Thinking of buying a Roomba

Wantabe Roomba Owner · Guest

I was very excited when I saw the Roomba for sale at Sharper Image. If they were not sold out of Roombas at the moment I am sure that I would have bought one. The infomercial's always caught my attention. I am afraid to buy anything from a TV commercial. I never have bought off the TV...but when I seen it today at Sharper Image that made it seem more legitimate. I hate house work. I have a two bedroom linoleum floored apartment. My husband thought it was a pricey unnecessary luxury. He has a boat with $300.00 fishing reels. I smiled and said, "Like one of your fishing reels." He said, "Okay..Okay, but research it first. Sharper Image tends to be pricey you could get it cheaper somewhere else and don't you want to find out if it works." I am very grateful for your Roomba Chat Site. Now I know it is not time for me to buy a Roomba yet. I am surprised at the endurance and patience some people have. Having to have any product replaced more than once would drive me crazy. I hope they fix the reliability problem.

jonvall · Guest Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 49

I've owned my Roomba Discovery SE for about 3 months now and have zero problems with it, if I were you I would buy it from HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER. They have an unconditional lifetime warranty on this thing and if you ever become unhappy for ANY reason just return it for a full refund or exchange it for a new one. That's where I bought mine.....just keep the receipt.
Your husband would have nothing to say about that purchase because all you have to say to him is this "In 3 years when you're tired of that $300 fishing reel will the company you bought it from give you a full refund or exchange it for a brand new one?" I think not!

Here's the website....
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/71545.asp?promo=homepage

plenum · Guest Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 8

I bought the Roomba Red - it's a lot cheaper and I have been very happy with it. See the review on this site for comparisons. But for me, I don't need a remote, and I don't mind picking it up from wherever it stops when its done -- I sure don't need to pay extra so it returns to its home base by itself!

Be sure to get the Red, the Sage, or one of the two Discoveries -- these are the latest models, you don't want one of the previous models.

The Roomba Red is under $150.

I've had no trouble with it -- I do clean it thoroughly every time after I use it (knock the dirt off the filter, get all the hair out from the wheels, take out the brushes, etc).

I use a fat, soft makeup brush to dust off all the parts, actually!

I hate vacuuming, but I don't mind cleaning the Roomba. (It feels more like "maintenance" than like "cleaning").

The other thing is, a little battery care. When you first get it, be sure to charge it all night long before you first use it. Don't charge it a little and run it, charge it a whole night (hard to wait, I know, but it's better to condition the battery). Then the first time you run it, keep starting it again, after it finishes and stops, until the battery completely runs out. On your linoleum I bet it runs more than two hours. Then plug it back into the charger and leave it there whenever you're not using it.

The quality control issues, I think there are two:

1. Apparently some are defective out-of-the-box - but iRobot is very good at responding and fixing or giving you a new one.

2. I think some people are having more trouble than others, if they are not cleaning it sufficiently. It seems like a pain to have to clean it so well (much more than for a normal vacuum). But, actually it's really hard to make something electronic and mechanical, that deals with dirt, dust and hair! So that's the trade-off : it's a robot, but you have to clean it.

For me, it's a good trade-off.

Good luck!

Hival · Guest

I had mine plugged in all night but it failed to live up to 2 hours of cleaning time per charge. Will it run longer on each subsequent charge after day one? Val