iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
by iRobot
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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 |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 530 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, White
Customer Review: Roomba works very well for us
Summary: 4 Stars
This product works quite well! Our house has never been cleaner - or tidier, as we are forced to get junk off the floor to get the most out of it. We set it going and go somewhere else in the house while it works. We tend to restrict its access so that we and our cats can have some peace, because its not that quiet. However, if you put it in a room and shut the door, it doesn't disturb much beyond. Once our cats got used to it, they now have a healthy fascination/contempt for it. Cleaning its brushes is almost therapeutic - it takes longer the first few times if your house isn't as clean as it could be. Long hairs get tangled around the brushes, so some patience is needed to pull them off, but its no big deal. I'm always amazed at how much stuff it collects each time.
Sometimes it stops early and asks you to clean its brushes. There's a little gold-colored round detector disk under the rubber brush - this may need wiping to stop it complaining. If, after cleaning and restarting, it complains again, then pushing the center button again clears its "I'm dirty" state and allows it to continue. If you used a complete charge daily, it would probably clean about 1500 square feet clean in 2 days.
It doesn't have a way of keeping track of where its been, so some areas seem to get a lot more focus than others (and not because they're dirtier). To say it is stupid is more of a criticism of its coverage efficiency than its effectiveness. It may attempt to climb over small obstructions (up to about 1/2 inch high) - and it could get stuck, so we use one of the two the provided electronic "barriers" to keep it away from trouble spots. It may also close hinged doors on its own, trapping itself or a pet in a room, so it is usually a good idea to restrict its movements.
The roomba can find its own way back to its base for unsupervised recharging. We find this feature handy if we want to use it two or more times a day. We liked it so much, we bought one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and often have both running.
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
My Roomba arrived safe and sound as it was double boxed and well packaged. After the initial charge, it went off and running and did 3 rooms before returing to its charger with no glitches whatsoever. I did empty the tray and filter several times, as I was told by a friend that I would need to do. There is no warming that it is full, so you have to play it by ear. It picked up a tremendous amount of dirt and other small things that had fallen into the carpet and on the hard floors. I thought it did a great job. It cleaned under my bed and under serveral sofas and chairs with no problems. It went over cords and cables with barely a hitch. It was able to get itself out of several tight situations. I cleaned the rollers and bearings of stings and long hairs after the intial cleaning. I continue to check the brushes after each use, but there has been little to clean out lately. I was running it every day a couple times, but now I just do it once a day or two. I also run it in the lower level that has short shag carpet, and the second floor that has a flat pile surface. It works equally well on every type of carpet. I even put it out in my screened porch which has astro turn and a hard surface. It cleaned up all the winter debris, including a few leaves. I enjoy hearing the robot run around the house, and I tend to start it off when I go to bed. Sort of like having a night watcman on patrol. There have only been two ocasions when the unit did not make it back to the charger base before it ran out of charge. I think this is one of my best online purchases ever, and I make a lot of them. The price was very good when I bought this one, but when I went to purchase another one last week, the price had increased, but still was less than the competition. I recommend this particular moded. There are several other models, but I think this one, for it length of charge of the batteries, is a good choice. Follow the directions and keep the brushes and bearings clean, and I think you will be very satisfied.Customer Review: Great little robot!
Summary: 5 Stars
Like many others, I did a lot of research before purchasing the Roomba 530. I chose to go with this model rather than the 560 (that I really wanted) because the price was a hundred dollars cheaper. I work full time and have a blue heeler and a long hair white cat that live with my husband and I. They shed everywhere..and the twice weekly vacuuming just wasn't enough. So I decided to get a Roomba.
This thing is amazing...if a bit confusing. It doesn't clean the way people do...which is explained in the instruction manual. But is fascinating to watch. I vacuumed my floors with my upright before I put Rosie (the roomba) to work so I could see if it really does find a lot of stuff that I missed. And boy do I feel like a bad housekeeper! It picked up a great deal of dust and hair that my upright missed. I love that it cleans under the end tables and the bed!
I was very impressed that the cliff sensors really work! It did not nose dive into the laundry room, and it spits out any cords it picks up. The virtual walls work like a charm. I also like how it goes back to it's home base when it tires. The bin is easy to empty and the rollers are surprisingly easy to remove and clean. Just use scissors to cut the hair that gets wrapped around the brush and it takes less than two minutes to clean. I have no problem with the regular maintenance to keep it clean. It takes very little time and works to prolong the life of my little cleaning lady.
I purchased some extra filters and side brushes when I bought Rosie, since I had read reviews that the side brushes break easily. But, I have not had any problems with that so far. Better to be prepared, though.
I highly recommend this iRobot to anyone. It's nice to be able to run the dishwasher and sweep the floors while i'm working on something else. My dog guards his food bowl from it and my cat likes to stalk it, but company loves it as much as we do!
Customer Review: Roomba, cleaning like a Boss!
Summary: 4 Stars
I just tried my new Roomba 530 last night. It is a heavy substantial piece of hardware rather than flimsy toy like thing that i was half expecting. I charged it overnight like the manual suggested. Then I counted the hours until i got home from work the following day.
First off I did some preliminary clean up. I just tucked away cords (even though it supposedly can deal with that), Picked up random things (clothes, cat toys, etc) from the ground. And straightened out some furniture that sat at odd angles. *Side benefit of having Roomba, you are encouraged to be tidier.*. There are 2 rooms to clean, half of it is carpet the other half linoleum with a hallway in between. Probably 2-300 square feet total.
Finally i was ready, i pushed the big satisfying green button in the middle and it came to life with a nice sound effect.
Let me describe the experience. I haven't felt this way since believing in Santa. I followed that little bastard around for at least an hour watching it clean. And clean well. It's corner brush really got into those corners and swept the dirt/cat litter/cat hairs out in front of the Roomba to vacuum up. I even swiped a bunch of breadcrumbs on the floor for it. And the Dirt Detect system spent extra time there as advertised. Then it was done It went back to it's docking station and parked itself to recharge itself with a nice shut down sound... I giggled like a school girl! I pulled out the dust compartment, it was half full of filth. Wonderful.
I Felt like a Jedi or at least a farmer on Tatooine. It's the first thing since I don't know... iPhone maybe... to make me look in awe at a piece of technology as if it were magic. I only used it once so far. I have read about it's issues with longevity and am skeptical it can last for more than 1.5 years. But that just means I can get the newer better version when the Jawa traders come back around.
Customer Review: post-warrentee service
Summary: 2 Stars
SUMMARY:
if you have more than a 1 bedroom apartment and more than 1 person living there, do not expect to this purchase to last you very long.
Details:
My husband bought this product and used it for a year in his hardly-lived-in-week-day apartment ( he works 18 hour days on the weekdays and he lives with me and our two cats on the weekends). He was very please with the roomba performance during that year. When we decided to try it out in my apartment, the troubles started immediately. The "dirt tank" was very small, and for an apartment with 2 people and 2 cats, it needed to be emptied more frequently than i would have preferred. The brushed were ALWAYS getting tangled with hair and carpet fibers, requiring constant cleaning.
I could have withstood the above mentioned issues, if not for this final "straw that broke the camels back". Literally, the DAY after the warranty expired, i began getting a #9 alarm from our roomba. Which dictates an error with the bumper bar. I followed the websites instructions exactly (the website was very helpful, which was a plus) and when that failed, called customer service. To make an already long story short: they basically told me "your warranty has run out, and you are outta luck." I was more than a little angry at the lack of customer support! not to mention the large object in the middle of my floor that is no longer any more useful than a very large doorstop!
I understand that the expiration of my warranty no longer entitles me to replacement support from the company. However, i would have liked to have some other options at my disposal. For instance: replacement of a sensor or bumper section of my roomba, even if i had to purchase the parts myself- we are both engineers, we could have figured out how to put it back together :-)
As stated in the summary, anyone anticipating more than mild use of this product should stick to their standard vacuum.