Pros: Effectively cleans the house, ultra simple to use, great appliance, not too loud
Cons: Hates thin rugs, gets stuck sometimes....
The Bottom Line: Try one to optimize your time when you clean the house. However, this is robotics, not magic. Some human intervention is still necessary!
smille76's Full Review: iRobot Roomba Red 4100 Bagless Robotic Vacuum
Me and my girlfriend we recently moved in a brand new condo with hardwood floors and some ceramic tile sections. We have a cat and both work about 50 hours per week, so the floor cleaning was a bit neglected. We just didn't have the time and energy to use a regular vacuum quite often. Since I work on graveyard shifts, there is almost always somebody sleeping here, so noise is an issue for us.
Almost everyday, my girlfriend would get her trusty Swiffer broom and attempt to clean the house. I hate these devices, it only seems to move the dust from one room to the other and since I have a really bad case of dust allergies, using this is out of question for me.
I was walking last week in my local hardware store and I saw one box that got my attention in the vacuums section: Roomba Red Vacuuming Robot from iRobot. It was about 50$-75$ more expensive than an upright vacuum at 250$CDN, but I decided to give it a try anyways. I bought this and settled home. This is actually the entry model of the 2nd generation of robotic vacuums by iRobot.
My girlfriend laughed at me, saying that I bought another useless gadget, and it would obviously wont work. I decided to try it out by myself; anyways, the store where i got it has a great return policy.
I opened the neat looking box and found my new toy inside. It is about 13" in diameter and about 3-4" high on the floor. Looking under its belly, you can see that the unit is well done, it has a revolving side brush, great for cleaning along the side of walls and corners. It also has a main large brush and vacuuming inlet on the center of the unit. It is propelled on 2 rubber knobby wheels, soft enough not to damage your floor. It also has a kind of suspension, allowing it to climb slight differences on floor levels, I'd say about 1/2" maybe.
I took everything out of the box, installed the NiMh battery in the robot and plugged it in the wall with the supplied battery charger. It is supposed to take 7 hours to get the full charge, giving between 90-120 of cleaning time in one charge. In the meantime I looked at the other device that was supplied in the box; the virtual wall. You put this on the floor and it emits an invisible beam in front of it; your Roomba will not cross this beam. This is good to block some areas you want your robot to avoid.
While I waited for the charge to be completed, I Roomba-proofed my home. This robots hates 2 things, just like a normal vacuum; loose cords and long bristles from blankets, carpets or throws. Within 10 minutes I managed to efficiently keep everything out of the way.
7 hours later, the Full Charge light went on and it's Roomba action time! I unplugged the robot and placed it in the middle of the living room. I pressed Power. The unit came to life with a nice beep (R2D2 anyone!!). Then I pressed "Clean" and it made another sound, like the "ta-da-ta-ta-ta-taaaa" or "Chaaaarge" sound we all know!!
Then it came to life, turning on it's main motors vacuum and side-brush spinning to complete it's mission. Then it started moving. The robot starts it's routine by making circles increasing in diameter. Sooner or later he'll hit something with its front bumper and then he changes direction. Don't be afraid to break something in your house, this is just a slight nudge, very inoffensive! Then he goes randomly from one room to another, following walls impressively, getting under my bookcase, under my bed, managing to navigate through my chairs in the dining room. At one point I checked him while it was going for the living room. We have a huge rug there on our hardwood floor, quite thick. Roomba climbed on it and it adjusted it's sweeping action in consequence; he slowed down and seemed to work harder to get the job done in a right way.
He then headed for our office/cat/everything room (we all have one in our houses!!). I was checking him, because this is where the floors are the dirtiest in our house, thanks to litter debris and the like. Roomba entered and it's "high dirt concentration" light immediately turned on. It then started to move very slowly in a wave-pattern, trying to get all the dirt and debris. I was really impressed by this performance.
About 45 minutes later, he came into the middle of the living room and stopped working, having cleaned the whole condo. I emptied it's dust bin and it was nearly full!! This robot goes where you sometimes neglect. I plugged him back into the charger, to make sure it's ready for the next time!
Here's my evaluation of this, the good and the bad.
The good part is that THIS EFFECTIVELY WORKS!! This is not a gimmick! This is not something useless. This is an appliance that will surely revolutionize our lives just like the microwave oven did in the 1980's. We use it about 2-3 times per week, it is really efficient and simple to use. Also, this unit is not loud like a normal vacuum. It makes about 80dB like stated on the iRobot website. It sounds like a standard hair dryer, not like a full size vacuum. This doesn't means that you can watch a movie with Roomba working in the background. However, you can do anything around the house without having to scream to be heard. We really like using it to vacuum our floor while we do other chores in the meantime; it's kinda like having 3 people working in the house instead of 2!
The bad part now. Sometimes the robot gets stuck. He did a couple of times on a carpet in the washroom. This happens with thin rugs as they tend to get swallowed by the Roomba. When this happens, the Roomba immediately stops to prevent any damage and he makes a sad beep (kinda like a uh-ohhhh).
Also this robot is great but your house will still need minimal spot cleaning on your part (behind plants, small tight spots).
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