iRobot - Roomba 510

I just bought the 505 a couple of weeks ago. And I’m returning it. The side brush keeps falling off while vacuuming. This is our 4th or 5th Roomba. And this new model is the only one where the side brush snaps on, instead of using a screw. Our house is new, we don’t even have furniture yet, and still the Roomba keeps losing the brush mid job. I’m bummed because I was really liking the way it avoids obstacles and how good the vacuum feature is, but without the side brush it just leaves all the corners and edges dirty. I can’t be looking after it monitoring where and when the brush falls off.

I was torn between this and the 505 but it seems like all the 505 has is heated pad drying which I don't really think is all that important. But yeah It goes back constantly to refill like every 10 minutes for about 6-700 square feet. So it works but definitely adds time.

Just exchanged my 405 for a 505 and I gotta say the object detection is much better. The 405 did pretty well but the object had to be tall enough to get detected by the lidar. The 505 was able to completely avoid a sock, cord and flip flops I threw on the ground. Also shows avoided obstacles in the app.

It's much much quieter is the first thing I noticed the 900 was so freaking loud on carpet. I couldn't hear anything and had to scream just to hear what I was saying. I could easily be on a phone call while 405 is going on carpet and barely be bothered. Can't tell how well it vacuums yet it has 4 different settings of suction. It defaults to the third highest and I just left it at that. It did pick up some test things I threw on the floor just to see. So I think it's probably pretty good at least as good as the 900. Might try out the high suction tomorrow to see if it's really loud. The mopping I'm undecided so far. I've never had a mopping robot so nothing to compare it to except good ole elbow grease mopping. Which I know is going to always be 10x better. But it seems like it doesn't store water it just wets the pads because it starts off out of the machine with decent wetness but then as it goes you can see the water decrease that it leaves behind. My floor is also reasonably clean right as I used my bissel vac mop the other day. But I did clear out the dirty water and it was pretty dirty so it's doing something haha. Will it lift up some caked on mess I don't know.

I upgraded to the 505 shortly after this. But the 405 was great the whole time I used it the 505's been really good. I had to replace it once because one of the mop spinning motors stopped working but it was pretty seamless replacement process

My J7 also quit a couple of weeks ago. We are 1 week in to a new 505. It has a slicker app. Always knows where it is. With the lidar, it barely hits anything. All that said, it's not cleaning as well as the j7 did. We have all hard floors with area rugs It turns the suction up and down (I'm assuming to save battery) as it transitions from hard to carpet. In effect it just leaves a pile of junk next to all the rugs. It does a slightly better job in the kitchen where there are no rugs, but it always leaves noticable missed dirt that it has hit, but just pushed around. Not sure that I would not recommend, but I also wouldn't actively recommend either

I sent mine back, ordered a 505

Roomba 505 is legit for dogs.

I'm on my 3rd generation device now, started with a Roomba, then Eufy, now a Dreambot - each is obviously better than the last, but i had attributed that mostly to it simply being a new product space and so advancements are regular and large. The roomba barely did any mapping, and the app was bare bones...seems like it's only made a tiny bit of progress in the last 9 years. Definitely spent more time babysitting/maintaining the Roomba than i saved by using it to vacuum lol, but i like tech so thats ok

I've been in the robot vacuum game for awhile. Had an OG Roomba Pro back in 2003, then a Roomba 500 series in 2008, Roborock S6 in 2020, and just got a Roborock Q5 Pro a month ago. The budget models of today are SO GOOD and SO CHEAP, that it is very hard for me to justify any of the higher tier models. I got the Q5 Pro for $139. Considering it has similar features but better cleaning performance than my S6 but costs $450 less than what I paid for the S6, it is the best value option out there imo. While the techie in me enjoys all of the latest features, I think adding pumps, water, and moving base parts is an order of magnitude more complexity and increases the odds of breaking something. My Roomba 500 still runs and it just needed battery replacements and a new vac motor over its 12 years of service. Granted, I have the perspective of having a robot vac for 2 decades, so picking up things on the floor that it'll get stuck on is second nature.

Pretty sure Roomba Red won’t be able to work on that. 4000 series are mostly collectors items nowadays and half of them have their mosfets fail, if you don’t know what you are doing I would recommend to get a 500 series instead. Not sure if it will work but some Roborocks with duorollers have floating rollers. Worth checking out.

The older Roombas could be set to clean once per day at a specified time, so you could have 7 scheduled cleanings. There are buttons to set the clock and then a cleaning time for each day of the week. I still have 2 of them, one is a 650 and the other is a 500 something. I don't think they make them anymore, but I am sure you could find one. These 2 both still work. I don't have an app for them, but I have a 3 foot dowel rod I use to push the start button, If you have connection problems or simply don't want to connect to the internet, the solution is to not connect. Just push the start button. The advantage of the Roomba brand is that you can get replacement parts easily and they run forever. There's lots of info on how to repair them. Don't know if the other brands have that knowledge base yet.

Buy an old Roomba Series 500 on up. They can be found at thrift stores and usually just need a new battery. They are well built and work well and are fairly easy to clean.

Buy an old Roborock ONLY if you know what you are doing! Here is a guide for doing a [teardown cleaning of an S5](https://www.instructables.com/Roborock-S5-Disassembly-for-Cleaning-Troubleshooti/). If complex electro mechanical devices fascinate you, go for an old Roborock. If reading my guide makes your head spin, buy an old Roomba. The suction fan of an old Roomba is usually part of the dust bin or cleaning head so it is MUCH easier to clean. There is much to be said for confining the power of a random path robot to one room and letting it clean until its battery runs down. Let it recharge and move it to the next room. True, a LiDAR based robot cleans in an orderly manner, but it only makes one pass. I call this "Good Enough" cleaning. I started out being a Roborock fan, but I have far more Roombas in my collection now. Roombas can pick up sand on a floor. Roborocks cannot even if they have been cleaned.

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.

I'd recommend an older roomba model as well, 500 or 600 series. They're very easy to take care of and repair, clean really well, are simple, and last. I have one of those cheap ionvac models you've probably seen. It's better than I expected, but an older roomba is way better still.

Our roomba tries to keep up. Hal (main floor roomba) needs maintenance every few days. But man 2 days where Hal is off duty and you can see it. The tumbleweeds roll in. Hal doesn’t replace vacuuming or steam cleaning area rugs. He does however help keep the dusting down and limits the tumbleweeds . My better half will tell me don’t pause Hal he is doing https://preview.redd.it/7mmkuro4c1ef1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fd808d8cc6c7e830934f5fb947860ae71518915 Gods work ROFL. We have 3 dogs 2 super shedders GSD and Husky/GSD mix and 1 wire hair terrier. This year we have had to even vacuum dogs as well. They are so worth it! ❤️❤️❤️

Mine is named Robbie, I can’t keep the floor clear enough to use him. My goal for the weekend is to clear his path. Wish me luck!

We named our Roomba Harry. We have a lab/beagle mix.

I had a Roomba, and it did a good job. It died after 2 years though, and they don't sell repair parts. I kept it limping along for another few months until I gave up on it. I don't think I'd ever get another Roomba, but I would like to try another brand.

We got the Costco iRobot Roomba on sale (just sweep function) and it’s been really helpful. Definitely worth the time savings and it probably does a better job than our manual vacuuming. We don’t care for the mop function that much, just don’t want to deal with the water compartment