latest roomba just went TU again!

[Soundguy]

We upgraded tot he new model of roomba scheduler as our extended warranty was coming to an end and we were going to ahve to buy another warranty since these little pieces of junk break about every 2 months.

We's had the new redesigned one for 2weeks minus 1 day now. Would ahve had it for 2 weeks, except the first one they sent home was 100% DOA... wouldn't do anything.. not even power up or charge... yep.. they sold us a box of useless junk.

I made em prove the 2nd one worked before i left the store.

In any case.. it still sufferes most of the same problems as it's predicessors.. though I see they have made attmepts to mitigate this.. though not real good attempts.

Got home tonight and the little paddle wheel is broken into 3 parts...

heck.. we have tile floors and no carpet at all... this should be the ideal environment for these things.

I keep griping about it.. we had the option of getting our money back or paying a small upgrade fee... I decided to give it a go..

I see that i-robot still makes an inferior and very brittle product.

anyone else have the new looking model? what were your thoughts on it?

Soundguy

 

[Cottonhawk]

Soundguy,
It must be a frustrating experience to have all bad luck with iRobot.
My three year old Roomba started to act up .... does not hold charge and short charging cycles. I bought a new battery from Amazon, dropped it in, charged 72 hours, put the Old Roomba to work yesterday, and it worked as well as new!

 

[Redneck_Randy]

anyone else have the new looking model? what were your thoughts on it?

Soundguy

I think you already know what I think about the iRobot Roomba's. Your lucky you have a replacement warranty to fall back on. Think of all those that bought one without a replacement warranty and now have a high dollar door stop.

Randy

 

[MDM]

We bought one about a year ago. After about 3 months, the novelty wore off. We rarely use it in the house now. We have hardwood floors and it is just no match for our 20 year old Kirby. We relegalted the Roomba to our pontoon boat. It works very well and is quite handy for this. We just turn it loose on our way back to the docks and by the time we get there the boat is cleaned up well enough. That said, I won't buy another when this one goes down.

 

[ToadHill]

I bought one for my wife last Christmas, ( one household gift each year along with one personal gift) it lasted for about 3 months and has been down since. I bought her a Dyson Vac for her birthday.

 

[cp1969]

You're a lucky man.

Many, many moons ago, I bought the then-new wife a vacuum for Christmas because we had none and were borrowing my mom's.

I have never heard the end of it. Women (yours must be the exception or maybe mine is) do not appreciate useful gifts. Either they, or we, don't understand the concept of gift-giving.

 

[reb]

You're a lucky man.

Many, many moons ago, I bought the then-new wife a vacuum for Christmas because we had none and were borrowing my mom's.

I have never heard the end of it. Women (yours must be the exception or maybe mine is) do not appreciate useful gifts. Either they, or we, don't understand the concept of gift-giving.

My wife appreciates and frequently asks for practical gifts. The only complaint I have gotten was when I bought a table saw, told her it was hers and wouldn't show her how to use it.

 

[MossRoad]

My dad told me in no uncertain terms....

"Never buy your wife an appliance for her birthday, Christmas or your anniversary." And he had a stone cold look of experience when he said it!

 

[Inspector507]

My wife has a habit of asking for appliances for Christmas.

 

[ragkar]

Cottonhawk - three years on the original battery is pretty good.
Soundguy - Doesn't that make seven units in two years? Outside of the DOA it would be interesting to read the failure analysis. Are you sure that you aren't abusing it? Are you vacuuming twice a day or more?
I have the top model 570 with the lighthouse technology and scheduler. I've been using it quite a bit for the last ten weeks or so and it's working fine. Right now I carry it from area to area, but when the novelty wears off I'll be using the scheduler to have it working once a week at night.
My criteria for it's efficiency is how much trash is in the compartments. And so far it's doing fine.
I know two other people with earlier models - one for three years and the other a year and a half - and they have no complaints about theirs.

 

[MossRoad]

My wife has a habit of asking for appliances for Christmas.

Mine, too... but no way am I doing it. Dad looked pretty serious when he told me that advice. Sooo, if my wife says we need a new appliance, we go and get it ASAP. Kind of reminds me of when we bought our tractor....

We decided to take out a home equity loan because it qualifies as a mortgage and we save on our proptery taxes with a homestead exemption by saving more in property taxes than we pay on loan interest. So we sit down at the credit union and the loan officer asks us how much we want to borrow. I look at my wife and say, "The tractor and trailer I want is $14,500, so why don't we borrow $15,000?". She says O.K., turns to the loan officer and says, "We're getting a tractor and a car, so we'd like to borrow $40,000.00."

Two toys to go, please!

 

[Soundguy]

It must be at LEAST 7 units so far. In fact.. we had just gotten the one replaced from sears that had the broken beater bar, and the cashier hard-timed us on it. had to call the manager over. That darn bar shouldn't break in a few days... Also.. the little starfish 'corner sweeper'.. it's now longer and i see a potential problem that we have already had to have fixed.. That little starfish brush is long enough to get runover by it's own wheel. on our last unit.. we lost 2 arms off the starfish wheel in 3 days.. ( pitiful design if the wheel can run over it own arm!! ).

In any case.. we've run out of the extended warranty.. so.. I'm not sure what's going to happen when this one breaks in somewhere between 1 day and 2 months. As much trouble as I've had.. i think I'll prove a point and ask for my money back.. and if I get static.. I'll take the hassle of taking them to small claims court.. not for the $$.. but for the agravation.

The new unit we upgraded to is a 560 or 570 i guess ( I think).. has the lighthouse towers.. etc..

I'm not sure how we could be abusing it... we have no carpet or rugs, no stairs, no threshold humps between rooms.. house is 100% ceramin tile even in the bathroom and bedroom.. and we have no extension, power, tv, telephone cords across the floor. This should be an ideal environment for this little expensive science project of a vacume cleaner.

I do see the new ones now come with a self adhesive stick on rubber bumper so that as the unit runs down the wall continously beating into the base board, that it will at least leave 'some' paint on the basboard as it tries to 'turn' into the baseboard every 4 " or so.

I did see 1 good improvement Instead of ramming into things at full speed now, it actually slows down to med-slow speed before impacting a solid surface.. slows about 1/2" or so away from the wal.. then only has a low speed collission...

I also like the lift handle on it. Makes it handy since the thing either breaks down and / or gets lost and turns off so much.. makes it easier to carry back to the base.

I make a habit of emptying the dust receptical every time i walk by. I've never seen it 'full'.. so I'm not neglecting it. ironically.. it has a habit of vacuming up it's own parts now and then. have had the 'starfish' wheel come off a few times in models in the past.. and usually it gobble dup the screw, and then sucked the bruish into the beater bar.. thus killing it right then and there.

I noticed the thing talks now.. and has a more pleasent beeping tone. Good thing it talks.. cause it's always calling for help.


If I don't watch out, my cockatu is gonna start mimicing the rhoomba 'distress call' beep, as it gets to hear it daily.

Another nice feature is the removable front wheel.. makes it easier to clean.. etc.


Non.. I can't see how I would be abusing it.. it's an open floor plan house, single level.. etc.

Also... the aprt about it avoiding stairs.. well.. someone's fibbing there.

I opened the side door to water the plants in my 'florida' room, and left the side door open. now since this IS a door leading to a porch/room it DOES have a threshold.... no problem.. rhoomba zoomed right up, climbed the threshold, and then droppd off the 3" drop to the sliding glass door room and then promptly partially sucked up the 'dirt catcher' in front of the door.

GOOD JOB.. whatever high school student programmed the stairs avoidance part musta been absent that day in class! Glad I don't actually have stairs.. or I imagine it would ride them every day...

( edit: By the way.. we manually sweep the floor about 2x per week, and also mop the floor 1x per week.. so it's not like the rhoomba has a hard job.. my wife and I both work 2 jobs.. we are only inthe house and upright about 1-2 hrs a day... )

Soundguy

Cottonhawk - three years on the original battery is pretty good.
Soundguy - Doesn't that make seven units in two years? Outside of the DOA it would be interesting to read the failure analysis. Are you sure that you aren't abusing it? Are you vacuuming twice a day or more?
I have the top model 570 with the lighthouse technology and scheduler. I've been using it quite a bit for the last ten weeks or so and it's working fine. Right now I carry it from area to area, but when the novelty wears off I'll be using the scheduler to have it working once a week at night.
My criteria for it's efficiency is how much trash is in the compartments. And so far it's doing fine.
I know two other people with earlier models - one for three years and the other a year and a half - and they have no complaints about theirs.

 

[RobJ]

It must be at LEAST 7 units so far. In fact.. we had just gotten the one replaced from sears that had the broken beater bar, and the cashier hard-timed us on it. had to call the manager over.

For the record....this sucks!

 

[Soundguy]

I've tried to be open minded about it.. but.. in all honesty.. I'm well past losing my patience. My wife wanted the thing.. I let her get it ( let her? sounds bad... ) Anyway... I did notice, while at sears, they had a stack of about 5-6 assorted boxed up and returned rhoombas in the corner.. presumably from other 'happy' customers.

Is sears buy refurbed units or something? This just seems like an awfully bad run of luck for a product that I see in other stores.. Or is it that most buyers are using them very infrequently? or with very small houses.??

We try to get our to run 2x per day.. etc.

On the plus side... it DOES vacume good.. floor stays real clean.. between us sweeping, and mopping, and the rhoomba doing the 'dead manwalkin' walk around the house when it feels up to it..

Soundguy

 

[ragkar]

My blackface 570 comes with a remote control and a spare brush kit. The remote is useless except it makes it easier to find the roomba when it's hiding under the bed.
My main problem is that it opens doors and goes into unprepared rooms to cause havok by pulling cords, trying to eat socks etc. What tees me is that it closes the door and then hides when it runs out of steam.
My unit 'Buster' has no problem avoiding stairs. If I was you, I'd return your unit for replacement.

 

[cp1969]

Maybe you should get one of iRobot's tactical robots and have it push a regular vacuum around the house.

My own brainchild is the riding vacuum cleaner.

For today's 400 lb haus frau, you know. It's only fair, and the logical next step. I've seen people who lived in a duplex buy a John Deere tractor to mow a 40x40 yard, so.........there may actually be a market.

 

[Rara Avis]

Maybe you should get one of iRobot's tactical robots and have it push a regular vacuum around the house.

My own brainchild is the riding vacuum cleaner.

For today's 400 lb haus frau, you know. It's only fair, and the logical next step. I've seen people who lived in a duplex buy a John Deere tractor to mow a 40x40 yard, so.........there may actually be a market.

How about this front yard project...JD110 too big???...

Who says the yards in DC are too small for equipment???...

 

[Soundguy]

If I was you, I'd return your unit for replacement.

That's a joke right? I repalce the &^$ thing about every 2 months. The last 3 I got.. one was DOA.. never worked right out of the box,another broke in less than 2 weeks as it's starfish brsh fell apart. and this last one I got has less than a week on it now.

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Maybe you should get one of iRobot's tactical robots and have it push a regular vacuum around the house.

My own brainchild is the riding vacuum cleaner.

For today's 400 lb haus frau, you know. It's only fair, and the logical next step. I've seen people who lived in a duplex buy a John Deere tractor to mow a 40x40 yard, so.........there may actually be a market.

I was thinking of something more like a segway ( spelling? ).. with a vacume attachment under it..

Soundguy

 

[Rara Avis]

I was thinking of something more like a segway ( spelling? ).. with a vacume attachment under it..

Soundguy

Segway

Just make sure the one you get doesn't throw itself into reverse...(one of it many recalls... )