iRobot Roomba 630 Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Pros:+ Dust cleaning capability: excellent! Unbelievable how much dust and particles are removed out of carpets, rugs, and hardwood floor. The robot can easily move from one sort of floor to another and adopts. Also excellent cleaning capability in corners and around room borders. iRobot cleans very effectively underneath objects which are otherwise hard to access like underneath bed and shelves where it fits underneath. It is astonishing how much dirt can be found in the dust collection chamber after each cleaning process!+ Good mapping system: iRobot 630 remembers layout of rooms even if they are located on several floors. Simply change the location of the robot where it should start cleaning and it will recognize the room it is in after it mapped has mapped it in the first run. It also adopts to new changes quickly when objects got moved around.+ Very good dirt sensor: a special dirt sensor is activated when an area with a lot of dust is spotted and driven over. iRobot comes back more often to this location to make sure it will be clean in the end.+ It senses fall-offs at stairs, so it will not drop down!Cons:- Main problem I had with the iRobot 630 was how to handle rug fibers at the border of the rug. If the fibers are too long, they will be sucked into the robot, and it might have a hard time getting rid of them again. Best solution which I found is simply to use clear package tape and tape the rug fibers on the floor (or carpet). The robot can then drive smoothly across them.- When recharging in the docking station, the iRobot might make a silent humming noise which is of no concern but weird. It is suggested to change the outlet the docking station is connected to, and yes, I observed that this in fact can help. I connected the docking station to two different outlets in my home - one leads to the humming sound of iRobot during the recharging process, the other outlet-connected docking station recharges iRobot totally silent.- Recharging process: After 1.5 hours the iRobot 630 stops and goes back to the recharging station even there is sufficient battery power left. I simply press the start button again, and it goes for another 1-1.5 hours. Then the light surrounding the on/off switch will become red which means the battery is nearly empty. After recharging, iRobot does not automatically continue the cleaning process, you need to press manually the start button again.- Careful with hard parts which can get stuck in side the brushes: I had a broken part of a walnut shell being stuck between both brushes, and it quickly gave some indents in the brush baffles. If you hear a weird loader noise of iRobot during the cleaning process, stop it quickly and check that nothing is stuck somewhere inside.I recommend good maintenance of the robot - empty the dust collection chamber every time when the robot is recharging. The chamber itself cannot be rinsed with water, but the removable filter inside can. I also recommend to check both of the brushes after each run, remove them and clean underneath with a wet paper tissue since dust will collect there, too. Both brushed and bearings can be rinsed with water for cleaning.Overall it does its job very well, I was very positively surprised about its cleaning capability which counts most. Therefore only I already give a 5 start rating. The robot can cruise around in the house while you are doing other stuff in parallel, so it is a huge time saver. In my opinion it cleans dust better from carpets than a regular vacuum cleaner would do just by considering the collected amount of dirt and dust. The system is built well to allow easy access for parts to clean. Highly recommended!+++ Addition on June, 8th: After 3 months of continuous usage, I am still excited about this efficient cleaning robot! I cleaned the filter and rollers several times thoroughly with water which was no problem. It is unbelievable how much dust&dirt this robot removes from carpets and hardwood floors. Once I even cleaned the complete garage floor with the robot! It has some minor scratches on top and on the bumper, but it does not affect its capabilities at all! The only thing I regret is that I didn't buy it earlier!+++ Addition on April 2014 after more than a year of regular usage: everything still runs smoothly. I maintained the robot well by cleaning the brushes and the filter+filter chamber on a regular basis. Robot has a few more scratches on the top and on the side which do not affect functionality. The robot did not scratch any of my walls or furniture at all. Still very satisfied with the robot.

-- March 21, edit --So after seeing my first roomba crap out, this one is doing much better. I've had it now for 30 days and it's being used almost every one of those days.It picks up my pug's hair like nothing else - which is what I was hoping it would do. I'm very happy with it and would recommend to any pet owners (who have short hair dogs).I would have given it a 5/5 stars - but seeing my first purchase fall apart I can only do 4 stars. You can read below, if something similar happens to you.-- Feb 21, 2014 edit (broken unit)--Being my first Roomba, I was so excited. Seeing so many happy reviews and people praising this product, it was a no-brainer to buy one. Being a Valentine's Day gift for my wife too, I was going to get some serious bonus points.Took it out, read all the instructions and manuals - even going online to see tips and tricks before trying it for the first time, just to make sure I don't accidentally hit a button I shouldn't, or handle it improperly.First room - perfect. Everything went well, it cleaned it perfectly, then returned to the dock like advertised. I let it charge for a couple hours, took it to the second room, cleaned out the dust bin, and checked the brushes for debris.Second room - started it up and let it go. Left it run for 20 minutes and came back to make sure it wasn't stuck anywhere. When I came back I noticed it wasn't going in straight lines anymore. It looked like it had a flat tire, fading towards the right on every straight line it tried. I looked online for answers and people said that it shouldn't matter because of the chaotic patterns it makes - it will compensate. Still a bit worried, I let it go - it found the dock and charged.Third room - (2nd day of ownership) - Emptied the bin, checked the brushes - good to go. Turned it on. Started going in circles like it does to start the room - so I walked away to let it do it's thing. 3 minutes later I hear crashes in the room - I run to see what the problem was - the roomba took out it's dock and was going in circles hitting the wall and the charging base on each rotation.To make sure it wasn't a bad censor, I placed it in the middle of the room again and restarted it. It went in one circle, reversed itself, stopped and gave me an error to 'clean the wheel'. I flipped it over to see if I could fix the problem, there was no visible damage or debris. Took off the bottom panel to just be certain there wasn't a string or something wrapped in it, nothing.After seeing it degrade like it did, I can only assume one of the wheel motors was (or went) bad. Pretty disappointed, since I was so excited to get this Roomba.Nevertheless, I'm sending it back for a replacement. (Thank you Amazon - 30 days!). I'll update this review if the next one pans out better than the first.

I bought this as a gift for my parents. They really like it! It is effective for cleaning the floor and as we have two cats, we have a lot of fur flying around. Even after vacuuming the floor with our regular vacuum, the roomba picked up additional dirt and fur that our manual one left behind. The only downside is how often it needs to be cleaned, especially the roller brushes, but I can't really say this is a fault of the vacuum but more so a casualty of having cats. The rollers are very easy to remove which makes cleaning much more pleasant.

This is absolutely fantastic. It does a marvelous job on the carpet, wooden floor and ceramic tiles. I did have to clean the brushes of pet hair every few uses, but still totally worth it.

Love it, picks up dog hair well, seems to take a long time but set it to go and leave or go do something else! Good product

this product is wonderful, easy to use and works like a charm. Momma loves it and don't know what she did without it, itcleansa room while she does something else. wonderful.

absolutely love this it saves me so much work its unbelievable. With two big dogs and 4 cats roaming throughout the house... I don't even have any pet hair stuck to my socks anymore. I use it everyday. My house has never been so clean.