iRobot Roomba 4220 Discovery SE Intelligent Floorvac Vacuuming Robot, Grey
by iRobot
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot Roomba 4220 Discovery SE Intelligent Floorvac Vacuuming Robot, Grey
Customer Review: Great Appliance!
Summary: 5 Stars
This thing is great, it sweeps my kitchen and bathroom, and cleans the carpet around the house. I have two kids who are constantly generating crumbs and dirt all over the house, and the roomba sweeps/vacuums them up before they have a chance to be ground into the carpet or get stuck to the kitchen floor. The roomba does not have a powerful vacuum motor, only a small one, so a roomba is not a replacement for a high powered vacuum cleaner. The roomba will prevent you from pulling out the high powered vac every day though, more like once in a great while if you're like me. I run my roomba daily, and end up with a bunch of crumbs, pieces of wrappers, hair, and misc junk each time I empty it, and the filter catches a bundle of carpet lint and dust about half that of what a clothes dryer produces on a normal dry cycle. Beware of things like hair ties, socks, dryer sheets, shoe laces, stray cords, rugs with loose fibers, carpets with loose fibers, as these things can get caught up in the roombas brushes. It is necessary to pick up such items prior to starting your roomba, as these items can cause the roomba to stop mid cycle (it has sensors to protect itself), or in the event of sucking up too many such items, can lead to premature failure of the brush motor. The reliability of roombas is not extremely high, they do fail, especially in very harsh conditions (like mine). I recommend buying a retail package for the 1 year warranty. If you can purchase where extended warranties are offered, that is a good idea as well. You will find this product will save you enough time to pay for itself many times over in the course of a year... and if that isn't enough for you... Remember.. it's just cool.Customer Review: Roomba 4220 Discovery SE
Summary: 4 Stars
We have had this Roomba about 3 weeks now. At first I was fascinated with it, the sounds, its programmed directions when hitting a wall, chair, whatever -- it was amazing! And, the dirt is picked up! We now feel that it will work for us BUT the battery seems to not recharge completely so it will work for about one hour plus then go into RED mode and try to find the recharger station. It has a tendency to not want to walk up and engage the recharger. Sometimes it just wanders about, so won't dock. We are going to try a few other locations to see if that works better.
Oh, if you have only wood floors it will probably work flawlessly. We are 60% carpeted so it constantly will back away from going up on the carpets or runners, sometimes spin around and then walk up onto the carpets. And, watch out for the shagged ends on some rugs. What we do is just lift all the runners and get them off the floor. The tasseled ends would get caught but the Roomba would twist around to dislodge and keep on going.
Clean up is easy, if you don't mind dust, dirt and all else it catches in the tray. Just dump it in the garbage sack. Use gloves, if you are sensitive to all that stuff. The filter gets clogged every time we run it. So, recommend cleaning both tray & filter each time. It is not hard to do, in fact, very simple -- only two steps.
One last thing, it will hang up under low couches and chairs, gets caught -- then you have to go find it and redock to charge up the batteries.
By the way, the cats follow it around while it is working. Curious you know!
Overall, we are amazed at how well it cleans. The few problems, we can work around. I guess we'll keep it
Customer Review: Go Roomba!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had my Roomba Discovery since Christmas 2004. I've replaced the battery once. Twice I've had technical difficulties with the Roomba and both times the problem was quickly solved by one phone call to Roomba's friendly, efficient personnel: the first time, I was sent a new Roomba and recently I was sent upgraded software. Both fixes were at no charge, not even shipping, which is remarkable for a product more than 3 years old. Roomba picks up all debris in his path, including spilled canary seed and the leavings of six grandchildren who hang out at my house. He picks up lint and dust that are not apparent to my naked eye. He hops on and off low-pile area rugs with no problem, and works well on hardwood and slate. His dust bin and filter are very easy to empty, the brushes remove easily for cleaning; I also give him a thorough dust-off with compressed air so that fine particles don't settle in to clog his sensors. He is not silent, but is quiet enough that my infant grandson naps while Roomba runs circles around him. My housekeeper comes every other week and Roomba does the job on the alternate weeks. Since he can't get at the furniture and window sills, he won't completely replace our canister vacuum. But this little guy is great and my family and I have become quite fond of him.
ADDITION OF FEBRUARY 7, 2010: Our Roomba is still going strong. I clean him thoroughly after each weekly use. No more housekeeper, so he gets more of a workout than ever. His batteries have each lasted over a year and cost far less than half of one week's payment to a housekeeper. This little guy is priceless!
Customer Review: Great product for day-to-day dirt
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my first Discovery about 5 months ago, and fell in love with it instantly. 90% of our house is tiled and the Roomba cut down on the dirt and dog hair significantly, dust as well. If we run it for an hour every 2-3 days, we rarely ever see hairballs from our two dogs, or gritty dirt on the tile. It makes a smooth transition to our carpeted room, as we have a very low shag carpet, but the carpet does slow it down quite a bit. It still cleans the carpet very well, but runs much slower. I don't think it would be as effective on a deep shag carpet.
It's fairly clever. It'll circle dirty areas until it senses them to be clean, and when it gets caught, or sucks up a throw rug, it will back out of the area and spit out the rug.
I wish the wheels were a little bit bigger, just so it would get over rubber mats with more ease (it tends to get slowed down on them as well), but overall it works as it advertises that it should.
It's not as loud as a upright cleaner, but expect some noise. If used often, it wont clog or fill it's dirt bin. You just need to empty the bin before each use. It's very easy to empty though. Also, every week or so, its good to check the wheels and clear them of hair or thread, clean off the filter, clean out the bearings on the wheels. It takes about 10 minutes to throughly clean and maintain.
It really is a fantastic product for hard flooring, or just to cut down on dust around the house. I've purchased three total and recommend them to anyone who's tired of sweeping daily.
Customer Review: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...
Summary: 3 Stars
Based on other reviews, I had high hopes for the Roomba, and there is definitely a "wow" factor when you get it. But then reality sets in... Despite the high price and relatively sophisticated programming, the manufacturing quality is poor, with cheap, flimsy materials used throughout. When my unit failed after 6 months (stripped gears on the brush drivetrain) I did a little more internet digging and found an entire subculture devoted to folks repairing their Roombas, even trying to fabricate replacement parts from better materials. Also, it was not as big a time saver as hoped. The room must be totally Roomba-proofed before use, as any stray piece of string, fabric, electrical cords, throw rugs, etc. will jam the brushes (which is probably how my gears got stripped). As others have noted, the Roomba will get confused by too many chair legs or other tight spaces. The vacuum does work, although not as well as a regular vac. selling for much less. On the plus side, it's a good way to keep the dirt under control between more thorough cleanings with a regular vacuum, and it is kind of fun to watch. Bottom line--Roomba should work well if you have a simply-furnished space, not too much long pet hair, pick up things that could jam the brushes, and supervise its work. Just don't expect too much, and be sure to get an extended warranty.