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HANDS ON REVIEW: IROBOT ROOMBA DISCOVERY 8.5 The good: well made; helpful; hard-working; exactly what I was expecting; does not disappoint The bad: this is not a robot for messy people, you need to pick up the floor before it can do it's job right. The bottom line: You can tell right away that this robot is no toy. It's solidly made and seems built to last (like other home appliances). It is also immidiately clear that iRobot has included a lot of extras with this robot. But, Roomba is not for messy people or complicated rooms and requires assistance from time to time. iRobot's Roomba is a very well made robot with a ton of extras. It's clear from the moment that you open the box that a lot of great ideas went into making Roomba  VIDEO FILES: AVI FILES ( "SAVE AS" TO YOUR COMPUTER, THEN PLAY )

First Impression

I wasn't too impressed with the packaging. It's OK, but it's hard to tell from the box what the Roomba looks like. The back of the box is better than the front. It includes some helpful information. Fortunately, the contents of the box are what is important here.


Unpacking

Opening the box is a great experience. The first thing that you see when you open the box are three neatly organized booklets including warranty info, accessories, and the user manual. The way the items are packed reminds me of many of the Apple products I have purchased. It all seems well made and well thought out. Even people who are a little intimidated by technology will welcome the simple organization of the various parts. The slim well-designed booklets with simple easy-to-follow instructions will also help to re-assure those people who are not techno-savvy.

• Bagless debris bin now holds three times the dirt
• Improved wall following--teamed with the side brush, clean right up to the walls
• Air filter prevents dust and dirt from entering Roomba’s vacuum system or your air
• Advanced Power System--a microprocessor-controlled charging system that provides up to 120 minutes of cleaning power. It recharges its battery in 3 hours, 60% faster than the original Roomba. With the advanced power system, Roomba can clean up to 4 rooms before recharging.
• 3-Hour Charger--charge Roomba's batteries in only 3 hours
• Active Dirt Response--Roomba sense and finds dirt. Once dirtier areas are detected. Roomba automatically increases the intensity and focus of its cleaning.
• Self-Charging Home Base--Roomba now has the built-in intelligence to automatically return to its self-charging home base when its battery is low or it has completed a cleaning cycle. This means your Roomba will always be charged and ready for its next cleaning mission.
• Stasis Sensor--Roomba immediately detects when it’s stuck and initiates its careful escape routine
• Cleaning Intelligence--Roomba automatically calculates how long it needs to work to clean your entire room
• Remote Control makes operating your Roomba even easier
• Max Mode--Run the Roomba for the full charge of the battery to vacuum multiple rooms
• Spot Mode--Intensely cleans one area of a room up to three feet in diameter
• Wall Mount--Stores the Roomba out of the way in this convenient storage unit
• Virtual Wall--Keeps the Roomba where its wanted by blocking doorways with an invisible beam
• Proprietary Cleaning System--Roomba’s high-efficiency vacuum has a wide cleaning path, 2-times more powerful suction and counter-rotating agitators to reach into carpet and remove the dirt. The entire cleaning head automatically adjusts for both carpet and hard floor surfaces.
• Edge-Cleaning Side Brush--Grabs dirt and debris from walls and other hard-to-reach areas
• Multi-Surface Cleaning--Cleans hardwood, tile, linoleum, and low-to-medium pile carpet
• Automatic Surface Transitioning--The entire cleaning head adjusts automatically for both carpet and hard floor surfaces
• Automatic Stair Avoidance System--Leave Roomba by itself without worrying about it falling down stairs

The Roomba Discovery come packed with extras, yet they all have a legitimate purpose and add value.

The first thing that you'll want to do after unpacking the various parts is to plug in the power adapter and charge the robot. You can either plug the Roomba into the wall throught the power cord or set up the recharge station. Charging Roomba for the first time takes a few hours and the power light goes from orange (charging) to green (ready).

During the recharging of your Roomba Discovery, you may want to pick up your room a little so that there are no small piles that Roomba can mistakenly run over and get stuck on. Roomba was able to suck up many smaller objects and was pretty robust. But it works best in a room that does not have a lot of clutter. When confreted by piles of papers or small objects Roomba will try to roll over these items and vacuum them up.

Also during the charging of Roomba, you may want to place the virtual walls which act as barriers that tell Roomba where it can and cannot go. An example of a virtual wall might be an open doorway that you do not want Roomba to go through.

If you turn Roomba over you will see some similarities to a normal vacuum. There is a detachable piece that holds the dirt which can be regularly emptied. The battery is detachable. There are 3 wheels: 2 very study rubber wheels that propell the Roomba and a wheel in the front that steers Roomba.

When I turned Roomba on, I was pleasently surprised by how quiet it was. It is much quieter than most vacuum cleaners which is a nice bonus.

Roomba begins cleaning by moving in an ever widening circle. Roomba goes around and around cleaning most areas more than once and does not seem to miss any spots along the way. Once it gets to a wall or an obstacle, it navigates around the perimeter of the room. When it's done, it's find it's docking/recharging station and recharges itself. It is a very efficient and practicle design.

In my tests, Roomba did well cleaning some rugs and not others. To clean a rug well, the rug needed to be fairly heavy and sturdy and to have a fairly flat texture.

I'm not sure if a Roomba would be the best choice for people with kids and messy pets. It can be difficult when you have kids to keep the floor free of smaller toy parts such as a Lego, or some clothes for a Barbie, that would probably either get sucked up by Roomba or get stuck. But Roomba seems perfect for pet owners who keep their floors fairly clean and want some help picking up pet hair and dirt. Just turn Roomba Discovery on before leaving the house and let it clean. For this reason, it would also work well for people with babies in the house because you wouldn't want small objects on the floor anyway. My kids are older now, but I would have been happy to have one of these when my kids were babies. Not only would it find and suck up small objects before the babies could, but it would have re-assured me that the floorts that the babies were crawling on were truly clean. This is important when babies crawl around with thier hands and then put their hands in thier mouths.


What is Roomba Discovery missing?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the things that would truly make this item useful for me.

1) Voice recognition - After spending time with many popular robots over the past months, my favorite is still R2D2. The main reason for this was because it listened to and understood my commands. Having the ability to communicate with the Roomba and give it verbal commands would be a big advantage.

2) Better avoidance of problematic areas - If I have a pile of books on the floor or my child drops her Barbie outfit on the floor, it would nice if the Roomba could avoid these objects. It does have a little brush that swirls around and moves some of these things out of the way, but it is not to the level which you could just turn it on and expect it to accurately clean the average (somewhat messy) house.

3) The ability to go up and down stairs - the holy grail of robotic vacuums has to be that one robot that you can turn on and have it keep all of your floors clean on multiple floors over long periods of time with little or no assistnace.

The Roomba is essentially a household appliance. Like a microwave or a dishwasher, the primary function of the Roomba is to help you get your housework done faster and easier. But Roomba is still at an early stage in it's development. When microwaves first entered the home, they were not that great at cooking all types of foods. When dishwashers entered the home they didn't clean all of your dishes as well as you could do it by hand. This is where the Roomba is. It a great idea that is not yet perfect but that will likely get better.

Value

As floorvacs go, iRobot does not have a lot of competition. They have a well-deserved lead within this industry. This makes it hard to compare thier products to those of other manufacturers. At the time of this review the price is around $280 which is a good value for people who will be able to use the Roomba Discovery on a regular basis.


Target Audience

Roomba seems likely to appeal to anyone who wants a little help cleaning their floors. This gives Roomba fairly wide appeal. This device is very well suited to anyone with a baby in the house. It is also great for disabled people who may not be able to clean as much as they would like to.

Bottom Line

The Roomba Discovery won't make everyone's life easier, but it will definately help certain people:

If you have a baby in the house, then buy this device. You will sleep better knowing that you have it. (the robot, not the baby)

If you have a relatively clean room with few rugs and you want something to pick up the pet hair or dirt then you will like this robot It could be a huge time saver for you if you like to keep a clean house..

If you are an older or disabled person and cannot clean as often as you would like, then the small amount of work required to keep Roomba Discovery running might be time well spent. It is certainly easier than cleaning yourself.