i560 is making circular marks/patterns on my carpet...

mtking · Joined: 11 May 2008 Posts: 4

Hi Everyone :)

I've couldn't see any topics mentioning this already so apologies if this is a well known issue but i bought my i560 about 4 months ago and about a month ago it started making marks in my carpet.

Primarily circular marks in the corner's of any area it hoovers (see image below)

but it also creates a mark along the wall sometimes in a straight line.

It appears to be roughly where the wheels are, and the marking seems to be caused by the nap of the carpet being brushed too much one way, and if i brush it back the other way, it doesn't look quite so bad, although you can still see the mark. I can't see/feel any sharp edges on the underside of the roomba, including the wheel area.

I'd appreciate any suggestions as I love my roomba and i'm going to have to stop using it if it keeps making these marks as it's ruining my carpet.

Thanks,

Matt :)

richnorto · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 246

Watch the roomba on a run. It looks like it got stuck and did multiple circles for some reason. My daughter's room roomba did this (a 4xxx) and that caused some consternation but I just needed to move a chair to avoid the problem. The chair and base had it blocked in with a very narrow escape route. Your roomba may have had a short term wheel issue which it worked out or there may be something ongoing. I do get wall following lines with the 5xx which I'm trying to get used to - I think many have noticed this.

vic7767 · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 3099 Location: Louisiana

One other consideration is that you may have a 5XX model with a defective wheel thus causing the Roomba to continually go in a circle. Have you been able to observe the cleaing pattern of your Roomba ?

Gravity · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 122 Location: Sandusky, OH

Either a defective wheel or possibly a bumper or visor sensor issue?

igors48 · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 57 Location: Ukraine

May be side brush doesn`t perfectly placed on it`s hub?

mtking · Joined: 11 May 2008 Posts: 4

Thanks for the prompt replies guys :)

Dealing with each idea one at a time:

Mutiple Circles:

I've not spent more than a couple of minutes watching my roomba and it i've not seen it get stuck but i will run a test tonight and try and watch it for at least 5 minutes straight (more if i don't get bored :)) to see what happens. I'll put it on my landing which is quite a small area (10ft x 3ft ish) and see what happens.

Speaking of which, i set it running last night on that area and i noticed the line was running along the side of one side of the area, not just in a circular pattern, and it looks like something is dragging along, brushing the carpet the wrong way and again i can rub the carpet back and most of the mark dissapears. I'll try and take some more pictures.

richnorto - your line following the walls, does it look like the carpet has been rubbed the wrong way? does it happen every time? and are you really able to get used to it? :)

Bumper or visor sensor issue

Gravity - by this, are you suggesting issues with the bumper or visor sensor might be causing the roomba to spin in circles repeatedly? or something else. If it's the former, my test tonight hopefully will reveal if that's the case.

Sidebrush problem:

I've not changed the sidebrush since i got the roomba but thinking back, i'm pretty sure i first saw this problem around the time i first lost an arm from the brush. I had a look at the jagged rubber but it appeared to be within the little dip the brush sits in and so in theory it shouldn't be touching the carpet. I could try replacing the side brush i guess. I though it was ok to wait until a few more arms fall off before needing to but maybe not with my carpet.

Thanks,

Matt :)

richnorto · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 246

The lines along 2 of my walls and around a large piece of furniture are caused by the wheels constantly following that part of the space, not dragging, in my case. It doesn't do this anywhere else, but gets into the exact same wall following pattern every time it goes into this area. It hasn't damaged the carpet, I can run my foot over it to push the nap back up. I first did a double take every time I walked into the room, thinking someone had moved the cabinet as it looks like a piece of heavy furniture had been sitting there.

thermidorthelobster · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 16 Location: UK

mtking wrote: I've not spent more than a couple of minutes watching my roomba
Really?? I can't tear myself away from watching mine. It's better than reality TV. Time-saving device, my eye...

mtking · Joined: 11 May 2008 Posts: 4

richnorto wrote: The lines along 2 of my walls and around a large piece of furniture are caused by the wheels constantly following that part of the space, not dragging, in my case. It doesn't do this anywhere else, but gets into the exact same wall following pattern every time it goes into this area. It hasn't damaged the carpet, I can run my foot over it to push the nap back up. I first did a double take every time I walked into the room, thinking someone had moved the cabinet as it looks like a piece of heavy furniture had been sitting there.

ah ok, that sounds like the problem i have, except it's really pronounced on my landing and hallway to the point that it's ruining the look completely. For how long has this been doing it? and are the lines as wide as the ones in my picture?

I ran a test last night, (haven't had time to upload the photo's) and watched it for 10 minutes and at no point did it get stuck or rotate more than once in the same place, but it did revist the same spots many times as the area the problem is worst in (hallway and landing) are really only very small areas. I actually had to stop the test as my carpet was really looking messed up with all the marks and i didn't want to ruin it any more. I kept trying to rub it away but that's working less and less. Feeling it with my hand, I think it's taken a layer of carpet off compared to some of the other areas.

I am going to run some further tests with the sidebrush taken off in case that is causing the trouble, since it lost one arm, as the line appeared to only be coming from the right side. At the moment i've just unscrewed it, popped it off, and put the screw back in, presumably there's nothing more i need to do than that to be sure of not knackering my carpet further? :)

I think i'll also have to pay more attention to the results of cleaning in the larger areas to see if the problem only occurs when the surface area is a small one.

thermidorthelobster wrote: mtking wrote: I've not spent more than a couple of minutes watching my roomba
Really?? I can't tear myself away from watching mine. It's better than reality TV. Time-saving device, my eye...

lol - maybe you could come watch mine for a bit and let me know if it gets stuck :)

thanks again for the brainstorming everyone.

Matt :)

fancyfreewv · Posted: May 13, 2008, 6:12 am Post subject:

The marks from wall following and circling is exactly one of the good reasons I got rid of my 4xxx series back last fall. I had at the time plush carpet and I hated the marks which were deep and as you say you have to manually brush up to get rid of them. The robot seems to find some areas it loves and it keeps going back to them over and over doing this.

I know you said it was a 560 but I have not had similar issues with my 5xx series robots circling. Also, in January I got longer pile carpet and hardly any wall following marks stay in this carpet. Previous was polyester short plush and this one is nylon Freise type. The 5xx series marks on the old plush was much more noticeable (although not as bad as 4xxx). The depth of the padding under the carpet also can change this and I got a firmer padding with the new carpet and of course since it is new, it's springier.

Unless you can find anything wrong with your robot mechanically, I think you have an issue where the carpet type plus the placement of items in the room contribute to it taking the path it does and making the marks over and over.

Also, you mention side brushes but my 5xx series always wall follow on the side brush side and if anything they tend to spin fast and smooth down the carpet pile minimizing the track marks a bit.

igors48 · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 57 Location: Ukraine

fancyfreewv wrote: The marks from wall following and circling is exactly one of the good reasons I got rid of my 4xxx series back last fall.

That means that older series Roombas don`t leave mark on carpet. What`s the difference?

1.Roomba weight
2.Wheel dimensions
3.Wheel tread pattern

We can change only tread pattern, i think. For example, by sticking PVC insulation tape on it.

:) Or change NiMh to Li-Ion. It's said to be lighter.

fancyfreewv · Posted: May 13, 2008, 6:57 am Post subject:

I think you misread it. My 4xxx made DEEPER marks on the carpet than the 5xx do. I did not like that and since cleaner in older version was not getting the job done with my three dogs, I bought the newer version which does a lot better.

igors48 · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 57 Location: Ukraine

Sorry for that!

robodude · Joined: 26 Sep 2007 Posts: 96 Location: USA

My 560 does the same. I think it's normal in tight areas like what's pictured. The Roomba tends to circle a few times before finding it's way out of some spots.

_JP_ · Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 197

My 560 started leaving tracks all over the place on my short plush carpet after the first four missions or so. That was when I realized that it had restored the nap of the carpet.

I get tracks along walls and in other places also. Those are the areas where the wheels are always traveling, which creates paths just like the dog does around the backyard fence. And there's no training either the dog or the robot not to do that.

mtking · Joined: 11 May 2008 Posts: 4

fancyfreewv wrote: The marks from wall following and circling is exactly one of the good reasons I got rid of my 4xxx series back last fall. I had at the time plush carpet and I hated the marks which were deep and as you say you have to manually brush up to get rid of them. The robot seems to find some areas it loves and it keeps going back to them over and over doing this.

That seems to be my experience exactly :)

fancyfreewv wrote: Unless you can find anything wrong with your robot mechanically, I think you have an issue where the carpet type plus the placement of items in the room contribute to it taking the path it does and making the marks over and over.

Yes, i think you're right, and in this case the small surface area with nothing placed on it is causing this particular path to be taken. Although why this path is now causing dragging marks when it didn't before, and why the marks are worse nearer the wall compared to when the roomba charges randomly from side to side, i don't know, and for those marks that do occur across the open space, it only seems to be on one side.

fancyfreewv wrote: Also, you mention side brushes but my 5xx series always wall follow on the side brush side and if anything they tend to spin fast and smooth down the carpet pile minimizing the track marks a bit.

Again i think you're right, the wall following is occuring on the brush side and the side brush being there is probably a co-incidence, i'll just have to see how things go at the weekend if i run my roomba then.

igors48 wrote: We can change only tread pattern, i think. For example, by sticking PVC insulation tape on it.

:) Or change NiMh to Li-Ion. It's said to be lighter.

hehehe that's a nice idea. The first one(put some tape on the wheels) might work though, i'll add it to the list of things to play around with, thanks.

robodude wrote: My 560 does the same. I think it's normal in tight areas like what's pictured. The Roomba tends to circle a few times before finding it's way out of some spots.

Right. I think that might end up being the issue as well. It doesn't repeatedly go around but it does come back over and over to the same spot and rotate which probably acomplishes the same thing and over the course of a cleaning cycle is probably a lot of wear on the carpet by the wheels.

_JP_ wrote: My 560 started leaving tracks all over the place on my short plush carpet after the first four missions or so. That was when I realized that it had restored the nap of the carpet.

If i could get it to make the marks across every part of the carpet, i think i'd be ok :)

_JP_ wrote: I get tracks along walls and in other places also. Those are the areas where the wheels are always traveling, which creates paths just like the dog does around the backyard fence. And there's no training either the dog or the robot not to do that.

heh no, i guess not.

here are a couple of more pics showing the kind of marks i'm getting, that i promised from the other night's test:

Thanks for all the ideas :)

Matt :)