery is drained prior to recharging.
Don't be afraid to buy the refurbished one since the unit still comes with warranty. More importantly for me buying a refurbished roomba makes more sense, the product has been re-certified to ensure it's working functionality. In any case, this is an excellent vacuum though it can't replace your HEPA vacuum.
Customer Review: The good, the bad and the ugly of the Roomba
Summary: 4 Stars
Short version:
Pro: EXCELLENT on hard surfaces: hard wood or tile - AMAZING
Cons: Poor carpet performance.
Long version:
The bad:
Okay here is my opinion on the roomba 4210. I am was not sure I wanted to buy the unit, lets face it as my kids said to me, it looks like a giant white hockey puck. I followed the instructions in charging the unit. Next morning after 16 hours of charging for the initial charge, and the set up the room so I though, and the virtual walls, I finally was ready to start. I simply hit the MAX clean button, and off it went. It is that simple, right? Wrong, I should know better than to do that.
The ugly:
Alright after dropping my kids off to school and coming back home I heard a beep, beep and went off looking for it. I found it on my oriental rug; you know the plush thick kind. Well the roomba went under the coffee table and it looks like the carpet was too thick and it hit a leg, well it basically did donuts in my carpet. It created fuzz balls everywhere, I mean everywhere. I was not happy. Alright, this first run was my fault for trusting something new, and not setting things up.
The good:
So I cleaned it up and tried again. I set just to work on my tile and hard wood floors. WOW GREAT WONDEFUL, it picked up stuff that my other large upright would not. I have a dog and kids and let me tell you, this unit was incredible. I can't believe how well it did. So two days later, I used my upright and tried again, the roomba once again picked up things the large did not. I figure what happens is the large one has just a powerful exhaust system that that it literally creates an air wake that pushes dust and pet hair away. The roomba has dirt suction along a squeegee and a brush to help it, and large air exhaust. Since I have mainly hard surfaces it is truly a FIVE STAR PLUS. I use it now exclusively on the hard surfaces. I use my upright for all the carpet areas.
On carpet surface, it is a one star. I it does not have what it takes on carpeted surfaces. It does not make transitions over large pile or thin piles well. Oh if you have tassels, forget it. Also make sure you set up your room, meaning lift chairs up otherwise it will just keep bumping around and the battery will wear down.
Pro: EXCELLENT on hard surfaces: hard wood or tile - AMAZING
Cons: Poor carpet performance.
Customer Review: excellent product especially for my bedroom!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was lucky. I bought this for about a third of what it is going for now. I received the Discovery. It came with the dock, 2 virtual walls, extra filters, wall hanging thing, and a battery. I had to charge my battery for 72 hours to get it to work longer than a half hour, but now it works fine. Additionally, because I wrote Roomba to complain, they are sending me another battery, too. They have excellent customer service.
I have wanted one of these for quite a while, but couldn't justify purchasing it. I assumed (correctly, as it turns out), that it would probably be just as fast to use my regular vacuum as it would be to use this one. I actually LIKE cords and am not too fond of cordless, rechargeable appliances although I realize that they do come in handy.
I have seen so many people talk about why they purchased this, but nobody's mentioned the reason I did and why I am so glad I did. We have a huge heavy wooden antique bed. It's huge. And, it's so heavy that it cannot be moved. I can't gauge weight really well, but this thing weighs a ton. And, I cannot get under it to vacuum it at all. I purchased a smaller vacuum that had a handle that moved all the way to the floor thinking that this would work and I'd be able to get under there, but it didn't have strong suction, and I couldn't get the cat fur and dust removed. I have combed the carpet with my fingers as far as I could reach, but I knew there was a large area in the center that had never been vacuumed (yuck!). So, I capitulated and finally bought the Roomba.
After ensuring that the roomba would have a free rein in my room (removing all cords, pulling out side tables, etc.), I let the vacuum do its thing. And, it did! It cleaned my room for about 2 hours-- much of it, I'm sure, vacuuming under my bed. And, gosh, the amount of hair and fur it picked up was truly embarrassing. To think we were breathing some of that! Anyways, my carpet seemed the cleanest its been in years. I am so incredibly impressed with this vacuum cleaner.
I've used the Roomba elsewhere, too, but for most areas, I really prefer the regular vacuum. Not because it's better, mind you, but because it's just easier-- I don't have to remove all the cords, set up the virtual walls, or anything-- I can just vacuum. But, still, if I continue to use this only in my bedroom, it will have been worth the purchase cost.
Customer Review: Best cleaning investment I've made
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this unit about 3 months ago, after researching it for a month or two prior. Most negative reviews about this product deal with the battery, or the fact that the unit did not live up to the expectations of the purchaser.
The battery problems do happen and any company that sells something with a rechargable battery would be lying if they told you there are never problems with their batteries. Fortunately, my unit, despite being refurbished, performs wonderfully (Because I understand my product will never be used under the ideal conditions the rating was given under). Shaggy carpet, max power mode, dirty environment and bad charging habbits can all have a significant effect on this unit. I'm generally quite happy when I get 90 minutes out of my 'bot, which seems about typical.
For the expectations thing, it seems some people are expecting a maid for for the couple hundred dollars they are spending. If you're realistic and consider that the unit will never be "smart", you won't be disappointed.
The list of things I like is long. Any visitor I have always wants to see the capabilities of the robot. Among my demonstrations are it's awesome ability to dock itself. It might miss once or twice before completing it, but it will get there eventually, most of the time. Another showoff is it's ability to detect walls by hitting something, turning a bit counter-clockwise, going forward, hitting something, turning a bit more counter-clockwise and so on, until it doesn't hit something going forward. At this point, the roomba knows a wall is there. The little bristle on its side is amazing. It seems to get 99% of the debris in that little spot right where the wall and floor meet. I swear the only reasons my sisters come to visit me anymore is to help the "roomba" clean by driving it with the remote. They don't play the xbox, they play the roomba. My daughter has named it "spot" and often decides when it's time to clean her room just so she can watch it.
I don't use the virtual walls, since my house is fairly obstacle free, but I did test them, and they performmed as advertised. Interfacing with the serial port and linux is my next goal.
irobot has really won me over as a customer. I fully expect to buy any more products they come out with that promise to make my life more convient.
Customer Review: Get one, you won't regret it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Before we got our Roomba 4210, we researched the item extensively. Our main concerns were:
a) will it get stuck in our somewhat cluttered house?
b) will it have enough suction power to have any impact?
c) (least important though) will it be easy to use?
After buying the little interactive R2D2 robot from Hasbro http://www.hasbro.com/r2droidfactory/ my wife and I were more than suspicious of 'miracle artificial intelligence' robots. R2 was interesting, but pretty helpless in our house. He would constantly get stuck and lost in our house and the kids stopped playing with it almost immediately. So naturally we thought that Roomba would have the same limitations (especially after seeing the manufacturer videos which show a clean and clutter free hardwood floor house (ours is pretty much the opposite).
I'm happy to say that it took me all but 10 minutes of time watching Roomba zip around the house to see that this wouldn't be a problem. Roomba has very 'intelligent' escape sequences. He (yes, our Roomba is a 'he') recognizes when he gets stuck and has some nifty moves to free himself. So far (2 weeks of daily use) Roomba has gotten stuck 1 time (read: ONE). And he didn't get stuck because he drove over something, he got stuck on a piece of furniture which didn't have enough headroom for him). So I'd say : Checkmark on a). Roomba certainly finds his way around your house.
Regarding the suction, I'd say Roomba qualifies around the same amount of suction as our Dyson bagless ~$200 vacuumcleaner. As a matter of fact, Roomba sucks up dirt in a single go that our big vacuum had problems with (btw: since we've had Roomba, we don't need our big vacuum anymore). Checkmark on b).
Roomba is extremely easy to use. Either position him in the middle of the room and press POWER and then CLEAN, or simply hit CLEAN when he's docked. Either will work. That's all. He'll roll out and vacuum your house. Checkmark on c).
In closing I have to say that our house has never been this spotless before. I'd certainly highly recommend Roomba.
The factory reconditioned version we've purchased comes with 90 days warranty and I can tell you that even if it would break after that, I'd buy another one... it has made our life THAT much easier.