iRobot Roomba 4230 Remote Scheduler Robotic Vacuum Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Simply put, it exceeds my expectations. I'm traveling in a 26ft class C Rv with 3 dogs and a husband, all of which shed copious amounts of fur. My partner was very critical of this vac before we got it, and to be honest, I bought it for our cabin, not the RV. However it arrived while we were on the road so I took a risk at an "told you so" and used it in the RV. To my delight, we are hair free for a month now without having to lift a finger (except cleaning the bin and brushes on a regular basis) and the skeptic even praises it and named it Hazel. For a techno-phobe, this is saying something. It does a good job avoiding problem areas like steps and squeaky toys. The dogs watch it from the sofa and have accepted it as a family member. I find we watch it a lot too. It's mesmerizing. We run it once a day, often as we walk the dogs, and return to a very clean floor. I disagree with those who say it is a toy. It is not a toy; it does a good job maintaining a floor on a daily basis. I wouldn't expect it to replace my regular vacuum but rather replace daily vacuuming. We use a shop vac once every two weeks for those hard to reach areas that dog fur always seems to find (door pockets, top of dressers, etc), and use Hazel for daily maintenance to keep our travel quarters shedding fur free.
Two things you need to be aware of about this device. It doesn't like rugs with tassels, or shoe laces, or anything else a normal vacuum doesn't like. Roomba doesn't always see these things as obstacles. It does a great job of getting un-stuck (it uses what I call the dung beetle approach by rearing up and turning around...fun to watch).
You also need to keep it clean. I clean mine every other day. Emptying the bin is one thing, but I use the included cleaning tool to keep the brushes hair free on a regular basis. Since we have so many dogs in a confined space, it can build up hair on the brushes quickly. At first I thought this was going to be a bother, but its something I enjoy doing. Its like grooming a friend (in a monkey at the zoo kind of way).


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iRobot Roomba Scheduler is the latest vacuuming robot from iRobot. Join the over 1.2 million Roomba owners who have discovered the smarter way to clean. With Roomba Scheduler, you can program Roomba to clean when you're not home, at night, daily, or when you go to work. Nothing keeps your home cleaner than cleaning every day--with Roomba Scheduler, you can!
Scheduling Capability
With Roomba Scheduler, you can easily program Roomba to clean when you want. Roomba will leave the Home Base at your scheduled time, effectively clean the floor, and return to the Home Base to recharge its battery for the next cleaning cycle. If it weren't for the clean floors, you might forget Roomba was there.
Simply program the desired cleaning time into the Scheduler Remote, then send the cleaning schedule to Roomba and the new Virtual Wall Schedulers. Both Roomba and the Virtual Walls will turn on at the time you have scheduled.
Roomba Really Works
Roomba features a patented 3-stage cleaning system that is proven effective. First, the small spinning side brushes grabs dirt and debris in corners and along walls, sending it into the main cleaning path. Second, two counter-rotating brushes pick up large particles, pet hair, and other debris. Third, an extremely efficient vacuum picks up the remaining fine particles. All of the dirt and debris is deposited into a large capacity, easy-to-empty bin.
Roomba's cleaning head automatically adjusts to any floor surface including wood, tile, linoleum and low-to-medium pile carpet. Roomba can even sense dirtier areas of your floor and will clean more intensely there.

Roomba Covers the Entire Floor
Roomba automatically calculates the appropriate cleaning time in any situation. Roomba will cover every part of the room an average of 4 times per cleaning cycle, and because Roomba cleans under furniture and other obstacles--Roomba actually cleans more of the floor than standard uprights. Roomba will even return back to its self-charging Home Base at the end of a cleaning cycle or when its battery is running low.
To start a cleaning cycle, simply press the clean button and Roomba immediately begins calculating the size of the room, the number of obstacles in the room, and the cleanliness of the room. Roomba automatically monitors its environment and adjusts its behavior over 67 times per second.
During a cleaning cycle, Roomba automatically reacts to many different obstacles and situations. Roomba features integrated cliff sensors that allow the robot to turn away from stairs and other cliffs. Roomba's non-marring bumper senses furniture and other obstacles. Roomba also has infrared wall sensors that allow the robot to clean on the perimeter of the room and around obstacles. Roomba also features special escape behaviors that allow it to quickly get out from under chairs and off of troublesome thresholds.
Roomba Scheduler comes with two special Virtual Wall Schedulers to confine Roomba in the area you want to clean. Simply place the Virtual Walls in a doorway and send the cleaning schedule to the Virtual Wall. The Virtual Wall will turn for the duration of Roomba's cleaning cycle. Roomba automatically detects the invisible infrared beam of the Virtual Wall and turns away. Virtual Walls are great for keeping Roomba in one room or away from cords and other obstacles.
Easy to Use
Roomba Scheduler is very easy to use. Simply set the time you want Roomba to clean and send the schedule to the robot, or just set the robot down and press "Clean." At the end of the cleaning cycle, Roomba Scheduler will return to its Home Base. Replaceable air filters prevent dust and dirt from escaping back into the air and the large capacity bagless bin is easy to empty. Roomba's brushes can be removed by hand for easy maintenance.The Scheduling Remote also allows you to turn on and steer Roomba from across the room.
Roomba's cleaning head automatically adjusts to any floor surface including wood, tile, linoleum and low-to-medium pile carpet. Roomba can even sense dirtier areas of your floor and will clean more intensely there.
Roomba's Power System
The vacuum's advanced power system consists of a fast-charging battery, a three-hour charger, and a power source--it supercharges the unit for up to 120 minutes of continuous cleaning. When the battery is low or it has completed a cleaning cycle, the vacuum automatically returns to its charging Home Base so that it will be ready for the next cleaning session. Roomba can clean up to three 14- by 16-foot rooms before the Roomba Battery needs to be recharged.
What's in the Box Roomba Scheduler, scheduling remote, scheduling virtual walls (2), home base, fast charger, cleaning tool, spare brush pack, APS battery.

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iRobot Scooba® 380 Robot Lava-Pisos Review

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(More customer reviews)Got the 380 just over 30 days ago... (although, this review applies to the whole scooba line as they are all very similar)
I want to start off by saying that I have the roomba 530 and 560 and I love them both, wouldn't be able to keep my house clean without them.
However, with the scooba 380 I was severely disappointed:
While it does clean the floor somewhat effectively, it is gravely overshadowed by the below points that make me wish I had returned it within the 30-day return policy.
Here is what I have experienced over the last 30 days (used it about 8 times to clean high traffic kitchen area and bathroom floors).
My first impression right off the bat was that it does not have the same build quality of the Roomba series which was immediately noticeable upon unpacking. From the sharp plastic edges, defective charging unit to the light houses, the whole experience is a lot cheaper and clumsier than the roomba 500 line. It is almost as if it was made by an entirely different knockoff company...
Despite allowing the scooba to charge overnight, it is not capable of completing two full cleaning cycles on 1 battery charge, misleading from the marketing materials, again this is the 380 which is supposed to be able to clean larger rooms with two complete cycles.
Long recharge time (about 3 hrs+).
You need to clean the brush, filter and rubber tube every couple of cycles.
Requires you to empty the dirty solution tank for every cycle (obviously, but one of the many steps to using this product).
Unlike the roomba it does not figure out how long to run for. If you fill the tank and put the scooba in a small bathroom it will run for the same amount of time as a large room, like a kitchen, very frustrating. iRobot's advice for this shortcoming is to put less solution for smaller rooms, not an elegant or easy solution. You have to calculate the water/solution ratio for small spaces, which is a pain and still haven't figured out.
I have dark hardwood floors, leaves SOME streaks and tire marks even after wet spots have dried.
Once it completes a cleaning cycle it beeps every minute or so, so if you want to run the scooba at night it will annoy you to put it back to charge, I hate appliances and gadgets that beep unnecessarily. At least the roomba 500 series does notifications with nice tones rather than retro beeps... (I know this is nitpicking but it speaks to the low quality of the unit and user experience as a whole).
It gets stuck more frequently than my 2 roombas and sometimes is able to sneak under one of my area rugs, making a mess and eventually getting stuck. iRobot mentions that it is able to "sense" carpets, only if they are heavy enough to trigger its clumsy bumper system.
The standalone charging unit is defective. It does not complete charging the battery, forced to use the scooba's inconvenient multi pin charging port on the side to recharge. The faulty charging base is a widespread problem, refer to user forums online & irobot's website for reference.
Not capable of self-charging as with the upper level roomba series, a must-have feature to make these robots worth the time (and $$$). (Have to connect a clumsy multi pin connector that has to be oriented exactly right to plug properly.)
Clorox solution is expensive, after spending almost $500 on this robot it hurts to have to buy this expensive proprietary solution although, have not tried vinegar, heard that it can affect certain types of hard wood floors (which I have).
Loud and squeaky (due to scooba's rubber squeegee), can't be in the same room as the scooba if you want to relax... Oh and FYI in iRobot's scooba product video (on their website) depicts a rubber belt sweeping away dirt (part of its "first stage" of cleaning), not so: That belt is just a stationary squeegee and dirt is supposed to be directed to vacuum ports on either edge of the robot, disappointed when I discovered this.
The virtual walls are not up to par with the roomba's virtual walls (500 series). It has an extremely wide beam, more so than the roomba lighthouses. This makes using them a bit more difficult as the scooba stays pretty far away from the virtual walls, thus loosing cleaning coverage. One solution is to try to hide it on the opposite side of a doorway.
All in all, I can not recommend this current generation of scoobas (they all function nearly identical, its just the battery and accessories that differ). There are just too many niggles about this product that lead to an overall bad user experience.
If you want a robot to clean something then go with the roomba, its effective, fun and easy to use.
As for easy mopping:
A swiffer mop (or similar product) in about 5 minutes can do what takes the scooba about 45 minutes + maintenance (not to mention 3 hour charging time) to accomplish. Simply put, this product does NOT make mopping easier, in reality it takes longer, is more frustrating and requires a lot more patience than a already simple process.
Hopefully irobot will have a major revision of the scooba to make it worth our time and money.
2 stars because this product has some potential and it does somewhat clean the floor, but again I don't like this product and I wish I hadent kept it outside the "30 day satisfaction guarantee"
Finally, I read a lot of reviews before buying the scooba, anyone who says they simply love it and blindly give it 4 or 5 stars has got to be affiliated with iRobot in some way...

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iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It meets the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of the work that you would do if you did a thorough, good clean yourself. However, I usually don't do a thorough good clean myself on mopping floors since I left the navy.
obviously, make sure that your floor is swept before starting Scooba. (I use my Roomba since I am doubly lazy..) Scooba won't get into the corners, but neither do I when I mop.
The point is.. I don't like mopping. Neither does my wife. The hardwood floors never get mopped. I have a dog & 2 cats. Thus, the kitchen floor always looks like &*$(#! most of the time. Now it doesn't. It looks great. I'd suggest it for people that hate mopping & just want someone (or thing) to do it..
The first time I had scooba clean, it ran, but no water came out, and ittold me to check the tank, so i fiddled with it (pulled it apart & put it together again) and it worked. perhaps I didn't put the little rubber tube in right or didn't snap things together right the first time.
It works great on mud, dried food & dried spills. It missed some hardened, caked on gunk that would take a bit of scrubbing with a brush, or, scrubby part of your mop, but I didn't expect it to get those. In my case, it got up things like hardened jelly & stuff, but whatever the trash can has been grinding into the floor for the last couple years, it couldn't get up.
When you are done with Scooba, you do have to empty it out, give the tank a rinse, and clean the brush & a removable tube, to me though, thats easier than cleaning a mop. Though some people don't clean their mops, I would strongly suggest it with scooba.
You also need to buy their special cleaner, which to me, isn't that bad, since if you didn't use it, you'd be using another cleaner anyway. Scooba is quite efficient, as well. it uses 1/8? cup of cleaner and a quart or so of water on my floor (200 Sq. ft). If I were mopping, I'd be using more of both. I tried vinegar, which did pretty good, but the clorox appears to work better. I bet if you used Scooba more often, then vinegar would be fine.
The best time to use Scooba, in my opinion, is right before leaving in the morning, watching the TV downstairs, or going to bed (provided that 45 minutes of hair dryer sounding noise in another room doesn't bother you). That way the floor is dry when I come back to it. Some people have complained that it leaves the floor too wet after a mopping, but, to me, it appears the same as after when I mop myself.
so, in summary, if you just want the floor mopped. get Scooba. If you a perfectionist, its not for you.

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For reliably clean floors including sealed hardwood, tile, and linoleum, this floor-washing robot can handle up to four average-size rooms (250 square feet) on a single battery charge. Simple to operate, just fill the tank, press "clean," and empty the tank when finished. Its four-stage cleaning process includes the prep stage, which picks up dirt, sand, and crumbs; the washing stage, which uses only clean solution (mops just spread around dirty water); the scrubbing stage, which removes dirt, grime, and stuck-on messes; and the drying stage, which squeegee-lifts dirty water from floors. The cleaning machine uses clean tap water, a water and vinegar mixture, or deep-cleaning, fresh-scented Clorox Scooba cleaning solution. With the press of a button, the robot will leave floors clean, dry, and ready to walk on.
In addition, the robot avoids carpets, rugs, ledges, and stairs thanks to its cliff-sensing technology. The unit conveniently self navigates throughout each room cleaning beneath cabinet edges, tables, chairs, and other hard-to-reach places. The robot's autonomous cleaning pattern covers each area of floor an average of five times, and it washes floors with only clean solution, depositing dirty water and grime into the dirty-water tank. Accessories include one 8-ounce bottle of Clorox Scooba cleaning solution, a measuring cup, an APS battery, a power supply and charging base, and an owner's guide. One Virtual Wall also comes included to mark off-limit areas with an infrared beam that the robot will not cross (requires two D batteries, not included). The floor-washing robot measures 14-3/4 by 14-3/4 by 3-1/2 inches and carries a one-year warranty.

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iRobot Roomba 4210 Discovery Vacuuming Robot, White Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been a Roomba user for almost two years, so I know the benefits of a little automated vacuum. However we had three primary complaints that iRobot has addressed in this new version:
1. Inconvenience of coming home to a dead battery
2. Difficult to clean
3. Noisy
4. Could not focus on dirtier areas; only cleaned randomly.
1. We have gotten into the habit of, as we are walking out the door, putting the Roomba to work. However, we always used to have the problem of coming home to Roomba with a dead battery (inevitably it would die in the worst spots, like under our bed just out of reach). Then we would have to plug him in to our charger (which we had to shell out sixty bucks for) and wait for two hours to use him again. That was complaint one for the old version.
iRobot has fixed the battery issue on the Discovery. The fast charger (which we had to pay for before) is now built in. Secondly, and what has proven to be my favorite new feature of the new Roomba, the little vacuum automatically finds his docking station when his battery is about dead. I do have two recommendations on this note, however. The docking station appears to work just like a virtual wall, Roomba doesn't know that it is there unless it crosses its path, so you make sure that it is in a wide open room where Roomba is sure to cross its path in its waning minutes of power. Secondly, now you have to be extra sure to Roomba-proof the room so that he doesn't get stuck. If he's stuck he won't be able to find his way back to the charger.
2. The new version has gotten much easier to clean, especially the main brush. All the pieces now pop in and out of place easier and there are no screws to remove any of the pieces that need cleaning. This has proven to be a huge benefit.
3. The Discovery is noticeably quieter than the older versions, especially on tile surfaces.
4. The new line of Roomba Floorvacs comes with sensors that can detect dirt. That was the first thing we tested when we got our Discovery. I had pieces of Styrofoam broken into small pieces and it detected it and automatically performed a spot clean on that area. Then I put him in the kitchen where I had accidentally dumped a bag of cereal on the floor and then managed to step on it...Roomba focused on that area and cleaned up every little crumb.
I love my Roomba. I 100% recommend that you get one. [...] I bought mine at a local store in the mall and had to return my Pro Elite version 4 times before I finally got one that wasn't buggy. Then, under the warrantee, after my fourth one went on the fritz I was able to upgrade to the Discovery for free. So far after 2 weeks, the Discovery has been bug-free.
Nevertheless, because of the many issues that I have had in the past, and as with any new and emerging technology, buy it where you can purchase an extended warrantee and easily return defective devices.
Notwithstanding, buy a Roomba. Even though my wife and I never have time to clean our floors have been spotless for the last two years.
I hope this helps.


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Enjoy effortlessly clean floors with this vacuuming robot. The unit senses, finds, and eliminates dirt while automatically adjusting to any floor surface including carpet, wood, tile, and linoleum. The round-shape vacuum goes where others can't like corners and edges, then returns to its self-charging Home Base where it automatically docks and recharges between cleaning cycles. In addition to active dirt detect, a stair-avoidance system, surface transitioning, and a bagless debris bin, the unit offers three cleaning modes (clean, spot, and max) and a standard, infrared remote control. The vacuum also provides an Advance Power Supply (APS) battery, which enables up to 120 minutes of continuous cleaning time, and an APS fast charger that fully charges the Roomba in less than three hours. Two virtual-wall units, which use an infrared beam to create a barrier, come included for cleaning only where desired. Each virtual-wall unit requires two D batteries (sold separately). Other accessories include two Roomba filters, documentation, an owner's guide, and a cleaning tool. The vacuuming robot measures 16-3/4 by 21 by 5 inches and carries a one-year warranty.

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Infinuvo CleanMate QQ-2L Robotic Vacuum Cleaner (with home base and LCD panel) - White Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had this product for several months.
It does an excellent job on bare floors, including getting in corners and underneath things. It picks up dust and cat litter on bare floors with no problem. It can climb over door sills and some low carpets. Not useful on rugs except absolute flat weave. It is a bit noisy.
It has a small rotating brush which helps it get into corners, but also trouble, should it encounter any type of rug fringe or string (e.g. shoe lace). Brush is only $3 plus shipping to replace.
I find the self-docking feature useless but love the UV light for the bathroom and kitchen floor -- floors cleaned of dust, cat hair, etc. and some degree of sterilization in these 2 rooms every morning -- how cool is that?


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