iRobot Roomba Scheduler 4230 Bagless Robotic Vacuum
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- Design: Robotic
- Technology: Container (Bagless)
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Roomba Scheduler: Wow, It Actually Works!
Pros
Extremely intuitive and effective.
Cons
The motor is a bit Loud. Also a bit pricey.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent product, very inuitive, and cleans quite well.
I'll fully admit that when I saw the Roomba advertised on late night TV a while back I chuckled and thought it was just another Infomercial piece of junk. But I was at a trade show recently and iRobot had a display where the Roomba was in action, and after seeing it work in person I was fairly impressed.
Since they offer a 30 day money back guarantee I thought I'd give it a try. Being the skeptic that I am, I fully expected I'd be sending it back. But two months, and many clean floors later I have no plans to part with my new toy!
The Roomba comes in a few different models. The different models are actually the same vacuum inside of each model, but the level of additional accessories and extra capabilities vary depending on the model. Here's the different models, from low end to high:
Roomba Red($149): Basic Vacuum + 1 Virtual Wall
Roomba Sage($199): All the above + "Max" Cleaning Mode and a 2nd Virtual Wall
Roomba Discovery($279): All the above + a remote control
Roomba Discovery SE ($299): All the above + (I think?) a lifetime warranty if purchased through Hammerlacher.
Roomba Scheduler ($329): All the above (not including lifetime warranty) + built in scheduler that you can program to the unit to start on its own at specified days and times.
I went with the Scheduler model (top of the line) because I liked the idea of being able to schedule the thing to run on its own.
CLEANING MODES: There are 3 different cleaning modes - Spot, Clean, and Max. Spot is used when you just want to focus on a specific area. Clean mode will do a general maintenance type of clean. And Max mode will continuously clean until the battery is almost empty (about 1.5 - 2 hours).
BASIC OPERATION: Simply push the corresponding button on the top of the Roomba for the cleaning mode you want and off it goes! If you are doing a pre programmed scheduled clean it automatically runs in Max mode.
HOW IT WORKS: In open areas, it pretty much looks like Roomba is just driving around, criss crossing and zig zagging across the room, bouncing off stuff, more criss crossing, etc.. There is (supposedly) a method to its criss crossing and zig zagging madness, but I'm not sure what it is to be honest. Roomba doesn't really know that it has already covered a certain area, so there is a lot of duplication. But when the cleaning is done, it seems to hit about 95% of the open area in the room.
Where Roomba really impresses the heck out of me is how it maneuvers walls, edges and furniture. The outer perimeter of Roomba is a series of "bumpers" or "sensors" that detect the angles of the obstructions that it bumps into. So rather than just turn around and drive the other way, it will turn in place and try to sense if there is a wall or piece of furniture present. If it detects a wall for example, it will drive forward a bit slower and push itself to the side as to hug the wall. It will follow the wall and keep hugging, making adjustments if the wall curves or angles, etc.. There is a little sweeper brush that protrudes from the side of the Roomba that will sweep out debris from the along the base of the wall and into the path of the Roomba for it to pick up. Another example is I have an office chair with four wheels and an "X" shaped set of legs on the floor. Roomba will hug its way around all the legs and get in between them. Heck, I wouldn't even get that detailed when I vacuumed by hand!
SURFACE TRANSITIONING & STAIR AVOIDANCE SYSTEMS: Roomba is also pretty smart when it comes to navigating different floor/terrain types. For example, when it crosses the threshold from my office (carpet) to the bathroom (tile) it always struggles to get over the hump on the threshold going into the bathroom. So it will stop, back itself up, kick into Surface Transition mode, and climb over the threshold hump. This seems like a 4 wheel drive mode kind of thing where it downshifts and climbs over whatever is in its path, then transitions itself back into a normal (ie..2 wheel drive). Roomba has a built in stair avoidance system which will prevent it from going down stairs (ie..tumbling down stairs!). Roomba senses the drop off and stops dead in its tracks, spins itself in place and shifts direction.
REMOTE CONTROL: The remote serves 2 major purposes. You need the remote to set up your pre programmed schedule(s) for your Roomba AND the virtual walls. Pick your day & times and then beam it from the remote to the Roomba, and its stored. Second, you can control Roomba like a remote control car with it. If you want to guide it to a specific room or place, or if you want to go pick up a particular area of debris on the floor, etc.. However, I find guiding Roomba with the remote to be a somewhat cumbersome.
VIRTUAL WALLS: A Virtual Wall is an infrared beam that the Roomba will recognize and treat as if it were a wall in your house. This is very handy to put near stairs, or areas that might be off limits to Roomba such as a kids room, etc.. I put a Virtual Wall under my desk where all my cords and wires are to keep Roomba from going near them and getting tangled up. Roomba Scheduler comes with two of these little gizmos, you can purchase additional ones from iRobot for $29.99 each.
SCHEDULING: You can set Roomba to start automatically at any time during the day or night. You can schedule one cleaning time per day and choose if you want it to repeat on that day each week or if it's just a one time thing. You can also schedule the Virtual Walls to engage themselves via the same schedule as your Roomba. This makes perfect sense and is really handy if you aren't going to be home to turn the Virtual Walls on yourself. When engaged in Schedule mode, the Virtual Walls will automatically shut themselves off 2 hours after being turned on.
SELF CHARGING HOME BASE: Roomba comes with a wall mount charging base (I've never used it and can't comment on it) and also a Self Charging Home Base that sits on the floor. Whats cool about the Self Charging Home Base is that it has an infrared sensor in it and when you are doing a Max clean and/or when the battery is running low, Roomba will sense that the battery is about to run out and use the infrared sensor to guide itself back to the Base and park itself to be charged. However, there have been a couple times where the Roomba was cleaning in another room when it sensed that it needed to get back to the Self Charging Base. While it was searching for the Infrared sensor it ran out of juice and never got back to the Charging Base.
BATTERY: Roomba charges from near zero to full in about 2.5 hours. A full charge gives you about 2 hours of cleaning time, which should be ample time for a 1000 square foot space.
QUALITY: Roomba does a surprising good job as a vacuum. It has a narrow cleaning span - probably 8 inches wide, but does manage to pick up pretty much whatever is in its path.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: You should "Roomba proof" your room(s) to be cleaned. Pick up any large pieces of debris, get cords and telephone lines off the floor, etc.. Roomba usually does a good job of not getting tangled up, I've had it drive over clothes, a pen, a belt, etc.. and not get hung up. But there have been a couple times where Roomba got hung up on some paper towels and a telephone cord. Roomba tries like the dickens to free itself, it twist, turns, spins, etc.. but if it can't get free, it will simply shut itself down.
Also, remember to periodically check the brushes to make sure you don't have stuff tangled up inside. Just like any other vacuum, little things like cellophane, rubber bands, etc.. can get stuck in there. Also, Roomba is bagless so don't forget to empty the dirt container. It's real easy to do, the front 1/3 of the Roomba just pops out and you can dump the debris out very easily.
SUMMARY: I can honestly say that this little guy works as advertised, if not better than advertised. It's not the Infomercial fly by night piece of junk I expected it to be. It is far more sophisticated and intuitive than I'd ever expected. I use it to clean a 1000 square foot area consisting of 80% carpet and 20% linoleum, and it does a fantastic job on all surfaces. I haven't swept the linoleum floor or broke out the big vacuum since getting this gadget.
Since they offer a 30 day money back guarantee I thought I'd give it a try. Being the skeptic that I am, I fully expected I'd be sending it back. But two months, and many clean floors later I have no plans to part with my new toy!
The Roomba comes in a few different models. The different models are actually the same vacuum inside of each model, but the level of additional accessories and extra capabilities vary depending on the model. Here's the different models, from low end to high:
Roomba Red($149): Basic Vacuum + 1 Virtual Wall
Roomba Sage($199): All the above + "Max" Cleaning Mode and a 2nd Virtual Wall
Roomba Discovery($279): All the above + a remote control
Roomba Discovery SE ($299): All the above + (I think?) a lifetime warranty if purchased through Hammerlacher.
Roomba Scheduler ($329): All the above (not including lifetime warranty) + built in scheduler that you can program to the unit to start on its own at specified days and times.
I went with the Scheduler model (top of the line) because I liked the idea of being able to schedule the thing to run on its own.
CLEANING MODES: There are 3 different cleaning modes - Spot, Clean, and Max. Spot is used when you just want to focus on a specific area. Clean mode will do a general maintenance type of clean. And Max mode will continuously clean until the battery is almost empty (about 1.5 - 2 hours).
BASIC OPERATION: Simply push the corresponding button on the top of the Roomba for the cleaning mode you want and off it goes! If you are doing a pre programmed scheduled clean it automatically runs in Max mode.
HOW IT WORKS: In open areas, it pretty much looks like Roomba is just driving around, criss crossing and zig zagging across the room, bouncing off stuff, more criss crossing, etc.. There is (supposedly) a method to its criss crossing and zig zagging madness, but I'm not sure what it is to be honest. Roomba doesn't really know that it has already covered a certain area, so there is a lot of duplication. But when the cleaning is done, it seems to hit about 95% of the open area in the room.
Where Roomba really impresses the heck out of me is how it maneuvers walls, edges and furniture. The outer perimeter of Roomba is a series of "bumpers" or "sensors" that detect the angles of the obstructions that it bumps into. So rather than just turn around and drive the other way, it will turn in place and try to sense if there is a wall or piece of furniture present. If it detects a wall for example, it will drive forward a bit slower and push itself to the side as to hug the wall. It will follow the wall and keep hugging, making adjustments if the wall curves or angles, etc.. There is a little sweeper brush that protrudes from the side of the Roomba that will sweep out debris from the along the base of the wall and into the path of the Roomba for it to pick up. Another example is I have an office chair with four wheels and an "X" shaped set of legs on the floor. Roomba will hug its way around all the legs and get in between them. Heck, I wouldn't even get that detailed when I vacuumed by hand!
SURFACE TRANSITIONING & STAIR AVOIDANCE SYSTEMS: Roomba is also pretty smart when it comes to navigating different floor/terrain types. For example, when it crosses the threshold from my office (carpet) to the bathroom (tile) it always struggles to get over the hump on the threshold going into the bathroom. So it will stop, back itself up, kick into Surface Transition mode, and climb over the threshold hump. This seems like a 4 wheel drive mode kind of thing where it downshifts and climbs over whatever is in its path, then transitions itself back into a normal (ie..2 wheel drive). Roomba has a built in stair avoidance system which will prevent it from going down stairs (ie..tumbling down stairs!). Roomba senses the drop off and stops dead in its tracks, spins itself in place and shifts direction.
REMOTE CONTROL: The remote serves 2 major purposes. You need the remote to set up your pre programmed schedule(s) for your Roomba AND the virtual walls. Pick your day & times and then beam it from the remote to the Roomba, and its stored. Second, you can control Roomba like a remote control car with it. If you want to guide it to a specific room or place, or if you want to go pick up a particular area of debris on the floor, etc.. However, I find guiding Roomba with the remote to be a somewhat cumbersome.
VIRTUAL WALLS: A Virtual Wall is an infrared beam that the Roomba will recognize and treat as if it were a wall in your house. This is very handy to put near stairs, or areas that might be off limits to Roomba such as a kids room, etc.. I put a Virtual Wall under my desk where all my cords and wires are to keep Roomba from going near them and getting tangled up. Roomba Scheduler comes with two of these little gizmos, you can purchase additional ones from iRobot for $29.99 each.
SCHEDULING: You can set Roomba to start automatically at any time during the day or night. You can schedule one cleaning time per day and choose if you want it to repeat on that day each week or if it's just a one time thing. You can also schedule the Virtual Walls to engage themselves via the same schedule as your Roomba. This makes perfect sense and is really handy if you aren't going to be home to turn the Virtual Walls on yourself. When engaged in Schedule mode, the Virtual Walls will automatically shut themselves off 2 hours after being turned on.
SELF CHARGING HOME BASE: Roomba comes with a wall mount charging base (I've never used it and can't comment on it) and also a Self Charging Home Base that sits on the floor. Whats cool about the Self Charging Home Base is that it has an infrared sensor in it and when you are doing a Max clean and/or when the battery is running low, Roomba will sense that the battery is about to run out and use the infrared sensor to guide itself back to the Base and park itself to be charged. However, there have been a couple times where the Roomba was cleaning in another room when it sensed that it needed to get back to the Self Charging Base. While it was searching for the Infrared sensor it ran out of juice and never got back to the Charging Base.
BATTERY: Roomba charges from near zero to full in about 2.5 hours. A full charge gives you about 2 hours of cleaning time, which should be ample time for a 1000 square foot space.
QUALITY: Roomba does a surprising good job as a vacuum. It has a narrow cleaning span - probably 8 inches wide, but does manage to pick up pretty much whatever is in its path.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: You should "Roomba proof" your room(s) to be cleaned. Pick up any large pieces of debris, get cords and telephone lines off the floor, etc.. Roomba usually does a good job of not getting tangled up, I've had it drive over clothes, a pen, a belt, etc.. and not get hung up. But there have been a couple times where Roomba got hung up on some paper towels and a telephone cord. Roomba tries like the dickens to free itself, it twist, turns, spins, etc.. but if it can't get free, it will simply shut itself down.
Also, remember to periodically check the brushes to make sure you don't have stuff tangled up inside. Just like any other vacuum, little things like cellophane, rubber bands, etc.. can get stuck in there. Also, Roomba is bagless so don't forget to empty the dirt container. It's real easy to do, the front 1/3 of the Roomba just pops out and you can dump the debris out very easily.
SUMMARY: I can honestly say that this little guy works as advertised, if not better than advertised. It's not the Infomercial fly by night piece of junk I expected it to be. It is far more sophisticated and intuitive than I'd ever expected. I use it to clean a 1000 square foot area consisting of 80% carpet and 20% linoleum, and it does a fantastic job on all surfaces. I haven't swept the linoleum floor or broke out the big vacuum since getting this gadget.
