I ordered a refurbished Roomba 980 on ebay for what seemed a very reasonable price. After
setting it up this evening and running it for a while, I have to say the Roomba does not disappoint.
The unit arrived with only the charging station and an AC power cord for the charging station. No manual,
no instructions, not even a quick start guide.
Googling "iRobot Roomba 980" quickly returned a manual. Following its instructions, I set up the charging
station and docked the vacuum on it to allow it to charge. A short while later, I downloaded the iRobot Home
app to my iPhone, and followed its instructions on configuring the Roomba for our home network... took maybe
three minutes.
I set a schedule for the machine to run this evening. Right on cue, it sprang to life and started its task.
After running for an hour, it had swept up the kitchen several times and did a fair amount of the living room
and adjoining hallways. It navigated the carpeted areas with no problem at all.
In a house with more pets than people, the vacuum collected a very impressive amount of pet hair — partly,
I suppose, because it moves unhindered beneath furniture I'm too lazy to move when I run the manual machine.
(Look, I'm just being honest here.)
In the hour it ran, it consumed probably 80% of its battery — but much of the terrain was living room carpet.
In practice, I'd probably maybe limit it to running for 15 minutes or a half-hour at a time instead of it just
running open-ended like that.
Here's the most impressive part (to me, anyway): Each time the robot runs, it builds a map of the area.
After the initial run of 15 minutes, it had a lot of the hard surfaces figured out — the back entrance and
the kitchen area chiefly. I mean, it was sort of rough, but you could make it out. After the hour, it had
added significant detail to the map: one can now clearly see the kitchen, bar, dining area, much of the living
room, and the halls. It had mapped its position well enough that when I pressed the "home" button (which I
thought would send it to its dock), it went STRAIGHT there, navigating the curvature of the walls and everything.
About the only negative I could say — and I feel a little dumb for saying it — is that the machine sounds
like a vacuum cleaner. It's not quiet. It's every bit as loud as my Dyson vacuum or a hair dryer. Tonight for the
hour it ran, I ended up "sending it home" because I'd had enough of the noise. I guess I thought it'd be quieter.
Everything else about the machine so far is super impressive. The amount of junk it collected was astounding.
Would I buy another? Today, I absolutely would.
UPDATE
One month on, and I just about can't love this thing any more than I do. It amazes me how much fur and
dust and whatnot it collects.
I had a bit of a headscratcher last week... no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the bin warning to
reset. Fortunately, the Internet came to the rescue. I learned two things from this person's blog post:
(1) There are sensors inside of the bin compartment that work like obstacle sensors do on garage doors.
If the sensors can't "see" each other, the machine interprets as if the bin is full. (2) I had been
clearing the bin by sticking my fingers in its "mouth" and removing the filter from the top, then working
the contents out into the garbage. It turns out the entire "mouth" side is hinged. If you look at the
bin from the top, the side where the mouth is is black and has a pair of yellow triangles that appear as
subtle arrows to suggest how to re-insert the bin. If you press at where those arrows are, you can open
the bin, giving much easier access to its contents. The sensors I mentioned earlier are two rectangular
shapes that jut out on either side of the mouth. Cleaning those may resolve a difficult bin error issue.
I would still buy one again in a heartbeat.
I also purchased a pair of virtual wall units — also from eBay, and far below retail price — and these
things are awesome. The images suggest they're about the size of an electric coffee grinder, but they're
actually much, much smaller... more the height of a coffee cup. Each runs on a pair of AA batteries
(included). I use them to confine the Roomba to our living room — one as a boundary on the north side of
the room to prevent access to the kitchen, and one on the east side of the room to prevent access to the
main hall. I do actually need a third, though, to be completely effective for the family room area.
With all the amazing work the Roomba does, though, — at least, around my house, with four cats and a
dog — I think it's already time to do some maintenance. I think I probably should have changed the HEPA
filter a couple of weeks ago, and the brush bristles are looking pretty dark. Amazon.com seems to have
no shortage of replacement parts available for purchase.
In summary, for a home that has pets, and carpet throughout, I'd recommend buying a refurbished unit
straight from the manufacturer via eBay, and buying a maintenance kit with replacement brushes
and air filters. When run regularly, the Roomba will capture tons and tons of debris at first — you'll be
emptying the bin often. If you didn't vacuum your floors often before getting the Roomba, you may find the
filter and/or brush could use replacement in that first month. Over time, you'll find there's less debris
for Roomba to collect, and you'll be emptying the bin less often.