Thinking of purchasing a Roomba...

TacoJohn · Guest

Hello,

I'm thinking of purchasing a Roomba, and had a few questions I was hoping could be answered by people who knew...

I'd like to store it under the bed, and use a timer to put it on an automatic schedule of cleaning every day. It looks like there are options for that with third party devices... so cool...

The question I have is that I don't particularly have any boundaries upstairs that I don't want it to clean... Maybe the bathroom, but even there I wouldn't mind... Is this thing only smart enough to clean a room, or will it also go out into the hall, clean the hall, and then maybe find another room to clean? Which leads me to the question of battery life... What kind of juice can I expect? Will it go back and recharge and finish the job?

Which leads to another question... How much babysitting of this thing do you have to do? I understand that emptying it once a day is a requirement. But outside of that, I'm hoping this thing is smart enough to clean the living area upstairs without a lot of manual messing with it.

Final question, which would be the best to buy for the need of at least cleaning the master bedroom, the hallway connected to it, and any rooms who's doors happen to be open at the time (usually only the master bedroom and my office).

Guest · Guest

there is a new roomba 2.1... it just came out monday, however it didn't really come out. it was out for a presale on hsn. but it wont' be out in stores for a couple months...

if i was you i would wait for this model, as it is suppose to have 20 upgrades from prevoius models.

as for the stairs and such, the new roomba, im not sure about the older models, but the new roomba 2.1 will NOT fall off stairs, it recognises if there is a drop and it won't go off it.

also you can get virtual walls. this is a little device that works on batteries or plugs into the wall. u put it wherever u want, aimaing it. wherever you aim it, there is a wall from it to whatever it hits. your roomba will not cross this invisible line.

RC Eden Carpet Cleaning · Posted: June 16, 2005, 7:23 pm Post subject:

Actully the virtual wall can only be operated on batteries. Also none of the roombas will fall of stairs. As for the baby sitting question roomba as you said needs to have his dustbin emptied once a day. It is also good to blow roomba out with canned or compressed air every 3-5 cleanings this is to insure that none of the sensors get blocked. I think any of the current roombas will do the job just fine. If you would like to save a little $ I would do a roomba red+home base.

Guest · Guest

What about the multiple room thing? Will it just keep cleaning room to room until it runs out of batteries? Will it go back and recharge and finish the job?

will it also go out into the hall, clean the hall, and then maybe find another room to clean?

Bjohn · Guest

I am also considering a Roomba (Discovery or Scheduler) and am interested in this multiple room question.

I have three bedrooms connected by a hallway, all hard woods. Will the roomba find its way to and from these rooms if the doors are open? I read in the FAQ that the roomba needs to be within ~8 feet to find the home base, but does it know to return to the general area to find the signal?

Also the Original Poster had a good question about returning to the recharger... will the roomba know to return to the home base when it needs to and then continue cleaning? (I also like the under the bed idea!)

Earthling · Posted: June 24, 2005, 12:12 pm Post subject:

ok... the schedular is a good choice as it has the 2.1 updates i think.

as for changing rooms... it can and it can't...

with your roomba, its best to do one room at a time... however yes it can change rooms.

but, the roomba is on a movement program, i doubt its just completely random movements, but eithor way, it basically looks random.

so yes, your roomba will go from room to room. and with my roomba i clean 3 rooms often, and my 2.1 always has found its way back to its base. But depending on how your rooms are set up, it could also end up getting stuck in one room. if you press max however, it will run for about 20mins probably once it wants to return to base... so if in 20minutes it finds the base its fine, and usually my roomba covers going into all 3 rooms in about 10minutes.