Has anybody ever dedicated one of these to the kitchen, and if so, how successful were you? Does it get gummy? Pick up food particles well?

Will this work with my Dyson?

Argh I just bought a 530 series this year because I couldn't find a cheap enough one on Woot.

You win again, Woot. You win, again.

How well does this work on pet hair? I've been wanting for one of these but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I got one of these for my wife when it was up here a few weeks ago, and we love it. This is a great buy if you're in the market for a vacuum.

Previous Woot!

KCFalcon59 wrote:How well does this work on pet hair? I've been wanting for one of these but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I have a beagle who sheds all the time, and after getting a Roomba, my floors have never been cleaner. It is great at picking up pet hair.

Every time I see these I get excited and immediately a wave of sadness rushes over me, as I realize there is no such thing as a DjRoomba (in the mix), EVERY time.

These are great. They will sweep the floor for you.

KCFalcon59 wrote:How well does this work on pet hair? I've been wanting for one of these but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

This works great on pet hair.... I love it!

I have a 530 and I love it! I do use it in the kitchen and it works quite well in there IMO. Mine hasn't gotten gummy or anything, but I also don't cook much more than spaghetti and PB&J sandwiches...

It does pretty well at picking up pet hair as well, although you ~have~ to clean it out each time you run it (if you have a pet) because it gets full of hair pretty fast.

All in all I'm tempted to buy this, but what I really want is the Scooba or a schedule-able Roomba. This one's price is pretty tempting though.

Anyone know how this model compares to one of the current models?

how about human hair? particularly from the head. it's a house full of women, long hair is everywhere. tell me its good at picking up long strains of hair and I'll think it's made from the gods themselves.

stphnlee wrote:I got one of these for my wife when it was up here a few weeks ago, and we love it. This is a great buy if you're in the market for a vacuum.

But it won't vacuum...

How well do these work on carpet and how often do they need to be changed?

So what version is this? Guessing its a 440?

I've owned both the 400 series and 500 series Roombas. Although the 530 is nicer, with scheduler, self-charging base and lighthouses instead of virtual walls - it's hard to beat this deal for a 440 model. Great "starter" Roomba or gift idea.

I'm picking up a couple for some elderly relatives and an extra one... just because!

The key to keeping any Roomba running for multiple years is to keep the brushes clean and the battery charged properly. As long as you do that, it should be well worth the investment.

Bought the 530 during a woot off about a month or so ago, and I've only had problems. It won't charge for more than half an hour at a time, and recently it has stopped even turning on.

However, iRobot should be commended for their excellent customer service. They've sent me a new battery and an entirely new Roomba (I get to keep the old one for some reason) free of charge.

Unfortunately this hasn't solved the problems, I'm thinking something is wrong with the power brick, I need to give iRobot a call on monday to see what we can do from here. Overall, I regret buying it in the first place. But I doubt many others will have the same problems as me.

eyeflytwohigh wrote:How well do these work on carpet and how often do they need to be changed?

I can't answer how well it works on carpet, but it needs to be changed after each use when it is run on hardwood floors (at least in my apartment). This requires basically dumping the dirt collection bin. About one in every 7 uses I clean it more thoroughly by removing the brushes and rollers and cleaning the filter.

These things are cute, and yes, they do pick stuff up from your floors. But they require quite a bit of prep. moving furniture, carpets with fringes, etc. And still, they're always getting caught up, or stuck on something; plus they require quite a bit of cleaning after each use, and the batteries, which don't last long, are expensive.
Bottom line: once the novelty wears off, they're more trouble than they're worth.

eyeflytwohigh wrote:How well do these work on carpet and how often do they need to be changed?

Honestly, they are great for "surface dirt". IE, pet hair, random rubble, cookie crumbs.

Anything that gets below the carpet's surface is forever out of reach from the roomba's grasp. See, the roomba has no sucking ability. It works 100% on the brushes flicking stuff into the trap door, or in the case of hair, rolling it up into the brushes.

This roomba comes with a brush comb/razor combo, so every week or so you can cut off the mat of hair. A pain in the a$$, but then again you don't do anything to clean your floors so 15 minutes a week isn't bad.

I ended up ditching mine. I have a kid, and after spilling sand on the carpet, I got the roomba out to clean it up...and got PELTED with sand. It was a shoe's full (from the beach) and only a few grains ended up in the trap door. Knowing all that sand, along with the other menagerie of various nasties in the carpet that my son was crawling all over..

mommy guilt got the best of me, and I traded it in for a more expensive, yet much much better cleaning power vacuum...That ACTUALLY sucks up dirt.

Those of you with pets who have learned to ride the Roomba -- or ones that are really freaked out by the thing -- could you maybe post pics of your pet vs. robot showdown?

dawgdave99 wrote:I've owned both the 400 series and 500 series Roombas. Although the 530 is nicer, with scheduler, self-charging base and lighthouses instead of virtual walls - it's hard to beat this deal for a 440 model. Great "starter" Roomba or gift idea.

I'm picking up a couple for some elderly relatives and an extra one... just because!

The key to keeping any Roomba running for multiple years is to keep the brushes clean and the battery charged properly. As long as you do that, it should be well worth the investment.

Can you tell me what you mean by charging the battery properly? I have a 530. I charged it right before I ran it, but one time I charged it and didn't run it, and it died. There must be a trick to getting it to last longer than mine did. Help. If I can figure it out I want to buy this one. The price is right

emitstop wrote:Bought the 530 during a woot off about a month or so ago, and I've only had problems. It won't charge for more than half an hour at a time, and recently it has stopped even turning on.

However, iRobot should be commended for their excellent customer service. They've sent me a new battery and an entirely new Roomba (I get to keep the old one for some reason) free of charge.

Unfortunately this hasn't solved the problems, I'm thinking something is wrong with the power brick, I need to give iRobot a call on monday to see what we can do from here. Overall, I regret buying it in the first place. But I doubt many others will have the same problems as me.

+I was having similar problems. I read all of the Quick Start Guide over and realized I was not cleaning the brush bearings. Because I had not, it was causing the brushes to not turn and it to stop. Once I cleaned them it ran for 45 more minutes without a problem. MIght want to try cleaning the bearings.

I have rugs on top of the carpet. Will this work for me?

EasyGoinGal wrote:Can you tell me what you mean by charging the battery properly? I have a 530. I charged it right before I ran it, but one time I charged it and didn't run it, and it died. There must be a trick to getting it to last longer than mine did. Help. If I can figure it out I want to buy this one. The price is right

On the 530, hold down the "Spot" and "Dock" buttons at the same time, and hold for about 10 seconds (or until the power button goes out). Then recharge the battery for at least overnight. This refreshes the battery, and extends the life. You may need to do this a few times for max life. You can go to roomba's site, ans watch a video on how to do it.

I have several roombas (all from woot), and am very happy with them. I have also ordered some and given them as gifts. In all, I think I've probably ordered between 5 and 10 from woot, and would order one this time if I could figure out where to use it, or someone to give it to. The roomba site (irobot.com) is very helpful if you have problems (go to the support page, and search the FAQ's), an the staff are very helpful if you email them a question.

I love my ROOMBA/Jeeves. I do not give him the tending, loving care I need to. I dump the bin full of dust and dog hair in the trash, sort of scrape off the filter, that is it. Occasionally when something gets wound around the brush, I deal with it then. I found the key to the battery life is to always keep it charged, Don't just let it finish cleaning and not hooked to the charger. Come home, grab dog, set Jeeves lose, go for a walk, come back, floor is clean. Oh, did you see Jesse, on Breaking Bad has a Roomba? No, I do no work for irobot, I just love the thing. Donut

Please let me know!! I was just saying that I was going to get a Roomba and wondered when the next one would be on woot. This was literally like 2 hours ago I thought to myself.

Big question, can i use this on a hardwood floor in the bathroom for cat litter? I just get tired of sweeping it everyday!! Anybody have experience please let me know :-)

jenandlaw wrote:Has anybody ever dedicated one of these to the kitchen, and if so, how successful were you? Does it get gummy? Pick up food particles well?

I grabbed one the last time and it is the best $125 I've ever spent. It works equally as well on wood floors, tile or carpet. It has exceeded my expectations. Dry food particles will be sucked up just like dust and hair is, but I'd suggest you bend down and pick up any wet food with a paper towel.

emitstop wrote:Bought the 530 during a woot off about a month or so ago, and I've only had problems. It won't charge for more than half an hour at a time, and recently it has stopped even turning on.

However, iRobot should be commended for their excellent customer service. They've sent me a new battery and an entirely new Roomba (I get to keep the old one for some reason) free of charge.

Unfortunately this hasn't solved the problems, I'm thinking something is wrong with the power brick, I need to give iRobot a call on monday to see what we can do from here. Overall, I regret buying it in the first place. But I doubt many others will have the same problems as me.

I got burned on that deal a month or so ago as well. From the start, the roomba was spouting (garbled) error codes, lurching forward one side at a time and ramming into walls without slowing down.

iRobot sent me a new left wheel, which I installed, but it did not fix any problems. After the unit refused to power on at all anymore they finally sent me a new unit (just got it 2 or 3 days ago) and so far that's been working fine, though I am worried that the battery is going to give out soon since the old unit appeared to have power issues (the replacement units don't come with batteries). They let me keep the old broken roomba as well, so that's nice to have as a small stock of spare parts.

royvij wrote:I have rugs on top of the carpet. Will this work for me?

It "might". I've found that it depends on the "step up" between the two. Generally, it works fine, unless there is a large difference in the height. If there are "tassels" on the rug, it may also have trouble, but it usually goes around that, and "climbs" over one of the side edges without tassels. Most throw rugs are no problem (at least in my case).

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've got several roombas, and use them on hardwood, carpet, and a Dirt Dog in the Garage. On all 3 surfaces, there are additional carpets over the base surface that the units work fine with.

lmp15 wrote:how about human hair? particularly from the head. it's a house full of women, long hair is everywhere. tell me its good at picking up long strains of hair and I'll think it's made from the gods themselves.

It includes a tool with a little blade to cut long hair that wraps around the brushes so it can be easily removed.

Got my 440 last month when it was up. I love it. There are only two people in our house and no pets, so its not tremendously dirty. Plus I don't have a ton of junk strewn all over (like a clean, sparesly furnished room so not a lot of obstacles). I had realistic expectations of the product - I did't expect it to replace my much more powerful full sized vacuum, but it really surprised me. On the short pile carpet in the hall and bedrooms I would let it clean one room at a time. Even though I had vacuumed a few days before it still picked up a ton of dust, lint and hair and took care of the neglected area under the beds really well. Only snag was it would give me the low battery warning after about 45 minutes of cleaning. No problem, I'd just plug it in and do a different room the next day. Another good thing about it was how well it brushed up the pile on the carpet. It looked better than after the full-sized vacuum.

The living and dining room flow together so that was a harder cleaning. It has wood laminate with area rugs (short pile, no fringe). The Roomba would sometimes bump into the rug's hem and think it had hit a wall. It would hunt around until it found an angle that would allow it to get up on the rug. Because of this it took much longer to complete the rooms, but it still did a good job. The terracotta tile in the kitchen was a snap - really did a good job. With the limitation of the battery I am using it about every other day on a different room to keep up, but I don't mind.

Cleaning the unit has to be frequent. It must be done often - the dirt container is very small. After every room it gets cleaned out (I use a Metro Vacuum electronics air blower to do it).

So far so good! Again, just keep reasonable expectations and don't get too upset over its limitations.

I have now gone thru 3 roombas -- none have lasted more than a few months. As this is Woot.com and not a complaint forum I will spare the ugly details. But I will never buy one again.

Just my .02 cents worth.

eyeflytwohigh wrote:How well do these work on carpet and how often do they need to be changed?

They don't have to be changed. They don't wear diapers.

lmp15 wrote:how about human hair? particularly from the head. it's a house full of women, long hair is everywhere. tell me its good at picking up long strains of hair and I'll think it's made from the gods themselves.

Works great. Last time my hair was this long I donated it to locks of lOve and my braid was 21" so I have very long hair now... So far perfection. You do need to clean the brushes from time to time (often) since the hair does get stuck but great purchase and can't beat the price...

This is the second Roomba I've ordered from Woot. I got one some years back which had an automatic docking station... and the biggest problem which I had with it, at the time, was that it was on the docking station more often than it should have been, and thus killed the battery. (I still need to get a new battery for it.) The one they're offering today does NOT have the autodocking system, but requires you, yes you, to plug it in... which may actually extend your battery life.

Sure, it isn't the most recent series with the hepa filters and fancy bells and whistles. But you know, the virtual walls work with all models of the Roomba (in my experience, anyhow), and I've got enough of those now from various Woot-Off purchases (usually Bundle of Crops#39;s) that I can set up a veritable maze for my new Roomba to traverse. Now, if I could just get around to getting a replacement battery for the old one, I could have Robot Cleaning Wars...

Any chance moofi has a different model???

In any case, i LOVE, love love my roombas! Yes, they take a little maintenance. HOWEVER, unlike every other vacuum I have ever had, they are BUILT to maintain--the brush pops out to be cleaned easily. You don't HAVE to move furniture, they go around and under. I do, so roomba does a much better job than I do. And, it's easy, so I run him every day. If I'm home, he can do the whole house, if I just recharge him two or three times.