iRobot - Roomba (Original)

Bought an original roomba and enjoyed it, but over the years others were doing more for less with the same quality 🤷‍♂️

I have the original roombas but now two mop and vacuum euphys. They work good but I hate that they mop and vacuum at once sort of. I’d prefer all the hair to be gone before mopping occurs. Apparently most vacuums don’t have this feature.

Ich hab vor fast zehn Jahren einen original roomba geholt, der war damals nicht günstig. Fährt immer noch ohne jedes Gemecker. Habe irgendwann mal die Rollen getauscht aber das war kein Problem. Also für mich hat sich das mehr ausgeben gelohnt.

Ours is Moe, like the robot from Wall-E. He’s first gen and I wish he could mop like some of the newer ones, but since I developed a chronic illness he’s been great to have.

The first Roombas did this, but it is no longer possible without an app. Evolution, they call it.

I have the Dyson 15s and I am in love with it. Have the Dyson pet one from years back and it still works great. But upgraded to try the mop (submarine version) and it’s super nice. Hubby vacuums a lot and we got that as I wanted to try the mop as I mop and he vacuums lol 😂 so far a game changer. Have had no issues with the pet stick cordless version we got years ago and we had several dogs then (they have passed away now) but no issues. Have a Rooba too - like 1st generation on that- he is older - only issues I have had was his mapping when I moved furniture around he would not reset and so he vacuums 3/4 of the room and goes back later to get the other part.

I have had many robo vacs over the years starting back with the first generation Roomba with the light towers that meandered in random fashion. I will say that while not yet perfect the aqua10 is so far the best cleaner I have had. I bought this to replace the Narwal Flow I had that was very good but I need a vac that will go back and empty when the dust bin is full and the flow would not do that regardless how packed it was in the bin. The Aqua does a good job at vacuum and mopping imo needs to be a roller or track anymore to get it clean. All my others just seemed to smear it out whether a spinning pad or the flat smear pads (what ever you call them??) The 3i S10Ultra, although a roller, was a downright disaster (reviews posted elsewhere). I had a couple Neatos, 2018 vintage Roborock and numerous Roomba vacs over the years. Still for now this one wins. Let’s see how it is doing in 6 months.

I tried to bring the iRobot Roomba (1st or 2nd gen) back to life but it still keeps going back a few inches then spinning around and pretty much staying in one place. I broke down and used the shopvac with HF cyclone and picked up half a gallon of stuff. Would have filled the Roomba several times over. The Roomba does not recognize the charging dock. The charger voltage is 22.7 plugged directly into the Roomba but when plugged into the base the base contacts only shows 2.8. I think the base contacts need to be activated to higher voltage by the little glass tower but that is not working. I took off the bumper and cleaned the little lights and windows and took the brush box apart and cleaned/lubed the little gear box but no luck. I am not sure I am ready for getting too the motherboard given the small dust compartment. I also took apart the charger and found the circuit board had a lot of corrosion, so I suspect that the Rumba motherboard is bad. I think I am stuck using a shopvac since even a self empty system would fill up fast.

I have one basic Roomba that moves around randomly and another that supposedly maps the space. The cheaper, random movement robot is vastly superior in all ways.

I bought one a while ago for the novelty since it was a black Friday sale (and I suck at keeping a schedule to vacum. Didn’t have mapping but I thought it would be smart enough to still navigate just fine. Instead it just rams into things then randomly changes direction. Meanwhile, a coworker bought some  bootleg that cost a fraction of the price and it runs flawlessly. All the extra shit that roomba charges for in it’s higher tier models are included for free.  Never buying another roomba product. They’ve clearly just been coasting off of brand recognition.