Cheap Temporary Fix for Clogged Gears on 5xx Roomba

Roombad · Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 2

When iRobot sent a replacement for my brush unit, I opened the gear area to see what fixes they had made. None, of course. But id did notice a bit of Vaseline petroleum jelly on a couple of gears.

My son works in industrial maintenance, and we came up together with this:

We cleaned the gears in Dawn detergent, to get the gears clean and de-greased.

We put no lube at all into gear case. (We found that Vaseline as a gear lubricant actually makes it harder for the gears to spin.

We put a bit of Vaseline where the brush gears come through from the gearbox. This has actually helped stop dog hair getting into the gears!

This is no long-term solution, nothing like doing a ball bearing mod, but we are MUCH happier with the Rooomba.

An aside: Dog hair was catching on the saw-like brush-cleaning teeth and not going into the dirt bin. I have taped over those spikes with electrical tape, and am pick up much more debris than before.

Hope one of these items helps someone. My Roomba was almost sent back (H.S. lifetime warranty) until I found the advice on how to clean out the gear box--somebody really helped me.

Regards
Roombad

fancyfreewv · Posted: June 4, 2008, 12:23 pm Post subject:

I am the author of the piece on our WIKI on cleaning. 8)

The lube in the gearbox that most of us use is automotive grease that you get in a large tube for about $1 not vaseline.

I am curious as to why you decided that the teeth on the bin that are supposed to comb through the bristle brush needed to be taped? It seems to me that if you tape them solid, when they hit the bristle brush they would just knock off whatever was on it back to the surface. Eventually the bristle fins would wear from that I should think. I have long haired dogs and the teeth certainly do their jobs in my case.

Those teeth are there to catch the dog hair. The bin is just supposed to catch chunks of stuff like my dogs bring in sticks and bark, leaves etc. The filter catches all the fine particles so all three work together.

I also believe that although removing the lube in the gearbox might seem to help it, that without some sort of lube the gears will wear and heat up possibly. I also don't see how no lube would keep the hair and dirt out of the gearbox. Eventually cleaning the messy vaseline with hair and dirt stuck to it is going to remove it anyway.

nine · Joined: 08 Apr 2008 Posts: 80

Put the grease back in. It's in there for a reason.

waynelk · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 14

Wow FancyfreeWV. Looks like you sucked one of your dogs into the roomba. Are you sure none are missing? You are probably glad VIC came up with the bearing mod. What I am currently trying is a piece of soft sponge rubber about 1/4 inch thick cut into a "donut". Inside is tight fit over the hub where the hair comes in, outside is slightly smaller than the outer gear teeth. When I put the gears in the foam compresses and seems to be stopping the hair from getting in. Couldn't do the motor gear as it is too small. Donut would look like an o-ring. I use the white lithium grease in a spray as a lube. Not sure about no lube as the hair will still get in without and jam the gears. Just less messy to clean. No lube to the bushings or plastic gear teeth? I have a set of Vics bearings but I am waiting for the warranty to expire, or I get a spare gearbox before installing them. Hammacher Schlemmer would probably not be happy if I returned the lifetime guaranteed robot with Vic's bearing mod? The sponge rubber can be removed and looks like no mod was done. Seems to be working as the brushes still turn smooth and it's been 2 months since I opened the gearbox. Did I say I opened the gearbox? Hope I-robot isn't reading this or they will void my warranty.

fancyfreewv · Posted: June 4, 2008, 5:13 pm Post subject:

You got caught! :lol: Shame on you opening the gearbox like I wrote here: www.roombareview.com/wiki/cleaning

The sponge might work. As you say until you can get a spare. I got my spares as both of mine were replaced under warranty. My brush deck was out of spec on my first 535 so they sent me a new one. They didn't expect you to return anything dirty back then so they told you to keep certain parts. Then I got the 550 which got replaced with a 560 about two weeks after I got it. Bad circuit board. Guess where the out of spec brush deck ended up? :shock:

So I had a spare to play with which in my case is very lucky.

I have had three of my dogs clipped down into a short "lion clip" for summer and lots less hair in the Roombas to clean out now.

Roombad · Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 2

I'm the one who started this topic, and after the passage of some days and the reading of some very helpful replies, here's what's up.

The Vaseline is definitely stopping most hair from entering the gear box. But as I said, short term solution.

Covering the brush cleaning teeth seems to get a lot more stuff picked up, but it is mostly very light fuzzy dog hair.

So, I'll be putting the correct lubricant back on the gears, removing the electrical tape over the brush-cleaning teeth. But the Vaseline around the brush-turning gearbox items really is cutting down hair. Sometimes, I have to pull a wad out of the gap to the gearbox, but it never seems to let much hair all the way in.

I'll be getting a ball bearing mod--it is worth it just to avoid the grief of the poor design, and life is too short as it is.

Again, thank you all. I've been a Roomba owner for years, but have just recently made this site one of my important places to visit every so often.

Roomba = the vacuum

Roombad = my opinion of customer service policy decision makers.

Bonus note: one day my son left the Roomba 570 on the fireplace hearth. It came on as scheduled the next day, and apparently spent a good deal of time using it's cliff sensors. Very clean hearth!