Customer Reviews

iRobot Roomba Silver

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Let me start off by saying that I'm a cleaner. I have two hairy dogs, a four year old and allergies to dust, so I'm constantly cleaning. My Dyson vacuum quite literally stays plugged in all the time. I like a deep down clean. I had seen the Roomba for years and thought it wasn't for me.

Well, while researching the Scooba (also a fabulous machine) I decided to go ahead and get a Roomba if only for my kitchen floor. My dogs stay primarily in the kitchen and there's always a ton of hair in there. I have to vacuum every day. I thought I'd just give the Roomba a try. I figured it would clog up with hair in 5 minutes and die, but it didn't. I have a 200 square foot kitchen and the thing cleaned and cleaned until I finally it needed the filter cleaned out (about 45 minutes later) I can't blame it, there was two days worth of dog hair on the floor. If it can handle that, it can handle anything.

Next, I set it loose (on the same charge, no less) on the upstairs carpet which is approximately 800 square feet. It cleaned the living room, bathrooms, hall, bedroom and even under the bed! I was quite impressed. It never got stuck. I followed it around to make sure it didn't have any problems and it never did. It went over area rugs, thresholds, & bathmats.

I think some people get confused and think that the Roomba is a like a vacuum and then they get disappointed. It's a more of a sweeper. It will get surface dust, hair, crumbs and debris. If you want a deep down vacuum you'll have to pull out your old upright. But if you want a daily sweep up this is the gadget for you.

With that being said, I have to give Roomba props for it's level of cleaning. I have 5 year old carpet, it's the low grade stuff the builders install, and Roomba still does a nice job combing the carpet. I can see where Roomba has been because it leaves those nice little brush marks we compulsive cleaners love. Although I'm sure that will vary depending on your carpet.

I can't vouch for Roomba's longevity since I've only had it one day. It does seem to move more freely on hard floors than carpet. I don't know if carpeting puts more strain on the motor or not. That could be a factor in longevity. But for now I'd have to say that this little gadget is a time saver and worth 5 stars. It does what it is designed to do and it does it rather well.

The only thing I would recommend is that you get the one that returns to the base charger when it's battery is low. That is a nice convenience. That way you'll always have your Roomba ready to use.


Definately worth the money. A true time and labor saver. Now, maybe I'll have time to work on my messy garage.

Hope this helped you make your decision.

I just got this Roomba a few days ago and I have found some really good points and a few bad points. For me, the good points outweigh the bad b/c my house really is much cleaner with very little effort. But if you're a perfectionist, this may not be the best thing for you.

Good Points:
1. Super easy to use - just plop it down and off it goes.
2. Cleans well - I have a dog and I hate vacuuming so the Roomba is a huge help. It does better on hard floor than carpet, though.
3. Spot cleans - nifty little feature where you can tell it to just clean a small area and it will spiral around a few times.


Bad Points:
1. Other electronics can interfere with its operation. The Roomba works like a dream in every room except my living room, where it basically acts like it's gone completely haywire! It spins in a circle for 40 minutes, plows right through the virtual walls, and climbs up my TV (and gets stuck) instead of just turning around. I think it's because I have a wireless router in that room.
2. A lot of hair or carpet fuzz can be difficult to clean out of the brush, and you have to keep the brushes clean all the time, but they do give you a special tool to help with this.
3. It can get stuck on wires or oddly shaped furniture/obstacles so if you turn it on and leave, it may get stuck within 5 minutes and never clean the room. I usually turn mine on when I'm puttering around the house with other things.

The rumba is a great little device; the only thing that people should be aware of is the fact that it takes about 5 times as long as it would take a normal person to clean 1 room. As long as you are patient and don't try and wait for one speck of dust on the floor to be sucked up by roomba (this will drive you nuts) you will be a roomba lover as well. An added benefit is that it will really vacuum under things that you wouldn't bother to like beds and small tables. On average I would say that roomba vacuums about as well as the average person. Worth the money if you aren't a fan of housework.

My wife and I have a love hate relationship with "Roomba". We purchased our first 4 years ago and found that it's wonderful for cleaning under some furniture and the beds where other vacs do not easily reach. The initial robot broke after about 18 months and Irobot replaced it free with a newer model, the Sage. This robot lasted about another 18 months when it would not charge the battery, even a new battery and even after I called technical support and learned about holding down the power button. Technical support sold us a new robot for a hundred dollars plus shipping and this time it did charge our new battery. The vac then proceeded to run off the top out our stairs, something the other robots did not do, and broke. Irobot was nice about it and sent us a new robot for free, given that the other one had been used for under an hour and we paid to send them the broken unit back. The new one seems to work fine.

To purchase this vac you really need to want to devote some time to caring for it. It always needs to be emptied and the brushes and under carriage parts need cleaning frequently. This is definitely a high maintainence device. It is not for nothing that there is a roomba users group with considerable technical information and if you search ebay and the web you can find lots of stores selling batteries, some of which you can assemble yourself! They even provide the special screwdriver for the screws used in the battery.

The new robots seem to have fewer problems with dirt affecting the wheel sensors and maybe the treads don't fall apart so easily. So in spite of everything, our "roomba" does get under the difficult to reach parts of our carpeted bedroom - a really good thing

I love my Roomba so much. I bought another one. This is perfect for hard floors! Set it and go. All you have to do is make sure it's charged and the dust bin/filter emptied.

I let them both run in separate areas of the house. This keeps the house dust bunny free until I deep clean. It's well worth the money. My kids love it, too. I don't have to ask them to vacuum!

Think twice before buying one of these. I get the impression that these are being sold before the bugs have been worked out.

I liked our Roomba, but it wasn't worth the $200+ dollars for just a year of service. Ours died just outside of the 1 year warranty, and iRobot had very little comment. First they told me to buy a new battery. However, a family member let me borrow a new, unused battery (which I prepared as per the instructions) and it didn't cure the problem. After another email or two in which the diagnosis changed except that it involved buying something new, iRobot determined- without the benefit of ever having seen the unit- that it and its charging base were dead. They offered to sell me a new one at a "special price" which turned out to be about $20 MORE than Costco charged for virtually the same model. Considering Costco makes a profit, it seems iRobot could have actually charged below Costco's price without taking a hit in either the accounting or good will departments.

Furthermore, I know four other people who have purchased various models of Roomba including the family member mentioned above, and ALL of them have had to either return their units or have them replaced. One owner even had two major problems with hers, which is one of the newest units (she got it this time last year). I don't expect perfection, but this is a bit too much to be a coincidence. There seem to be a lot of satisfied buyers here, but there are also more than usual who have had serious complaints for a product in this price range. Again, think very carefully before buying this product.

Nothing much else to be said. You would think this would only do an OK job but you'd be wrong. It can be run daily and keep your place as if you had a live-in maid sweeping your floors.

My boss has three in her house and my wife and I saw them and were amused. We thought they were cool but wouldn't work in our much smaller home, where furniture is a much higher percentage of the floorspace. Wrong. The thing manages to go around the legs of our chairs, it goes under couches, under the bed... it only requires minimal *prep-work* if we want it to truly get every nook and cranny, but with daily cleaning that's not even necessary more often than maybe once a month.

After we bought our own I told my boss I'm glad they're sold in stores... if they weren't I'd have to quit my job to go *evangelize* about this product <grin>.

All kidding aside... it has essentially eliminated one of the most tedious chores my wife and I (my wife mostly as she's a SAHM) had to do. Since it can be run daily without effort our place is now CLEANER than it was, and the satisfaction of leaving the house for fun with the kids while the *maid* is cleaning is undescribeable.

We'd gladly pay twice the price, but don't tell iRobot.

Too bad we weren't as lucky with Scooba :-(

Oh... we didn't go for the docking-station model because it would be way too tempting for the kids, plus we find it better to do the house in sections ... moving the docking station around would be little improvement over fetching roomba wherever it stops. Thankfully it hasn't stopped under the bed yet... though it surely will one of those days. Oh well.. free exercise :-)

For copious amounts of pet hair on hardwood floors (cannot comment on carpet as I have none), Roomba Sage has to be the ABSOLUTE BEST BUY I have ever made in my life. Seriously, it did save my sanity. I do not mind vacuuming, it is not my least favorite chore - but EVERY SINGLE DAY? No thanks. I was afraid to spend the money...times are tough right now...will it work....will it be worth it? I decided that I'M worth it. So I took the dive. I never should have worried....

Does Roomba get every single nook and cranny? No. Does it get under every single piece of furniture? No. It DOES, however, get those fur bunnies that accumulate every day. You know, the ones that suddenly appear out of nowhere as soon as you finally get to sit down and watch TV??

Regular vacuuming of extremely hard to reach areas is still necessary, but SO much less often as the bunnies are sucked up before they get there.

I foster pets and currently have three dogs - one being a HUGELY shedding Akita - and five cats. Needless to say, lots of fur, lots of paw dust. I have owned Roomba Sage for only about two months, and have used it every day on a 12'x24' room with no problems whatsoever. No clogs, no breakdowns, etc. (Will re-review in about 1 year regarding longer-term durability.)

It is incredibly quick and easy to clean - less than 5 minutes. Lay out upside down on a sheet of newspaper. I gently use an old comb for wound hairs on the brush. (Don't forget the little wheel in the front - the only part that's a little tricky to get unwound. I use tweezers. And that only about every 4-5 uses.)

None of my animals are "afraid" of it, nor do they step on it. Great Dane jumps around it, Akita actually lets it bounce off of him. (He's so laid-back, God love him.) Kitties lost their curiosity after two days.

Charges quickly! I was so pleasantly surprised with that as I only clean one room at a time, and I let it run entirely out of power with every use.

Cannot comment on the electronic containment accessories - I simply use whatever I have around to block other areas. Move any cords and small items on the floor. (Big deal.)

Only one teeny, tiny downside: It is a bit noisy. So what? It is so well worth it you will not care one iota. Turn up the TV.

At first it's almost hard to do other chores while it's working, cuz you find yourself sitting there watching it work for you. It's a beautiful thing.

So RUN, RUN, RUN - don't walk - and pick up this little gem.

Sounds a little disturbing, but I named mine "Rudy". And I think I'm in love.

My household consists of 3 dogs (one of which is a Husky), a toddler, a husband, and myself. As you can imagine my floors can get very dirty very quickly. I bought the Roomba Silver and then found the Roomba with the self-docking feature at another store. I bought the second Roomba with the intention of returning the first one. My husband and I decided to have a "clean-off" to see which Roomba worked the best. They worked so well we kept them both!

Let's start with the cons...
1. The brushes have a removable bushing on one end. If you are not paying attention, it is very easy to loose the bushing when you are cleaning out the Roomba. The brush doesn't work without it. I had to dig through a very smelly trash can to find it one day.
2. If you have pets that shed a lot, you can count on emptying your Roomba after every use. Not a big deal, unless you forget to do it.
3. If you use your Roomba primarily on carpet, you can plan on buying another battery in about 6 months or so, depending on how often you run it. Of the 2 Roombas we purchased, one was used on carpet and the other mainly on hardwoods. The battery in the one used on the carpet died after about a year. The other is still going strong.

Neutral...
1. The self-docking feature is nice, but not absolutely necessary. The Roomba without the docking station occasionally ends its cleaning cycle in inconvenient locations, like under the bed, but it isn't that big of deal.
2. The Roomba is a sweeper and does not have the suction or capacity to clean deep down like an upright. I still break out the upright once a week for a really thorough cleaning. Do not expect to never vacuum again...

Now the pros...
1. The Roomba has a side brush that gets all of the stuff that accumulates where the baseboards and floor meet. In fact it does a better job in getting in that groove than my upright!
2. It goes where the upright can't. I love the fact that it vacuums UNDER the bed and other furniture.
3. The Roomba is "smart". It doesn't fall down the stairs. It can easily go from hardwoods to carpet to tile to throw rugs, etc without getting stuck. If it detects an extra dirty spot it will focus on that area until it is clean.
4. No more pet hair tumbleweeds! When my dogs are shedding during the change of seasons, I run my Roombas every day. I turn them on in the morning right before I leave for work and I come home to a clean floor with no effort on my part.

I absolutely love my Roombas. My friends and family have been so impressed with them they have purchased their own! I have saved so much time it definitely makes them worth the price.

First, let me say that I love my roomba. It does a tremendous amount of cleaning without a lot of fuss, and I eventually want to get a scooba when I have the money. It's made a believer out of my husband who first thought it was a silly gadget that wouldn't work. But it does. Quite a bit. We've even named it Dobbie after the house-elf in Harry Potter.

What it will do: It's awesome on hard floors and low pile rugs. It keeps the dust down, which is very important because I have allergies. It does an ok job on dog hair, but with my number of dogs (4 Malamutes inside plus a cat), life can get hairy. Literally. I can set it to go and it does a pretty decent job as long as I keep it away from electrical cords and occasionally move it off the stairs (sometimes, despite the cliff sensor, it does get stuck).

Now, onto the negatives. The dust bin is way too small and must be emptied constantly. The air filter and intake is beneath the robot, which means it sucks in the dirt and hair into the filter, which must be dusted out and replaced often. They say that the roomba handles pet hair easily, and while that's true, there's a huge maintenance associated with that. Hair gets twisted around the brushes, wheels and whatnot constantly, and if not cleaned out, will cause undue drag on the motor and shorten the life of the battery and the robot. After each use, I'm in there cleaning the brushes, wheels, and filter.

The battery is a huge negative. I've had to buy a new one because the old one wouldn't hold a charge. The new one seems to be better, so maybe they've gotten the battery issues worked out.

Even with these negatives, the roomba is so handy, I can't imagine not using one. We're running it daily in one of three areas of my house because the dogs drag dirt in all the time. It keeps me from having to do a fair amount of work. This is one robot, in my mind, that is worth dealing with the negatives.