iRobot Roomba 580 Vacuuming Robot
by iRobot
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Product Details
Manufacturer: iRobotBrand: iRobot
Edition: Kitchen
Model: 58001
Color: Black
Publisher: iRobot
Studio: iRobot
Music Label: iRobot
Product features:
- Vacuuming robot with spinning brushes cleans floors at the touch of a button
- Bagless dustbin; filtration system traps allergens; anti-tangle technology
- Built-in cliff sensors; on-board scheduling; wireless command center
- Self-charging home base; 2 Virtual Walls, brushes, and filters included
- Measures 16-3/4 by 21 by 5 inches; 1-year limited warranty
Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot Roomba 580 Vacuuming Robot
Customer Review: My second Roomba - quite happy so far, customer service not so good
Summary: 4 Stars
We had a 560 for about a year now and, because we have a relatively large house, we recently decided to go for a second. The 2 are quite similar. In fact, they are very much the same product, the 580 being the 560 plus the 'command center'.
Operation:
The robot itself does a pretty good job at fully covering the area and removing the dust. It is VERY good in a fully carpeted room or a bare-floor room. However, many times, it finds it difficult to climb from the floor onto the carpet. The side brush goes under the carpet and, eventually, the robot backs off and tries again later. It is usually successful, following several attempts but this may result in it over-cleaning one area and not spending too much on elsewhere. Our 560 actually ended up breaking the rotating brush following numerous under-the-rug incidents and we had to get a new rotating brush kit from Roomba.
Another, somewhat weird behavior has to do with dark objects that it should be avoiding. The Roomba seems to detect bright walls and objects and slows down and only touches them gently at the end of the approach, it usually slams into a dark wall or whatever dark object might be in its way. It seems unable to detect darker objects.
On the 580 you can schedule future jobs either on the main unit or from the control center. We did not find this capability very useful because we have more rooms than Roombas and we decided that we did not want to run our lives around the Roomba's cleaning schedule and move it around as expected. Whenever we want to clean a room, we take the Roomba there, set the virtual walls/lighthouses and push the 'clean' button.
The Command Center duplicates the buttons you find on the back on the main unit and it adds the ability to drive the robot through 3 'arrow' controls. We found that we don't use this capability. The Roomba seems smart enough to drive itself and the kids have their own remote-control toys. After a couple of 'gee-whiz' runs, we ended up not using the Command Center at all so, basically, we have 2 560's now.
The virtual walls/lighthouses are VERY useful. Each Roomba comes with 2. You would sometimes need more. While we were a one-Roomba household we manage to keep the robot within its designated area in our 'open floor' first floor by blocking it with various objects. Now that we have 2 units, we have 4 of these so all is perfect and easy downstairs.
While it's noted in the product description, I should mention that the 'going back to base' feature works VERY WELL. The Roombas almost always manage to find their base and go into the recharger when their batteries go low.
We had no problem with the battery life. Our one-year-old 560 seems to have as much stamina today as it had on day-one.
Maintenance:
After every other cleaning run, you will have to empty the dust bins, clean the filter and clean the brushes.
Taking out the dust is easy. And so is the cleaning of the filter. Cleaning the brushes is another story and problem is 'hair'. It's not terribly difficult but... you will be dealing with 'dirt'. I found that with the help of a pair of scissors or a small (sharp) knife you can clean the brushes in a couple of minutes.
Customer support:
As I mentioned before, the little 'helicopter' brush unit had to be replaced. I did not find Roomba's off-shore based support team to be very helpful. It happened a long time ago so I don't recall of the details but I remember them first being unable to understand the nature of the problem. Then, some unfriendly foreigner told me that they are not obligated to send me a replacement immediately, given that there was some '5 business days' or '10 business days' in the warranty. Anyways, I eventually got my part but it happened after a relatively long wait and too many calls and too much time spent with these lovely people. The funny thing was that, as soon as I placed my first phone call, I received an email asking that I rate the quality of the 'service' provided. MANY such surveys followed.
My rating: 4 stars
We are actually using these and they do a good job for us. The fact that we now have 2 of these, shows that we find them worth the expense. The Roombas do what we expect them to do - which is clean the room without us having to watch them doing it. They are well-built, durable and efficient. For all of the above, they get a 5-STAR PLUS rating. I am taking out 2 stars for the not so good customer support and for the little problems the Roomba seems to have climbing on carpets. Therefore, the fair rating is a 4-STAR.
Description of iRobot Roomba 580 Vacuuming Robot
500 Series robots feature that latest robot technologies from iRobot, including an updated cleaning system and coverage patterns. Includes two Virutal Walls that tells Roomba where to clean by restricting off-limit areas. Roomba efficiently cleans the whole floor, under and around furniture and along walls, and automatically adjusts from carpets to hard floors. 1 iRobot Roomba 580 2 Virtual Wall LighthouseŽ 1 Self-charging Home Base, 1 Wireless Command Center, 1 Extra Bristle and Beater Brush, 1 Power Supply (3 hour charge time)1 Brush Cleaning Tool, 1 Rechargeable Battery, 1 Extra Filter, 1 Bumper Extension, 1 Year Limited Warranty. Requires 2 C batteries (not included)Robotic Vacuums
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