iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot Black and Silver
iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot Black and Silver
Life happens in busy homes, and keeping up with accumulating dirt, dust, pet hair, crumbs, and debris can be a daily challenge. Introducing the iRobot Roomba 560- a member of iRobot’s newest generation of Roomba Vacuuming Robots.
Now there’s a better way to maintain cleaner floors every day. With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, particle filtration, and scheduling capabilities, the Roomba 560 picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris from your floors with the touch of a button–so you don’t have to.
The Roomba 560 even cleans on schedule when it’s most convenient for you. Use the on-board scheduling system to easily program up to seven days and times per week for Roomba to vacuum–whether you’re at home or on the go. The Roomba 560 also offers the most efficient room-to-room cleaning available using two innovative, new Virtual Wall Lighthouses.
With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, and particle filtration, the Roomba 560 vacuuming robot picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris with the simple touch of a button. The powerful unit features innovative spinning side brushes that grab dirt and dust from corners and along wall edges, as well as two high-speed, counter-rotating brushes that pick up pet hair, cat litter, food crumbs, and other debris from floors. The vacuum sucks up the debris and deposits it into a large, easy-to-empty bagless dustbin, and its improved fine-filtration system traps dust, pollen, and other allergens inside the unit, reducing infiltration into the living environment.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Waste of money
This was my second Roomba. I thought it would be a good alternative to the “big” vacuum for smaller jobs.
The first one lasted less than 20 vacuums before developing an electrical fault. It was just beyond the warranty period so the Roomba company offered to sell me this model for a slight discount. This one lasted less than 10 vacuums and now the bumpers failed.
Add on top of this that you pretty much need to pre-clean the room by moving chairs out of the way (it gets stuck in chairs), shifting rugs (it sucks in tassels and gets stuck), and moving any cords you might have on the ground (the wheels get caught in them). After a while you realize it’s faster and easier to just use the “big” vaccuum.
So basically the Roomba is a cute idea, but unless they can work out these serious quality control problems, I’d give it a miss. Just Google for “roomba only circles” or “roomba circling disease” – it’s a known problem.
I’m not going to go for (pay for!) a third one. That’s just throwing good money after bad.
2 Stars Great when it works, Craptastic when it doesn’t
The star system does not work well for this item, as there are two phases to Roomba ownership. The first phase, when the machine is working, is all five star. It zips around the house, cleaning everything really well, looking cute and beeping charmingly. You will be amazed at the amount of dirt it picks up, and will enjoy not fighting with your spouse about who’s turn it is to vacuum. In this phase it is a solid five stars.
Inevitably, though, your Roomba ownership will enter phase two. This is the zero star phase, when you will curse the fool idea you ever had to spend money on this craptastic piece of plastic and silicone. It cannot be fixed. The warranty is both specific and exclusionary – and there is no option to repair. The company neither repairs broken Roombas nor supports the idea that they can be repaired. This is my third Roomba, and the second to die just days after the warranty expired. Expect robo- responses to your email, phone support designed to make you either punch something inanimate or hang up the phone and then punch something inanimate, and the sick feeling you get from wasting a bunch of money and feeling like an idiot. Rather like Charlie Brown thinking that this time the football will be there when he goes to kick it, I have purchased three of theses machines. Infuriatingly, Roomba is a basically disposable product. If you are able to stomach buying a new one when anything more serious that a replacement brush is needed, then go ahead. And be sure to enjoy phase one.
2 Stars good for dust only
I had the 560 model for one month.
After one week it would only go spiral… one wheel broke and had to be replaced. I called irobot customer care and they sent me a new wheel with instruction how to replace it.
I was using it one a day and it took some effort to make the hose roomba proof. Removing toys, chairs, etc… Many times the roomba got stuck in a chair, a curtain, a toy, a n air floor vent, etc…
Confining the roomba with 2 virtual walls did an ok job. Many times roomba did not find its way to the dock though.
The small spinning brush is basically uncovering the dust but in the same time is spreading the small bits, like crumbs. After a week operating once a day, there was less dust captured in the bin than in my manual traditional vacuum operated for 30 minutes…
I find it useful only for dust on wide, empty vinyl floors. Not efficient on carpet.
I packed it and giving back to irobot. I want my money back.
Shipping from and to irobot is free whitin 30 day.
1 Star Not quite as promised
Pros:
- Good for rooms that are evenly shaped with little clutter
- Easy to operate
- Automated operation
- Takes up little space
- Scheduler
- Easy to Empty Bin
Cons:
- Does not work well on oddly shaped or somewhat cluttered houses (THIS IS THE MAIN CON). As an example, in my permanent home there’s a 3 foot wide pathway in the kitchen that connects half of the downstairs with the rest of the downstairs. The roomba rarely ventures through it. For the price you’re paying for the product it shouldn’t just run random patterns but it should make a virtual map BEFORE the first time it runs. Most of iRobot’s resources are devoted to multimillion dollar machines for government use, it would take little innovation to make this product a little “smarter”
- Suction is moderate
- No HEPA filteration (would be very difficult to implement but worth mentioning due to other cons)
- Can be more time consuming to set up than running a standard upright vacuum
- No notification when bin needs to be emptied
- iRobot customer service is not very responsive in my experience
I am rating this product one star not because this product isn’t a good investment in some situations but because the description and marketing campaign of all iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robots are extremely misleading. This product is not going to work well for all household scenarios which iRobot alludes to otherwise.
3 Stars It’s nice to say “Hey I bought a robot!”
Now that I’ve owned a Roomba for a couple months now, it’s time I shared my experience and whether it was a good purchase. I know this review is a bit involved, but if you’re really considering buying one, this should be very helpful info.
My scenario:
I live here with my girlfriend and two cats in a 1,000 square foot apartment that was never occupied before me. I have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a small hallway, a small dining area, kitchen and a living room. The two bedrooms are carpeted.
The best assessment I can give is to compare my experiences with what you see in iRobot’s official video. Check my time stamps below the video as I elaborate on the selling points:
[...]
At 0:27: When the iRobot runs over the spilled corn flakes, you don’t see the carpet after Roomba runs over it. That’s because it won’t pick it all up on the first sweep. It usually takes about 3 rotations to really get all those chips.
At 0:44: It does remove dirt, dust and pet hair very well, if all those are dry. Imagine the nice orange streak it leaves when trying to clean up cat vomit.
At 0:53: It’s great for getting the dust bunnies under the couch and the bed. That’s very true.
At 0:58: Roomba does a great job getting the dirtier areas. A blue light turns on to let you know it’s deep cleaning. Two thumbs up on that feature.
At 1:08: I’ve never seen the Roomba clean along wall edges that straight, which explains the slo-mo. That may have been one or two second money shot along the wall. The spinning side brushes are better for throwing dirt around to break up something that may be partially stuck to the carpet, They are not very powerful…at all, and sometimes don’t spin around at all. I had to loosen the screw on it to make it spin better.
At 1:24: It has gotten stuck on bathroom floor rugs-the kind that are usually thicker and have the rubbery matting. After a couple attempts at trying to get unstuck, it stops and makes a sound until you fix it.
At 1:28: Onboard scheduling is awesome! Mine starts up at 8:30pm each night, although you can set it for different times on different days of the week.
At 1:43: The simulation of it cleaning 4 rooms is very misleading.
* First of all, that’s not the typical 4-room scenario. Two doors with no furniture? I don’t think it’s even on carpet, that looks like tile.
* Sometimes it will finish one room, start the second, then come back to the first and never get to the other rooms before it dies an untimely death.
* That entire simulation would take about 1 1/2 hours to complete on a full charge.
At 1:51: 5 out of 10 times it makes it back to the base. Either the brushes are clogged and it stops or it runs out of battery.
At 1:57: She says it will be ready to go next time you vacuum. That’s if you pull it off the charger and clean it. Seriously, this thing needs cleaning each and every day.
Cleaning the Roomba is the most inconvenient part of this purchase. It takes a couple minutes to do it.
I’ve owned it for a couple months, and already I have to replace the rubber brush you see in that pic. The ends got so hot, the plastic warped and the yellow cap fell off.
Other observations:
* It’s great when you see freshly clean carpet streaks in a room. That’s how I really know it’s done its job. But after several weeks, those marks look more permanent especially in very low traffic areas. Not a big deal, but it changes the carpet landscape.
* It will leave marks on your wall sometimes. It doesn’t always recognize a wall is there and slows down. One day, it pulled an Exorcist on me and spun around like crazy and slammed into walls as fast as it could. I just shut it off and hoped it fixed itself. Apparently it did.
* It’s quieter that you’d expect.
* I don’t have stairs, so I don’t know if it takes a fall when nearing the edge.
* It doesn’t deep clean. You still need your regular vacuum to get the good stuff.
* It does not have any HEPA filters. I originally purchased this because I thought it would help my allergies. I DO think vacuuming every day is keeping the cat hair away, which offsets the lack of a HEPA filter (since I’m allergic to cats/cat dander).
* The cats are used to it by now. They do kinda follow it around, and if it’s dead, the cat will approach it and swat at the spinning side brushes. But they don’t jump on it like you see in other YouTube videos.
* The pattern is chaotic. I don’t understand it. And the lighthouses seem to confuse it. Maybe it’s just me, and I’m paying too much attention to it.
Overall:
It’s nice to say “Hey I bought a robot!”, and I’m glad I made the purchase, but if you have wet dirt, you’re destined for more work than you bargained for when you try to clean up the mess it made. You’ll end up cleaning the floor AND the innards of the Roomba. And while it “does the work for you”, you have to clean it every day otherwise it’ll stop working until you do.
Also, I’m not sure how much the parts are, but I wasn’t expecting it to need new parts this early.
Please let me know if this review was helpful!
