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Roomba Informative - Impressive little cleaning robot - Roomba 560
Roomba 560
We recently traded in some of our Discover Card reward points for some gift cards to buy a Roomba from Bed Bath and Beyond. I've wanted one for a while, and figured now was the time to try one out.
We have a cat and a dog that sheds constantly. Typically I'm either swiffering or vacuuming every morning just to keep things looking somewhat clean.
The sticker price is a bit high (in the $300's) for the 560 model, but this latest model comes with the ability to schedule the Roomba to run whenever you like... for instance while you sleep at night. It also can clean up to 4 rooms in a single charge, and then return back to its charging station all by itself.
That is exactly what we did with our little cleaning helper. After setting him up (we've named him "Murray, the cleaning robot"), we gave him a test run by pushing the "Clean" button on his top. Off the Roomba went! We have a pretty big first floor (kitchen, family, dining, living rooms and a den). Murray sped off to the far reaches of our home cleaning away. He would wander into corners I probably would never vacuum, he went behind our couch at one point. He even battled it out with our cat for a few minutes before heading into the next room.
His movements were quite sporadic, but he did eventually make his way through all our rooms, bumping into things as he went. Rumor has it he remembers the configuration of your home. I have yet to see actual proof of that, but he does seem to find his way around pretty well.
He also has a handy little side arm sweeper that helps him get into corners and sweep along walls. For us, most of the pet hair accumulates by the walls, so he did a great job of picking all that up.
From a noise perspective, the Roomba seems a little quieter than a regular vacuum. It is not "quiet", but I did not mind the noise when he was bumping around the den while I worked.
The "dirt bin" is not very big as expected for such a small robot. We pretty much empty it out every morning after he does his magic while we sleep. Another important note, we have A LOT of pet hair. As such, not only do we need to empty the dirt bin daily, but we also need to clean off his brushes that get clogged with hair as well. It is a fairly easy process that involves flipping him over and easily unlocking the brushes and cleaning them off. Takes me about 2 minutes in the morning to empty the bin and clean the brushes, then I put him back by his charger and he re-docks himself to await his next night of cleaning.
You do need to be conscience of things you leave around the house. We have woken some days to find Murray stuck in one of the rooms due to inhaling a shoe string dog toy that clogged his brushes. Similar to what might happen if you vacuuming up a shoe string with a regular vacuum.
Since we have a door to our basement, we have not had any problems with the Roomba falling down stairs, so I cannot comment on its ability to avoid such situations.
Our model did come with two "virtual walls" which could be set in "Lighthouse" mode or "Wall" mode. Lighthouse mode allows you to help the Roomba find rooms in your home it might have trouble reaching. It basically acts like a beacon to direct the Roomba to a far off room. It also helps him return home when he is done.
The Wall mode allows the beacons to stop Roomba from entering an area. They are capable of projecting a 10 foot virtual wall. This beacons are battery powered. I have not used them yet. We simply let the Roomba have the run of the first floor.
I can tell you right now the Roomba is not something that will completely replace your need to ever vacuum again. From my experience, it is a great supplement if you need some help keeping up with all the pet hair or dirt. It is also a great conversation piece, and even a potential play friend/enemy for your pets... Though a bit pricey, I would recommend it if you can find a deal.
Comments:
Posted by MRM on 2008-07-27:
Cool! Imma get one! Thank you, Sparticus, for persuading me and your readers to buy one!
Posted by DebtorBasher on 2008-07-27:
I gave you a VH for this review because I'm sure it will help others to decide if this is for them or not...but for me, it's like a dishwasher...It's just something I can't imagine myself using. I can't see how something round can clean into square corners...I'm sure it is helpful if you ran it at night, as you stated you do...but first thing that would happen if I did that would be me getting up at night and stepping on it or something...So far, the only positive reviews I've read on this are by those with cats or dogs and they have stated it's good for the shedded hair...so, who am I to say it's not worth it...it just isn't for the Basher...thanks for the review Sparty!
Posted by madconsumer on 2008-07-27:
one of these would sure help with the daily cat hair pickup. it is way better than not vaccuming at all.
Posted by DebtorBasher on 2008-07-27:
Cats are Evil!
Posted by Slimjim on 2008-07-27:
We have two of these we used to let run in a retail store we have. One of them wasn't all that good It was suppose to return to the charging base when low, and never did once. Plus it stopped picking up anything after about a month. The other lesser model still works outside of the charger burning out, which we just used the spare. Overall based on our experience with the working one, it's not a bad gadget assume the bad one was a fluke.
Posted by DigitalCommando on 2008-07-27:
If these things came with a joystick remote control that allowed you to control where it goes, that would be a cool product. I'll bet that if you sprinkled ultraviolet powder on the carpet in a room and let the rhoomba do its thing and then turn on a blacklight after it's done, it would be obvious that this thing does not clean every square inch of a room and would probably look like a maze of zig-zags. I see it's value as a general preventative cleaning type thing that reduces the need to vacuum manually, but does not eliminate it entirely. Well written sparticus (VH)
Posted by Nohandle on 2008-07-27:
Nice humorous review Sparticus. Could I borrow Murray for a day or so just for a test run? On your first floor are you dealing with just wood or a combination of wood and carpeting? I ask because I can close off the area between kitchen and dining room but when I remodeled had the door from den to foyer removed and there's that little hump where carpeting and wood meet. Would Murray stop there, turn around and clean some more on the wood? My cat and dog might go nuts but I've not observed either of them clean recently.
Posted by superbowl on 2008-07-27:
Outstanding review as always Spart. I have watched these things advertised for years but really don't know anyone that has one. I have thought about picking one up as our entire downstairs is either wood or tile. I would guess they don't do real well on carpet? How do they do when they reach a single step down? We do have carpet in the living room but you have to step down a level to it.
Posted by JohnInSoCal on 2008-07-27:
Dont ask me why.. maybe its just a phobia of mine but anything that can run around my house without a heartbeat will freak me out. LOL Thanks for the review Spart!
Posted by Sparticus on 2008-07-27:
Thanks everyone.
DC you are correct. It does pretty much zig zag around. Though when it finds a wall it tends to follow it unless it has done it before. I also heard you can hack these things and upload your home floor plan, etc. Pretty cool if that is true.
NoHandle/Superbowl - we have a mix of carpet and wood flooring. It seems to have no problem going from one to the other. Our carpet is pretty thick (almost shag) and it moves along just fine over it. It has some decent sized wheels and suspension for getting over minor humps. It wouldn't be able to traverse a step down I don't think... In fact, I think it is programmed to avoid stairs once it senses the floor disappearing beneath it... But I have not tested this yet.
Oh, and DC... They do make a 580 model that is pretty much the 560, but it comes with a remote control and extra beacons.
DC you are correct. It does pretty much zig zag around. Though when it finds a wall it tends to follow it unless it has done it before. I also heard you can hack these things and upload your home floor plan, etc. Pretty cool if that is true.
NoHandle/Superbowl - we have a mix of carpet and wood flooring. It seems to have no problem going from one to the other. Our carpet is pretty thick (almost shag) and it moves along just fine over it. It has some decent sized wheels and suspension for getting over minor humps. It wouldn't be able to traverse a step down I don't think... In fact, I think it is programmed to avoid stairs once it senses the floor disappearing beneath it... But I have not tested this yet.
Oh, and DC... They do make a 580 model that is pretty much the 560, but it comes with a remote control and extra beacons.
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