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Mart
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 34
Location: Canada
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| Posted: February 16, 2005, 7:13 am Post subject: Best practices for battery charging. |
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I Have Rooba Red.
What is the best practice to charge the battery? Should I put back the Roomba on the charger after each use or should I let the battery die completely and then recharge it?
What I've done so far is running the roomba to clean my kitchen's floor for about 20 minutes on Thursday then another 15 minutes on Sunday and when I tried last night the battery was dead and I had to recharge it. |
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Hival
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| Posted: February 16, 2005, 5:43 pm Post subject: Battery life. |
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| My Roomba just arrived yesterday. I charged it overnight but I don't feel it lived up to its 120 minute cleaning time. How does yours do? |
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Mart
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Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 34
Location: Canada
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| Posted: February 21, 2005, 7:25 am Post subject: Re: Battery life. |
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Hival wrote: My Roomba just arrived yesterday. I charged it overnight but I don't feel it lived up to its 120 minute cleaning time. How does yours do?
It probably runs for an hour or so with a full charge! But it's enough for me as I only use my roomba to clean my kitchen! |
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joenormal
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| Posted: March 9, 2005, 9:37 am Post subject: Re: Best practices for battery charging. |
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Once a week run the battery completely dead. Recharge after every use. Keep the charger on a surge protector.
Mart wrote: I Have Rooba Red.
What is the best practice to charge the battery? Should I put back the Roomba on the charger after each use or should I let the battery die completely and then recharge it?
What I've done so far is running the roomba to clean my kitchen's floor for about 20 minutes on Thursday then another 15 minutes on Sunday and when I tried last night the battery was dead and I had to recharge it. |
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Xencindy
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| Posted: March 13, 2005, 8:23 am Post subject: Battery break-in is key to long run time |
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In another thread, I read that the Roomba uses a NIMH battery pack. The best way to get the maximum run time out of NIMH batteries is to break them in carefully: Charge them completely (do not get impatient!), then run them until they're almost dead before recharging. Repeat this charging cycle at least twice. (You'll find the battery actually lasts a bit longer each time you go through this initial charging cycle).
After they're broken in, you can let the Roomba go back to the charger whenever it wants to, as NIMH batteries don't have the 'memory' problem NiCads do. It's a good idea to run them all the way down occasionally.
I don't own a Roomba yet, but I've had lots of experience with NIMH batteries. Once, while breaking in two sets of brand new NIMH batteries, one set was done as I've described above. The other wasn't (someone got impatient, then thought he could make up for it by sticking them back in the charger). The 'good' set was so obviously superior in both power and length of charge that we'd compete for them. |
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JJ
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| Posted: March 13, 2005, 10:21 am Post subject: |
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Great advice Xencindy.
I learned the hard way how important it is to break in the Roombas batteries. It really, really makes a big difference in running times.
Thanks again! |
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