I was quite skeptical if the Roomba wouldn't be a gimmick, but after one week I'm really sold and wouldn't want to be without it.
It is not a 100% replacement for a vacuum cleaner, but if you let it drive around a few times a week, you really do not have to vacuum as often yourself.
After unpacking our roomba right but let it make its first round. During his first ride he got stuck on the grille of the convector. Placed a virtual wall here and he stays well away from it.
The roomba navigates neatly through the room on its own. He does the larger areas quite nicely systematically. He does have trouble getting on our deep-pile carpet, but after a few tries he does. After driving around for an hour, it was ready and neatly returned to its charging station.
The dust container was completely full, so it actually sucks up rubbish.
The next day Ted, that's the name of our roomba, let loose on the first floor. Nice to see how Ted navigates from the hall into the different rooms and also neatly gets under the bed. After 40 minutes Ted was ready and again a nice full container.
The Roomba can be set up and offered with an app, this app works well on the iPhone. It is simple to use and shows you its statistics after cleaning.
You see the duration, a map where everything has been sucked, and the places where a lot of dirt has been found are indicated with a cross.
After cleaning, you still have to empty the container and clean the filter yourself. This happened to me within a week. You have to open the cover behind the filter with a tab, a tab that is often on the battery doors. When I tried to open this the tab broke off. I was actually a bit surprised by this as I didn't think I was very heavy-handed. The cover with the tab is not available separately, if this is defective you have to buy a whole collection tray, in the American webshop $60 is asked for this.
Fortunately, I can exchange the robot for a new one at Coolblue without hesitation, but I am afraid that this will remain a weak part, so from now on be very careful when opening the cover.
A shame, since the rest of the Roomba is, in my opinion, very well built.
Despite breaking the tab, my final verdict is still positive, the Roomba actually performs a little bit above my expectations. Coolblue's service is also top notch as always, my problem is solved without any fuss.
