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| Brand: iRobot
Category: Kitchen
List Price: $449.99
Buy New: $293.00
You Save: $156.99 (35%)
New (18) Used (2) Refurbished (5) from $199.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  235 reviews
Sales Rank: 16
Color: Black
Shipping Weight (lbs): 14.6
Dimensions (in): 24.3 x 18.2 x 8.4
MPN: 56001
Model: 560
UPC: 853816560011
EAN: 0853816560011
ASIN: B000UUBCNO
Release Date: August 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 it's ok (yet) November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A lot of reviews indicate that this is a rather flimsy product but the customer support is said to be good. I'm writing this 3 days after usage, so I did not experience those problems (such as battery dying early, death dances, cliff sensors that need to be circumvented, and most often, the side brushes breaking down - they are very important) yet. If you do, this website/forum may be helpful: http://www.roombareview.com/chat/
It does what it says it does - I have both carpet and tile floors, and it cleans both. It requires little attention from me except taking out small carpets (it moves them around), cables (gets stuck in them), and other small stuff (that you would remove bf cleaning anyway). The two lighthouse virtual walls work nicely, though the C batteries do not come in the package. If you have money a more than two rooms, buy one or two of those lighthouse virtual walls.
The reason I gave a 3-star to this robot is because of the need to maintain it - after each use, you have to empty bin (that's acceptable), clean brushes (extremely messy - see below), and remove and clean below the side brush (that's easy).
Cleaning brushes under this toy is a must (or, according to many reviews around, it dies sooner), but it also i a big mess. You have to cut all the hair and crap that gets tangled in with the brushes (the brush-cleaner-thingy does not work, but its "brush-like" side is very usable). Then you have to get all the crap /out/ of the brushes. Then you have to remove the little yellow thingies at the end of the brush to take the hair out of there as well.
This stuff is easy to do, but gets boring quite easily (especially if you use it often), and as I said, is too messy... If you don't want to touch your own crap :) , I wouldn't buy this. And it takes me about 20 minutes to do. At least I don't have to vacuum the house :) For me, cleaning brushes is better than vacuuming the house myself ;)
Overall a worthwhile purchase November 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This thing is great. I live in a small (1100ish sq. feet) condo, with a cat and a dog who both shed like crazy. I'm a bit of a neat freak to begin with, and even prior to adopting my pets I was vacuuming the house a minimum of once a week just to get human hair, dirt, crumbs etc. off the floor. Needless to say, after adopting my pets, vacuuming once a week turned into two or three times a week. It started getting old.
I originally purchased the 410 model (previous generation), and shortly returned it in favor of the 560 model. If you are thinking of purchasing one of the older models, take a few things into consideration. The 5xx series are definitely 'smarter'. They slam into things much less (the improved sensors help a lot), the battery lasts longer, and they're a bit quieter. They come with two of the virtual 'walls', which include the new lighthouse mode (I'm still on the fence about its usefulness). If you get the 560 or higher, it includes the scheduling system. If you end up going for the 4xx series instead of this one and you're anything like me, what will happen is you'll get it, use it, love it, then you'll decide you want to get another Virtual Wall and the scheduling system. Once you buy all those accessories and add it all up, the price difference is negligible and you may as well have just bought the newer 560 to begin with.
While this device is a huge help around the house, it's not perfect and there are some quirks you should know about.
1. Lighthouse Mode -- I'm still not completely convinced that this feature is very useful, at least not when at least one or more of the rooms you're vacuuming is a larger room. When you set a virtual wall to Lighthouse Mode, you're telling it to finish one room before starting another. Sounds like a good idea in theory, but in order to have enough time to clean each room, it will only stay in each room for 25 minutes. So, even if you're only cleaning two rooms and utilizing one of the lighthouses, it will still only go for 25 minutes per room, even though it could easily stay in each for longer. 25 minutes in a larger room may not be enough. Again, I live in a small condo and compared to a living room in a house, mine is probably pretty small, and I still find 25 minutes not to be enough. I find Lighthouse works well for when I'm cleaning two smaller areas (i.e. the master bed and master bath), but not so well when cleaning larger areas (i.e. the living room and the kitchen.
2. As I mentioned above, the new sensors definitely help this unit find its way around better, and without bumping into things as much. Keep in mind though, it really only helps with solid walls. It still runs into things like chair/table legs at full force. It's a good idea the first few times you run this thing to watch it in action. Prepare to Roomba-proof parts of your house! You'll want to move things like pet's water/food bowls out of the way; it won't avoid these. Learn the spots where it has trouble; you may need to move things that are a problem, and potentially move around where you put your Virtual Walls. For example, I've got a leaning bookshelf kind of like this that my Roomba gets stuck under *every* time, and unfortunately it will sit there and try to get out of the spot for several minutes until it finally gives up. It happened once or twice and the faceplate of the Roomba got scratched up really badly...in fact 'scratched' doesn't really describe it, 'gouged' is more like it. It looks like someone took a screwdriver to the faceplate. Anyway, the bottom shelf is tall enough where the Roomba can fit under it, but something about the dimensions between the shelf and the legs...Roomba goes in there and can't figure out how to get out. I replaced the faceplate and have made it so the Roomba will not go under there anymore!
3. Depending on how often you run your Roomba (for me it's 3x per week), you'll want to make sure you clean it out regularly, and I'm not talking about simply emptying the dirt bin. There are sensors on the bottom you need to clean regularly, you need to keep the wheels clean, and keep the rollers clean.
4. Every so often I will come home to find the Roomba did not return itself to the base. Sometimes it simply couldn't find its way back, but sometimes it's because I neglected to do one or more of the things I listed in #3 above. If you get home and find your Roomba in the middle of the floor, be sure to hit the "Dock" button to try getting it to dock itself. If it tries to dock itself, that means it likely gave up trying to find its way back to the dock after searching around for a while aimlessly. On the other hand if you hit "Dock" and you see a red "!" on the screen, it probably means something's dirty (and the built in speaker will tell you what's dirty). Time to clean your Roomba!
All in all, I'm glad I bought it. Still seems kind of expensive for a vacuum cleaner, but I suppose when you consider that there are Dysons that cost much more AND this is a robot that does the work for you, it's worth it. It's nice to come home to a clean house. I bought mine with the three year warranty so I'll have piece of mind that no matter what my robot runs into over the next few years, I'm covered.
 very cool November 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've had the iRoomba for about a month and it continues to amaze me. Press the button and -presto - the little gadget springs to work. I had no idea there was so much dust in my house; now Roomba scoops it out preventively instead of waiting for it to accumulate to the level it can't be ignored.
We love the little robot. Even the cat has somehow learnt to tolerate it, against the millions of year's worth of instincts. Granted, we've only had it for a month and judging from the reviews below it is likely something's going to happen sooner or later. Nonetheless, as far as i am concerned it has pretty much paid for itself and every additional day i consider a bonus :).
 Good for a while, but one year warrant is not enough and a lot of maintenance November 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For three and four hundred dollars most IRobot products only last for about a year. If you open them up you will see repaired circuit boards. Save yourself some time and money buy Hoover products. They don't run themselves but they don't need as much maintenance. They need to increase their warranty for thier products before I but another one. I have bought over four vacumn cleaners and a scooba and they work well for a year and then have a lot of trouble. If you have money to waste it is a good product.
 Roomba just doesn't last November 6, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I used to be quite a Roomba fan. I bought one of the original models when it first came out. After that died, I bought another newer model. I even bought one for my sister two years ago for Christmas. Well, all three Roombas that I've purchased have died. My most recent model probably had the easiest cleaning job of any Roomba. I don't have pets and we have a housekeeper who does the regular vacuuming. I used my Roomba maybe once a month for a quick cleaning of my office floor. It seems that even this light use was too much for the Roomba. I've replaced the battery multiple times and now the unit will barely move. I've gone through all of the trouble-shooting steps on the Roomba website, but nothing works.
So, long-story-short, Roomba is great while it lasts. But just don't expect it to be working 18 months after you buy it. When deciding to buy one or not, factor in that you will probably have to toss it in less than two years, even with very light use. After buying my third one, I've finally learned my lesson. It's an expensive toy that isn't built to last.
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