iRobot 12101 Looj Electric Gutter Cleaning Robot
by iRobot
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Our Price: $129.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $119.99 (click here) Category: Lawn & Patio See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 12101 Looj Electric Gutter Cleaning Robot
Customer Review: Looj on the run
Summary: 4 Stars
The below reviews are very good.
I wanted to add that even with its peculiar hangups, flipping over, and plastering my car with some of the nastiest slime known to man; the looj made good on some of its potential.
Let me put this in context. I can't remember the last time I cleaned my gutters. I was surprised to find a few plants growing in them. There was moisture frozen to the bottom of the gutter. I was obviously way over the designed function of the Looj, and probably well into abusing it.
I did have to do a considerable amount of the gutter manually, but I was still able to get the job done much quicker because of the Looj. I was generally removing the icy dirt clogs. What is usually a lengthy 3-4 hour job, was reduced to half an hour all told (minus cleaning my car afterward).
The only problem I had was that the range of the handle remote. It is not possible to avoid mangling the antenna while operating the Looj. I did find putting the handle physically onto the gutter, the range of transmission went a lot further.
It does not completely clean the gutter, but it removed all the debris from it. I am pretty sure if I keep up with it, I will be able to keep my gutters clear with minimal effort. Spray it down, or wait for the next rain will get the remaining slime from the gutter.
I will also add that it is amusing to watch this thing go.
Customer Review: My husband used it!
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this for myself for Christmas after having a great laugh reading the other reviews. We had to wait until the ice in the gutters thawed. We finally tried it out today. My husband, who will not climb a ladder much less go up on the roof, loved directing the Looj--while standing on a ladder! For the first time in over 20 years, I didn't have to go up on the roof to do the job. That alone makes it worth the money spent.
Certainly, the Looj is not perfect. You must go back and forth to clear large debris deposits. It took a little time to figure out that the direction of the auger spin is important--if you get it wrong, the stuff from the gutters goes on the roof and you know where it will go when the next rain falls. Occassionally, we had to pull it out and remove pine needles from the auger drive shaft. And it spews leaves and dirt all over the place. But so did I as I used to pick the stuff out of the gutters by hand.
We got about 2/3 of the gutters done on one battery charge. But this was the first cleaning this spring which is always bad. It is unfortunate that you have to pull the battery out of the thing to charge it. The 15 hour warning is generally a pain, too. I'm sure future models will improve on both.
I look forward to being able to run the thing through the gutters BEFORE they get terrible and do it from the ground. I would buy it again because I'm getting too old to be on the roof.
Customer Review: Just Plain Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Having bought several "gutter cleaning" devices and watched as all of them failed, I had very low expectations for the Looj going in. Why does something so comparatively workaday seem to be next to impossible to create a technological solution for?
The Looj design is actually quite ingenuous. The little treads allow it to keep going through un-level gutters, and the remote has excellent range. The little guy is sturdy and easy to assemble.
The bad thing is, as with all the other devices, it doesn't work. Not even close to work. If you have a few leaves in a perfectly dry gutter, yeah...if you run it back and forth it'll probably eventually get everything out.
If he runs into a big pile of leaves he seems to either flip over, stall, or just climb over the top of the leaves (which is worse because it can fall out if the pile is too high). What he won't do is his job, which is to throw those leaves out of the gutter.
Other than chucking a little sludge into my face off the nearly empty edge of the gutter, it removed almost no leaves... but unlike the garden hose gutter cleaning attachment or the leaf blower's gutter cleaning kit, at least it was easy to assemble... and disassemble... and stick back in the box... and add it to the growing pile of failures.
Customer Review: Makes Life Easier
Summary: 4 Stars
I just finished cleaning my gutters with the I Robot. This defiantly made the job quicker and easier. I would estimate probably half the time maybe a little longer because it was allot of fun so I didn't rush. If you have any remote control vehicle skills at all this is a breeze to use. Here are 2 tips hold the remote against the gutter for best signal, and you may want to tie a string to the unit in case it gets stuck although mine didn't. A couple of drawbacks are it didn't clean the gutters spotless, but it did crunch any remaining leaves up enough that at the end of the job I was able to easily hose them out. Lastly 2 gutter brackets in the back of the house where to low inside the gutter so I had to pick the I Robot up and move it to the other side to continue the job. Neither one of these problems would have kept me from buying this product. I am looking forward to cleaning the gutters again this fall already, plus I called my buddy to see if I can help clean his this spring.Customer Review: Amazing device!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this gadget! Now, a caveat. If you have modern gutters with internal mounting, it probably won't fit under the supports. My house is 35 feet wide with a gutter on the front and back. Couldn't use it on the front since it won't fit under the gutter mounts. Took me 2 hours by hand to clean the gutter, what with moving the ladder and climbing up and down.
My back gutter is the old style half round with supports underneath. It took me 8 minutes (yes, 8!) to clean the gutter! Yeah, it throws crap everywhere. What else does anyone think an auger is going to do? So you let the wet muck dry and sweep it up. It flipped over a couple of times, and continued to drive upside down, still cleaning the gutter. I found by reversing the auger, I could flip it back. My back gutter is the one I always hated doing by hand since I had to put the ladder on rooftops of some first floor bumpouts, and had a lot of problem reaching the muck. This makes it not only safe, but kind of fun.