Ben's Bargains

Ben · Joined: 11 Jul 2006 Posts: 44391

Product: iRobot Roomba Scheduler Vacuum
Manufacturer: Roomba
MSRP: $261.29 [BizRate]
Lowest Historical Price: $240 [History]

Introduction
Do you lead a busy life, with little time for menial chores? Are you a clean freak and want a simple solution or perhaps a smart little device that cleans for you? The iRobot Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner may be the answer you’ve been looking for.

Let’s face it: Very few people like to vacuum, myself included. Nobody is tracking mud or any other heavy-duty stains into my place, so the main issues are dust and human detritus (which is also a major contributor to dust in general). With these requirements in mind, I decided to purchase the iRobot Roomba Scheduler Vacuum.

About the product
I was a little apprehensive at first, being so used to the traditional huge vacuum. One of the first questions that comes to mind is, will it be able to clean as good as a traditional vacuum? The answer in most cases is yes. It is a great product that requires no supervision, and it had excellent cleaning capability for my purposes. As an added bonus, it can be stored under your bed since it is very small. The Roomba Scheduler can also return to its charger home base once it has finished cleaning.

The Vacuum has a stair avoidance detector which prevents the vacuum from falling down the stairs (if only it could be adapted to people). One of the most useful features is that you can schedule the time you want it to start cleaning. You can schedule it to clean

uncool · Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 397

doing paid reviews now? odd. I always felt the forum provided plenty of bacony reviews from the mouths of bacon-eating users...

fuckbilltang · Joined: 20 Nov 2006 Posts: 1995 Location: Ben's House

Ben, I suggest you go purchase yourself a wife. That way you can not only have your place clean, but you'll also food prepared for you and you will never have to worry about doing laundry.

petrodollar · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 169

Warning: This thing isn't very good at vacuuming up discarded condoms, as they tend to get caught up in the rollers and the "juice" causes stuff to get stuck to the plastic dirt chamber.

jpmaz · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 34

Thanks to some good deals listed by Ben last year, I became a convert. I got the discovery model (same but without scheduling) and within a week had bought a second one to use in my retail store.

What it came down to for me was either pay someone to clean the floors several times a week or buy a roomba. Hands down, the roomba is cheaper and better. Why better? It gets to all the places we only clean every couple of years like under the beds or couches.

With several cats and dogs in the house, roomba has his work cut out for him. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago the stair avoidance thingy didn't work and my home roomba took a tumble. To my pleasant surprise, iRobot seem to have a very old fashioned approach to customer service and I already have a replacement.

Even if I have to replace these little guys whenever the warranty runs out, I will. For us, the discovery of roomba is like the discovery of Tivo - once you spend a bit of time with it you can't imagine how you lived without it.

jcfinley · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 338

Dude, what is this Ben???

preferbasic · Joined: 03 Nov 2007 Posts: 121

I have the red one of these. Very useful but have to agree about the small dust collector. Very effective so I don't have to vacuum though.

phazeless · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 532

cheap Bens finally decided to shell out his own dough for his long time promoted item? damn, this brings new meaning to cheapness

toddsucks2 · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:59 pm Post subject: Website Comment

#6: How does the red one compare to the blue one?

sincerely,
toddsucks

hmmwv · Joined: 12 Feb 2008 Posts: 188

This review came about 1 year too late.

buckhere · Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 93

I bought the Discovery version with the schedular and it works great. Picks up dust and small debris very well. Would suggest purchasing a Roomba.

joe36pack · Joined: 07 Aug 2006 Posts: 73

The main problem with Roomba - it doesn't like cables of any kind.

acumenhokie · Joined: 20 Nov 2006 Posts: 625

got mine from woot refub for $120. Works fine so far...

Chrisman · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 3284 Location: Belize

Roombas rule...they work well on hardwood, etc...but don't throw away your full-size vacuum yet.

aiiee · Joined: 03 Sep 2006 Posts: 599

" joe36pack - Posted 4:10 pm PST 02/19/08 (32 Posts)
The main problem with Roomba - it doesn't like cables of any kind"

True with the old Roombas, definitely not true of the 500 series. Cables, and fringe rugs, 2 bugaboos of the old Roomba do not even faze the 500s in the least, and they're quieter too. One downside is they tend to leave little clumps of pet hair here and there, but overall it's a better product.