iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
by iRobot
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
Customer Review: An Amazing Machine!
Summary: 5 Stars
Is Roomba the greatest thing since sliced bread? Yup. I think so. I'd rather slice my own bread than give up my Roomba. Simple as that.
I live alone in a rather large two-story house with four bedrooms and three baths, along with two very furry cats and a dog that won't stop shedding. Needless to say, my place needed constant vacuuming, usually once a day. And if I left for a long weekend, the place would be a disaster when I returned. Not so with Roomba. I just push the button every morning as I leave and the house is cleaned when I get home. I have extensive hardwood floors, tile floors, wall-to-wall carpeting and throw rugs. The Roomba adjusts for all surfaces and cleans them equally well. No problem. And my oriental rugs with fringe aren't an issue with Roomba's anti-tangle capability. In short, it's an enormous timesaver and well worth the money.
Some have complained that the Roomba isn't as powerful as a regular canister or upright. True. Its suction is roughly the equivalent of an old Dust Buster. But it's very effective nonetheless because of an ingenious combination of brushes underneath that pop the dirt up and into the debris bin without the need of a powerful vacuum. Furthermore, the combination of vacuum and brushes can suck up debris the size and weight of most coins along with large clumps of mud and tangles of pet hair, perfectly adequate for most home needs. Others have complained that the Roomba is noisy. Not at all. In fact, it's far quieter than my regular vacuum--again, it's about as noisy as a battery-powered handheld vacuum. Still others maintain that it takes too much maintenance. Well, I haven't had any problems with my Roomba, and I've been using it almost daily for four months. Yes, you do have to clean it regularly. Unlike a canister vacuum that you can shut off and ignore, you may want to clean your Roomba almost every time. But the five minutes or so I spend emptying the debris bin and cleaning the roller bushes is nothing compared to spending an hour or two vacuuming the old way.
Things to be aware of: Be sure to clean the roller brushes thoroughly. I had trouble initially when my brushes stopped working after only a few weeks. I thought, "Oh, boy. Here we go. A faulty machine." But no. It was my fault. After calling the Roomba service line, I discovered that I hadn't read the instructions carefully and failed to clean the bearings on the side of the roller brushes. The bearings eventually became clogged with pet fur and stopped turning, causing my rollers to freeze up. After a little cleaning, the rollers were working again like new. Lesson learned.
I'm also careful to block off rooms I don't want vacuumed so my Roomba can do a more thorough job on those rooms I do want cleaned. You can either use the two battery operated "virtual walls" that come with the unit to prevent the Roomba from entering a room, or just close the doors. I usually rotate between my family room, kitchen and hallways in one cleaning; the dining room, living room and library in the next. I also use my Roomba upstairs to clean the bedrooms and baths in a similar rotation. Again, such rotations may seem like a lot of work to clean the whole house, but I'd much rather spend the minute or two moving my Roomba between the upstairs and downstairs than to spend an hour or more vacuuming.
Sure, Roomba can't do stairs and it can't quite reach into the corners. But while my Roomba is busy cleaning the rest of my house, I can take the few minutes to vacuum the stairs and hit the corners with the regular vacuum. Again, a huge time savings. Do the pets mind? Not at all. After running it the first time, my cats and dog became completely bored and now ignore it whenever it's working. It doesn't bother them in the least.
I bought the 530 model have been absolutely delighted with it. And though I don't have the lighthouses to guide it back to its recharging station, my Roomba usually finds its way back all by itself anyway. And if it doesn't and runs out of juice somewhere else, it's hardly a chore to move it back to its base for recharging. After a couple of hours or so, it's fully charged and ready to go again. While I haven't timed it, I'd guess my Roomba runs for at least 90 minutes, maybe longer. I think the battery may run down faster if the brushes are full of cat hair. So I'm careful now to clean the brushes every time.
After a while, it just becomes a habit to turn on my Roomba every time I leave the house. It's such an amazing convenience and it actually works. My girlfriend, who has terrible allergies, has noticed how much cleaner my house is now. And while my Roomba doesn't have a HEPA filter, its filter does pick up an amazing amount of dust--making the entire house much more breathable and dust-free.
Like a lot of people, I was fairly skeptical when I first invested in my Roomba. But I'm not anymore. This is an amazing machine that does exactly as advertised. And I am thrilled at how easy it is to operate and maintain, and how simple it is to develop an entirely new vacuuming routine.
Any drawbacks? Well, wouldn't it be wonderful if my Roomba could do stairs? Or reach those corners? Or make my bed? Or do the laundry? Or clean the dishes? Sure. But as it is, it's simply great--and well worth the investment. I can recommend this machine enthusiastically.
Customer Review: Initial thoughts on Roomba
Summary: 5 Stars
The Roomba is fun. The 530 model doesn't use half of the owner's manual stuff (no special "lighthouses" to get it to do multiple rooms in series, no remote control, no scheduling function so it works while you are away), but it does clean. It can get out of any area it can get into unless it did it by moving shoes and jammed them up. Mine didn't get caught under the dining room table, but it spent a long time there hunting and pecking. It moved some slip on sandals to get under and then as it kept trying to get out they kept sliding in the way, but it eventually kept nudging them until it could get out.
It went under the cabinet where I store my flip flops to clean and ended up pushing them all over the room in different direction.
Don't sweat when it doesn't pick up "big stuff" like sweetener packets, the actual vacuuming area is smaller than the robot, so stuff gets nudged until it rides right over it in its pathing. (Does dropping stuff in front of the robot to make it clean more count as abusive harassment? :lol)
The wall/corner side brush does work well to pick up the junk along baseboards and corners, it also feeds it directly into the pickup area (it is the off side that has a problem with shoving small debris out of the way).
It can end up leaving little piles of debris if you let it range over a large area, the pathing algorithm would end up getting it, but when it moves out of the kitchen into the hall, gets excited about the front door rug, tries out the way to the kid's room, gets excited again about the front door run, then trundles back into the living room area, then finds the hall to the computer room and the computer room itself, it just doesn't make the full sweep.
It follow odd shapes it considers "wall" very well. It looks like it is missing bits, but the side sweeper brush is hitting the tight corner areas.
When you first start cleaning with it, unless you have just done a spring cleaning type of thing, check the debris box often, it isn't that big.
Open the debris box over the trash can and fiddle with the emptying, dirt/dust can hang by the filter tray hinge and dribble. Mainly empty away from the hinge while holding it sideways.
We have a Rainbow and it seriously would kick this little bugger's arse any day of the week for cleaning, but it is a lot bigger pain to set up to hit the high traffic areas only. This looks like it will be great for day to day maintenance of picking up hair. I'd have said pet hair (which was the first thing I noticed from both my long hair dogs), but after it worked the little corners around my computer chair and desk, I noticed that the majority of the hair was mine. I had picked up and stacked some of the various boxes of supplies, equipment and parts out of the way, so it had more access to areas that haven't been vacuumed in a while.
Not enough data, but it seems to have an issue where a wall to wall carpet meets a tile area. The little lip edging isn't enough to stop it, which means it doesn't sit and dig right there where dirt accumulates. It did quite a bit, but it was spending time with one wheel on the carpet and one on the tile and never could bring the side brush into play. That is a coding issue, but it probably would take more expensive discrimination circuits.
Another issue is that it can manage to get stuck under furniture that is just the "right" height if it hits it wrong. Did that under one of the wingback chairs, it turned under it where the bumper sensor wasn't, picked it up enough to jam itself.
If let it roam too widely, then when it loses charge it cannot find its docking station. Easy enough fix, I pick it up and take it where I want it to work and let it go, then check back on it and return it to the dock if it needs a charge.
Looks like it needs regular maintenance to keep it cleaning well. No big deal, everything pops out, cleans easily (need good pointy scissors to clear wrapped up hair) and goes right back together. I'd say at least after every second cleaning cycle when you first start up with it. Tip: the big wheels on the end of the big roller brush pop off so you can slide the brush cleaner thingy right over the roller after you have cut and pulled all the stuff wrapped around it off.
It is light enough to pick up and walk around with, so it looks like it is easy enough to just pick up the obstacles in a room, but it in there, shut the door and let it go when you leave the house. If you put the docking station in with it, you should get back to find it charged and ready for the next room that evening. I'll test that. Then just cycle it around the house doing a room or three every day and you should be good.
Overall a great little widget to keep the general level of dirt/hair/debris down between heavier duty cleanings. Bonus to that should be easier "heavy" cleanings without you having to do anything but move it and hit a button. Well worth the money.
Customer Review: Awesome addition to the home, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased the Roomba 530 from another seller for a steep discount and I have to say I am in love with my new family member; Little Jimmy.
This robot can clean a floor like nobody's business. I've watched it maneuver under multiple chairs sitting around my kitchen table, grasp cables and realize it's grabbed a cable, then work itself off of the cable with ease. Under my bed has NEVER been cleaner (well, maybe it was cleaner when I moved in and vacuumed it the old fashioned way, but once the bed's in place, no upright will get under there, nor will any canister vacuum reach all the nooks and crannies).
One a single charge, which takes as little as 20 minutes, Little Jimmy can clean 3 medium rooms, and in my case, 4 rooms as they are smaller rooms than what he is rated for.
Something to keep in mind is that the manual recommends you charge your Roomba "overnight" when you receive it. This means leave it plugged in for at LEAST 8 hours before you use it for the first time, whether it turns green in 20 minutes or not. I've read online where people have experienced issues after receiving the Roomba and not heeding this advice where they had to have the battery replaced under warranty because they were a little too eager. Yes, it can be an excruciating wait to see your new little buddy sit there with a green light, ready to work and you not able to set it free, but fight the temptation and you shouldn't have any issues.
As far as problems, I have one. I have a throw rug that has 1 dark square, one light, one dark and so on. Little Jimmy has gotten caught twice on one of the lighter squares because he mistakenly thinks he's surrounded by a cliff. This is an issue with overly sensitive cliff sensors (this is the part that keeps the Roomba from taking a suicide leap down stairs). There is currently no fix for this and if you have very dark floors, you may be purchasing something you cannot use. iRobot has a 30 day return guarantee, so if you want to try it but aren't sure if the Roomba will clean your floors properly, give it a shot and send it back if it doesn't live up to expectations.
One feature I wish I had sprung for on a higher model number is the ability to use scheduling to tell Little Jimmy what day and time to clean. Unfortunately you need a 535 or higher Roomba to have this capability. It's all the better, though, as most rooms require a little work to make them Roomba friendly, meaning if you can get it off the floor, DO IT. If I had the scheduler I'd forget when Little Jimmy would begin working and leave stuff on the floor that could hinder him in doing his job.
Which brings up another point: clear clutter from the floor along with cables and cords. Sure, the Roomba can clean around most everything and can untangle itself, but ideally it shouldn't have to. And if you have cords for things that can be pulled from shelves or higher up locations, you run the risk of damage to the device AND the Roomba in the instance where it grabs the cable and drags the item down while untangling itself.
This model also lacks the ability to utilize the Lighthouse technology where you can place a lighthouse in a room and the Roomba will either clean the room completely before moving on or spend 25 minutes cleaning the room before moving on. I'd like this functionality, but given the price difference I couldn't justify it for the Lighthouse tech and the scheduling.
A caveat is that this vacuum requires more maintenance on your part. It's recommended to clean the Roomba every 2-3 uses. One the first 2-3 uses I would actually highly recommend you clean it EVERY use as it is bound to pick up more dirt than on later consecutive cleanings, which means later on down the road you can get away with not cleaning it so often. If you own a pet, expect to be pulling pet hair off of the rollers as it will wrap around some of the metal parts holding the brushes in place. It's not hard to clean, but it takes time to clean. For the time it saves you from having to vacuum every day or a LOT less frequently than you already do, it is worth the effort.
You will find with regular uses you won't need to vacuum so often anymore. You will likely still need to vacuum from time to time to ensure you have a clean house, I would say you will likely only need to do so, if at all, once a month, tops. With my house being mainly hardwood, I think I may one of the lucky ones and I won't have to vacuum much at all; probably 2-3 months between pulling it out. And I will have to manually vacuum the rug Jimmy can't handle.
Pros:
Cleans floors really well
Quieter than a regular vacuum
More free time for you
Cons:
No scheduling
Can't use Lighthouses
Doesn't get tangled but can pull things from locations while dislodging itself
I'd definitely buy again.
Customer Review: I'm in love.....
Summary: 4 Stars
I read a lot about roombas and scoobas before making a choice. I haven't gotten a scooba yet - though I intend to - and I picked the Roomba 530 model. I investigated different models, looked at a lot of different websites, read TONS of reviews. I wanted to get the most up-to-date model I could afford and get that one for the cheapest price possible. I used the comparison chart on the irobot site to see what the real differences are, and for the most part with the 500 models, there's no gigantic differences. I was more interested to see a lot of positive reviews for the model of my choice, as I think that's a real testament to how good the product is.
I ordered my roomba from a big box store that is going out of business, so I got it for about $190, which in my opinion was a fantastic price and really swayed me into getting this treat for myself. People were like "you ordered a vacuuming robot? what a waste of money, it's just a toy." Yea, that's what my dad said to me, and my boyfriend just looked at me like a lazy person who throws money out the window. The women seemed to better understand my wanting. I have 2 cats, and they love to 'rumble', and when they do, cat fur flies. and nothing makes me more crazy then dust bunnies the size of Texas drifting across my hardwood floors. I have a dust buster I use to chase them, but can never really keep up. So I thought this was the perfect solution. I live in an apartment, 6 rooms, none very large. They average about 12x12 in size. So this roomba had a sufficient battery for me to do about 2 rooms at a time, and comes with 2 virtual walls, more then I thought I would need, but they're coming in handy and I've been using both of them.
out of the box I charged it for about 2 hours and then the light was green. This model comes with a nice little docking station as well. So as I waited for it to be charged, I had to run to the store to pick up 4 D batteries, which are needed for the virtual walls - 2 batteries each. So if you're expecting a roomba in the mail, go get your batteries now!
As soon as I got back, the light was green so off it went on it's first cleaning mission. One cat was initially terrified by it, the other oddly interested and just watched it. As they've gotten used to it around the house, they're no longer the least bit bothered.
I did one room at a time, as the manual said this makes it more efficient. Watching it does illicit some unease...I wasn't sure if it was suppose to slam(not really slamming just seems that way when your new 200 dollar baby is going straight at a piece of furniture without slowing down!) into certain things and was afraid the impact would break it. but I suppose the roombas are suppose to be pretty durable, so I found it easier to plop it in a room and walk away, checking on it occasionally. It happily did all rooms, though in my opinion it runs longer then it needs to, so I have turned it off early a couple times. I LOVE that it fits under most of my furniture, where dust and fur tend to collect. It did under my bed, which is a godsend in itself. It went over a couple wires there and had no problem at all. It's not super noisy, just sounds like a quieter version of a regular vacuum. I'm sure my downstairs neighbor doesn't love it, but its not like it runs constantly or at bad hours.
It's easy to empty the dust bin and I found it's best to clean out the brush/wheels every time, so as to keep the roomba running in top condition. I actually used some tweezers to get into the hard to reach areas and make sure I don't have any mass of fur collecting where it shouldn't.
Now that we've had it for a while, my boyfriend doesn't think I'm so crazy for ordering it anymore, sometimes he asks to use it, pretending that he's not dying to watch it roomba. He also likes that it goes under the bed, as thats probably where the most dust bunnies collect, and both of us hate to see them drifting in and out. Now sometimes he'll just peek in a room, grin at the roomba, and close the door as he goes about his business while the roomba does the dirty work. I have professed my love to the roomba -- I've even found myself petting it(don't tell anyone!) and thanking it for cleaning.
Some side info I would like to add for those yet to purchase a roomba -- I was just reading on a roomba forum that if you wait a bit, the most recently produced roombas come with an updated cleaning head module and also a better battery(nihm or something instead of a different, less worthy type that it has now, according to the forum). I was dimly aware of this beforehand, and honestly, just didn't want to wait!!
Customer Review: Rooming with the Roomba
Summary: 4 Stars
I live in a two bedroom apartment with more furniture than the place can comfortably hold. Except for the kitchen area and the bathroom, the apartment is carpeted. I have no pets and hate vacuuming.
Upon receipt of my Roomba 530, I was surprised at its size, which is slightly bigger around than full-sized LP record. I was expecting it to be somewhat smaller. While the Roomba was charging overnight, I read the manual. I first tried out the Roomba 530 on the master bedroom, which meant getting all the shoes out from under the bed as well as moving some other shoes to a corner where the Roomba would not be permitted to go, as well as picking up some other small items of furniture. I then fired up the Roomba, closed the door, and let it have its way for a while. (Okay, I admit it. I did watch for several minutes to see how it would negotiate obstacles and to the edges. The Roomba is a vacuum cleaner so you would expect some noise but it is nevertheless quieter than most vacuums. When I closed the door, I could barely hear the Roomba unless it was near the door. Score one for quietness.
About half an hour later, I looked in on the Roomba. It didn't appear to be cleaning as well as when it started, so I emptied the dust bin. Considering that the area under the bed hadn't been vacuumed in months - our other vacuum head was too high to reach - I do not fault the dust bin for filling up so quickly. Nevertheless, it is pretty small and is fortunately simple to empty. A receipt that it had picked up was also obstructing the path to the dustbin. In my household, the dust tray underneath tends to fill up first, though there was plenty up top for the bigger dust bunnies, hair, and small objects like paper clips and coins that didn't get picked up before vacuuming. After another half-hour or so, I looked in on the Roomba again. The dustbin had again filled. After emptying it again, I started up the Roomba a third time. This time it docked before looking in again. Although I wasn't satisfied at the time that the Roomba couldn't do better because of the interruptions from the multiple dustbin emptyings, a subsequent run a day or two later picked no more than the accumulation I would normally expect.
By this time, I had figured out that I would need to move the dining room chairs from the main room if the Roomba is to have a reasonably clear path and not spend a lot of time blundering its way through a lot of chair legs. This involved moving six chairs plus a rolling office chair to another part of the apartment. There was also a small and heavily loaded end table that I moved slightly, along with a hassock and some other small furniture that I moved out of the way. I also moved most of the electrical cordage and closed off the entrance to the kitchen area with a large cardboard barrier. Although the 530 comes with two virtual walls, I elected not to try them out just yet. I had to fortify the barrier with some weighted objects behind it because the Roomba otherwise tended to push into the kitchen.
In the room were also a couple of black speaker stands that the Roomba tended to run upon the edge of, coming close to stranding itself but never quite doing so. The room also had a wall heater, the bottom edge of which had a sharp corner that left score marks around the outside of the Roomba. Although the Roomba did not strand itself on the speaker platforms, it did run up the incline of a mop leaning against the wall and strand itself there.
Although I have read of reports that the Roomba side brush with six arms tends to throw its arms and the replacements with three arms are much sturdier, my Roomba came with the six-arm variety and so far remains intact.
I havn't yet tried the Roomba on uncarpeted areas because it is too big to get around the toilet in the bathroom and the kitchen I have is too small to make a good test.
Although Consumer Reports dings the Roomba for failing to get into corners adequately, I did not find it to be any worse than using the regular vacuum cleaner without a special nozzle.