Re: Roomba 570 problems

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dan Lanciani" <ddl@danlan.*com> wrote in message
news:1348098@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> In article <ZsWdnSPgxY-9Y7_VnZ2dnUVZ_gmdnZ2d@xxxxxxx>,
ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx (Robert Green) writes:
>
> | The third-generation 5xx Roomba was introduced in 2007 and features an
> | infrared sensor to detect obstacles, a dock button, and improved
mechanical
> | components.
> [...]
> | Does your unit have "Intellibin" to warn you that the dust bin is
> | full?
>
> I see no obvious sensor that would tell it.  The manual, of course, is
> no help at all.

I guess I'll have to look around on the net for information.  A "bin full"
sensor would be a lot more useful than the current LED that lights up when
the unit passes over dirt.  Yawn.

> | My guess would be that they're in the "reduce production cost" mode
>
> That would be my guess as well.  If what I'm seeing are "improved
mechanical
> components" the original versions must have been horrible (or better and
> expensive, depending on who is supposed to benefit from the
"improvement").

They're letting me keep my defective Roomba although the replacement will
have no brushes, batteries or anything else.  That means I can get into the
guts of the broken one without worrying about voiding the warranty.  I think
dust blew into the brush drive train, and if that's true, I want to see if
there's anything I can do to clean it out.  If is was dust, I also want to
further dust proof the mechanicals since the warranties for the rest of the
dogpack will be expiring in a few months.  Probably just taping the seams
with black electrical tape will provide greater protection.  Even with the
problems, I'm still satisfied.  They handled the repairs and exchanges
better than most and the SAF in general is pretty high because with pets,
it's hard to keep the house free of debris but the Roombas seem to do the
trick.  They're especially really useful to control tracked in wet leaves in
the fall.

One thing I find interesting is that the vacuum-less DirtDog seems to pick
up about the same amount of dirt as the models with vacuum cleaning and
there's less cleaning to do since it has no filters.  I based that on the
standard "run one after the other" test and the 2nd run with Red 4300 really
doesn't pick up very much more dirt.  I think the DirtDog's small bristle
brush is more efficient than the rubber impeller brush.  The tradeoff is
that the bristle brush is harder to keep clean.  The brush difference may
also explain why the Red doesn't stall on the dog mat, now that I think
about it.  I can drop the rubber brush into the Dirtdog to see if the
DirtDog still stalls where the Red doesn't.

--
Bobby G.