Right-on! I named it Robo! I love mine also–same basic Red model my kids bought me for Christmas after bilateral hip replacement, 3+ yrs. ago. Although I do not use it as main vac now, it has outlived two other vacs and cleans edges better, as well as having a “spot clean” button. This button, when pressed, will go round-and-round in a 2′ circumference wherever you need it! My cat and I both love watching it go, and my old carpet fibers actually stand up when cleaning is done. I use it for both carpet and tile, but must plug-up under chaise lounger with throw pillow, as it will get stuck. It cleans cat liter spillage, cat food, and rolls over cords with no problem. I also use the “virtual wall” to block off areas not in need of cleaning. Would like to know where to get a reconditioned battery if/when this one stops working. I let my neighbor with broken arm borrow it, and she was amazed also. Try it, you’ll love it, too!!

I contacted the company and they nicely sent me a new Roomba body. The brush worked on that one, but the dust bin kept falling off so the machine was distributing the dirt and fur around the carpet as it picked it up. I taped the bin, but then the machine stopped doing a full cycle of cleaning. It would stop and start in the same spot over and over. So frustrating! Now I’m out of the warranty and they want me to buy another to replace it.

Given all the trouble I’ve had with two separate machines, I’m not about to spend more money on something so fickle. As others have said, when it works, it’s wonderful, but mine lasted into the months, not years. Overall, it didn’t save me time as I would have liked and instead I wasted time and money. It’s too bad, it’s a great idea.

The first, I purchased on ebay. It had a software malfunction after about 10 months of use. Since I purchased it on ebay, iRobot would not honor the warranty. I had to purchase a new unit. At that time, the cost of the unit, outweighed the cost of labor of manually vacuuming the space which also was not as thorough.

The second robot I purchased on amazon.com had a software problem after 11 months of use. iRobot replaced the unit. I am assuming they replaced it with a refurbished model. This robot would get ‘stuck’ and turn off automatically so I had to watch it while it worked which wasn’t a problem since I was doing other things but it required constant rescue. Finally 4 month later, the untit stopped to have any suction whatsoever.

In trouble shooting with iRobot, we found that the brushes were not spinning and they said the unit needed to be replaced. These units have been meticulously maintained – cleaned with canned air after each use. It was shocking to have another malfunction. The kicker is that irobot will not warranty a replaced robot so now I’m stuck and have to purchase yet another unit.

I believe the customer service center is in India and the reps are reading off of cue cards. They can barely understand you. They put me on hold for 30 minutes when I asked for a supervisor. Then I hung up.

I may just suck it up (pun intended) and get a Dyson. I can’t deal with the malfunctions of these units especially since they will not replace an obviously defective unit.

My only other thought is to purchase the iRobot 532 from Hammacher Schlemmer, retailing $329 with a lifetime guarantee from Hammacher Schlemmer (obviously not from iRobot.)

[...]

Does anyone know if the parts for the 532 are the same as in the other robots? I have so many virtual walls, brushes, filters, batteries from my old units. I’d love to be able to use them in a new unit if possible.

We have carpet upstairs, and I haven’t really tried to use it up there. The one time we did, it worked well, even on a frieze carpet. However, we have a thick wool rug on top of it in one of the rooms, and it treated the rug like a wall-it never got on top of it. Even if I wanted to try it on the carpet upstairs, the battery would run out too early after finishing downstairs anyway. We’d have to wait an hour or two to recharge it, or just buy a second unit for upstairs. But it cleans our entire hard surface downstairs without a problem.

It’s certainly not the most efficient appliance-if I took a broom or Swiffer to the same area, I’d be done so much faster than the Roomba. But I don’t have to! While the Roomba’s working, I can be vacuuming upstairs, dusting, etc. You just have to make sure that you clean the tray regularly-it tends to miss picking things up when it gets too full. Our animals don’t like it, but they don’t freak out-they just know to stay away!

I bought the Roomba to tackle the mountain of hair and debris that gets generated on our hard floors, and it’s done a spectacular job helping me keep up with it. I am so satisfied and happy with it. I am thinking about buying the Scooba as well!