Meet Arnold: First Impressions of the Roomba 560
We have our own robot. Typing those words feels ever so strange, but thanks to the Roomba 560, we’re Living in The Future ™.
As a kid, I’d always imagined that “in the future” we’d have our very own automaton waiting on us hand and foot. Well, the Roomba isn’t exactly our personal Jeeves, but it is a robot – albeit a very specialized one whose sole function in life is keep our floors and carpets clean.
Prior to buying a Roomba, I did my research. I asked friends who owned one, watched demos both online and in person, spent countless nights reading reviews, and even crowd-sourced feedback from my Twitter Roomba-owning friends. I decided the time was right – it’s 2011 and, by gosh, I needed to own my own robot.
The less glamorous version of the story is that the vacuum cleaner we’ve been using (purchased used in 1998) was in dire need of replacement, thanks to a bad motor bearing.
The Roomba 560 retails for $350, but with discounts you can find one for around $300. We purchased ours at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because of their generous return policy. Inside the box is the Roomba, it’s charging station (with plug), an extra replacement filter, a brush cleaner, two Virtual Walls, a registration card and user manual.
The Roomba unit itself has two rubber treaded wheels (akin to those found in LEGO sets) and a plastic swivel wheel that lets it turn around to change its direction. There is also a sweeper attachment that brings debris towards the Roomba (perfect for corners and other hard to reach surfaces).
Lifting the Roomba out of the box, I initially thought the bottom of the unit was about to fall out from underneath the unit, until I realized that the two main rubberized wheels were on a separate shock absorber system connected to the chassis.
Before first use, we connected our Roomba to its charging station. The Roomba 560 comes with a rechargeable battery. The owner’s manual stated no less than three times that the Roomba needs to be recharged after each use – that a prolonged delay in charging it could potentially damage the battery.
Here’s a video showing the Roomba’s collision and cliff-detecting abilities:
As the video above demonstrates, the Roomba moves in a spiral pattern – moving towards a wall, gently bumping it, turning around and moving in another direction. Its vacuuming pattern appears to be based on its detection of walls and hard surfaces. The Roomba is also immensely useful in hard to reach areas, like underneath the bed. It was a pretty neat feeling to watch the Roomba (which has since been named ‘Arnold’) do its thing. The Roomba does a reasonably good job of covering the entire room’s surface area.
After vacuuming our entire downstairs area (both carpeted and ceramic tile flooring), which included our kitchen, bedroom and living room area, the Roomba returned to its base station for recharging. We inspected the Roomba’s dust / dirt collectors. Both were completely filled; the filtration area was caked with dust.
The contents were disposed of, and I added a shot of compressed air to clean the remaining dust covering the filter. The Roomba owners manual states that it’s important to empty the bins after each use.
My first impressions of the Roomba 560 (so far) have been really good. We haven’t programmed the Roomba, or made use of the virtual walls yet, but my hope is to update this post after we spend a few more days with the unit. Do you own a Roomba? How has it been in your experience? Share your observations below!
-Krishna
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Kevin Rubin
September 17, 2011 at 12:13 pmAh, glad your first experience with it is good. So was mine…
I bought the cheapest one directly from iRobot in April this year, when I moved into my new apartment. I wish I’d bought a slightly fancier model, one that I could at least set on a timer to run later in the day, but oh well…
Mine does pretty good, certainly better than I’d do on my own if I had to do all that manually (hint, I wouldn’t). I’ve been known in the past to go up to seven years without running the vacuum because I don’t like the noise. So the Roomba is good, I just turn it on and walk out the door…
Mine gets stuck sometimes on cords and cables, or a string sticking out of a sleeping bag, that sort of thing. A shirt once fell on the floor and the Roomba got stuck on that.
I’m not diligent about cleaning the bin and filters after every use, just once in a while. I’m too lazy. And I don’t know what I’m doing to the battery life, since I usually run it when I leave for work in the morning, but don’t charge it till I get home eleven hours later. I read those same warnings, too…
I once cleaned the rollers with water but put them back in before they’d dried, and that resulted in it not working for a week. It wouldn’t charge, it wouldn’t run, it just didn’t work. It’d randomly make funny electronic noises. But by the weekend when I was preparing to take the time to read the warranty information it worked again.
It acts a little like a pet. I’ve never seen it go into the kitchen when I watch it, but often when I’m not in the apartment I see evidence that it was there. The garbage can moved away from its usual spot, or something like that.
Overall I’m glad I got it, it’s a convenience, and house cleaning is amongst my least favorite activities, one I simply don’t bother doing, no matter how messy my apartment gets (well, here in the U.S. that is, in India my wife’s family has a fleet of servants, so one of them comes and cleans our apartment, works his butt off, does an inefficient, mediocre job for a really low price).
Adrian
September 17, 2011 at 2:27 pmThanks Krishna for that review! I’ve been wanting to get a roomba for some time. Last night I actually was looking online for discounts! I loved your review so far, and considering that I know you have one, and you aren’t having any issues, I might go ahead and buy one today! Great review!
Krishna
September 17, 2011 at 3:43 pmThanks, Adrian! I’d say: go for it! I’ve never seen my wife so happy. For that alone, the Roomba’s price is worth it.
kaitou
September 17, 2011 at 4:54 pmI’ve had a Roomba Discovery for a few years – currently not working due to a non-functional brush motor.
Issues to be aware of (hopefully, some of these have been fixed):
1. Static issue. Mine would be cleaning, make a 45 degree turn, placing the power connector next to the heating baseboard and discharge to the metal baseboard. It would sometimes pause and then resume, other times, it just paused. (Anti-stat spray on the carpet next to that wall helped.)
2. “Let’s make a robot that’s going to work in a dirty location, but not design with that in mind.” The internals need cleaning all to often – particularly, the wheel motors and, currently, the brush motor.
3. They still use NiMH batteries. Leaving them on the charger shortens the battery life. I wish they’d get a clue and use Li-Ion. For my Scooba, I pull the battery after use and don’t recharge it until I need to use it again. (Alternately, you could pull it after charging and put it in before using.) The problem is that Roomba’s have soft power switches; i.e. the unit is always draining the battery, which is why you have to leave it on the charger or the battery dies. Until they fix this, I’m never buying another iRobot product.
Too bad, because when it works, they’re very convenient. I’m hoping they’ve fixed the first two issues. The last time I checked their site, they hadn’t done #3.
(Unfortunately, I somehow missed your requests for info on these or I would have mentioned these issues earlier.)
Jose
September 19, 2011 at 10:09 amFor some reason all of your apostrophe’s are commas and there is an extra space before a normal comma.
Great site by the way. It is one of my regular stops every day.
Krishna
September 19, 2011 at 8:59 pmOdd. I’m not seeing that. Is anyone else seeing commas as apostrophes? I’ve tested on PCs and Macs – haven’t spotted this issue. Anyone care to chime in?