iRobot - Roomba Discovery

Strange, I have a J7+, i5+, 985, 980, 770, 694 and Discovery that all perform correctly and other then standard maintenance and replacing consumable parts have been running without issue since their initial launch year purchase. I’m about to try out my new 505 combo this week.

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 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.

Lmao! Just got ours at the end of November, and named her Rosie, too.

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

I have a roomba we named homewrecker because it leaves a trail of destruction behind it. It always knocks over something or gets tangled up in wires.

We use a professional backpack vacuum. The reason is that the motor is on the other side of the filter so that lasts longer. It also has hepa filters so you don’t breathe what is kicked up and a pet hair attachment makes pulling hair out of carpets easy. I have a roomba and it runs more often than we vacuum. It gets tangled in hair quite often so I have to regularly flip it over and pull hair out of it. Good luck with finding a good hair solution!

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.

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 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