iRobot Roomba Discovery SE Robotic Cleaner

When reading other reviews for the Roomba Discovery, please note that the model they can be referring to may differ. In my opinion, this is very poor differentiation on the part of eBay.

I have used the Discovery Model 4270 (for Pets) model in my house with 3 dogs, and I have to say that it works very well. I was at first worried the dogs would have an issue with the robot, but like the manual says, it was a quick transition, and within a matter of minutes they were either avoiding it if it came near or were ignoring it.

The brushes seem especially nice for picking up dog hair, and the cleaning tool they provide makes cleaning it a cinch. The virtual walls are great for trying to restrict roomba's movements to a particular area, and its ability to sense whether it is on carpet or hardwood/linoleum makes the transition seamless.

The robot cleans the same area multiple times and will detect when an area is particularly dirty and basically vacuum in circles around it. There is a nice spinning brush that grabs hair along wall edges and corners and moves it toward the center.

All together, there are numerous features that make the 4270 a nice addition to a home that gathers dirt and hair more frequently than the humans in the home would like to vacuum. We decided on the purchase since we were sneezing quite a bit and simply didn't want to vacuum every day. Roomba doesn't have a problem with that, and can work quite well unsupervised.

The Roomba is a Dumba. I bought this for my hubby for his birthday as he does all the housework. We have 2 dogs and 4 cats and a doggy door. I am a veterinarian! The Roomba arrived and we charged the little bugger. After setting it up, off it went. Bumping and vac-ing. We set up the door sensors and it seemed to be doing great. The next morning, it was gone. We searched....It was under one of our 2 Lazy Boy Movie Theater recliners. Poor thing, it was exhausted from trying to rescue itself. Ok. Recharge. Set limitation to kitchen. We have an island that has large ball feet and an industrial, stainless stove that is on feet. Once again, next morn, poor Roomba, trapped under the stove. We went through scenarios like this for about 3 weeks. Finally, when it traversed an elevated threshold and I found it out on the screened in porch after 2 days of hunting all of its usual traps, it was time for the Roomba to go home. Roomba cleans well. The little tray was always full of stuff like dog hair and such but it just doesn't learn. I sent it back to the company with an explaination similar to this and they refunded the full amount. I told them, when you get the Roomba to LEARN an environment, let me know. I will buy it again!

When my son gave his wife an iRoomba for Christmas last year, I laughed. How could an automatic unit the size of a Frisbee approach the cleanliness achieved by someone diligent with a broom and mop? However, I was amazed to see the kind of job that the Roomba can actually do. It is programmed to turn when encountering obstacles, such as walls and doors. It is also programmed to cover every area five times. it is easy to recharge, and then, once on the floor, you simply 'set it and forget it,' as the ad (for another product) goes. Not cheap in the stores (I have seen as high as $400 with all attachments), I was able to obtain mine at a bid of approximately $200, and I am delighted with it. How nice to come home from work to find the floor clean and not needing my attention. And, my floor gets really dirty, what with six dogs and two parrots (who are allowed out of their cages during the day when people are around), and my son's two cats, who occasionally come to visit. Recommended.

I bought one of these for myself 6 months ago, and I love it.

The thing is really well made and does a great job picking up the small stuff on carpet, hardwood, and tile.

I then got this one for my dad as a fathers day present. It is a great time saver, and an excellent motivator to clean up the wire piles you would otherwise just go around with a normall vacuum.

We now both use our regularly, I have upgraded mine with the "Scheduler" option which lets it run while I am at work.

Pros:
*My house is vaccumed every day before I get home from work!!!
*Very interesting to watch,
*Does a great job cleaning all of my flooring types,
*A lot of well thought out engineering went into this product,
*This model also has an interface port which you can interface with a computer or micro-controller to have direct access to all sensors and functions (Great nerd toy),
*Virtual walls work amazing well,
*Stops what its doing and parks itself and recharges when the batteries are running low,
*First few times it ran it was amazing to see how much my old vaccum was leaving behind.
*With the smart bin upgrade, it requires even less checking in on, it automaticly tells you when the bin needs to be emptied.

Cons:
*This will destroy power supply and phone line cables you have drapped across the floor. Pick them up and keep them neat, and this solves itself.
*The basic remote does not include the schedualing option, this is a very worth while upgrade.
*Mine came with a standard bin, which ment I had to check and empty it every day, the upgrade to a smart bin is nice because now I typically only empty it once a week when it tells me the bin is full.


I love my roomba, my dad loves his too.
Awsome product for about what you would spend on a new manual vaccum cleaner.

i bought one of these last year and i love it! it's fantastic on dog hair, dust, and crumbs/dry dirt. goes from my hardwood dining room to my low pile carpet living room with no problem.

We bought a Roomba thinking that it would help us clean the house faster and better. It didn't do either, unfortunately.

Roomba has its own sweeping patterns that takes quite a while just to finish cleaning a small room. So if you have a particular spot that you want to clean up quickly, I suggest that you use a Swiffer or an ordinary vacuum cleaner to do the job. It is also quite noisy, just like most vacuum cleaners. Both the noise and its "running around" are distracting when you want to watch TV or need to concentrate to do some work. I've read that most people complained about Roomba getting stuck with pet hair. Well, we don't have a pet, but I do have long hair. Roomba always gets stuck when it picks up my hair on the floor. It will stop moving and make noise like "come, please help me!". I'll check and find that it gets caught with my hair in its brushes. Also, if you have rugs or carpet in the house, the small capacity of the vacuum will make you clean it out extremely often.

All in all, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a Roomba to save you time and effort because afterall you have to do the follow-up jobs. Another point I want to add is that we bought a refurbished one from a seller on eBay and we are not sure if that could be another factor that Roomba is not working that well. We didn't return it to the seller and just hope that we may pick our Roomba up from a corner and use it again some day.

The product worked for 3 days and then it stopped. I contacted the manufacture and they told me they can't warrant anything sold on E-Bay so thats where I stand.

Bought a discovery 4220. Worked good two months.STopped working. Irobot has the sorriest support I have ever dealt with. They could not answer the problem to fix it. I even sent them a video and showed them what it was doing and they did not have the intelligence to answer the email. I would not spend a dollar on a piece of junk they make. Irobot is a rip off that will take your money with a smile and your forgot about. BE for warned. At least have a return or repair policy with who you buy it from. Some people may get better results with theirs, I am just glad Hoover makes a good one. If Irobot does not change they are going bellyup. Then maybe someone will buy the company to take care of it's customers. JUNK!

I spent about 6 months reading pros and cons re: iRobot's Roomba. When my husband suggested that we purchase one, I jumped on it. That was 2 years ago. I bought the first one from a company that offers a lifetime return guarantee, and considering the complexity of the machine/computer/robot, I decided that bargain basement shopping was not the way to go. Received the Roomba Discovery and love it. A year later I purchased the next generation, the Scheduler, for my daughter and hated it--pieces fell off with each cleaning (a little yellow doo-hickey on the brushes) and her pets' hair clogged it, as did her very long hair. Exchanged it for a Scooba. Great choice for her. My husband and I purchased a second home, got a second Roomba Discovery SE. The Discovery model was no longer available from my 'source' so I bought it from eBay at a discount (though still pricey). The caveat: iRobot will not cover any guarantee because it was purchased from eBay, what they term a 'third party seller'. Anyway, love the Roomba Discovery. 'I' vacuum every day or two, then once every so often hit the corners and baseboards because Roomba misses them. I have hardwood floors with oriental carpets. Roomba doesn't like fringe; I learned from an old carpet guy to use trusty duct tape and tape the fringe to the back of the carpet! It worked like magic--the fringe is safely tucked and taped on the underside of the rug and Roomba works her magic with no hesitation. An added bonus is that the v-space between the hardwood boards is safely vacuumed and GENTLY brushed (an ordinary vacuum with a brush will beat the hardwoods unmercifully).

For the price I paid for and comparing it to one I saw at Sears, I think i did pretty good. The Roomba works pretty good. Some baby-sitting required but not inconvenient. Quite entertaining, pretty fun to watch it go. It comes in handy when you want to multi-task. Clean or wash dishes while it is stuck in an area cleaning. Decided to buy it because of cost and thought it would help me and it does!

I found this vacuum not to be effective at all for my needs
I have 3 dogs and our rug always seems to need cleaning. This vacuum did not pick up the dog hair completely and the cup had to be emptied many times due to its small size.

I was not impressed with this.

He does not tell you that factory will not cover warranty from third party sellers like ebay. This should be metioned on the Item description. Mines only worked for three days when I contact seller he told me not to say that I bought it from ebay but I had register the product with factory already. This is not fair Irobot wants another 114.00 plus shipping. seller is aware of this.

I like the idea that a vaccum cleaner works by itself even when I'm out. The battery's life is very short and it's expensive. Roomba is easily out of order and ther is no place to fix it. How do I suppose to know what is the problem. I send e-mail to the support team but it was not very helpful. The result is to buy a new one. I bought it as a present for my friend. I hope this one least longer than mine. Mine was out of order in 4 months.

We use the product on flooring with no carpets in a lake house.
The house tends to get quite a bit of sand on the floors.
The Roomba works quite well in this application.
Miss Roomba, as my wife refers to the unit, has become part of the family.

I see that vacuum at the store. I get at ebay for a less price, but i dislike, don't work like i think. the battery is very weak and also don't clean good. maybe works better at the carpet, i have a tiles, sorry i said the true. thanks

The Roomba is a big help & I will now never go without one. Helps keep the house looking clean. Cleans up after my ten month old & picks up things that she would have tried to eat :) Great to let it do its thing while getting ready for company. Love it.

I bought it for a gift. I don't know how well it will work or if the receipient will like it. It's in good condition although I had to clean it when I got it. It was very dirty. The price was good, the seller was very fast getting it to me.

The iRobot Roomba Vacuum is wonderful. This product is great on tile floors. It saves me time from my busy day.
Set it and let it go!

I don't know how I always get a flake, but this one neglected to send my "won" item after I had paid for it. I understand the seller was booted off EBay, I haven't checked yet to see if was true. Thank goodness for AMEX, my credit card company, who took the charge off my account. I have yet to figure out what good Pay Pal is, since they did absolutely nothing about the problem. I see where the matter is still "under investigation" sullying up my account.

The Roomba works great. I have animals and it's wonderful to be able to just set the Roomba off cleaning up every morning while I'm doing other things. With the self docking station, the Roomba senses when it is running low on battery and finds the docking station and recharges itself. I had one before which I eventually gave to my son when he got his own apartment after college. I resisted buying another because they are pricey, but then decided to check ebay and got this one for a great price. It came brand new, in the original packing, and I'm very happy with my purchase. I still have to do the occasional regular vacuuming to get stairs and deep cleaning, but the Roomba does an amazing job picking up the daily animal hair, debris, etc.

I am now a Roomba Convert. I have a 2400 Sq ft. home, a combination of wood and linoleum floors, two stories tall...no match for the Roomba. This vaccuum is amazing. It will not save you any time on the first day because you will waste an hour or so standing there staring at it because it's so cool to watch. I never realized how much dirt I was passing over while sweeping (I used to hand sweep and/or vaccuum everyday) or using the competitor's push vac for hard floors, until I set the Roomba loose. It picks up everything, even very short hair and particles I thought I had already gotten because I could no longer see them! It even picked up the tiniest specks of dust from wood floors that I swept minutes before I opened my new Roomba. I have two dogs and both my daughter and I have long hair, this Roomba never falls behind. I wish the bin was bigger, but in order for it to be bigger the machine would have to be bigger and it's size is perfect for getting into spaces. However convenient, this is not a lazy person's vaccuum, you will have to pick up phone cords if they lie flat on the floor, and you will have to pick up larger objects such as coin money and wadded up wrappers, etc. otherwise the Roomba will get them and it's not a pretty sound. This thing will get the fuzz and dust bunnies under the bed too (All of them), but if you think you might have left a sock or something under there, then you'd better check before you set it loose or else unseen garments will be picked up and get tangled. I love the fact that I can leave the house to take the kids to school and come back to find my living room and dining room clean and then go pick them up from school while it cleans the upstairs, never falling down the stairwell. I can even load the dishwasher while it cleans the kitchen, I just occasionally step over it and keep going. It's an awesome coexsistence and I highly recommend this product.
Dogs don't love it, mine avoid it, and though it is a bit noisy, it's worth the time it saves! I use my Roomba everyday and gladly gave away the competitors stick-vac. I will continue to own and use a Roomba until they make floors that vaccuum themselves!

the roomba is perfect, as long as you dont have PETS!!! and as long as you already have a pretty clean house. it will not make a pig stye look brand new, but it will keep a almost clean carpet clean. but honestly, if you are not too lazy to already keep your carpet clean you probably dont need this. but the product it self does a pretty good job. and it makes a perfect christmas, holiday, or birthday gift because not only does work, its also fun to watch.. and its really cool!!! so for the money, its worth.. but dont think it will clean everything while you sit on the couch watching tv... its not a maid, just something fun to have.

We just use it in our large kitchen area, hallway and main entry way...all wood flooring. If used and cleaned each day, it picks up all of the visible dog hair and keeps those areas looking great and dog-hair free. One has to be really lazy and expect a robot to pick up each and every particle in each and every room...especially those rooms with high-end carpets. I would rather do that myself to keep a nice house looking nice. We are about 5 years away from a product that will have enough capacity and strength to thoroughly vacuum an entire main floor...and the 5 years I predict, will include the cost of the product being reasonable enough for the ordinary home owner to purchase.