Almost a year ago, I bought a Roomba for my home. This past weekend, I gave up on it and returned it for the second time (thanks to Costco and their satisfaction guaranteed return policy).
I returned it the first time last December because its side rotating brushes were getting ripped off. I’m guessing they were getting caught in between the crevices between the floor and the moulding and it wasn’t smart enough to reverse the rotating motion and instead yanked its own limbs off.
The second and final time I returned it was because of the rotating brush problem, plus I found that is not well designed for cleaning. One of the rotating parts on the underside would have hair caught in between narrowly spaced plastic separators at the ends, requiring a very small and narrow tool to clear the tightly wound hair out. Until that happened, the Roomba refused to run.
I did like the fact that it transitioned well between carpet and hardwood floors and it even climbed the slight elevation between the hardwood floor and the bathroom tile, though not always and sometimes it closed the door on itself partially because of the way my bathroom is designed. The lighthouses that keep the Roomba confined to one room before moving on didn’t necessarily guide the Roomba to the farthest room, but physically taking the unit and starting it in that room worked fine as a workaround. I especially liked the scheduler feature, but with those two main issues, my place wasn’t ready for a Roomba yet.
If a new Roomba comes out, I wouldn’t mind giving it another chance, though. In the meantime, I’m considering a Dyson instead. Many of my friends have one, but I’m still a bit hesitant because many of them were raving on the Roomba, yet a few don’t really use theirs anymore.
UPDATE 06 Dec 2008: Last week I received a letter from iRobot acknowledging the problem with the rotating side brushes. They offer to replace it, however it’s not clear if the new replacement part is manufactured differently to prevent the brushes from being ripped off again. Since I’ve returned the unit, thankfully I don’t have to deal with it.
I use my Roomba once a week, but not as a replacement for regular vacuuming, but rather a stop-gap solution between my bi-monthly (or longer) cleaning bouts. I'm also considering a Dyson, but as a replacement for my Eureka cheapo upright, not my Roomba.
However, my Roomba has been acting up recently. Seems to get confused or something. It'll hit invisible walls, run in random circles, stop and think for a few seconds at a time, etc. Weird.
Those are signs for an uprising. You better watch out. Oh yeah, and Roombas are known to have the ability to influence Dysons.
I actually got a letter from iRobot last week about the brush problem (see post update). I ended up buying a Dyson as a real vacuum, though.
I’ve found that the Roomba is just terrible at cleaning in general. It is totally blind and doesn’t seem to seek out obvious dirt and debris. Plus it seems to forget the rooms it cleans over and over again — once it maps the room out, why doesn’t it clean in a pattern?
Pretty annoying and way over hyped IMO.