iRobot 12101 Looj Electric Gutter Cleaning Robot

by iRobot

• Avoid climbing and repositioning the ladder multiple times
• Works with standard K-style, aluminum, copper, metal or vinyl gutters
• Avoid over reaching into gutters from dangerous heights
• Cleans a 60-foot section of gutter in just 10 minutes

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000WL4QAW
• Item model number: 120
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,404 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden)
  • #61 in Home Improvement > Building Supplies > Building Materials > Roofing > Gutters

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Reduce ladder work and over-reaching while cleaning your gutters. Gutters need to be cleaned regularly to avoid water damage, over spills and ice dams. Plus, dirty gutters create a breeding ground for carpenter ants, mosquitoes and other pests. Now you can avoid climbing and repositioning a ladder multiple times while juggling tools and over reaching from dangerous heights. iRobot Looj makes regular gutter cleaning faster and easier. The iRobot Looj cleans up to 80 feet of gutter in minutes, not hours,it's the easiest way to keep gutters free-flowing all year round! Gutter cleaning is a dirty, unpleasant job. You have to repeatedly climb and move ladders, and reach from dangerous heights. But no more! Now you can do it all by remote control with the amazing new Looj robot gutter cleaner from iRobot. At just 2 1/4-inches tall, Looj propels itself easily under gutter straps and over downspout holes. Its three-stage, high-velocity auger breaks up clogs, lifting out leaves, pine needles and other wet or dry debris while brushing gutters clean. Wireless remote control has a 75-foot range, moves the Looj forwards and backwards, and changes the rotational direction of the auger to ensure complete debris removal. Looj attaches to an included belt clip to free up your hands and make it easier for you to climb a ladder. Uses a high power, rechargeable battery pack (included). Remote uses two AAA batteries (not included).

Product Description

Reduce ladder work and over-reaching while cleaning your gutters. Gutters need to be cleaned regularly to avoid water damage, overspills and ice dams. Plus, dirty gutters create a breeding ground for carpenter ants, mosquitoes and other pests. Now you can avoid climbing and repositioning a ladder multiple times while juggling tools and over reaching from dangerous heights. iRobot Looj makes regular gutter cleaning faster and easier. The iRobot Looj cleans up to 80 feet of gutter in minutes, not hours,it's the easiest way to keep gutters free-flowing all year round! Gutter cleaning is a dirty, unpleasant job. You have to repeatedly climb and move ladders, and reach from dangerous heights. But no more! Now you can do it all by remote control with the amazing new Looj robot gutter cleaner from iRobot. At just 2 1/4" tall, Looj propels itself easily under gutter straps and over downspout holes. Its three-stage, high-velocity auger breaks up clogs, lifting out leaves, pine needles and other wet or dry debris while brushing gutters clean. Wireless remote control has a 75-ft. range, moves the Looj forwards and backwards, and changes the rotational direction of the auger to ensure complete debris removal. Looj attaches to an included belt clip to free up your hands and make it easier for you to climb a ladder. Uses a high power, rechargeable battery pack (included). Remote uses two AAA batteries (not included).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

234 of 237 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent aid for gutter cleaning October 20, 2007

By Captain Audio

The Looj Gutter-Cleaning Robot from iRobot - like most things, it doesn't quite live up to its hype, but its still a worthy aid in your gutter cleaning chores. First thing to mention is that calling this thing a "robot" is very misleading. A robot can minimally sense its surroundings and make some decisions based on the sensors - like the Roomba robotic vacuum. This can do nothing of the sort and is simply a remote-controlled gutter cleaner.

As with other iRobot products, the Looj requires a lengthy battery chargeup of 15 hours before use, so the first thing I bumped into was the very rudimentary battery setup. To begin with, the battery compartment has 2 screws requiring a phillips head screwdriver to get into. While this is not a big problem, it just seems like you shouldn't have to use tools to access a battery that you will have to charge frequently.

The battery pack itself is connected to the Looj with an automotive style plastic connector. You have to squeeze a little lever on it to release it from the unit and connect it to the charger.

The charger is really just a small power brick with a low current delivery so it essentially trickle-charges the battery, which is why it takes 15 hours to charge. There are also stickers all over the place warning not to charge it for more than 15 hours or you could damage the battery. So this "charger" does not sense the battery state, and will not turn off when it reaches full capacity.

This makes charging an exercise in planning. Before you plug it in, you need to be sure that 15 hours from now you are not asleep or at work or shopping. Also, what do you do if you've used it for 20 minutes and want to charge it back up all the way? How long should you leave it in the charger? Who knows?...

This is the kind of charging system that hobbyists use on radio controlled cars or planes. While serviceable, it only appeals to the tinkerer, not the home owner. I haven't seen this kind of system on a normal consumer device in years.

In the best case, the Looj itself should rest in a cradle that charges it automatically and shuts off when full - no battery removal required. Barring that, the battery should be easily removed (without tools!) and put into an auto-charging cradle. To the iRobot company I say "shame on you" for claiming to be a high tech "robot" company while delivering such a low tech battery system.

So lets get to the Looj itself. The first thing you deal with is the handle/remote-control. The idea is to use the handle to put the Looj into the gutter, release it, and then click the handle back on to extract it when done. This feature goes on the list of "doesn't quite work as advertised".

If your gutters are large and wide open, you can probably put it in using the handle. Mine were kind of tight and I had to put the Looj in sideways to get it past the overhanging shingles, and then straighten it out once inside. The handle was in the way and had to be removed first.

But, more importantly, getting the handle back on afterwards varies from tricky to impossible. In the best case, lining the handle up and getting it locked in securely is hit or miss. Several times I picked it up and the handle popped off. But, if you've encountered any amount of debris when cleaning the gutter, it clogs up the slots where the handle attaches and it becomes impossible to reattach without first cleaning the unit.

My personal opinion is that the handle should just be a small pocket sized remote control. The Looj can be easily inserted into the gutter and retrieved without the use of the handle.

The next thing to consider is how the Looj travels down the gutter. If the gutters are large and clear of obstructions, no problem. I had a bent nail I had to fix to allow it to pass - certainly not the Looj's fault. But there were some other locations where the gutter brackets were a little unusual and it got stuck under a couple of them. A bit of back-and-forth with the remote freed it up.

Probably the biggest impediment to its travel is the antenna. Its not quite as flexible as it ought to be, and can sometimes bend into a loop that binds in the gutter and stops the Looj. In spite of the rubber treads, the Looj does not have a lot of traction and can be stopped fairly easily.

This happened frequently when I first used it. I noticed that, when free, the antenna leaned to one side and was bent into a bit of a curve - perhaps from the way it was shipped. I spent some time straightening it out so that it stood straight up, and had significantly fewer problems. There were still a couple of times when I had to work it free, but was always able to.

So in the end, how good a job did it do on the gutters? Pretty good actually. The place where it didn't work so well is when it encountered what I call wet gutter sludge. This is the heavy stuff composed mostly of gravel from the roof shingles, mixed with a little dirt and water. It moved this stuff off to the side of the gutter, and flung some of it out, but quite a bit remained. I think this might be more easily removed in the dry summer months when its more dusty/gravely instead of sludgy. Plus, there is usually only a small layer of this heavy sludge in the bottom of the gutter and it doesn't interfere much with the gutter's water flow.

The stuff that does interfere with the flow is leaves, twigs, pine needles, and the lighter weight wet glop made of decomposing leaves and organic matter. Here's where the Looj did its job with aplomb. The only thing you might need to be concerned about is what's below the gutter. The Looj flings wet gloppy stuff all over everything below the gutter and for about 6 feet away from it. This is just the Looj doing its job correctly, but you should move anything that you don't want pasted with this stuff.

When you're done, the gutter is much cleaner that before, but not completely clean. Since the auger rotates in front, the cleaning patter is circular, but the gutter is not. So a certain amount of stuff gets left in the lower corners of the gutter. On heavily clogged areas, I had to drive the Looj back and forth several times to get most of the stuff out.

The battery life seems good. I did my entire house (2000 sq ft, 2 story) and part of a barn before I ran out of daylight, but the battery did not seem to be slowing down at all.

Oh, one last thing. If your gutters are damp, be prepared to take a shower when you're done. You'll get stuff flung at you when the Looj is near the ladder. Also, hanging the wet, glop-covered Looj on your belt loop will soak your leg and cover your jeans with dirt.

So bottom line: would I buy one again? Yes I would! If I compare it to the expectations I had from the advertising hype, I'd rate it a 5 out of 10. But if I just rate it against the job it needs to do, I'd probably give it about an 8. It cut my job time to half what it would normally take me (maybe less), made it a lot easier, and most importantly made it MUCH safer.

If you have a house with lots of short gutter runs, this is probably not for you. If you're expecting this to almost do the job for you you'll be disappointed. You still have to get up on the ladder, move the ladder around, get the Looj in and out, clean it off regularly, etc. But it DEFINITELY cuts the job down to size. And for that, I think its worth the price. Read more ›

271 of 282 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time, money, and the word 'robot' October 22, 2007

By Wiley Hodges

I hate cleaning gutters. It isn't necessarily that hard, but it's at least a little dangerous, and it's certainly an unpleasant task. I was elated when I heard about the Looj. At the same time, I work in tech and I tend to take product claims with a grain of salt. This one requires something more the size the salt licks used for livestock.

According to the instructions, the battery must be charged for 15 hours before using. According to a warning sticker, the battery must not be charged for more than 15 hours. Nice. Plan carefully, kids.

The device itself seems well-constructed, and everything that you have to hook up or assemble is designed in a relatively idiot-proof way. Despite the bizarre battery charging ritual I was willing to give it a chance.

I'll admit that my gutters aren't easy to clean, and they were certainly full of leaves. But the Looj was pointless. It would ride up on the debris, then flip over due to the action of its 'auger.' I would have to turn it back over and start again. It felt like I was assisting a wounded turtle. And it barely made dent on the debris in the gutter.

The Looj made a huge mess. I had to stop using it on one side of my house because it was flinging debris so far that it was hitting my neighbor's house. Not the neighborly thing to do. I had to hose down the parts of the house and gutters where I did use it because of the slime that it sprayed everywhere. I had to hose down my neighbor's house. I think I'm going to need to burn the clothes I was wearing.

Finally, after 'cleaning' about 35 linear feet of gutter and making a gigantic mess, the battery in the Looj died. I was somewhat comforted knowing that my ordeal was over for at least (or exactly) 15 hours....

I really wanted for this product to work. I hope that someday someone makes a product that does work for cleaning my gutters. In the meantime, it's back to the scoop and bucket, and the wistful dream of what might have been. Drat. Read more ›

66 of 70 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, bad implementation October 20, 2007

By W. Seurer

I have a lot of gutters on my house and they are quite high up so I was really looking forward to not having to climb around on ladders or getting up on the roof this year by using the Looj I purchased. Well, I just got done with 45 minutes of climbing around on ladders on the roof to clean the gutters by hand. The Looj is a complete failure in my opinion.

My gutters are standard aluminum gutters and I have to clean them out 2 or 3 times a year, usually only after wind storms. I tried out the Looj on a section that was filled about half way with oak leaves. It's been raining a lot so they were fairly wet on the bottom. There was another section that was chock full of leaves but I never got there.

As noted by the previous reviewer the Looj gets stuck. It gets stuck A LOT. I cleaned out a section of gutter manually to have a place to put in the Looj and placed it in the gutter. I backed off and started it up. Stuff came flying out of the gutter, yay! I moved it forward a bit and within a foot it was in trouble and got stuck.

The Looj tends to "ride up" on debris instead of cleaning it out and this is what happened. If got stuck between the debris it didn't remove and a gutter nail. So I climbed up on the ladder, unstuck it, and started again.

This time it got under the nail and the antenna caught it and the whole Looj flipped over upside down and shut off.

Back up the ladder, flip it over, and start it again. This time I was past the nail so I thought it was home free. It went about another foot and flipped itself over again.

Back up the ladder, flip it over, and start again. It went a short distance and got stuck again.

Back up the ladder, pull it out, and take it down. What went wrong?... There are both paddles and bristles to do cleaning and the bristles had gotten tangled somehow around the shaft that drives the auger.

One more back up the ladder and it got stuck again right away. The auger was going and I could hear the gears trying to drive the Looj forward and back but it wouldn't move. It had ridden up on some debris and couldn't get any traction.

OK, 15 minutes to clean 2 feet of gutter (and not cleaned very well) was enough for me. I am going to return it to iRobot and hope they honor their 30 day guarantee.

Some other things I noticed:

The battery is a NiCad and takes 15 hours to charge. My model came with two. NiCads are the "bad" kind of rechargable batteries that don't last very long and have "memory" problems. The cover for the battery pack on the Looj itself is odd (it relies on a rubber seal that you have to force into place) and not easy to get on.

The "handle" is, as the earlier reviewer noted, poorly designed. It is difficult to get on properly and very difficult to get off again. It takes two AA batteries for the remote.

The Looj is REALLY messy when it works. OK, I expected a mess, but it was worse that I had thought would happen. It fling stuff all over the inside of the gutter, up on the roof, over the edge of the gutter, and far out over the roof edge (over 10'). After I finished cleaning out the gutters by hand I had to take a hose and clean off the roof and outsides of the gutter for the little area I had used the Looj. Definitely wear goggles as they suggest. Read more ›