Appliances

If you are thinking of getting one of these IRobot Roomba vacuum cleaners for mum or dad as a father’s or mother’s day gift, you may want to find out more before committing a few hundred dollars for these automated machines.

There are a few models in the IRobot Roomba series. They are iRobot Roomba 400 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, iRobot Roomba 410 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, iRobot Roomba 416 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, iRobot Roomba 510 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, iRobot Roomba 530 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, are iRobot Roomba 560 Vacuum Cleaning Robot, iRobot Roomba 570 Vacuum Cleaning Robot. Yes, you are right, the more spectacular the model number, the more highpriced the vacuum cleaning robot is.

I have the IRobot Roomba 580 vaccum cleaning robot, so I shall tell you what I think of this machine. First the features: It is competent to cover 4 rooms on a single battery charge, a Wireless Command Center which is the same as a remote control, on-board scheduling,

self-charging home base, comes with 11 brushes and 7 filters. This is the latest generation of robots developed by the company which has bettered performance and durability equated to it is predecessors. The on-board scheduling feature allows you to preset up to seven cleaning times per week for the robot to clean your carpet whether you are at home or not. The Roomba is competent to clean four rooms on a single charge, gets into difficult areas like wall edges and under furniture. The Roomba mechanically adjusts from carpets to hard floors and back again. There is a Virtual Wall Lighthouse feature that confines Roomba to one room until the entire floor is vacuumed before moving on to the next room. Isn’t that cool?

When it is battery is running low, or when the carpet cleaning occupation is complete, Roomba mechanically returns to the self-charging Home Base to dock and recharge. If you feel like ‘playing’ with the Roomba, you may control and steer Roomba remotely using the Wireless Command Center. The 580 model likewise has a silver faceplate so you may change Roomba’s look to match your home decor.

So what’s good when it comes to the IRobot Roomba 580 vacuum cleaner? It cleans effectively, cleans under furniture, is capable to cover the whole room, pet friendly, hassle free operation, long battery life or will have to I say sufficient battery life for the entire house. For dog or cat owners, having the Roomba is bliss as it efficaciously takes in all the hair and fur. This vacuum cleaner robot does not get tired and it feeds itself when it is power hungry. I think the best use of the Roomba is for the handicapped or the elderly. Vacuuming the carpet or floor may be a tedious occupation peculiarly when you are unable to stand for long.

The cons? It is a little noisy and it may once in a while get stuck and unable to maneuver itself out, particularly at corners. It is unable to clean the stairs, so IRobot engineers need to manufacture numerous form of legs for this cleaner. It is also a little costly but you may get a discounted one from carpet cleaning supplies store.

Irobot Roomba 4960 Virtual Wall

The iRobot Roomba 610 Professional Series Vacuum Cleaning Robot cleans up to four rooms on a single charge. It comes equipped with two interchangeable bins, a high capacity sweeper bin and a vacuuming debris bin, that may be used for either every day cleaning or for picking up larger-than-usual amounts of debris. The Professional Series also has extra brushes, filters and cleaning tools plus a commodious storage case to coordinate and store the accessaries and sweeping bin in one place. Durable paint and bumper guards provide a scratch immune finish to the Roomba Pro and more shelter for furniture and obstacles. An extra long power cord allows more outstanding skillfulness for charging and storing and storing Roomba on the included, heavy weighted, self-charging Home Base. Two Virtual Wall Light Houses see to it the most effective room-to-room cleaning, and block off-limit areas. Roomba Pro likewise features three cleaning modes, including Max Mode that allows greatest or most complete or best possible cleaning coverage in larger homes, offices or business settings. In Max Mode, Roomba cleans until the battery is almost drained, then it returns it to it is Home Base to dock and recharge. The Professional Series is also the only iRobot Roomba Vacuum Cleaning Robot to carry a two-year warranty.

The Roomba 610′s compact shape allows it to vacuum beneath beds, couches and other hard-to-reach places while it is innovative, spinning side brush removes gathered debris along kickboards, cabinet edges and corners. A sturdy bristle brush digs deep into carpet fibers to grab dirt, debris, pet hair and more, while a fine filter traps dust, pollen and tiny particulates inside the bin. It even detects dirtier areas and spends more time cleaning them.

You may schedule up to seven cleaning times per week at times when it’s most commodious for you, and when the Roomba 610 is finished it mechanically returns to it is compact, self-charging Home Base to dock and recharge among cleanings. The Roomba 610 comes with 2 professional-grade Virtual Wall Lighthouses that fabricate invisible barriers that block Roomba from entering off-limit areas or direct Roomba to completely vacuum one room before sending it to the next room.

You may choose among 3 cleaning modes–standard Clean Mode maximizes coverage for a room after calculating it is size; Max Mode for cleaning larger areas until it is battery is almost depleted; and Spot Mode for concentrated cleaning in an area up to three feet in diameter.

The unit measures 17 by 18 by 5 inches and weighs just over 16-1/2 pounds. It’s backed by a 2-year warranty.

What’s in the Box
iRobot Roomba 610; Professional Series Virtual Wall Lighthouses (each necessitating 2 C-size batteries, not included); self-charging home base; power supply; 2 brush cleaning tools; extra set of brushes; rechargeable battery; 2 extra filters; debris bin; high-capacity sweeper bin; storage case

Irobot Roomba 4960 Virtual Wall Picture

Irobot Roomba 4960 Virtual Wall Photo

Irobot Roomba 4960 Virtual Wall Picture

Irobot Roomba 4960 Virtual Wall Image

Most helpful customer reviews

260 of 265 people found the following review helpful.
OK, not great vacuum
By Roopesh Sheth
I’ve used the Roomba 610 and 560. I now have two refurbished 560s in our house, at the same price as one 610. And it’s definitely a better value.

Before I talk about the 610, let me share what’s good and bad about Roombas in general, based on my experience with both the 560s and 610:
Pros:
- You don’t have to vacuum, the Roomba does it for you
- Scheduled cleanings so you don’t even have to worry about it or be home to hear the noise
- Floors stay clean without much effort
- One button start it and forget about it

Cons:
- Absolute pain in the butt to clean these things. There’s the two brushes, the front wheel, the spinning brush (which requires a screwdriver to remove), and the dust bin. All of these must be disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled, at least once per cleaning session.
- It’s not effort free. As I said above, lots to clean, which requires 5-10 minutes each time you want to run the Roomba.
- With pets, the fur gets wrapped around EVERYTHING. Maybe without pets our cleaning of the Roomba would be easier, but the whole point of these devices is ease, and they do not deliver.

So the nice things about the 610 are:
- Easier brush cleaning than the 560. Not much easier, but easier. Hair & fur still get wrapped around the edges of the brushes and into the mechanisms, but it’s 5% easier to clean on the 610.
- The accessories case and accessories. The brush cleaning tool is nice, but it doesn’t clean the brush holders, where all the stuff actually gets wrapped up and is difficult to clean.

Not so good things about the 610:
- No carrying handle. This seems inconsequential, but after having a way to pick up my 560 without having to pick the whole thing up from the bottom, where all the dust and dirt accumulates, you appreciate a carrying handle. Why didn’t they include this on the 610?
- Only two lighthouses. They say it can clean four rooms, but they only include two lighthouses. My experience has been that three rooms is pushing it, so unless you have small rooms two lighthouses may be OK.

So why did I get two 560s if I have so many problems? I hate to vacuum, and I’d rather clean all the brushes and edges once a day than push the vacuum around for 45 minutes. So it’s a trade-off.

Read other forums and you’ll see that the 610 is not recommended, it’s basically a 560 with lipstick.

83 of 85 people found the following review helpful.
Great for light upkeep, excellent customer service
By Noelle W Dempsey
We have five pets. Three elderly long haired cats and two large short haired dogs. We recently upgraded to a new home with a cream colored carpet and a mix of tile and linoleum in an open floor plan. What was I thinking? I was thinking I had three days to pick a house for a relocation is what I was thinking! But I digress. The carpet isn’t perfect, it’s five years old and the previous owners were pet owners too, but I was determined to keep it in good shape.

I held out for the professional model despite the difference in price. I figured we had a professional level of hair here. Between one cat whose fur has the texture of cotton candy, another cat whose main hobby is tearing paper apart bit by bit, and the dogs with their rolling around on the floor I needed something that could stand up to the mess. I assumed I would need the larger debris bin to hold all the stuff that comes out of the carpet but actually after a few runs I felt that the smaller one with an air filter does a better job. It’s not a HEPA filter but it gets a lot of dirt and dust into the bin.

I’ve realized a lot of things about the roomba in the six months we’ve had it:

+ I consider it more of a good automated carpet sweeper / groomer than an actual vacuum. It will not replace the old vacuum cleaner. But I’ve noticed that I don’t have to drag the vacuum cleaner out as often. Being round the roomba doesn’t do that great a job on corners but it gets pretty close so I need to use the edging tools sometimes.

+ I have to pick up all the pillows, papers, or any pile on the floor before going to bed if I want it to run well. Strangely this has become a *bonus*. It keeps me tidying. The nights that I don’t pick up and wake up to find the roomba stuck on some pillow or the dog bed make me sad.

+ We have the timer set to turn on at two am but I find that with our home’s layout pressing the ‘max’ button therefore making it run right away works best. ‘Max’ will just keep the roomba running through the large open rooms until the battery runs out of charge and dock itself or simply ‘pass out’ where it is. It gets the floors super-clean.

+ It does fairly well with larger cords and we don’t have rugs with tassels so I don’t know about that. Apparently irobot has worked on improving that system where the roomba detects a cord obstruction so it automatically reverses the brush. Smaller cords not so much – the sweeper brush got entirely tangled on a set of earphone cords but they did survive and the roomba kept on going! It runs under our sofa and coffee tables. It has a relationship with our large round ottoman that makes me kind of uncomfortable – it looooves to clean around that ottoman. Sometimes the roomba gets caught in odd places but we do our best to make sure it’s unobstructed.

+ Those brushes need cleaning. Like all the time. I do it every night. Dump the bin, clean the brushes. Not just the brushy parts either but the spinning joints. There are two handy tools included in this kit and I use them along with a pair of old scissors. It’s not pretty but it takes maybe two minutes. With the extra brushes you can swap them out every other night and that saves some time. To me cleaning the brushes and dumping the bin is a very small price to pay to wake up to carpet that was cleaned in the night.

+ Sometimes I check the front rolling wheel but the kind of hair in my house doesn’t seem to get caught in there the way I’ve read it happens to others. I also change the filters in the debris bin fairly often and rinse them (not the bin itself though that’s not supposed to happen). According to the faq on irobot’s site rinsing the air filter is ok, as long as you make sure it’s dry before putting it back in. Every few months I take the plate off the bottom and use some canned air to clean the dust and hair inside too. This is probably more maintenance than the average household needs to do but we have a lot of pets here and this was kind of a big ticket item for us. And I really really hate vacuuming.

So basically I love my little robot and don’t have to vacuum but I do have to tidy up for it and clean brushes. I’m happy.

But! I have a great customer service story to tell you too!

The dogs are messy when they drink water and the roomba tends to get stuck on the wet outdoor carpet where their bowls are (I have to find a solution for that). I usually put the roomba back in the morning but one morning two weeks ago my husband didn’t put it back, the dogs drank from the bowl and the roomba got wet on top!!! It’s been messed up ever since. I haven’t been able to get it to work. Took it apart, tried to dry it, tried to reset it. Everything. I was distraught.

I bought a 150 dollar roomba to tide myself over until I could get the 610 fixed (I had wanted another one for our bedroom anyway) and after taking one look at how flimsy it was I put it right back in the box and returned it to Target. There was no way it was going to hold up to our household.

So I called customer service Wednesday and they’re sending a replacement. A new battery, a new bin and everything! I was told I have to ship mine back with an rma number and if I send them a tracking number then they’ll ship mine. I just got a tracking number today!! My new one will be here Tuesday! Now I’m planning on putting a shower cap on top of my roomba so this will never happen again.

All in all if you’re considering buying a roomba, hold out for this one or a 500 series. It’s not perfect but the comparative maintenance chores, for me, far outweigh having to vacuum!

62 of 66 people found the following review helpful.
This thing is great!
By Unna
I got the professional series because I have a family of professional grade mess makers (kids, husband, pets, etc.). I love it! I think when people are dissatisfied with it they do not understand what it is and what it is not. It won’t clean up an already neglected floor. You start with clean floors and then push a button everyday and let it run around your house doing upkeep and you won’t have to vacuum anything except for behind items it can’t get to once a month or so. Before my roomba I vacuumed 2 times a week and still dirt would show up on the bottom of peoples white socks. Since roomba no more dirt!!! It handles the cat fur and it even found an earring I lost over a year ago that must of been hiding someplace. The best part is it can get under things my vacuum never could reach. Yes, you have to know its limitations. It is a programmed device. You have to change something’s around your home to work with it. Get wires off the floor so it won’t get stuck, for instance. But this thing makes the floors shine and the rugs a joy to walk on. In fact I am purchasing another one for upstairs this week.

See all 24 customer reviews…