Customer Reviews

iRobot Roomba 400 Vacuum-Cleaning Robot, Orange

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Length:: 3:03 Mins

Someone should have created a video review of this thing but so far no one has. So, I did it myself. You will probably find it in the description somewhere. Anyhow...

I won't bother telling you the things you already know from the description. Everything in the description is accurate except one thing;

The color! It's not even close to orange. Not even a little bit. It's red! I called iRobot tech support because I had a question about buying an accessory. I told them the product title said it was orange and they told me they don't make an orange one. Oh well, red will do.

Sure, you get to be lazy and not vacuum your floors and rugs but it comes at a cost. You must maintain the filter (3 for $20 bucks), and you must remove the hair that inevitably becomes tangled around the brushes, wheels, bearings, etc and inevitably you will have to replace those items. Maintenance is a breeze with this machine though. They sure made it easy. Comes right apart and doesn't take engineer to figure it out. It's all real basic. I'm getting quite good at doing it. In fact, it takes me about 5-6 minutes to complete the maintenance which is still a lot better than actually vacuuming my floors.

This thing is loaded with options that they don't give you and in order to use those options you must buy accessories (remote controls, schedulers, virtual walls, pet hair brushes, etc). However, it's SO fun. To me it's more than just a vacuum. In fact, this thing is bluetooth capable, it can whistle while it works. There's a ton of hacks for it for those of you who like to customize it.

Don't be fool though and buy accessories until you've had ample opportunity to test drive it a few times. Read the fine print about the "virtual walls" and you'll discover that if you've got a home base for this unit, the Virtual Walls may create conflict if they're not positioned properly. Plus, the virtual walls require batteries. I just used a piece of wood on the ground to keep the robot in the room instead of buying a $40 dollar virtual wall. If you're going to buy any accessories for it, I would recommend the home charging base (so that it may drive home itself) and the pet hair brush kit (both sold separately).

This thing is awesome and I just feel so modern having a robot clean my floors. My dog wants to play with it.

If my star rating should need to change or this thing falls apart or ANYTHING goes wrong, I will come back here and update this review for you.

man, what can i say?

i am a true-blue skeptic. i am one of those guys who spends a month online before he buys anything. i get the best equipment for the best deals.

well, my wife has been having allergy problems, and after getting her tested, we learned that she is allergic to just about everything. with 3 dogs, i decided that we needed some drastic help to ease her pain.

this thing does the trick. we have a house that is about 1800 sq ft, and this thing will easily clean half of it in one go. you wouldn't believe what is in the little bin at the end of a run. we run it every day when we get home. we come home, start the iRobot (we named it "Duster", which is odd, because you'd figure a vacuum would have a woman's name...), and commence to our nightly duties (showering, cooking, cleaning, laundry...), and this thing takes care of our vacuuming. we went from needing to vacuum every week to maybe once a month with our normal vacuum. our floors are incredibly clean, and this thing picks up a full bin of dog hair every day. better yet, we don't have to do it!!! it's like having a robotic maid!

this is a must have for any pet owner. all of that dog/cat hair gets sucked right up. all of the dust that hits the floor is gone. it transitions from carpet to tile easily.

it will suck something up if it is on the floor, so carpet tassles, cords, and other such things beware. it does force you to keep your floor clean though (granted stuff that falls on the floor just gets thrown on another surface).

our floors are picked up and vacuumed every day, and i love it. we have a $350 vacuum as well. we should've spent the $350 on that and the $99 on this and bought 2 or three iRobots and a shop vac. and you don't need one of the high dollar ones. this thing does a great job.

I got this vacuum because I have a pet chinchilla that leaves his presents EVERYWHERE when I let him play(yeah, I know it's gross). When I leave the house to do errands I just turn on my Roomba and I come back and the floors look squeaky clean.

The only problems I have with the vacuum are:
1)It sucks up clothes and wires left on the floor and jams (it loves to eat underwear, telephone wires, even it's own charge cord)
2)It occasionally locks itself in the bathroom when it vacuums in there
3)When it vacuums under the bed and then turns off it's really, really hard to reach under there and get it out
4)If you leave something like say earbud headphones or keys, laying around it will eat those whole and just keep vacuuming!

So basically you've gotta pick up before you let this thing run loose, but it works awesome and picks up a LOT of dust too. Overall I would recommend this item to anyone with pets, allergies or chronic laziness.

I owe my fellow vacuum-holics this review.
1. I got this roomba for 70$
2. Roddy (Roomba) is AWESOME.

Basically due to the ease of use you can run the little guy every day and over time, the room is definitley going to be lot cleaner than a single pass of extremely powerful Dyson.

I have been wanting a Roomba forever but didn't know anyone who had one....but Amazon was running a deal so I said what the heck...if I didn't like it I would send it back. Well this thing ROCKS!!!! I wish I had bought it years ago. I have gone from vacuuming 2 to 3 times a week to 1 time a week!! Only because I want too...I'm a neat freak! It doesn't replace your vacuum cleaner because it doesn't suck....its more of a sweeper....but its wonderful!! Since I bought mine my Mom and my Boss have also bought one. My mom will never vacuum again...she swears by hers..well I do too!! My boss is even talking about buying the one that scrubs floors. It goes anywhere and every where and if it gets stuck it tries its best to get unstuck....and if it can't it chimes for you to come get it. So if you are thinking about getting one....GET IT!! You wont be disappointed!!

I was as big a skeptic of the Roomba as probably anyone out there. My uninformed perception was that it was nothing but an expensive novelty and couldn't possibly clean very well. It wasn't until my boss (who's as pragmatic an individual as I've ever met) raved about his Roomba that I decided to give it a shot.

I've owned mine for about 2 months now, and I can't imagine being without it. There's a reason these things have such high ratings on Amazon- they actually work. It won't replace your regular vacuum, but it'll relegate it to the corner of your closet for a month at a time.

The Roomba isn't perfect though and brings some minor annoyances with it. As other reviewers have pointed out, bi-weekly or monthly maintenance is required to keep the Roomba functioning properly. Also, the manufacturer's recommendation is that the filter in the Roomba be replaced every month or two, and although the process is trivial, the filters are approximately 4 to 5 bucks a pop.

I've also found, as common sense would suggest, that the Roomba performs best when confined to smaller areas. I live in a small apartment, and the first time I used the Roomba I let it loose in the living room, and it haphazardly traveled from room to room until its battery died, never really doing what I felt was an acceptable job in any one room.

I've since altered my routine to confine the Roomba to a particular section of the apartment, and it does an impeccable job. I just carry it to whichever section of the apartment I want it to vacuum and turn it on before I leave for work. In this way, I cover the entire apartment in 3 day cycles. Note that there are other (more "capital-intensive" and elegant) strategies that people adopt for efficient Roomba cleaning- this is just mine.

My advice to any skeptics out there is to just try the Roomba for yourself. If you're not convinced that it's the next best thing since sliced bread, then you'll definitely be in the overwhelming minority. Also, if you have pets of any kind, the previous statement applies double to you.

I wonder why I didn't buy a roomba sooner. This Roomba is a basic model but it cleans well and is easy to maintain, and that's important to me. At $149, I still think it's good value (although I wish I had bought it when it was on sale for $70 something!). The only complaint I have is that the battery that came with it only runs about 40 minutes at a time. And that only cleans 1 room. I had to wait 2 hours for Roomba to recharge before cleaning another room. Also, the replacement filter is costly. But what I do is I wash the filter after each use, and it's like new again (while the filter is drying, another can be used). Rather than replacing the filter every month, I am hoping it will last for several months.

I purchased the Roomba for my small appartment where I stay during the week while working. This little machine is great! I could have spent less on a standard vacuum, but the likelihood that I'd drag it out more than once or twice a year is slim. The Roomba however I just turn on and forget it. When I come back to the place all I do is dump the collecter into the trash and plug the vacuum back in to charge.

you will know when this is running. i suggest you turn it on and leave the room, or better, leave the house and come back. you're not watching tv, reading, or listening to the yankee game when roomba's doing its thing.
other than that, seems to work fine and do a good job. picks up alot.

I love this thing! It goes places I can't reach anymore (due to arthritis). I turn it loose in the bedroom and close the door. It cleans under the bed where I have a hard time reaching. And it does a GREAT job. Can't believe how much stuff it picks up (including cat hair). I let it run around the other rooms also, including the kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms which all have vinyl. I might even purchase a 2nd one! Plus my cats love it!!