Customer Reviews

iRobot 12101 Looj Electric Gutter Cleaning Robot

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I had decided not to buy this product after reading poor reviews from 3 others. Then I got an estimate of $400 to clean my gutters. I figured for $99 I might as well try the robot. My house is on a steep hill and in many places my ladder will not reach to the gutters. The thought of it getting stuck in a place I could not reach led me to attach a kite string to the robot, 'just in case'. If you do that, make sure you tend the string so as not to back over it, or it will wind around the auger. (You can guess how I found that out).
I was shocked to find that the robot did everything it is advertised to do. Even though it had rained recently, it tossed everything out as it passed back and forth. The antenna never got stuck, I found no need for goggles for protection from flying debris. There were times when it started to ride up on particularly full areas. That's when you need to back down and inch forward slowly, and for me, it managed to clear all of them nicely.
I would suggest to Wiley, W., and Dogfather who each gave this device a one star rating, that if they had not let their gutters get in such bad shape in the first place this device would do a great job for them. I didn't even need the kite string to pull it back to me since it never got stuck. But I wouldn't send it out without the string anyway, just in case.

First I want to thank all the 1 star reviewers. their insight was invaluable to my success. All of their complaints are valid, but inconsequenial for cleaning gutters. I have LOTS of gutters. Hundreds of feet. 2 stories up, cant walk on the roof for breaking tiles and uneven ground underneath. Very dangerous. In fact dangerous enough I didnt bother with gutters for 7 years. When I first read about Looj, I went "COOL" Ive got to own one of these. After reading the rather poor reviews, I lowered my expectations but thought, "$99, Ive spent more on a bad meal". So.....

I thank the reviewers regarding the battery recharge. your right there was some charge when I opened the package. Ran it down to zero before starting to charge. Next I was going to start Saturday @ about 10am so I started charging at 7pm the night before. So far so good. About 1/3 of my gutters are not near any trees and are "clean". So inorder to try it out I started there. Clean, I thought. Put that baby in there, turned it on, and it looked like a dust tornado tooling down the gutter. Dirt, old leaves, sand, twigs just flying all over the place. Cool!.

Next I worked on the medium build up area. Mostly leaves and twigs. I want to Thank again past reviewers. 1. damn antenae got stuck a few times. tore off the rubber insilater in about 2 minutes. SO? I left it off. Yes this baby flipped over. So what? tossed it into reverse and it either flipped back or started to eat through stuff upside down. After climbing the ladder in a safe place and setting up the looj, I got down and just walked behind looj underneath and went the full length of the gutter. When it Almost fell out of the gutter a couple of times, My only thought was, "all the easier to retrieve it". Never did fall out though.

Finally the "fully loaded" gutter. Under a mass of eucalyptus trees. Never been cleaned, WAY to dangerous. Started on one side that was accessable and went to work. It wined, it wrred, it threw crap all over me. got stuck, back up, try again. flipped? kept going. Couldn't see much after about 10 feet as I had to walk under the thing. Only way I knew it was working was stuff being flung all over the place. figured when it stopped raining dirt it was stuck. Back and forth, back and forth. Took and hour or so to do about 50 feet worth. Was starting to get low on batteries so I thought, "well lets see if I can get this thing back to the beginning". threw it in reverse, It threw up more crap, but smoothly made it back. Looking at the gutter i was AMAZED how clean it was. Threw out sticks, a rats nest, branches everything! Now it took me maybe 2 minutes to clean 3 or 4 feet with my hands. Could have done three times the amount in the same time by hand. Up the ladder, down the ladder, up the ladder down the ladder, on uneven ground no less, but it would be faster.

In conclusion, I had low expectations for the Looj. I thought If I could just get all the gutters clean once then KEEPING them clean might be safer and easier with the Looj. I was pleasently suprised at how well it dealt with the tough job and am quite confident that once they are clean the looj will make fast work of keeping them clean.

As a couple of side notes. I wish they could get them to go around corners or down the drainpipe. Be nice if it was a real robot rather then a RC and the battery charge is a bit of a pain. Ditch the stupid antenna if you can.

FINALLY,

DO NOT let your children play with this when you bring it out the first time. They are absouletly chomping at the bit for the gutters to get dirty again. "Comeon dad let ME try it!" I figure im good for 4 or 5 cleanings before they realize its a job to do.

$99? cant beat it.

I just got done with my first Looj run. Since it arrived during the recent heavy California rains, I was dealing with a year's accumulation of leaves that were now wet and mucky. Frankly, I didn't expect very much, especially after reading some of the negative reviews.

Short story-the Looj WORKS, and works well, IF you work it right. When there is a heavy load of leaf litter/muck, you can NOT just run it steadily down the gutter, like a nonstop snowplow. It WILL jam, turn over, etc. as some people have complained about. BUT, if you move it ahead a bit, let it sit toss everything out, then move it ahead a bit, let it toss everything out, it does just fine. You have to let it clear what it's working on before you advance it. Kind of like swallowing before you take the next bite of food.

Yes, that make the process a bit slow, but it still beats doing the whole thing manually, moving the ladder 99 times, etc. And I would guess that now that my gutters are clean, if I stay with it (which I'm much more likely to do using the Looj) and clean it out when things are less than full and when it's dry, I'll pretty much be able to just drive it down the line.

My only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is the battery. In this day and age, a NiCad battery is pretty pitiful. A NiCad battery that doesn't have an automated charger, so YOU have to monitor when its 15 hour charge period is exactly up (because iRobot warns you should NOT exceed the charge period or you'll diminish battery life), is really lame (so is the 15 hour charge period). In this regard, iRobot needs to go back to the engineers and tell them to do better.

That aside, the Looj does what it says it will do, and does it surprisingly well, IMHO.

Let it never be said that man is not an inventive creature, particularly when it comes to finding ways to do less work. Enter Looj, a strangely-named device from the people who brought us creepy robotic vacuum cleaners. It works, not perfectly, but well enough for a lazy man to appreciate the time saved.

Cleaning out gutters isn't a job anyone wants, even a robot. This becomes apparent from the moment you activate this device, after the lengthy charging ceremony you must endure just to get it going. Looj burbles through the muck in your gutters like a growling, epileptic sea otter, flinging decay and muck out in an impressive fountain which will leave you and your yard splattered and slightly embarassed.

However, one cannot fault the device - it is doing as intended, just not so gracefully. Those complaining that Looj failed to tackle their gutter mess have likely delayed cleaning for too long - with regular cleaning a gutter should not be blocked up with so much sludge to begin with. Much like you need to rinse dishes before using the dishwasher in most cases, you should not expect miracles from a device intended to aid in your task.

Looj has a delightful secondary use, as well. Given the remote-controlled nature of the device, it is second to none for sabotage. I have a neighbor I compete with in a friendly manner, and one night I snuck up and put Looj into his rear gutter, where I'd found some especially rank buildup.

I then retreated to my own yard, and tossed a softball over, letting it knock into some gardening tools he had left leaning against the house. When he came out to see what was happening, under cover of darkness I activated looj, watching with inappropriate glee as a reeking cascade of gutter-muck slorched down onto his surprised, balding head! We both agreed (after a minor fistfight and subsequent beer-guzzling period of manly peacemaking) that it was a great practical joke.

Disclaimer: this reviewer does not encourage the misuse of appliances such as Looj. All robots should be respected and feared, as they will one day become our mirthless leaders.

Disclaimer-disclaimer: But it was pretty funny!

It made it much easier for me to clean my gutters. But, judging from some reviews I read before purchase, a few points should be made:

1. It is not magic. You have to work it back and forth to bust up piles of debris. (Read the directions carefully before using.)

2. It is not really a robot since it has no intelligence. And you will not have the intelligence to run it unless you read the directions.

3. You should use it when the gutters are dry or you will make an unpleasant mess below.

4. It is only worth getting if you have long, straight runs of gutter.

5. As other reviewers have complained, iRobot should have used more advanced battery technology.

Got my Looj over the weekend and tackled my gutters.

As others have noted, iRobot certainly should have spent a little more time on the design. There is no excuse for using a "dumb" charger and needing to use a screwdriver to charge the battery.

One additional complaint, the "broom" part of the rotators didn't make it through one day of use.. it's all bent, but the rubber brush is what does the work so the unit still works.

Now for the good... simply put, it works!

There are parts of my gutters that are inaccessible from the ground (due to ground obstructions blocking the ladder) and have never been cleaned. The Looj chomped right through them.

It's slow.. I think many poor reviews are being driven too fast. I "inched" it along in the problem areas, and it still needed to back up and get a running start at some tough areas.

It flipped on its side a few times and easily righted itself by backing up and reversing the brush (as per the instructions). These gutters were *completely* full. (but mostly dry)

It did get stuck twice... once due to a rain sensor mounting screw protruding from the bottom of the gutter (which I'll snip), and a second time trying to traverse 2 inches of wet dirt. (mulched leaves.. like I said, these gutters were in bad shape!). The latter shouldn't be a problem in the future, as the Looj will clear the leaves before the decompose!

The remote range wasn't very good, but an instruction insert suggested touching the remote to the gutter and when I did that, range was never a problem. I just couldn't control the Looj from the ground.

Cleanup was a snap.. the mud just washed off.

I recommend this to anyone with long or inaccessible gutter runs.

Robert

Reading the other reviews of this product it seems the other customers expected this little robot to sense when the gutters were full, levitate to the gutter, clean them, powerwash the siding and then float down to a charger. Seriously?

Fiction aside, this little robot works pretty well. My gutters are pretty narrow and the looj juuuuuuuuuust fits in the track. This last cleaning was pretty messy because *I* let it sit to long. I have two ginormous maples in my yard and there was a ton of helicopters in the gutters. Filled to the brim, and I was sprouting little maple seedlings. Harry Homeowner I'm not.

I made a hole for the Looj, dropped him in and off to the races we went. You have to engage your brain when using the Looj. If you notice him starting to turn to one direction - reverse the auger direction and he will right himself. 9 times out of 10 he would start to "list" because of a particularly nasty collection of gutter crud. Backing the unit off and taking a few passes at that section of the gutter and your ready to move on.

Looking at the design of the Looj - it should be apparent that this thing flings the gutter-stuff out of the track. As for stories of it hitting other houses, I'd have to say that you'd need to be within 10 feet of another home to really have an issue. If that is the case, then you have other problems - and thanks for contributing to suburban sprawl by living in McMansion Grove.

The remote is also the carry handle, and I'm quite happy with that. Note: that with ANY conductive gutter your best bet is to lay the edge of the remote on the gutter itself. The remote sends continuous instructions to the Looj, and if it can't receive them it does not move. So if you notice your Looj stopping and starting, chances are he's having issue "hearing" the remote. Lay the edge of the remote on the gutter & he'll wake back up.

As another reviewer mentioned, longer runs of gutter will make for a happier experience, as this thing is essentially a torpedo, and as stated before will not levitate to the next gutter track.

Battery Life: The Battery is fine. Just toss it into the charger and get it the next morning when you intend to attack your gutters. This isn't something like a Roomba that you will use every week. The Looj will get called into service a few times a year in the spring and fall - so keeping in mind its designed purpose its no big deal to twist the 2 screws to get into the waterproof battery compartment and scoop up the battery for charging.

Clean up: As easy as advertised. A lot easier then cleaning myself up after scooping out the crud last time I did the gutters by hand. Yuck.

Service Life: I think that all your going to get out of the auger is 1 year of life. Beating leaves, seeds, and gutter-crud out of a metal half pipe is hard on the auger. Expect to dole out $20-$30 bucks every year for a new auger head.