iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
by iRobot
|
List Price: Our Price: $287.99 You Save: $12.00 (4%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $177.98 (click here) Category: Home See more product details |
|---|
Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
Customer Review: Love this cute timesaver! and good for allergies, pet hair
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought this as a Christmas gift for myself. Have a small dog that doesn't shed and a cat that does. No kids. It charged in a couple of hours, not the overnight time the directions recommended. We have nicknamed our roomba "Gilbert", he is so loved in our house!
The pets got used to Gilbert quickly and it is great to run Gilbert while I am doing something else. While I was wrapping Christmas gifts, he was vaccuming the dining room. You will be mesmerized watching him go back and forth across the floor. It is actually relaxing sometimes, like watching fish! It does this cute scooty thing along the baseboards and hikes it's "bottom" up when it reverses off of things.
*Now for the cleaning aspects. I hate to vacuum, and before the roomba, I was only vaccuming the house every other week, which with my severe allergies wasn't good. I toss Gilbert in a room every day when I get home from work while i am cooking dinner and run him in the bedrooms on the weekends. He cleans a room for at least an hour or more depending on the size and how much stuff he has to bump into, but my rooms are large and he has never died before finishing. Roomba cleans well, even tile and hardwood floors if you use it on a routine basis. If you are picky about clean floors, or if there is a large amount of debris then use your regular vacuum, but if you use it in a daily rotating basis your life will be easier.
*Drawbacks
This is the only drawback i have, but it is probably due to having a cat. The instructions say to clean regularly, but I clean out the dust bin compartment thoroughly after every cleaning. The cat hair and dust never stop building up! I use a disposable micro duster to get into the nooks and crevices of the dust bin and unravel hair from the brushes each time.(If you have allergies, use a dust mask) There is an included brush cleaner widget, but it did nothing to help remove hair. There is a roller weel on the bottom of the unit that can pop out and pop back in for easy cleaning which is good because mine became clogged with cat fur.
Also the self docking system is ok, but really only good in the room you have it plugged into, it seems pretty pricey to purchase another one, it is just as easy to carry it back to the charger, or bring the charger to the area you are vaccuming.
Overall this is the best purchase for the home since my deck that i have made in a while. I do wish I had the newer version with the hepa filter, but maybe when this one wears out, which hopefully won't be for a while!
Customer Review: New Roomba vs. Old
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are new to Roomba, you will wonder if it is worthwhile. The answer is clearly YES, since anything it cleans is that much less for you to clean. However, which is better, the old (and cheaper) Roomba, or the new models like the 530?
First, the 530 comes with the charging/base station, and this is very useful. I have placed this in the entranceway which leads into the livingroom, the kitchen or the bedroom. Using the virtual walls (included), I block off rooms so that it can only do the entranceway + 1 other room. I simply press the "Clean" button, and it backs itself off the charging stand and then spends the next 2 hours cleaning, finally returning to the charging stand. Nice!
Should you upgrade from an older model Roomba (I now use my old Roomba upstairs)? It depends on your situation. By-the-way, the old virtual walls do NOT work with the new Roomba.
New Roomba:
Fall down stairs? Never
Climb onto thick throw rugs? Sometimes
Effectiveness on hard floors? Excellent
Effectiveness on carpets? Good
Trap itself in electrical cords? No
Trap itself in carpet fringes? No
# rooms it can do at once? 2
Ease of emptying dirt? Fairly good
Scare cats and dogs? No
Clean under low furniture? Yes
Quietness? Fairly
Old Roomba:
Fall down stairs? Never
Climb onto thick throw rugs? Rarely
Effectiveness on hard floors? Excellent
Effectiveness on carpets? Good
Trap itself in electrical cords? Usually
Trap itself in carpet fringes? Always
# rooms it can do at once? 2
Ease of emptying dirt? Fair
Scare cats and dogs? No
Clean under low furniture? Yes
Quietness? Fairly
Edit: 1/8/10
Roomba DIED! Nine beeps. Can't say I am happy. I called iRobot and they say the issue is due to a defective bumper which is NOT fixable. Since my warranty is expired, they offered me a somewhat discount price on a new Roomba. I am not sure what I will do.
Edit: 5/7/10
There directions for a cheap (although complicated) repair for this problem in the posts below.
Customer Review: A practical helper!
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros:
1. Improved noise level (according to my friend who has an older model)
2. The "Super dirty" blue light is sensitive and works accurately. It does clean harder and longer in the area with more dust.
3. It's very convenient and easy to operate.
4. cleaning out the dirt is easy. Once I came to the realization that hair can and will absolutely get stuck in any kind of vacuuming device, I set my expectation at the ability to remove hair easily from the device, which can definitely be done with this unit. I consider cleaning dust and hair out of this unit relatively easy primarily because all the places that hair can get stuck into are pretty easily accessible and components can be easily removed and reattached.
Cons:
1. It will scratch your dark color furniture. I have dark colored furniture and this unit definitely scratches them when it goes around the legs of the furniture or move along the bottom edges. I ended up buying a lot of felt pads and stuck them to the front and sides of the unit (about 180 degrees of the front side), spaced out but fully covering all white plastic areas. I never worried about my furniture getting scratched up again.
2. The unit is virtually blind. It can ignore a big piece of paper on the floor if it's not in its calculated path. It seems silly at times. It's also funny but it doesn't know there is a piece of trash on its back and it can't clean it.
3. My unit seems to get obsessed with cleaning a certain area. For example, it will keep coming back to the kitchen 80% more than going to other areas. I had to physically move it and block the kitchen with the virtual wall.
4. If your place has a winding layout like mine, you can't just leave it on and forget about it. You will have to ask it to clean by section, which may mean that you will need more virtual walls. It will not find rooms/places too far away that are not "easily visible" from the home base.
In summary:
Even though I listed a of cons, I still consider this as a 4-star product. There is no perfect product. Judging by how well it performs its intended functions and how easy customer-specific issues can be resolved or worked around, I think this is a robust product that can benefit many buyers. I'm also looking forward to experimenting with the programming functions so it will do more things.
Customer Review: Roomba irobot 530-560 not quite ready for primetime
Summary: 2 Stars
It's like a child, what is it going to do next?
Requires a lot of maintenance and prep. If you're a gadget freak and a tinkerer, you'll love it. I am, but maintaining it is getting old after about a year of 560 ownership. It was cool at first, now it's a dirty little high maintenance, unreliable child. I often see it stalled with a red or yellow flashing light, having once again choked on another problem. I hear it's better than the first iteration, but it needs to go back to the drawing board for further improvements.
P r e p a r a t i o n :
House must be cleared meticulously, good luck if you have children or pets. No socks, no shoes with laces, no pet toys or bones, no frilly rugs, no electrical cords, no bowls of water for the pets (it'll dump them and/or push them all around the room dumping them as it goes), no toilet paper touching the floor (it once unreeled nearly an entire roll until it jammed and stopped working) and no more moving furniture around once it has vacuumed a few times. (Seems to get lost) Will gobble up objects large enough to bind up the beater bars.
M a i n t e n a n c e :
Every 1-2 uses empty the container and clean the filter(s). EASY!
Every 4-5 uses you must inspect and clean all moving parts in the unit, requiring some disassembly. NOT SO EASY!
Main wheels, side sweeper brush, pivot wheel, beater bar(s). Various parts get so loaded up with string and long hair they will not function. Beater bars get felt-like fiber material loaded up in the bearings and will grind to a halt. Pivot roller wheel has often stopped turning due to hair and fibers. You need to listen attentively for a change in the noises it emits to hear that something has quit working. Otherwise it seems like nothing is wrong, but its' cleaning abilities go way down quickly. You also need to watch the side sweeper, it sometimes gets so bound up with hair and string and stops working. Sometimes the irobot just shuts the sidesweeper off, so you have to guess what it's up to now.
Good luck to all the gadget freaks and people that don't mind its' idiosyncracies and cleaning the dirty little bugger, often. I've still got it, it works okay, but I spend a lot of time under the hood.
Update, I gave it away Nov 2010 and don't miss it.
Customer Review: First Time Roomba Owner
Summary: 5 Stars
My boyfriend got me my Roomba 530 as a birthday gift. I just allowed it to run it's first cycle and I couldn't be happier. I have a one bedroom apartment and "Marvin" went through and cleaned the whole thing. It took about 1 1/2 hours start to finish.
Before I let him loose, I pre-cleaned by getting certain things off the floor. I can already tell that just by owning him, everything in my house will be cleaner since the floors have to stay clear and I don't like clutter on tables, counters, etc. When he began, he first cleaned the living room and zoomed around for the most part. Whenever he approached walls or furniture, he slowed down and never bumped into anything too hard. He transitioned seamlessly into my kitchen and laundry area which have linoleum floors and got all the crumbs up. Last, he headed for the bedroom and cleaned under the bed (yes!). It was definitely entertaining to watch him buzzing around.
Overall, he went over each area he cleaned 3-4 times and my carpet looks absolutely beautiful. He is much, much quieter than an upright vacuum and the beeping noises are very cute. However, I'd recommend running him during the day when you aren't looking for absolute silence--he might be too loud to deal with for some people if you are trying to sleep. I was impressed with the amount of dirt he picked up. Cleaning the filter and dust bin out only took about 2 minutes and it was easy to do. It's far less effort than dragging out my regular vacuum, plugging it in, keeping the cord from tangling or getting unplugged, etc. I will probably only bring out my Hoover once a month from now on, for deep cleaning purposes and to do my furniture with the attachments.
I haven't used the virtual walls yet, but I'm sure they will come in handy when I want him to concentrate on specific areas. I parked his home base in an out-of-the-way corner. I don't feel like I will need a timer or anything because I plan on just hitting Clean before I leave for work each day. Then when I get home, I'll have sparkling floors. Right now I'm the only one living here, until my boyfriend comes back from overseas, but even then I'm sure Marvin will still do a great job.
I definitely am giving this product two thumbs up. I'm already attached to my new robotic friend.