Customer Reviews

iRobot 12501 Looj 125 Remote Controlled Cordless Electric Gutter Cleaning Robot With Belt Clip

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before you decide whether you want to invest the money in a gutter cleaning "robot" do yourself a favor and measure your gutters to see if the Looj will fit. iRobot has a really convenient print out that shows the dimensions and will allow you to cut out the template to easily measure your gutter's width/depth and whether the Looj will make it under your gutter straps, nails or however they are hung. You can find it on iRobot's website in the Looj 125/135/155 product description. I had a link to the PDF but Amazon wouldn't let me include it in my review. Sorry.

Once you know the device will fit in your gutter and won't get stuck, then read the reviews and decide if it's worth the money.

For me, the Looj has done a great job on my gutters. It will, however, NOT save you ANY time and could potentially take longer than it would if you repositioned the ladder. The difference is that the Looj makes the process of gutter cleaning an order of magnitude safer than what most people are accustomed to. The Looj is also technically not a robot; it's more of a remote controlled car that works for you. You can't set it and forget it like you can iRobot's Roomba.

The way the device works is you first must charge the battery. This requires you to plug it into the outlet with just the bare battery; you cannot plug the Looj into the wall as you would with iRobot's other 'bots such as the Roomba. The reason being is that the Looj is waterproof up to 1 foot (12 inches, or roughly 31 cm). In order to accomplish this, iRobot couldn't design this as affordably as it is given the need to waterproof the electrical plug as well.

The battery requires a charge of at least 15 hours. I'm unsure as to the reasoning behind this, but it could be because of battery "memory." The Looj is a device that you won't be using every week of the year. You will be using it during certain seasons, with the Looj being retired after the last leaves fall from the trees and started back up in spring (potentially). If the battery had what is known as "memory," you would potentially need to buy a new battery every year. This battery will deplete itself gradually, so when bringing the Looj out of a winter's retirement you will need to recharge it and NOT buy a new battery.

One complaint from the first generation of Looj was you were expected to ONLY charge it 15 hours. No more, no less. I'm not sure how anyone could really keep track of this. The new Looj needs 15 hours to charge but now it's OK to leave it plugged in "for no more than a few days." Hopefully during a 3 day period you're home to unplug it. I have no idea what will happen if you leave it plugged in longer; probably a shorter battery life over all.

You will also need 2 AAA batteries (NOT included) for the remote control device. Install these into the handle/remote.

Once you've charged the battery, you place it into the Looj's battery compartment (follow the directions to ensure proper water proof-ness of the Looj). Attach the belt clip to your belt or pants, attach the Looj's auger to the Looj (the auger is that funny brush/rubber contraption and does all the work), attach the remote control to the Looj (it's a convenient handle) and hang the Looj from the belt clip. The clip for the Looj to hang from is on the opposite end of the auger. Do NOT attempt to hang the Looj from the remote control handle.

One complaint I have with regards to the clip is that it is very easy to pull not only the Looj off of the clip, but it's easy to take the clip with it, which makes it potentially dangerous as you fumble around on the ladder. I cannot recommend enough that if you go with the Looj, prior to climbing the ladder ensure you are acquainted with easily removing it from the clip so as to avoid any danger.

Another complaint with the belt clip is that you are expected to place the Looj, after running it through your dirty, mucky gutters, on the clip. This WILL bring the dirty, wet Looj into contact with your pants leg and possibly your shirt as well. Be sure to wear clothes you don't mind having to wash when doing this job. iRobot has a holster for the previous model that should protect you from dirty clothes and won't detach the belt clip with it but I'm unsure whether this will snuggly hold the second generation Looj.

Place your ladder. It is recommended that for larger sections of ladder you try and place the ladder in the middle of the gutter run so you can have the Looj travel the full length of the gutter from a central location. One of iRobot's design goals with this 'bot is to set the ladder ONCE and not have to reposition every time.

One thing I would like to stress is that if you are using this device, BUY AND WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. The Looj will be throwing debris out of the gutter at potentially high speeds and if you have wind you have the potential for blow back. If you get dirt and debris in your eyes, climbing down the ladder becomes infinitely more dangerous.

Once your ladder is placed, ascend it and clean a 2 foot space in the gutter and place the Looj in the center of the gutter. Ensure it rests in the bottom groove as securely as possible. If you don't do this, the Looj could possibly climb out of the gutter and damage itself, nearby plants or even a nearby bystander.

Remove the remote control. Turn the remote control on. Turn the robot on (there's a yellow switch). When you look at the remote, you will see a forward and reverse button. You will also see 2 options for the auger control. One goes clockwise the other counter clockwise. Before moving the Looj forward, decide which direction you want it to toss debris. The recommended method is to have it toss the debris off the roof instead of onto it. You can reverse the auger while using the Looj, making it so once you've complete 1/2 your gutter you place the Looj in the other 1/2 and toss the debris in the opposite direction (still away from the house).

If the Looj gets stuck in muck, put the Looj in reverse. If you still can't free it from the muck, put the Looj in reverse and the auger flipping in the direction opposite of the way you had it running when it got stuck. I have saved the Looj from a few close calls and have never had to get on the roof or reposition the ladder to retrieve it. Have patience.

The remote has a 75 foot (roughly 23 meters) range. This can be "extended" on aluminum gutters by placing and holding the remote to the gutter. I have not needed this as 75 feet is plenty of range on my rancher.

Move the Looj forward with the auger spinning (tossing away from the house). Take areas with lots of debris SLOWLY. iRobot claims that this model is smart enough to slow itself down in areas but I've found that it doesn't always slow itself enough, sometimes beginning to ride up some of the debris and potentially OUT of the gutter. That wouldn't be good.

Stay on the ladder while doing this job; otherwise you won't see when Looj is approaching a potentially dangerous fall. You may only need to set the ladder once, but you do need to stay on it while it works to avoid accidents.

Once you've moved the Looj to the end of the gutter, use the remote to put it into reverse and bring it back to you. Place the Looj on the other side of the gutter you're cleaning, change the direction the auger is spinning to ensure it's throwing muck away from the house, and move it forward just as you did the first side.

Be aware that you WILL make everything in throwing range of the Looj dirty with muck. This will require cleaning the front porch, back deck or anything you may park in your driveway within "spitting" range. Move anything far enough away from the gutters to avoid messy clean up. Of course you'd have some of this if you just ran your hands through the gutters and tossed the debris yourself... it would be a little less haphazard though.

I have also found that using the Looj in wet gutters is better than in dry gutters. This is because in my gutters I've found the really dry areas have cakes of debris in the gutter which the Looj can take some time to clean. The caveat is that it's obviously easier to clean dry debris off of a back deck than it is wet, but be aware that you lessen the cleaning potential of the Looj using it in dry gutters (assuming you get debris cakes like I do baked onto your gutter; if all you have is leaves and pine needles, you should be fine dry Loojing).

Beware of pine cones. If you have pine cones in your gutter and they are situated in just the wrong way, the Looj won't clear them from the gutter and will also potentially ride up onto the pine cone, again giving you the potentially of the Looj escaping from the gutter and diving to its death.

The differences between the models is what is included in the box:

125 - Looj, auger, remote control, 1 rechargeable battery, belt clip

135 - all of the above with 2 augers (instead of 1) and a nice rugged case (looks like a tool box)

155 - all of the 135 features AND 2 batteries instead of 1

The robot itself, in all three models, is EXACTLY the same as the other models. The only difference is the above included items.

In the end, if I had to decide to get the Looj or not, I would definitely buy again. I just hope the 3rd gen includes some way for the Looj to sense when it's preparing itself for a suicide leap from the gutter and a faster charging battery.

Pros:

Robot does all the work

Set the ladder ONCE (well, once per area of gutter)

Easy to use

Does a much better job than most humans at cleaning a gutter

Gutter cleaning is a much safer job

Cons:

Long battery charge

Can't leave battery plugged in over long periods of time

Looj can have problems with pine cones and twigs in gutters

Can jump itself out of the gutter if you don't keep your eye on it

Belt clip can leave you dirty

Doesn't really save time

Everything beneath or near the gutter will be dirty; extra clean up time needed

I have an older home with box gutters. The last time I was on the roof, the ladder moved as I tried to get off the roof which spooked me. A distant neighbor had a serious accident as well. As a result, I usually pay a roofer to clean the gutters. Unfortunately, they can take several weeks to come out and do the cleaning and I am an impatient person.

On our house, the gutters are 40' from the ground, so there isn't a convenient way to use the looj from the ground. I can access the gutters from the roof via dormers so my method of using the looj was to tie a rope to the looj and drive it into the gutters that were 3 or 4 feet below me.

Prior to looj'ing, I had 3 main problems around the downspouts. Roofing companies put small wire traps over the gutter to keep the downspouts from clogging. Three of these were clogged at the trap. The first one was relatively straight forward although I kept getting caught on the trap. Usually backing up and going forward would resolve the problem, but frequently I needed to use the rope with forward motion on the looj to get it to figure out how to get around the trap. This worked relatively well and after 20 minutes I had cleared the gutter. Unfortunately, I had also worked the trap free and had no way to retrieve it.

I moved to the second gutter to repeat the process. This one was pretty easy although, again, I had to convince the looj to bypass the gutter trap.

During the cleaning of the third gutter, I lost the auger twice. Luckily, I was able to drag it back using the looj and retrieve it and resinstall it.

During the cleaning of the fourth gutter, I lost the auger once and eventually lost one of the treads. I was unable to retrieve the tread, so I need to go to irobot.com and order another two. It sure would be nice if Amazon carried replacement parts.

I rate the Looj about a 3. Outside of a human going up on the roof (and the $150ish price tag that comes with it, the looj is the best thing out there, but it's not without its issues.

After noticing that my new house had completely clogged gutters, I rushed to the computer to buy the Looj. I'm a huge iRobot fan, and the price point was low enough I didn't have to ask my wife's permission!

I couldn't rush out and use "my new toy" because the battery takes 15 hours to charge.

I just used it for the first time, and was pretty impressed. First-off, it is definitely NOT a toy. It's pretty darned effective, when it works.

However, there were a few complicating factors.

1) Some of my gutters are too thin for the Looj, so I have to do them by hand.

2) The house has these nifty ice melting wires right on the edge of the shingles... and the Looj kept getting caught in them. I was usually able to free it by turning the auger backwards (slinging muck on the side of the roof) and reversing direction, but I had to free it up by hand a few times.

3) For really mucked up areas, even the mighty Looj was outgunned.

4) What it got, it did really well. But that auger... just slung the muck away from the roof. Onto me (even though I was standing 15 feet away), onto the car (which had to be washed anyway), and onto the patio (which my wife is ready to kill me for!)

So all in all, iRobot has a really good start here, but not everyone can use it... and even for those that can, I'd suggest waiting until they come up with a model with a built in garbage bag before you get one!

I bought a Looj several years ago, but it's sat in my garage for at least a year. I find bringing my blower up the ladder works much better for whenever I do gutter cleaning. The Looj can be helpful - it will work okay on a full battery charge with few leaves in a dry gutter. This is not the typical case for me. It usually rains enough around where I live that the gutter is often wet and the mucky leaves inside are at least damp. The Looj takes forever in this case just to get a few feet done (if it can). Many times I've taken the Looj up to my gutter, only to spend over an hour getting it to move back and forth to clean a very small section. Often it also would get stuck, causing me to have to move my ladder to rescue it. Also, the rubber spinning blades actually lap dirty, mucky water all over my gutter so it looks dirty down the side. I then have to either have a nasty looking gutter or wipe it down the whole length (I tried just shooting water from a hose.. unfortunately, it doesn't come off that easy).

Anyway, the Looj would be great if it worked, but it doesn't work well at all for me. When there's a robot that I can stay on the ground, drop in the gutter with a pole and know it's going to do it's business well and without me, maybe I'll buy another robot.

This is a great idea for a robot. I recently put gutters on my two story home which is shaded by a giant tree. After 3 months of Springtime leaf shedding, I saw that I needed to clean the gutters so I thought Looj would be better than using my hands and moving the ladder every 5 feet.

When unboxing the Looj it looked pretty well made. After charging the battery for 16 hours, I climbed my 30ft ladder and had to scoop out a spot for the Looj in my gutters. It worked well for a couple feet but hit a dense spot of leaves and started climbing out of the gutter. After reversing the auger direction and continuously trying to break up the pile of leaves, I had no luck and had to move the ladder over to clear it by hand. At this time, the battery cover for the remote fell off and got lost in my yard for a while, which was very annoying. After finally finding the cover and batteries which fell out, I couldn't get the cover to stay put so had to continuously apply pressure (I guess I could have gone inside and taped it shut). For the less dense areas of leaves I was successful in getting the Looj to clean the gutters. However, when it hit more dense areas, the Looj would stop traveling and its auger would stop as if the motor overheated. I say that because it would work fine after waiting about 20 seconds.

With the battery cover refusing to stay latched and the Looj's inability to cut through dense leaves without me having to reposition my ladder, I don't think the Looj will be worth the money. I also have reliability concerns with the rubber tracks rubbing against sharp parts within my gutters. I would rather have spent the money on a lightweight mulching blower/vacuum (Toro Super Recycler) with extension tubes, which is what I will do. That way I won't have to clean up leaves either.

I live in oregon and it is very wet. I ended up cleaning the gutters by hand since the leaves were to heavy for the auger. Good idea and would probably do better in a slightly drier climate.

I received my Looj 125 as a gift, but now that I've used it, I think it is worth the money.

Other reviewers have done a great job at the details, so I'll just share a couple of insights...

The most important thing you need to realize is that this isn't a "robot" in the sense of iRobot's other products. The Looj is, simply, a remote-controlled tank with a spinning brush on the front. Nothing more, nothing less. You control it from the remote while standing on your ladder, commanding this "rabid squirrel" (to quote a neighbor). Usually with most of your neighborhood trying to figure out what in the heck you're doing. The iRobot itself isn't too noisy, but when that auger is spinning in an aluminum gutter, your whole neighborhood will hear it banging around. Cleaning one's gutters with a Looj is not a covert operation. ;-)

There is a little bit of technique to using it. You can't just blindly run it down the gutter on one pass. Unless, I suppose, you had a minimal of just dry leaves to clear (who has dry leaves in a gutter?). Think of the process as shoveling snow. You have to work through tricky sections slowly, sometimes reversing the auger, frequently backing up and plowing forward a few inches at a time. Just watch it & control it, and you'll find success.

Some people complain of their Looj flipping itself over. This does happen; mine did it several times. The torque of the auger can be enough to rotate the Looj itself. If this is happening, I think you're trying to plow through stuff too quickly. Slow down and take 'nibbles' at the debris. But really, it doesn't matter if it flips onto its back; it still does the job. The treads still work. The only "problem" is that when upside-down, the Forward & Back controls obviously become reversed (it's a tank - think about it), which is pretty much irrelevant. You can still control it.

Absolutely go to iRobot's site and get the fit guide. If your home's gutters are very narrow, or your securing braces are low, the Looj won't work. Test it before you buy it. I also have one gutter that was slightly bent by a falling tree limb, and this is enough to cause the Looj to get hung up in that spot, so watch out for this too.

My home has about 200' of gutters. I got about 2/3rds of the way through them on one battery pack, which is about right on par with what iRobot says. Some of my gutters were pretty decently packed with wet & compacted leaves to the point where they were almost mud (new-to-me-home, previous owners hadn't cleaned the gutters in a couple of years...). The Looj powered through all of it, though a few sections took 4 or 5 passes (forward & back) to remove all of the debris. And yes, three or four times it almost got stuck on something, but I manged to free it with a bit fiddling with auger & direction control. In the end, my gutters are cleaner than if I'd done it by hand. Quite impressive.

And as others have said, the Looj *is not* a time-saver. Don't get it expecting it to cut your gutter-cleaning time in half. In fact, I think it might take longer with the Looj than just doing it by hand. Maybe it'll go faster next time with less-congested gutters. But the difference is safety, convenience, and fun. Running the Looj brings me back to my childhood of remote-controlled cars, and it's a rather entertaining way to spend an afternoon. More so than digging out mucky gutters. And it's much safer as you don't have to set up & climb a ladder every 5 feet - which is why this thing was invented in the first place.

It's not perfect though. And I hope that iRobot can improve a couple of things for the next model.

1) The battery & charger technology is very old. The Looj uses a Ni-Cd battery pack. This would be fine if it were 1985. But not for 2011. It should be at least using a NiMH or Li-Ion battery, as most modern gadgets do. This would give far superior performance & battery life to the product. And secondly, the charger for the Looj is terrible. It's just a "dumb" charger that requires 15 hours to charge the battery. The 15 hours is ok with me, but you have to remember to unplug it after charging. The fact that it can't go into a "trickle charge" mode to maintain the battery level is absurd.

2) There is a low-battery indicator on the Looj; the power light turns red when it's running low. However, this light is on the Looj itself, which is impossible to see when the Looj is more than a few feet away. You can tell when the battery is running low by the performance (which is a little bit nerve wracking - hoping it'll have enough juice to make it back to you & the ladder), but still, it'd be nice if the Looj could alert you (how about beeping?) when it's running out of juice.

The other reviews are accurate, its not perfect, but it definitely made the job go quickly. It rid up on one branch and got stuck a few places but besides the branch, reverse and changing direction of the auger got it out of any situation. It does fling stuff at you if you are near it or downwind, but I was less dirty than if I had cleaned it all by hand. The battery charging 15 hours is the first issue, I dont trust the clip so much, other than that it is excellent! Video of first use: [...]

The previous owners had not cleaned the gutters in our new home for well over a year. And a few days before we received the Looj it had rained heavily. I figured stuffed, wet gutters would give the Looj more than it could handle. But that was not the case. The "little guy" performed absolutely beautifully. It got out the dried leaves, the wet leaves, the small sticks, and the accumulation of grit from the roof shingles. It turned what would have been a miserable three plus hour job by hand into a fun and painless 40 minutes. Note that for tough clogs like this you cannot simply have the Looj plow through. You must work it forward and backward as the directions suggest. It takes a bit to get the hang of the technique but once you do it works fine. I don't know why some of the other reviewers had trouble, but from my experience, THE LOOJ WORKS!

My sister is happy with her Roomba, so even though many of the reviews urged caution, I decided to take a chance on the Looj -- that was a big mistake. It could not get through really mucked up areas and it constantly kept flipping over and getting stuck. I spent WAY more time trying to hassle with the Looj than if I had just cleaned my gutters the old fashioned way. Also, on my unit, reverse stopped working. It will drive forward just fine, but it won't go in reverse. If you are on the fence about buying this beware that even the positive reviews are full of tons of caveats. Bottom line: stay away from the Looj and save your money.