Woot : One Day, One Deal (SM)

Bought one on Woot about 6 months ago. Very happy with it. We have a big dog with lots of hair and the Roomba has helped out immensely with the shedding issue.

Bought this exact model last time it was on woot.

Turned out to be a great decision. Roomba works great on carpet and hard wood floors. You will be surprised how much stuff it has in its dirt tray after each use.

If you have lots of tile or hard wood floors, its a god send. I just press "clean" before i leave for work and when i get home i empty it out. Just remember to clean it regularly.

I bought a new roomba. Love it. It goes a long time before needing recharging. Then bought a refurbished roomba. Looks the same, works the same, but the "recharge" light comes on after about 15 mins. Just buy a new one to begin with. I've not had good luck with refurbed products.

I bought Roomba from WOOT when sold before and I LOVE him. I turn him on before I shower in the morning and he is finished before I leave for work. If every man in my life was as efficient as Roomba.

I have a pretty flat layout with no stairs but little tables here and there in my living room will it go under and around them with no problem? Also will it transition from my kitchen floor up to the carpet ok?

How far can it travel? Does it go room to room? I have a long hallway from the kitchen to the family room(about 50 feet), will it be able to clean that room or will it die before getting back to the kitchen?

esperath wrote:I bought one of these from the last woot offering. The Roomba does a great job of picking up cat fur and stray litter pellets from around the house. It also does a great job of picking up my girlfriend's long hair, getting tangled up, and then bleating plaintively until you come to repair it.

That said, I am thoroughly satisfied with my purchase, and I haven't yet encountered any of the common problems with battery life (we'll see how that holds up in a year...)

Maintenance is pretty easy but you really do need to pull all of the tangled hair/fur out of the sides of the brushes, and hair will somehow manage to get on the inside of the little side brush. You'll have to use a Phillips head screwdriver to take off the brush and remove the offending hair.

I have had this issue with mine as well, but I think it is due to my regular vacuum being a POS. I have to stop the Roomba every 2-3 minutes to clean cat hair off the ends of the little brush, or it gets tangled to the point I have to cut it off. Other than that, mine works great.

I bought this last time and Love it!

Below is a copy/paste of a blog i posted just after my purchase and I still feel the same about my new friend.



What to title this blog?

There is a new love in my Life

My iRobot is taking over the World

Confessions of a Lazy Sweeper


Really does not matter much, the point is
I, a lazy sweeper, just bought a roomba and named him Dusty and if he is not taking over the world at least he is taking over my floor and that is good enough for me.

I promise I have not become a door to door iRobot sales person, so don’t kick me out like the real estate agents posing in bloggers. I have nothing to gain and only dirt to loose.

I never meant to buy one. I thought the concept was interesting but seriously this thing could not really work. Could it? Of course not. Unless maybe….

So last Saturday my Pager went off at 5:30 am (did you even know there was a 5:30 in the morning?) Bleary eyed I logged on to see why I had lost connectivity with a server in Mexico. While waiting for the Mexico T-server to reboot I remember feeling like I was the only person awake in the whole world. That thought prompted me to click on Woot.com, as surely anything great could not be sold out at that hour… I was really hoping to find the mysterious and frequent ‘baby of the cosmos’, which I have never been able to claim. But instead, there it was….The iRobot Roomba 530 with Virtual Wall…. For $129.00.

This may have seemed resistible in the light of day but in my completely sleep deprived state I was no match for the marketing genius at woot.com. Before I knew it, I had clicked “I Want One!”.

I feel like I have been let in on a great secret. All those hours I have spent cleaning the floor….

So now I have a new best friend. One that contributes as much to our relationship as I. Right this moment he is skillfully navigating the hard wood floor around the legs of my Husband’s baby grand piano, its bench and a couple of guitars on stands. A corner of the room I dared not touch with sweeper, broom or vacuum.

Before that it perfectly swept the dog hair out from under the armoire and some lost coffee grinds wedged in the corner of my kitchen baseboard where I had been unable to reach.

I had always swept daily but consistently managed to miss a wee bit of sand the dogs would drag in… I hated that feel on bare feet. Now no more do I get that feeling. And unlike a husband or Child, when it does have an issue (full or something caught on roller like a pesky Netflix envelope strip) instead of complaining it plays a lovely little tune… then continues work immediately after the issue is resolved. Who could ask for more?

I’ve dressed him up in sun glasses and used it as a sleigh to drive around a stuffed animal to chase the dogs. I think I’ll make it a French maid’s costume for Halloween.

When I was young I always imagined that by year 2000 we would have the flying vehicles and Rosie the Robot just like the Jetsons. I’m okay with out any more flying and now Dusty will make me perfectly happy until the Real Rosie comes along.

Sadly woot has suckered me in again. I'm turning into a real impulse buyer. But at least now my floors will be clean!

KNRG wrote:Anyone know if it can get under an Ikea Klippan sofa with the standard height legs?

Yes it can. It goes right under our Klippan couch (and chairs which are possibly even lower to the ground) just fine!

In for 2- Christmas gifts I can mark off the list.

Love our roomba

Own one from last woot, we love it. Great on hardwood floors. Love that it crawls underneath beds, couches, and chairs. Highly recommend it.

I bought this model from woot about 6 months ago. It does a good job picking up crumbs, dust, and hair from the 2000 sq. ft. of hardwood floors in my home (won't cover the entire floor on one battery charge, but running it twice is sufficient). It's definitely not a replacement for a thorough weekly cleaning of those floors, but it saves a lot of time sweeping in between.

A couple of weeks ago I went to clean the Roomba after running it, and found that it had caught a mouse! Never saw the mouse-catching feature mentioned before.

Considering getting this for a gift, but whats the packaging like for a refurb from Woot? Any previous purchasers please comment.

kmeltzer wrote:I bought one at this previous Wooting. Been very happy with it. I named it Roombie.

I named mine Ehm Oh, M-O from Wall-E.
A female friend of mine and I even made a facebook for it....

I bought the refurb model and i beleive it came in full retail packing...

psychodad1961 wrote:What I want to know is: Is this really a vacuum or does it just sweep the floor like my Swivel Sweeper (that doesn't really do much of anything besides throw the dirt around)? That was 24.99 down the drain. I don't wan't to be disappointed to the tune of $135......

It really does. I have one dog, two cats and an 11 year old, and this thing has helped a great deal. If I run it every day, I basically have no fur (or dirt) on my floors. I've found if I use it every other day, it's enough to keep my floors clean and avoid the fur tumbleweeds.

I work from home, and have it start when I leave for the gym. When I come back, it's usually done. I haven't had to vacuum or sweep my floors every other day like I had to before to keep up with the fur and (minor amounts of) dirt tracked into the house.

Personally, been very happy and it has all but eliminated a chore I had to do a few times a week. I would NOT spend $300-400 on a new one.. but for this price, no brainer.

(FWIW, I only have hardwood, and tile in the bathroom. I do not use it on any carpet.)

this is my 3rd time buying 2 of these. i use one for our home and give the rest out as gifts. love it!

it works great on our hardwood floors. very rarely it would get stuck going over the a/c vents on the floor.

though it is a bit loud (especially on hardwood floors) but we let it run when we're out of the house.

I have one and I love it. Its fun to watch, and easy to use. It picks up most of the garbage on my floor, from screws, coins and other odds and ends to dust dirt and hair.

One problem though is the small size of the "dust bin".

Over all, I'd like to own one for every room in my place, but since I live in a two room apartment with a roommate, I only need the one.

danib62 wrote:I have this roomba and it works great!

One caveat though is that it will not like dark colored rugs! The sensors will think they are a cliff and have it avoid them and possibly get stuck. iRobot has yet to come out with a fix for this.

You can cover the sensors yourself with paper and tape however this will morph your roomba into a lemming that will tumble down flights of stairs.

If you don't have a dark carpet or you don't have a staircase this is an excellent pick up.

I bought this same model on a previous woot and all of my rugs are dark. I don't have this problem at all. Aside from it moving runner and areas rugs around, it still cleans them as well as my hardwood!

I bought one from Woot in May and it is just great. Great fun to watch and also it does a decent job too.

The kids also love it as they are responsible for keeping their rooms tidy and clean , so they just simply pick it up and drop it in their rooms. If only there was a Roomba for dusting.

The Roomba gets places that a normal vac doesnt get to - under beds etc. So there is a nice sense of well being when it disappears cleaning places you know that you wouldn't otherwise get to.

It does take some maintenance - it needs to be cleaned quite frequently, but this is easily done.

When the battery starts to fade, the Roomba hunts for its charging station and if it finds it, goes through a fascinating dance as it redocks.

My wife - who likes to think that she is a luddite, actually is impressed with the Roomba. The dog hated it for a while but now just hides when it is running.

Worth buying just for the entertainment.

I bought this on a woot about 8 months ago. Same refurbished model, same price. The robot itself works great and it still moves around like a champ.

After 4 or 5 months of use(in a small apartment) It basically stopped picking stuff up. When I contacted the company they told me it needed a new vacuum mechanism, which was not covered by the company. I am out of luck now with no vacuum.

Might want to think twice on this one.

2) I believe the Roomba 530 was being sold (during the last Woot-off) with a Dirt Dog robot (both NEW) for only $199. This would make this refurbed 530 a not-so-good deal in comparison.

It was a 510. And the Dirt Dog is surprisingly cool; but I'd maybe rather have spent less for a 530 with a base, although new was good.

Kizzbot wrote:No wonder we are a nation of fat asses. Too lazy to even vacuum a floor.

Probally true...however, I bought one from Woot about a year ago and found it augments my Eureka upright nicely. The ability to clean under furniture and beds allows it to hit those areas daily that would be a big chore to move the items to clean under them.

In for one.

kmeltzer wrote:I bought one at this previous Wooting. Been very happy with it. I named it Roombie.

I named mine Shirley, and the other George. They clean quite well!!

Wondering if this is a good upgrade from the 510, or if i should wait for one of the even newer, shinier models, what with the four cats and all.

omnipotentq wrote:But a beautiful magic. Each time I see one of these on Woot, I get just a little bit closer to buying one. The floorplan in my house makes it....difficult, to say the least. (lots of small rooms with doors and doorjams that would make vacumming with this thing impossible)...le sigh.

I have door jambs and tile/carpet separators made of wood that are nearly an inch in hight (like a half oval shape) and it goes right over them!! I love this Larry (our roomba's name)

DCno10 wrote:here's the manufacturer's website

and the user manual

But this DOES come with a user's manual, right?...

Positively love it, does a great job of cleaning up after pets and us. Love the modular design, it's easy to keep the unit clean and to replace a piece if something happens. Does a great job moving around without getting stuck on cords and such, does a better job getting unstuck. Love it.

I bought one here this Spring. I have had no trouble at all. It does take a bit to make things "roomba-friendly" (put cords away, block furniture that Roomba can fit under but not get out from under, etc.)

These work well, but you have to do your reasonable share. I find running Roomba 3 times in the busiest living areas is the best way to ensure things are really clean, 1 time is not enough. Cleaning Roomba out is part of the deal, but is not too big a deal, it's alway fun to see how much stuff got picked up! I am amazed how long Roomba will run, I measure nearly an hour and a half the other day (supposed to run 45 minutes) so that is pretty cool, too!

We bought one of these several months ago, we have been delighted with it. It scoots under the couch and bed, hard for us to reach those areas.
It even 'fluffs' up the carpet, making it softer. It is even fun to watch, trying to predict it's path (we seldom can!)
No problems with it, you did need to clean it out after each session. I would have liked two Virtual walls, but a 2x4 works well for the second 'wall'

We picked up one of these Roombas in August - and have been super-happy with it. It gets the big tumbleweeds of hair from our three cats and two dogs off of the tile, carpet, and hardwood in our house nicely in between the housekeeper's visits.

Nevr ever buy a refurb roomba. I love the roomba. i have had 5 in the last 7 years. but a 90 day warranty doesn't cut it with these little monsters. i got screwed once by woot buying a refurb roomba. i'd rather pay the extra $50 plus and get a new one with a full warranty.
a word to the wise is suffiencent

Will work well for those of you that don't have pets with long hair. This baby will clog up faster then your arteries after eating a Hardees Monster Meal.

I also have a refurbed 530 from Woot. It has performed well, but the brushes stopped turning after a few months of use. From the underbelly it looks like it has the same "red brush module of sadness" mine had. They seem to have a lot of problems. I probably could have whined to customer service and got a new module, but I just ordered up a new and improved green module and it has been running great ever since.

psychodad1961 wrote:What I want to know is: Is this really a vacuum or does it just sweep the floor like my Swivel Sweeper (that doesn't really do much of anything besides throw the dirt around)? That was 24.99 down the drain. I don't wan't to be disappointed to the tune of $135......

i would never buy a refurb firstly. but yes this does a great job of picking up all the dirt. it has two chambers. one picks up the fine dust and dander. the other picks up the big stuff, bottle caps, coils, ear rings.etc. we always check the main bin before emtying it into the trash.

tvscout wrote:I had one of the first Roomba models (a red one) YEARS ago... my only problem with it is that it would scratch our hardwood floor - which is why it got limited use. Does anyone know if this is still a problem? Otherwise it was the coolest!

the first roomba models were silver. i think this newer model is much more gentle. it even slows down as it approches a wall to keep it from marking the baseboard.

Kizzbot wrote:No wonder we are a nation of fat asses. Too lazy to even vacuum a floor.

I'm guessing you've never owned a Roomba, and don't have a fat ass, bad back, disability, army of children, or grasp the concept of multi-tasking.

You seem to have a firm grasp on the concept of trolling however. Nice Bridge.

Does refurbished mean used or lower quality in any way?