iRobot Roomba Scheduler 4230 Bagless Robotic Vacuum
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- Design: Robotic
- Technology: Container (Bagless)
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Schedule Function is Okay But Doesn't Cover Enough of My House
Pros
effective cleaning of one room at a time
Cons
unattended operation doesn't cover wide area, can't climb onto area rugs, very loud on hardwood
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Entertaining and useful for cleaning one room at a time. Unattended operation doesn't cover much area. Very loud on wood floors.
This is my first Roomba and I was sort of expecting it to find its way around my entire house every time it ran. I thought that scheduling this at 2pm would be great. I'd come home from work each day and the house would be clean. I live in an 1100 square foot, single-level apartment, so this didn't seem outside the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, this dream of full automation did not come true with Roomba Scheduler, and I now use it more or less manually, as you would use any other Roomba.
MANUAL OPERATION:
Don't get me wrong. I like my Roomba. It's smart, well-designed, and helpful. I moved into a new home on Nov. 4th and I have hardly used a broom since then. When a room gets dirty, I just pick up the Roomba, take it in there, and set it loose with the door closed. Some time later, the room is cleaned and I put it back in its dock.
That's the original vision of the Roomba - a somewhat manually operated robot vacuum. However, the Scheduler model's automated features tempted me with the promise of unattended operation. The scheduling function definitely does work. It comes on at the right time, runs around for a while, then re-docks.
SETTING SCHEDULES:
The setting up of the schedules is easy enough - although it could be easier. The remote has too few buttons and you have to learn its own strange system for setting times and such (kind of reminded me of setting the time on an LCD wristwatch). When you're done entering the schedules into the remote, you point it at the Roomba and "send" the info. You also do this with the "virtual wall" units, so that they only come on when needed. These units can be used to draw an invisible line which you don't want Roomba to cross.
LIMITED RANGE:
Roomba can't make it through my entire apartment on its own. It's only an 1100 square foot apartment with wood floors throughout and one area rug. The Roomba seems to cover certain areas near its "home base" charging station pretty well. I placed the home base in my living room and that room doesn't accumulate dust bunnies.
However, the hallway which comes off of the living room does collect lots of dust bunnies. And I don't know why. The Roomba can cross the threshold between them. And it's effective in the hallway when I deliberately set it there. But for some reason its "scheduled" operation doesn't ever get it as far as the hallway.
There are a few reasons why this happens:
1) It gets stuck on something and quits. While the Roomba is quite adept at navigation and can usually get itself out of any situation it gets itself into, there are some limits. I have sometimes found it in narrow places just a few inches larger than its size, stuck. For whatever reason, it sometimes "lucks" through small openings but then can't "find" its way out. Needless to say, if this happens, the cleaning mission is over.
2) The battery gets low before it reaches the full extent of the house. If the battery gets low, it returns to its dock to recharge.
3) The navigation software may not be smart enough. I'm sure the engineers at Roomba know their stuff. But I can't figure out how this Robot navigates. It does not follow a straightforward pattern of spiraling outward until it hits a wall. It does not circle the perimeter of the room all at once. It often turns at weird angles right in the center of the room and goes off somewhere it's already been. I don't quite get it. But for whatever reason, it's spending a lot of time in my living room and not making it all the way down the hall.
4) Thresholds. My house is mostly hardwood floors, and some doorways have a small threshold strip, or a slight height difference. For example, the hardwood of the formal dining room is about a 1/4 inch higher than the baseboards of the kitchen, so there is a little "lip" to cross. Roomba handles the really small ones okay. But sometimes if the threshold is 1/2 inch high or higher, it will perceive the threshold as a "wall" and not cross it.
5) Area Rug. Roomba fails to climb up onto my single area rug, which has a pile of perhaps 3/4 inches high. This is disappointing as the rug gathers significant dirt and needs cleaning. Even if I place Roomba right in the center of the rug and start it, something goes wrong. It thinks it's "stuck" on something and begins reversing and turning to "unstick" itself. I am still vacuuming that rug with my upright :(
DANGER ITEMS:
There are several things you DON'T want on the floor when Roomba is coming through. A loose electrical cord or phone cord is bad news. Make sure it's lifted off the floor or properly nailed down to the baseboards, or Roomba will suck it up. It's not just the ends, either. If Roomba encounters the middle of the cord, it make suck up a "bite" of it, which will get stuck inside the brushes and possibly break something.
CLEANING:
So far cleaning Roomba has been easy. It gets super dirty on the underside (as you'd expect) and hair quickly winds around the brush roller. But the design is good. You can empty it, clear the filter, and clear out the brushes pretty easily. Just pop the parts out. No tools required.
ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR:
People love watching the Roomba. It has a way of fascinating you with its wanderings. There's comedy in the way it bumps into things and turns away to try a different direction. And the mysterious logic it uses to explore and map out the room is interesting to watch and try to figure out. People love watching it.
LOUD:
It is VERY LOUD on hardwood floors. The sound is a high pitched mechanical whine. It's much too loud to have in the room with you while you're trying to do anything. You can forget about watching TV or listening to music or talking on the phone. And my cat is terrified by the noise. It seems to be quieter on carpet. Much quieter, like 75%. But when I run it on my hardwood floors, I leave the house or shut the doors.
CONCLUSION:
The Scheduler is a competent Roomba vaccuum with all the high-end features available from their product line. At the time of this writing, it uses their most advanced hardware and software and does a good job of cleaning one room at a time. Unfortunately, its inability to explore a wider range of the house limits the "scheduled" runs. If I had known I would mostly be using it manually, I would not have spent the extra money for the scheduling feature. It's just not worth the extra money for this feature. This is why I have "not recommended" this product. If you have a single room you want cleaned automatically, it might work for you. But in general I would be better off with one of Roomba's simpler and less expensive products.
MANUAL OPERATION:
Don't get me wrong. I like my Roomba. It's smart, well-designed, and helpful. I moved into a new home on Nov. 4th and I have hardly used a broom since then. When a room gets dirty, I just pick up the Roomba, take it in there, and set it loose with the door closed. Some time later, the room is cleaned and I put it back in its dock.
That's the original vision of the Roomba - a somewhat manually operated robot vacuum. However, the Scheduler model's automated features tempted me with the promise of unattended operation. The scheduling function definitely does work. It comes on at the right time, runs around for a while, then re-docks.
SETTING SCHEDULES:
The setting up of the schedules is easy enough - although it could be easier. The remote has too few buttons and you have to learn its own strange system for setting times and such (kind of reminded me of setting the time on an LCD wristwatch). When you're done entering the schedules into the remote, you point it at the Roomba and "send" the info. You also do this with the "virtual wall" units, so that they only come on when needed. These units can be used to draw an invisible line which you don't want Roomba to cross.
LIMITED RANGE:
Roomba can't make it through my entire apartment on its own. It's only an 1100 square foot apartment with wood floors throughout and one area rug. The Roomba seems to cover certain areas near its "home base" charging station pretty well. I placed the home base in my living room and that room doesn't accumulate dust bunnies.
However, the hallway which comes off of the living room does collect lots of dust bunnies. And I don't know why. The Roomba can cross the threshold between them. And it's effective in the hallway when I deliberately set it there. But for some reason its "scheduled" operation doesn't ever get it as far as the hallway.
There are a few reasons why this happens:
1) It gets stuck on something and quits. While the Roomba is quite adept at navigation and can usually get itself out of any situation it gets itself into, there are some limits. I have sometimes found it in narrow places just a few inches larger than its size, stuck. For whatever reason, it sometimes "lucks" through small openings but then can't "find" its way out. Needless to say, if this happens, the cleaning mission is over.
2) The battery gets low before it reaches the full extent of the house. If the battery gets low, it returns to its dock to recharge.
3) The navigation software may not be smart enough. I'm sure the engineers at Roomba know their stuff. But I can't figure out how this Robot navigates. It does not follow a straightforward pattern of spiraling outward until it hits a wall. It does not circle the perimeter of the room all at once. It often turns at weird angles right in the center of the room and goes off somewhere it's already been. I don't quite get it. But for whatever reason, it's spending a lot of time in my living room and not making it all the way down the hall.
4) Thresholds. My house is mostly hardwood floors, and some doorways have a small threshold strip, or a slight height difference. For example, the hardwood of the formal dining room is about a 1/4 inch higher than the baseboards of the kitchen, so there is a little "lip" to cross. Roomba handles the really small ones okay. But sometimes if the threshold is 1/2 inch high or higher, it will perceive the threshold as a "wall" and not cross it.
5) Area Rug. Roomba fails to climb up onto my single area rug, which has a pile of perhaps 3/4 inches high. This is disappointing as the rug gathers significant dirt and needs cleaning. Even if I place Roomba right in the center of the rug and start it, something goes wrong. It thinks it's "stuck" on something and begins reversing and turning to "unstick" itself. I am still vacuuming that rug with my upright :(
DANGER ITEMS:
There are several things you DON'T want on the floor when Roomba is coming through. A loose electrical cord or phone cord is bad news. Make sure it's lifted off the floor or properly nailed down to the baseboards, or Roomba will suck it up. It's not just the ends, either. If Roomba encounters the middle of the cord, it make suck up a "bite" of it, which will get stuck inside the brushes and possibly break something.
CLEANING:
So far cleaning Roomba has been easy. It gets super dirty on the underside (as you'd expect) and hair quickly winds around the brush roller. But the design is good. You can empty it, clear the filter, and clear out the brushes pretty easily. Just pop the parts out. No tools required.
ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR:
People love watching the Roomba. It has a way of fascinating you with its wanderings. There's comedy in the way it bumps into things and turns away to try a different direction. And the mysterious logic it uses to explore and map out the room is interesting to watch and try to figure out. People love watching it.
LOUD:
It is VERY LOUD on hardwood floors. The sound is a high pitched mechanical whine. It's much too loud to have in the room with you while you're trying to do anything. You can forget about watching TV or listening to music or talking on the phone. And my cat is terrified by the noise. It seems to be quieter on carpet. Much quieter, like 75%. But when I run it on my hardwood floors, I leave the house or shut the doors.
CONCLUSION:
The Scheduler is a competent Roomba vaccuum with all the high-end features available from their product line. At the time of this writing, it uses their most advanced hardware and software and does a good job of cleaning one room at a time. Unfortunately, its inability to explore a wider range of the house limits the "scheduled" runs. If I had known I would mostly be using it manually, I would not have spent the extra money for the scheduling feature. It's just not worth the extra money for this feature. This is why I have "not recommended" this product. If you have a single room you want cleaned automatically, it might work for you. But in general I would be better off with one of Roomba's simpler and less expensive products.
