alexandra2428's Full Review: iRobot Roomba Red 4100 Bagless Robotic Vacuum
2 adults, 2 small children, and 1 sloppy, dirty dog equals a big mess. Between outside dirt, baseball dirt, dog hair and 1 million tiny crumbs from daily meals, I was sweeping every day and hating it. The other option was to walk around with dirty feet which is gross. I hate cleaning of all kinds and with a full time job during the day, and a full time job at night (SuperMOM) there wasn't much time to do anything. Besides, I much prefer to be sitting on the couch or going to the beach during my free time.
Background: We have tile flooring in most of the rooms in the living room/dining room/kitchen/den. Wood floors in one bedroom and burber carpeting in the two other bedrooms. We seem to have had a run of bad luck w/ stand-up vacuums. Always breaking something, etc. I had been eyeing the Roomba for a long time but the price was too out of reach for me when they first came out. Also, the reviews were very inconsistent when it came to product reliability. With time though came the second generation of Roombas, along with a cheaper price. On an impulse, I purchased the Roomba Red for $150.00.
The Roomba ("Rover") requires little assembly. There are only two components, the unit itself and the "virtual wall" which is a little box that emits some sort of invisible beam. When the box is placed on the floor, Rover knows not to pass through the beam which runs about 8 ft. This requires a D battery. The only thing I had to do with the unit was install the battery and the filter which took all of 30 seconds. There is very little in terms of instructions and/or information about the product in their literature. My guess is that people don't really want to be overwhelmed with how the product acutally works, they just want it to do its job.
You must charge the Roomba for 7 hours prior to using it. The more expensive models have a rapid charge feature (3 hours). There is also another more expensive model that has a dockeing station to charge it and the Roomba heads over to it when it needs to be fed. Not worth the extra $100 in my book.
There are two cleaning buttons on the unit. The first is "spot" which you use for spills in one area. The Roomba covers only a 3 foot area in this mode. Very effective when your kid dumps sand out of his/her shoes while taking off sneakers. The other button is the "clean" button. You use this for general cleaning. When the Roomba is in "clean" mode, it circles around and somehow measures the area and determines how long it will take to clean one room. Once it does this it begins its route. It takes about 20 minutes for the unit to clean one room. When it is finished, it shuts itself off automatically and waits for you to pick it up and move it.
Rover does a GREAT job of picking up pet hair, sand, dirt and even hairbands (not recommended!). It has a bumper in the front that gives when it hits the wall or furniture. It navigates around chairs, under beds and around doors. It can go up onto my jute rug (about 1/2 inch high) with no problem. I was disgusted at how much stuff was picked up in my kids' rooms. I have no opinion on how it works on higher pile carpeting. On a cleaning day, it is wonderful to have something else doing the grunt work while I do other things.
As other writers have mentioned, the Roomba requires preventive maintenance. It is recommended that you dump the bin (1/2 of the unit)after each use. Hair and string get caught up in the brushes just like in a regular vacuum and must be removed. The parts are easily removable and require no thought in putting back. I have only had one problem with my Rover. After one week, Rover kept stopping after 10 seconds of power. I contacted customer service at irobot and they were wonderful. Seems Rover thought he was being picked up and wouldn't go on. I had to bounce the wheels up and down a couple of times and it was as good as new.
The Roomba is a wonderful product that I can't imagine living without at this point. Everyone should have one.
UPDATE: My Roomba died. Spinning in circles which apparently is common. BUT IRobot sent me a free replacement so it is all good. Just a bit incovenient to wiat.
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