How Do We Know Which Area Roomba Had Completed Cleaning?

Seb · Guest

I am seriously thinking of getting a Roomba Discovery...I understand it can return back to base station when it completed the job or when battery running low..

Question: :?:
How do we know if it has completed cleaning the room or its battery run low? How do we know where (or which room) it has left off in the last cycle?

Hope to hear advice from users...

:shock:

MasterPo · Posted: December 15, 2004, 3:18 pm Post subject:

I don't think you can use (or expect to use) roomba to clean a whole house or entire floor of a house. It's really much more a room-by-room tool.

In that case, assuming a full battery and nothing is wrong with roomba or the battery when it returns to the charging dock, it's done! :D

Guest · Guest

Quote: I don't think you can use (or expect to use) roomba to clean a whole house or entire floor of a house. It's really much more a room-by-room tool.

At our place, a Discovery can do a 1000 sq ft floor of mainly carpet on a single charge, to our satisfaction. If you're using it regularly, the bin won't fill up too soon, after the first couple of uses. And ours tends to be pretty good at finding the home base, even when it has covered several rooms during operation.

So, in short, it can readily do a floor, not just a single room.

As for the original question:

Quote: How do we know if it has completed cleaning the room or its battery run low? How do we know where (or which room) it has left off in the last cycle?

We tend to use ours when there is some visible debris (paper, bird seeds, dog hair, whatever). Thus, we know its completely done if the floor in all rooms open to it look clean. There isn't another way to tell, but if you use it in "Max" mode, it will work right until the battery is all but gone, instead of just its best estimate for how long it should go ("Clean" mode).

Ron · Guest

Agreed.

I run my Roomba every day, and the bin never really fills up completely anymore. I just know that the floors are clean, I don't keep track of how it did it.

MasterPo · Posted: December 16, 2004, 1:51 pm Post subject:

Let me rephrase:

Yes, it definately can clean a whole floor. But I don't think it's "smart" enough to go in and out, room-by-room on it's own throughout an entire floor of your house and still find it's way back to the home base.

PS- While the bin may not fill up the filter may get clogged enough to the point of reducing the cleaning suction. Best to empty the bin and clean the filter after each full room use.

Seb · Guest

So I guess we can't know which area it had cleaned. May be a way to find out which room it has clean is to purposely leave a small strap of paper in that room and see if it was being removed. :lol:

PHyde · Guest

Quote: Yes, it definately can clean a whole floor. But I don't think it's "smart" enough to go in and out, room-by-room on it's own throughout an entire floor of your house and still find it's way back to the home base.

It's not systematic about the way it progresses through the rooms, true. But in practise, it *does* do a whole floor in one charge, at least as thoroughly/well as this poor human can (and better than my kids do :D ).

Quote: PS- While the bin may not fill up the filter may get clogged enough to the point of reducing the cleaning suction. Best to empty the bin and clean the filter after each full room use.

At risk of repeating myself: for the 1000 sq ft carpeted floors we have here, neither filter nor bin need cleaning out before the entire floor has been done. For the first couple of times, yes. Now, with fairly regular use, definitely not (barring exceptional circumstances, like when the dog is in major hair-shedding mode).

Rudi · Guest Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 16

MasterPo wrote: Let me rephrase:

Yes, it definately can clean a whole floor. But I don't think it's "smart" enough to go in and out, room-by-room on it's own throughout an entire floor of your house and still find it's way back to the home base.

PS- While the bin may not fill up the filter may get clogged enough to the point of reducing the cleaning suction. Best to empty the bin and clean the filter after each full room use.
The algorithms Roomba uses to find the Home Base don't distinguish between door openings and other obstacles. So there really is no reason Roomba wouldn't find the Home Base, other than the Home Base has been hidden. But if you place the Home Base against a wall with a large empty spot in front, Roomba will surely find the Home Base again.

Rudi