iRobot Scooba experience

[bakasa2002]

Anyone know how long it takes for the ground shipment within US?

I think it's 3-5 biz days.

 

[bakasa2002]

VPOST charge me $155 for the roomba 570 with insurance, is there something wrong??

wow, $155, that's v ex, I think it shd be gst + shipping but i think 570 like mosmos mentioned has more goodies, so it shd be more ex. Did you order the 570 fr HS or irobot? $399usd?

 

[XER]

got it from HS , LIFETIME WARRANTY!!

 

[molecule]

ok here's my review of the Roomba 535 which I received last Friday. I used the Newstar NF-100 transformer as suggested by bakasa2002 and seems to charge well, takes abt 3 hours for full charge. The 535 looks sleek and does its job as expected like in the videos, top buttons are simple and easy to figure out. I especially like the soft touch bumpers. The lighthouse VW works perfectly and supposedly controls the Roomba for more effective cleaning, mine cleans the living room before proceeding to bedrooms. It's also easy to take apart for cleaning, basically dun really need to read the manual unless u want something specific.

On the first 2 runs the 535 did not dock back to the charging station, once it went down to the kitchen which had a small step (<1inch) and couldn't get back so it shut down. I thought it would avoid the step and turn around. 2nd time it got caught among cables in one of the rooms and shut down, again I was surprised but there were many cables. So I've resorted to blocking off these 2 areas.

I've read that the 500 series can take simple commands (Clean/Dock/Spot/Fwd/Back) from the previous generation Roombas (Discovery/Scheduler), so I used a universal remote controller (Logitech Harmony) which I have to successfully start the 535 so I can be a bit lazier, esp since I intend to hide it under a sofa if it can dock there. I'm still experimenting all the functions and borrowed a Scheduler remote to test the full range.

 

[bakasa2002]

cool, u got it up and running ... I m also pleased with my 535, at least there's an option to upgrade n buy add-ons when needed. btw, i still hv one 535 unit to clear, anyone keen can let me know ... thanks.

 

[kangkeng]

Rebuilding Roomba Battery - Experience

Share my experience with you folks...

After it died, I decided to get my Roomba battery pack rebuilt. Went down to Unicell at Sim Lim Square (2nd floor), and passed them my battery pack. They quoted me S$103 for the new batteries(3300mah) and labour, with a 3-5 day turnaround time. They also had 3000mah batteries available, at about $10 less for the whole job.

Picked up the rebuilt set about 1 week later. The rebuilt pack looks professionally done, with the peripheral components in place. The fuse was placed at a different cell position, but it should not matter. They reused the thermistor from the original battery pack.

After a couple of uses and charges later(to make sure that the battery is properly up to speed), I took the measurement of how long it would run in Max clean mode on my granite flooring.

Timing in Max mode: 2 hours

My conclusion is that it's worth considering doing a rebuild. The running time is decent. Price-wise, considering that GK was listing new batteries at $10-$20 more, and Vpost doesn't even want to ship batteries, it seems to be a viable option. I'm sure if you bargained more, you will be able to get a better price from the store.

 

[mosmos]

buy.com roomba discovery cheaper than woot.com

source: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203922248&adid=17653&dcaid=17653

 

[chongwee]

I can back home late yesterday to try my remanufactured Scooba 5999. It came in its white iRobot box. No external brown box. I thought Amazon will usually box with external brown boxes. But without the external box, it will be cheaper for shipping. I quickly opened it and straight away 'attacked' the charger. I told my wife to desolder the components C1 and RV1. (She studied electrical engineering, not me. Haha.) Then replaced C1 with a 100uF 400V capacitor that I bought. I manage to get a rather small one and so bending of the capacitor's legs is not necessary. I got a new varistor to replace RV1 but we became lazy and dun bother to solder it. So the RV1 was left empty. I did not have a multi-meter with me and so just have to cross my fingers and plug straight into the power point. It worked! The Scooba shows slow blinking green light indicating that its charging. So now, I guess I have to wait for 16 hours to charge? Can I use it when the charging light is solid green or do I really have to wait for fulll 16 hours?

 

[kangkeng]

I can back home late yesterday to try my remanufactured Scooba 5999. It came in its white iRobot box. No external brown box. I thought Amazon will usually box with external brown boxes. But without the external box, it will be cheaper for shipping. I quickly opened it and straight away 'attacked' the charger. I told my wife to desolder the components C1 and RV1. (She studied electrical engineering, not me. Haha.) Then replaced C1 with a 100uF 400V capacitor that I bought. I manage to get a rather small one and so bending of the capacitor's legs is not necessary. I got a new varistor to replace RV1 but we became lazy and dun bother to solder it. So the RV1 was left empty. I did not have a multi-meter with me and so just have to cross my fingers and plug straight into the power point. It worked! The Scooba shows slow blinking green light indicating that its charging. So now, I guess I have to wait for 16 hours to charge? Can I use it when the charging light is solid green or do I really have to wait for fulll 16 hours?

Yes, you really should wait the full 16 hours. Since the battery pack is new, the individual uncharged cells will charge unevenly during the first charge. Allowing the trickle charging to continue for the full 16 hours, will enable all the cells to fully charge. It's really important that the cells charge(and discharge) evenly, or the battery's life will be greatly shortened.

 

[kangkeng]

Do you happen to ask for MO pricing?
Brand for the new 3300mAH batteries?
Do you have difficulty in opening up the battery plastic casing?

er... if MO means mass order, nope, I didn't.

The new batteries have no labelling on them, so I don't actually know if they are really 3300mah, unless I hook it up to my Maha charger to check. Strangely enough, the cardboard casing(brown with green stripes) on the new batteries look exactly like the casing on the original APS batteries.

As for opening the case, it's not too bad. Once the screws are removed, I slowly pried open along the edges with a screwdriver, until the lid came off. Getting hold of a triangle head screwdriver... that was the tough part.

 

[bakasa2002]

cool, this disco is cheaper than woot? I tot woot also selling for 150usd the other time? I still waiting for my CGW registration pack. Darn!

I think this one doesn't get sold out as fast, so I still got hope. Btw, do Buy.com take sg credit card? Anyone tried?

buy.com roomba discovery cheaper than woot.com

source: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203922248&adid=17653&dcaid=17653

 

[bakasa2002]

Do you happen to ask for MO pricing?
Brand for the new 3300mAH batteries?
Do you have difficulty in opening up the battery plastic casing?

I have 3 more brand new APS batteries to clear at $100 each. Anyone interested can contact me. Thanks.

 

[mosmos]

cool, this disco is cheaper than woot? I tot woot also selling for 150usd the other time? I still waiting for my CGW registration pack. Darn!

I think this one doesn't get sold out as fast, so I still got hope. Btw, do Buy.com take sg credit card? Anyone tried?

woot.com charges $5 for shipping, so total will be $155.

buy.com free shipping and use google checkout to pay, got $10 discount, total will only be $140.

 

[ritomax]

buy.com roomba discovery cheaper than woot.com

source: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203922248&adid=17653&dcaid=17653

What's the difference between discovery SE and Roomba 500 series vacuum robot?

 

[bakasa2002]

Thanks Mosmos, will most likely get this disco using vpost if cgw doesn't reach me by this wk ... There's a $10 discount using google chkout? How does it wk? Thanks for enlightening.

ritomax, the disco belong to the 4th gen roomba whereas the 500 series is the 5th gen, which incorporates newer technology such as lighthouse, soft touch when approaching walls, furniture, etc and of course more modern outlook. Personally, nv really used 4th gen b4, so can't comment on other than what I have read.

Details of newer features in 500 series can be found here :
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=334

What's the difference between discovery SE and Roomba 500 series vacuum robot?

 

[mosmos]

What's the difference between discovery SE and Roomba 500 series vacuum robot?

discovery SE is old model, no lighthouse technology, etc.

but anyway, it functions just as good as others roomba.

 

[mosmos]

Thanks Mosmos, will most likely get this disco using vpost if cgw doesn't reach me by this wk ... There's a $10 discount using google chkout? How does it wk? Thanks for enlightening.

ritomax, the disco belong to the 4th gen roomba whereas the 500 series is the 5th gen, which incorporates newer technology such as lighthouse, soft touch when approaching walls, furniture, etc and of course more modern outlook. Personally, nv really used 4th gen b4, so can't comment on other than what I have read.

Details of newer features in 500 series can be found here :
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=334

for google checkout, you can use your sg credit cards.

For the $10 discount, you need to be a new google checkout user.

Offer Conditions: To earn the new buyer bonus, buyers who haven't signed up for Google Checkout in the past must sign-up for Checkout on Buy.com during the promotion. To redeem the new buyer bonus, buyers must make a purchase on Buy.com of at least $10 before tax, shipping, and other discounts.
source: http://www.buy.com/corp/promos/google_offer.asp

 

[ritomax]

discovery SE is old model, no lighthouse technology, etc.

but anyway, it functions just as good as others roomba.

Does Discovery SE bangs hard on the furniture? How many rooms can it clean on a full charge?

 

[mosmos]

Does Discovery SE bangs hard on the furniture? How many rooms can it clean on a full charge?

it will bang slightly, thought it sounds hard, the furniture still on the same place.

how many rooms i am not very sure now, cos i mostly use on balcony only to vacuum dry leaves.

But i once tried before, it can vacuum whole of 5 rm flat excluding balcony.

 

[chongwee]

Finally tried my remanufactured Scooba after the 16 hours charge. It worked well with the Clorox. But I found that it is actually a remanufactured 5900 instead of a 5800. It has the service code display number instead of just the service light in the 5800 and 3XX series. Haiz. Guess it is not possible for me to use plain water for cleaning. I bought Kiwi Kleen as suggested by some users here. Will try it tomorrow. How much do it use it? I remembered it was 2 or 3 teaspoon, right? Is that very little compared to Clorox needed? Hope that it will work as so little Clorox is provided and I do not like the smell of vinegar.