Customer Reviews

iRobot Roomba 4230 Remote Scheduler Robotic Vacuum

5 star:		(114)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

Simply put, it exceeds my expectations. I'm traveling in a 26ft class C Rv with 3 dogs and a husband, all of which shed copious amounts of fur. My partner was very critical of this vac before we got it, and to be honest, I bought it for our cabin, not the RV. However it arrived while we were on the road so I took a risk at an "told you so" and used it in the RV. To my delight, we are hair free for a month now without having to lift a finger (except cleaning the bin and brushes on a regular basis) and the skeptic even praises it and named it Hazel. For a techno-phobe, this is saying something. It does a good job avoiding problem areas like steps and squeaky toys. The dogs watch it from the sofa and have accepted it as a family member. I find we watch it a lot too. It's mesmerizing. We run it once a day, often as we walk the dogs, and return to a very clean floor. I disagree with those who say it is a toy. It is not a toy; it does a good job maintaining a floor on a daily basis. I wouldn't expect it to replace my regular vacuum but rather replace daily vacuuming. We use a shop vac once every two weeks for those hard to reach areas that dog fur always seems to find (door pockets, top of dressers, etc), and use Hazel for daily maintenance to keep our travel quarters shedding fur free.
Two things you need to be aware of about this device. It doesn't like rugs with tassels, or shoe laces, or anything else a normal vacuum doesn't like. Roomba doesn't always see these things as obstacles. It does a great job of getting un-stuck (it uses what I call the dung beetle approach by rearing up and turning around...fun to watch).
You also need to keep it clean. I clean mine every other day. Emptying the bin is one thing, but I use the included cleaning tool to keep the brushes hair free on a regular basis. Since we have so many dogs in a confined space, it can build up hair on the brushes quickly. At first I thought this was going to be a bother, but its something I enjoy doing. Its like grooming a friend (in a monkey at the zoo kind of way).

I spend a lot of time away from my house and don't always have any time to clean when I am home. I also like to have a fairly clean house with minimal work when I do get home. I got this vacumn about 2 weeks ago. I wanted to give it a fair chance before I reviewed it. Setup was incredibly easy and only took about 5 minutes. Everything was already in the machine except for the battery. I had the vacumn charged and ready to go 2 hours after I got home. The first couple of runs it picked up more dirt than I expected. I had it run once a day every day for the first week. Since then I only use it 1-2 times a week. It does such a good job that there is no need to run it more often in my place. The main area I use it is the front room and kitchen areas. They are connected at one end and the machine has no problem cleaning both without getting lost. The scheduler function of the walls and the vacumn work as they are supposed to. One of the few drawbacks is the fact that it is quiet due to a fairly low power suction motor. This necessitates the repeats of areas that iRobot talks about. The machine is sturdy and hasn't marked up any of my furniture or floorboards. It is small enough to fit under the overhang of my floor level kitchen cabinets. It runs much slower on deep carpet and although it can clean that type of area it isn't recommended. Clean up is easy and only takes a couple of minutes. I recommend cleaning out the dust bin area with a damp cloth at least twice a month. The kit comes with extra brushes and filters so that you don't have to worry about that when you first buy the vacumn. The whole kit comes with the scheduler vacumn, 2 scheduler walls, the scheduler remote, the floor base station with portable charger, and brushes and filter in place plus the extras mentioned above. You need 4 AA batteries for the remote and 4 C cell batteries (2 each) for the virtual walls. Be sure to thoroughly read the owners manual before using the vacumn the first time to make sure you know what it is going to do. Check the website to find out what the sounds mean. I definitely recommend this kit and will be buying the Scooba (their mop version) as soon as it comes out also.

OK. First let me say that this product is amazing and well worth the money. As an engineer, this thing has amazing obstacle avoidance software, and it navigates rooms extremely well. I put a good deal of research into this vac before I bought it - so let me tell you what you can expect, and more importantly- what not to expect. The majority of reviews that are negative are from people with defective units or people who expected something completly unrealistic. On a side note - all of the units have the same capabilities. So I would recommend that you buy a slightly cheaper unit to test it out. If you really like it, then buy the schduler seperately. The high-end vacuum is no different than the low end one. The only exception is the red - which doesn't have "max" clean mode. I personally recommend the sage unit that comes with the home base. It has everything you really need to fully test out the unit - the home base is particularly useful, but the black basic remote (not the white scheduler remote that comes with this unit) is not very useful.

My wife and I have about a 1500 square foot house. To really get the most out of the unit, we divide our house into 3 areas, and we move the roomba each day into whatever area we want to clean (one large bedroom, the living room, and two smaller rooms joining a bathroom). We then run it in there 2-3 times that day and move it into the next area the following day. I was suprised at how well it will navigate between rooms if you leave the doors open. Anyway, the floors are very clean - much cleaner than they ever were with an upright. The roomba really does a great job on the baseboards and under furniture. The suction is NOT as strong as an upright, but the unit will cover most areas several times - and after several times, it will pick up as much or more than most uprights. It has to hit larger pieces of debris head on to be picked up. There are some cases where the roomba may hit a small spot only once or miss a spot completely after a full 1-2 hour cylcle. However, if you run it multiple times in a day in the same place - you will have very clean floors.

If you think you will buy this vacuum, set it in the middle of your house, punch a few buttons, walk away - and your floors will forever be clean - do not buy this vacuum. This vacuum does requre that you empty the bin at least once a day. It does requre that you find out what type of items it may get stuck on the first few times you run it. It does reqire that you make sure you don't have cords or tassels in its way. It does requre that you clean the brushes every few uses. The roomba cannot do anything a normal vacuum does not. It cannot clean over tassels, it cannot magically hop over 1/2" thick area rugs, it cannot run over wires and ignore them. If you are willing to do these few things, such as "roomba-proof" the room, and clean the brushes - it is MUCH EASIER than a traditional vacuum. It will keep your floors very clean, and you will be very happy.

Let me tell you a story about why the robot is still a robot... My wife and I were watching TV and the roomba was cleaning (it's not really louder than a dust buster). We have a puppy... Well... the puppy pooped on the tile entryway while we were watching. The roomba... ran over the puppy poop and drug it all over the carpeted floor next to the entryway while smearing the poop all over itself (brushes, small places, dust bin). Needless to say - it was not pretty - and we had caught it after about 5 minutes. One and a half hours, and 150 Q-tips later - the roomba was clean, the carpet was clean - and the puppy was outside. Lesson learned - watch what the Roomba may run into. It's not completely fool-proof. It did it's job... and if I had watched the puppy - things would have gone well.

This is a great product if you don't have unrealistic expectations. It's a great product if you don't get a dud. The jetsons are not here yet - but I can honestly say my carpet and hard floors are much cleaner than they have ever been, and the unit is very easy to use. It is well worth the money.

Ok - So I wanted to edit my review. The roomba has honestly done such a good job - that we no longer run it two or three times a day in the same room. We run it once a day in the heaviest travelled areas (living room & kitchen), and on the weekends in the guest bedrooms. It really is fantastic. In fact, when we whipe off the counters or the table - we just whipe dust and crumbs onto the floors - because we know the roomba will pick it up pretty soon!

Strengths: Does exactly what my DysonAnimal does...without me!

Weaknesses: Doesn't brush my German Shepherd or prepare meals or do laundry

Summary: The Roomba is a Godsend for me. I am disabled and own a German Shepherd who sheds tremendous amounts of hair and my 1,000 square feet of Pergo shows every blessed one! (Grrrrrrr) It does a perfect job. It is amusing to watch as it unsticks itself from tight spots. It transistions itself very well from rugs to pergo to ceramic tile and the battery life is very long. (I usually set mine to clean at 2:00 am and it cleans EVERYWHERE. No dustbunnies and I have CLEAN WHITE SOCKS because it's so thorough! It returns to its homebase with a belly full of doghair, dust and sand.)During the day, (if company is coming) I have to turn mine off after about an hour and a half...it will keep on going cleaning up after my dog otherwise. Watching my dog and the Roomba interact is worth the money alone. Whenever it bumps into one of her bones, my dog frantically hides every single one of her bones EACH time this happens! Other than that she considers it an affible family member! It's very gentle. It gently rides over her tail or gently bumps her nose while she sleeps. It goes gently along the edges of my stained glass fireplace cover, my drapes and cleans perfectly around the legs of chairs, everything for that matter. And unlike my Dyson, it doesn't leave dust on itself. It takes 1 to 2 minutes tops to empty the bin, shake the filter and clean the brushes.....I feel totally spoiled! My disabled friend recommended it to me. She still has the ORIGINAL Roomba model as well as six Basset Hounds and 2 teenagers! Rush to get one if you prefer doing things other than vacuuming!

The DARPA Grand Challenge was finally won in October, 2005 by a team from Stanford with a computer controlled, autonomous SUV named Stanley that was able to complete a course in the Mojave Desert in under 7 hours. They won $2 million for their efforts.

What does this have to do with a vacuum cleaner? Well, the challenge in making an autonomous robot that can vacuum your living room isn't that different. In both cases, from the robot's point of view, it's an obstacle course. In both cases, the robots have to navigate an area relying on preprogrammed logic and its available sensors. Now, considering that it took dozens of brilliant teams several years to develop a robot that can drive through the desert, the fact that you can own a small-scale version for much less than $2 million is impressive.

The Review

I should first point out that I am a gadget guy, and that's what first caught my attention about this product. I'm also single, live in a medium-sized apartment and, like most guys, don't like vacuuming. I figured this would be a fun toy to play around with.

Setup

The instructions on setup were limited, to say the least. Since I like this sort of stuff, it required little effort to figure it out. If, however, you're the kind of person that cannot program a VCR, then this might be a little difficult. The hardest part to decipher was this particular unit's namesake, the scheduling. Other models without the scheduler would be significantly simpler to set up, and this unit will operate without being on a schedule just fine.

Charging required only a few hours initially, though they recommend 16 hours for the initial charge. The hardest part was positioning it correctly on the charging base. Alternately, you can plug the power cord directly into the unit.

Operation

There are basically 3 modes of cleaning. "Spot" cleans a small area only (nice for small messes). "Clean" will do a normal cleaning for about 60 minutes. "Max" will do a longer cleaning of about 120 minutes using the full charge of the battery. It's important to note that the robot has one speed, and the real difference between the modes is essentially how long it runs in each mode. The longer it runs, the more passes over the same area it will make.

The unit is not very powerful. It may require 3-4 passes or more over an area to get the equivalent to a single pass by a regular vacuum. That, however, shouldn't be an issue since it is automated and can be allowed to run unsupervised while you're away from home. Another issue is the fact that the canister for the debris the vacuum collects is quite small. Depending on how much it picks up, it may be able to handle only a few hundred square feet before getting full. It definately needs to be emptied after each run.

The unit can be physically carried to the desired cleaning area, "driven" there by a handheld wireless remote control, or simply allowed to wander around on its own. In addition, the unit comes with two "virtual walls" that are small electronic devices that send an infrared beam out that the robot will not traverse. These can be placed in doorways or other areas that you do not wish the robot to enter. They run off of batteries and can be scheduled to turn on when the Roomba is scheduled to run.

Navigation

Make no mistake, this unit has been well programmed. Though it lacks the GPS, RADAR, LIDAR, and inertial guidance systems of Stanley, the Stanford team's robot SUV, it does a respectable job with the bump sensors and edge sensors it does have.

That said, it does have some issues that surprised me. First, it doesn't actually bother making any sort of internal "map" of the room. It seems to have a very limited "memory" and no actual ability to place itself on any kind of navigation grid with known obstacles. As a result, it simply runs around the room bumping into things again and again rather than learning to avoid them in the first place. It also means that it covers the floor very inefficiently and some areas get vacuumed repeatedly while others may get vacuumed once or never. The simpler the shape of the room, and the fewer the obstacles, the better. It would do well in a house without any furniture.

The instructions explicitly state, essentially, that if you wouldn't vacuum over it, don't expect the Roomba to go over it. That's all well and good, but considering that this is supposed to be autonomous, it is odd that you have to "set up" every room before it runs (i.e., avoid cords, shoe laces, etc.). In addition, it has some difficulty navigating carpet-tile transitions, and transitions onto rugs (without tassels). As a result, it requires a lot of planning and at least one or two sessions where you monitor its progress around the room to determine where it will hang up. It also, surprisingly, has a lot of trouble docking with its charging station.

For the most part, I am very impressed with how well it does manage to navigate around the room and go about its business. It does a decent job cleaning, and the scheduling aspect allows one to set and forget.

Pros:

Relatively easy to setup/use (if you don't use the scheduler)

Decent cleaning ability

Can operate on a schedule to vacuum while you're away

Wins high marks on the gadget scale

Cons:

Small container volume requires frequent emptying

Some difficulty navigating in a cluttered room

Requires a lot of monitoring for a supposedly autonomous robot

Same amount of vacuuming could be done in a fifth the time with a regular vacuum.

Conclusion

All in all, a well made little gadget that is reasonably functional as is but has some major flaws that will likely be addressed over the next few years.

12-3-2005 I have to say, I was skeptical at first... but, if you let it run it's course uninterrupted it picks up a lot of dirt/pet hair/etc! I am really surprised at how well this little guy cleans! It is amazing to see it in action... you think at first it has missed a spot/didn't pick something up, and then comes back and gets it on another round. It even got my edges pretty good. Obviously, you have to make sure everything is picked up. I babysat it for the first while to get to know it, and see if it would stop on anything (had no problems at all). I make sure there are not any obstacles (cords, large trash, string, etc) in the way; and let it do it's job! It is easy to clean out, and set up... make sure you charge it before you use it, as the instructions state. Works great on both tile and carpeted areas! WHAT A DREAM!
(mom of 3; 2 dogs; and a construction husband - who actually likes it too!)

12-23-05 Still love the thing... It's almost like when microwaves or cell phones came out...once you have one, there is no going without. I have been using the roomba on a daily basis in the high traffic areas of the house (kitchen/Living room/hallway). The bedrooms every other day... So, it has been working hard; and has not let me down. I purchased an extra battery and charger through "Irobot", the manufacturer. It makes it possible for this little guy to work all day! It is amazing at what it manages to pick up on a daily basis. I have been using the "scheduled" option in my living room daily w/ the virtual walls; and it is amazing to see the roomba back out of his dock (sounds like a tractor with the back-up beeping!)and clean the living room; when scheduled... My kids have made a game of making sure the living room is picked up before the little guy gets going. I am also able to get more things done during the day; and I don't have to skimp or put off the vacuuming. I LOVE having my carpet vacuumed daily; and it has been better for my husbands allergies...

You do need to clean/wipe it out once in awhile; but Irobot made it easy to do. It was meant for you to clean/change the brushes; and wipe the sensors off. I figure it is vacuuming my house constantly and it only takes 5 minutes or less to clean it up once in awhile (no big deal). I do dump the chamber on a room by room (or use by use) basis. The directions are simple and even can find information on the Irobot site about how to take care of it.

This robot is awfully cute, but a bit unreliable. We have had one for about four weeks now. It is able to do its job about half the time. It has a weak vacuum cleaner (which is what you would expect considering its size) that collects maybe 25% of what I get when sweeping. If used carefully, it will vacuum part of your house fairly well if supervised.

Here is our experience:

Roomba arrives. We read the manual and put it on its charger. We let it charge overnight. The next day, we clear away all of the wires and other light items that could snag a vacuum cleaner. We pick up the light rugs and leave the heavy rugs (we have hardwood floors). We turn Roomba loose. It does okay for about ten minutes, but then it gets stuck on a rug and aborts. We pick it up and put it back on its charger.

The red "no power" light blinks for the next nine days. We consider returning it as defective, but it finally manages to charge and give us the green "thumbs-up" light.

I set it running while I am doing chores around the place. I keep an eye on it, and it runs around vacuuming. Eventually, I send it back to its charger when its power light turns yellow. It gets some dust and all is well.

I do the same the next night. The robot gets caught under a radiator and aborts. It somehow manages to wedge itself between the bottom of the radiator and the floor. I rescue it, and it completes its mission.

We set it up to run while we are at work. We get home, only to find roomba stuck under a dinner chair. It managed to get between the legs to get under the chair, but was unable to find its way out.

Next day, we set it up to run while we are at work. We get home, and roomba is not on its charger. After a little searching, we find the robot inside of a laundry bag. The bag is semi-rigid, and was sitting upright when we left it. Roomba must have knocked it over, then gone inside to clean.

It runs okay for the next week. One day we left the door open to the bathroom (accidentally), and it got caught on the bathmat. The thing is damn quirky, though. Yesterday, we got home to find that the dust-tray had somehow fallen off the robot near its base. It was sitting in the living room missing its butt, having aborted for related reasons I suspect. So, while it ran, it sucked up dust and spit it out the back.

Overall, I would say this robot is more for entertainment purposes than for cleaning. If you never, ever clean, then Roomba might be an improvement. With the roomba running every day, it keeps the place less dusty than if I sweep once per week. However, the thing is very prone to get confused or stuck and abort. Plus, we have had some problems with charging.

I did the reverse of most people, I bought the Scooba first and it worked so well I picked up a Roomba Scheduler.

When I first started the Roomba and watched it for a few minutes I thought it was cute but figured it wasn't really going to pick up much. I was wrong. It filled it's bin in about 20 minutes in a small bedroom with a queen size bed (it can't go under the bed because of boxes I have under there). I had just vacuumed the room a week before getting the Roomba. I emptied the bin, charged the Roomba and then set it for a 1 hour clean in the same room. It vacuumed for the hour, found it's base and it had another full bin. I had to look at the dirt to make sure it wasn't ripping up the carpet instead of cleaning it, but it was all lint, dust and sand. Same results in another room. I was so impressed I saved the dirt in a ziplock bag to show my wife, she couldn't believe it either.

In summary, it's fun to watch, covers 99% of the floor 3-5 times while cleaning and is so easy to use I will use it 4-5 times a month instead of the once a month I used to vacuum with my bulky 20+ pound Eureka upright.

We are just SO so happy with our Roomba Scheduler model. It is set to run every morning at about 11am. We are both web people and work very late into the night (morning) so we are still asleep at 11am. This means that every morning we wake up, go downstairs, and the downstairs is CLEAN. It is very amazing.

We have 2 cats, and I never imagined that they were heavy shedders - but every single day the Roomba is pretty much full of hair and dirt. I rarely go out, so the dirt isn't really being "tracked in" from the outside. In the house, we tend to go barefoot to try to keep dirt to a minimum too. It is almost scary how much junk Roomba can pick up for us on a daily basis. I can only imagine if a house had more pets or kids or whatever, that Roomba would make an incredible difference in daily cleanliness.

We have a futon, and the Roomba goes RIGHT under the futon, cleaning it far better than we ever did with our vacuum. Roomba is fine at negotiating around the island in the kitchen and in and out of the different rooms. His built in brain has done a good job of learning the room pattern over time.

Yes, I do still use the carpet cleaner every 3 months or so, to get out the ground in dirt. However, since Roomba is doing such a great job of picking up dirt "as it happens", dirt really doesn't have a chance any more to settle down into the deeper fibers. Roomba is doing preventative maintenance, keeping the carpets much cleaner. The air is much fresher to breathe, too.

Maybe once a week we sprinkle down the Arm & Hammer pet deodorizer, very lightly. Roomba will pick that right up, and it helps to get rid of any lingering pet smells.

As far as cleaning the Roomba itself, every day we empty its dirt tray, which as I said, it just amazingly full each time. We shake out the tray and also the little lint catcher that is with the tray. Maybe every 2-3 weeks we turn over the entire Roomba and check its brushes, but that hasn't really been a problem for us.

The Roomba is handling the main living room, the office area, and then the kitchen / dining room which has a linoleum floor. So it goes back and forth between low carpet and linoleom without any problems at all. There was only one area with wires that Roomba would get caught in, and we simply put a 'wall' across the wires so that he avoided them. It was super easy.

I have to tell you - at this point I am seriously looking at getting a second Roomba for upstairs, to do the bedrooms. If Roomba is finding this much dirt on a daily basis - and able to keep our carpets fresh and clean - I imagine that another Roomba upstairs would make sure that our sleeping areas were fresh and comfortable. I really considered not getting a scheduler - and just getting a basic Roomba. However, having the Roomba just "go" on its own while you're not there, and coming back to a clean room without worrying about it or forgetting to push buttons or so on is such a *huge* help. It really is a wonderful feeling.

Just so you know that I don't work for Roomba, we were very skeptical at first. My boyfriend was rather angry at me for 'wasting' my money on this 'toy'. Now he is just as fond of our Roomba as I am. Yes, it would be cool if the Roomba could "empty itself" into the trash can. However, considering that it already charges itself, goes around cleaning the first floor by itself, returns to its charger base again and waits patiently for us, is it really THAT much trouble for me to go and shake out its dust bin? I don't think so! That is really my only complaint with it, if you can even call it a complaint.

As a summary, I love my Roomba Scheduler. It makes a huge difference in so many ways. First, it just gives me a lift to come down to a CLEAN house, instead of when I used to wake up and come down to a carpet full of dark fur spots. I really didn't have time to vacuum every day - and even if I had, the cats would of course make more fur spots while I slept. Next, all of that fur being around on the floor meant I was breathing it in. While I'm not "allergic" to cats, I do react to the fur slightly, and pretty much every human I know does. Your nose isn't designed to breathe in hair bits. So having the fur all gone every day really helps me to breathe more easily. Finally, of course, it is good for the carpet not to have dirt getting pressed into it over time!

I wanted to get a Roomba for a while, so finally my siblings got together and got me a Roomba for Christmas.

I have 2 cats and a dog. Our house is mostly hardwood, with carpet allong the long hallway. We get plenty of hair on all sufaces.

The first time I used the Roomba, I was amazed at how much dirt/dust/hair it found in a room that I thought was relatively clean. I fell in love with it right away.

It still continues to amaze me every time I use it on the wood floors. But after the first few times, I started noticing some flaws:

1. The edge cleaning brush is too small. Hence, it cleans edges, but cannot reach corners. Also, it is not rigid enough, so the edges may not get cleaned depending on how solidly the dust has settled there.

2. The brushes are a pain to clean, specially to get the hair off. In my situation, I find that I need to clean the brushes after every room (sometimes even after half the room), versus the recommended once in 3 times

3. The Roomba sometimes "throws up" on the carpet for no obvious reason. It will leave behind a streak of hair/dust as it goes along. No such issue on the hardwood floors. Works like magic on hardwood floors.

4. It doesnt clean hair off the carpet as well as a regular vacuum cleaner (I have a darkish carpet, so you can really tell)... not powerful enough for carpet/rugs...

All said and done, I love the Roomba for the hardwood floors. I use it on the carpet for 'basic' cleaning every 4-5 days (read - the carpet doesnt look CLEAN but it doesnt look DIRTY either), and then follow up with a regular vacuum cleaner every other week.

I wouldnt pay so much myself to buy it if I knew about the "dark side" of it, but now that I have it, I make full use of it... If I didnt need to clean the carpet/rugs, I would give it 5 stars. If iRobot can fix the above flaws in the next model, I would definitely LOVE the Roomba!