iRobot Roomba 530

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In the instructions Irobot recommend that you charge the unit for 16 hours before the first use and then two hours after that.
BUT - Im impatient! I took it from the box and pressed the large clean button on the top of the vacuum. It played a pretty tune and off it went! It started its circle dance around the room untill it blue dirt detect light came on and it cleaned the dirty area - I had hoovered that morning but this robots blue ...
...floor!

You may be asking what is this blue light?

Well - Roomba is a super clever Robot, when the unit detects allot of dirt is being picked up in a small area the bot with start to circle. It doubles its cleaning power until its happy the dirt has gone and it drives off! Amazing.

Once the robot had finished my living room I thought it would have a few crumbs inside. I opened it up and OH MY GOODNESS! ... more

Hello everyone and welcome to this review!

I want to let you all know just how brilliant these little machines are!

So what is a Roomba?

Roomba is a round shaped powerful vacuum cleaning robot. It is designed to clean all floors including thick carpets and hardfloors with one press of a button. The roomba is a great vacuum for people who do not have time, are unable or simply do not like vacuuming. The Roomba maps out your rooms and cleans up all of the mess using brushes and a vacuum. The robot will also clean edges and corners by following walls.

What do you get in the box?

When I opened the rather small box I was rather suprised what was in it!

You recieve,
The Roomba Vacuum
A Charging Base
A Transformer
A Spare Vacuum Filter
A Rooba Virtual Wall
Brush Cleaning tool
And instruction Booklets.

I found this machine in Debenhams, it caught my eye as I walked past a sales representitive giving demonstrations. I watched the Roomba drive around eating up all of the sand and dirt on the floor and I thought - I need one of them!

I picked up the box and took it to the counter, I could not wait to get the thing home!

I opened the box and read the instructions as it looked quite a high tech product! I didn't want to do anything wrong after spending 199 Pounds!

What buttons does Roomba have on the top?
Its very easy to use,

Clean - This button is used to clean, the roomba will cover the whole room 4 times over untill every dustbunny has gone!

Spot - This is used for cleaning a 3 foot area, such as when you spill cereal. Place the roomba next to the mess and dooo doo ddod doo .... its gone!

Dock - This button is pressed if you want the roomba to charge, it will drive back to its base charger.

In the instructions Irobot recommend that you charge the unit for 16 hours before the first use and then two hours after that.
BUT - Im impatient! I took it from the box and pressed the large clean button on the top of the vacuum. It played a pretty tune and off it went! It started its circle dance around the room untill it blue dirt detect light came on and it cleaned the dirty area - I had hoovered that morning but this robots blue Dirt light was illuminated over most of my living room floor!

You may be asking what is this blue light?

Well - Roomba is a super clever Robot, when the unit detects allot of dirt is being picked up in a small area the bot with start to circle. It doubles its cleaning power until its happy the dirt has gone and it drives off! Amazing.

Once the robot had finished my living room I thought it would have a few crumbs inside. I opened it up and OH MY GOODNESS! A pile of sand, dust, paper clips, hair and plenty of other disgusting items were sitting in the dirt cup. Thats when I decided, my Dyson is history!

Now how does Roomba do such a good job?

On the underside of the Roomba there is a rather clever cleaning system. On the right side of the robot ther is a star shaped brush, this spins very fast as the roomba hugs the walls to remove all of the side dirt. It works suprisingly well removing atleast 99% of the edge dirt. This star brush kicks the dirt from the edges into the Roombas cleaning path.

In the middle of the robot lies two brushes. One is a strong rubber brush and the other is a spinny brush like you get on any upright vacuum. These brusshes counter-rotate and lift all of the rubbish from your carpets and floors. They reach deep into the pile removing an unbelievable amount of dirt and pet hair.

Behind the two brushes there is a black squeegy. This is used as a vacuum. A powerful dust buster type vacuum is inside the roomba and this is designed to suck all of the fine dust and allergens from the carpet. Inside the vacuum chamber lies a filter. The vacuum chamber is on the bottom side of the dust compartment, it comes out like a little draw to clean, it really picks up an amazing amount of dust.

How does Roomba know where to go?

Roomba has many built in sensores. It will not fall down stairs, it detects the drop, goes up to the edge of the stair and then happily drives off in another direction.

The bumper on the front of the roomba lets it know when to turn direction by gently touching a surface. The front bumper has a network of infrared sensors built in. This allows roomba to see where it is in the room and the vac knows to slow down when it sees an object infront of it.

The Roomba uses Rooba AWARE room coverage system. The vacuum will cover each part of the room 4 times over befre it declares mission accomplished.

Does Roomba ever miss a spot?
NO! I have had this unit for 3 months now and have used it everyday and it has never missed a crumb.

The battery in the roomba is designed to last two hours, but mine easily lasts 3 hours! completing the whole house untill it needs charging.

When the unit needs charging The robot searches for its home base, YES! the robot even charges itself. I was shocked when I first witnessed this. I set roomba free in the kitchen and the base was in the living room where I was watching Tv, when the roomba was finished the amazing thing drove through the hall and straight into the living room and sat on its charger! Im sure this thing is human.
Best of all the Roomba only takes two hours to charge!!!

How does the roomba cope with pet hair?

Well I have two cats and a dog, they all leave hair around the house but the floors are so clean you could eat off them! not that I would want to though.

This shows it works - the only place that gathers hair in the house now are the stairs! Unfortunately roomba cannot clean stairs, but if it could my house would be 100% hair free!

Roomba takes care of all of your vacuuming needs however you must clean him out every now and then! This is easily done. Flip the roomba over and remove the brushes with one click. Clean the hair and bearings and pop them back in. Its that easy!

I always thought that battery operated cleaning products were a waste of money. But Roomba has totally changed my mind! This really does have the cleaning ability of my dyson and is much more interesting. Best of all I no longer hoover the main floors!

What about durability?
Well three months of being used five hours every day, definately passed my tests! It also comes with a year gaurantee, Domotec will collect it free of charge and repair it free of charge if it does ever delelope a fault. The unit does feel very strong and is quite heavy which tells me its quality!:)

Rooma Talks!!
If Roomba ever has problems such as jammed brusshes it will stop and talk to you.

Mine got jammed on a bathrobe - It stopped and said "Please remove and clean Roombas brusshes", Its amazing!
Also if you hold the dock button on the top for 5 seconds the roomba will start talking and do a demonstration. It tells you how it works and its patterns etc. really great for entertaining guests.

Is the Roomba loud?
NO! It is extremely quiet, you can easily watch Tv when it is on. Its so quiet infact that I sometimes put it on downstairs when we go up for bed! and come down to a clean downstairs.

I hope this review has helped you with your decision..
I know a lot of people accuse these as being useless but they are NOT! Honestly, but I highly recommend you do not buy the copies of the original roomba! Mum bought one and hey, it hardly moves haha! I have also reviewed this fake copy.

Thanks for reading,
Nick 

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