iRobot Roomba Discovery 4210 Vacuum

Long Time Roomba User Extremely Happy with New Version, September 13, 2004

I've been a Roomba user for almost two years, so I know the benefits of a little automated vacuum. However we had three primary complaints that iRobot has addressed in this new version:

1. Inconvenience of coming home to a dead battery
2. Difficult to clean
3. Noisy
4. Could not focus on dirtier areas; only cleaned...read full review I've been a Roomba user for almost two years, so I know the benefits of a little automated vacuum. However we had three primary complaints that iRobot has addressed in this new version:

1. Inconvenience of coming home to a dead battery
2. Difficult to clean
3. Noisy
4. Could not focus on dirtier areas; only cleaned randomly.

1. We have gotten into the habit of, as we are walking out the door, putting the Roomba to work. However, we always used to have the problem of coming home to Roomba with a dead battery (inevitably it would die in the worst spots, like under our bed just out of reach). Then we would have to plug him in to our charger (which we had to shell out sixty bucks for) and wait for two hours to use him again. That was complaint one for the old version.

iRobot has fixed the battery issue on the Discovery. The fast charger (which we had to pay for before) is now built in. Secondly, and what has proven to be my favorite new feature of the new Roomba, the little vacuum automatically finds his docking station when his battery is about dead. I do have two recommendations on this note, however. The docking station appears to work just like a virtual wall, Roomba doesn't know that it is there unless it crosses its path, so you make sure that it is in a wide open room where Roomba is sure to cross its path in its waning minutes of power. Secondly, now you have to be extra sure to Roomba-proof the room so that he doesn't get stuck. If he's stuck he won't be able to find his way back to the charger.

2. The new version has gotten much easier to clean, especially the main brush. All the pieces now pop in and out of place easier and there are no screws to remove any of the pieces that need cleaning. This has proven to be a huge benefit.

3. The Discovery is noticeably quieter than the older versions, especially on tile surfaces.

4. The new line of Roomba Floorvacs comes with sensors that can detect dirt. That was the first thing we tested when we got our Discovery. I had pieces of Styrofoam broken into small pieces and it detected it and automatically performed a spot clean on that area. Then I put him in the kitchen where I had accidentally dumped a bag of cereal on the floor and then managed to step on it...Roomba focused on that area and cleaned up every little crumb.

I love my Roomba. I 100% recommend that you get one. [...] I bought mine at a local store in the mall and had to return my Pro Elite version 4 times before I finally got one that wasn't buggy. Then, under the warrantee, after my fourth one went on the fritz I was able to upgrade to the Discovery for free. So far after 2 weeks, the Discovery has been bug-free.

Nevertheless, because of the many issues that I have had in the past, and as with any new and emerging technology, buy it where you can purchase an extended warrantee and easily return defective devices.

Notwithstanding, buy a Roomba. Even though my wife and I never have time to clean our floors have been spotless for the last two years.

I hope this helps.
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Long-Time Roomba User Extremely Happy With New Generation, October 26, 2004

I've been a Roomba user for almost two years, so I know the benefits of a little automated vacuum. However we had three primary complaints that iRobot has addressed in this new version:

1. Inconvenience of coming home to a dead battery
2. Difficult to clean
3. Noisy
4. Could not focus on dirtier areas; only...read full review I've been a Roomba user for almost two years, so I know the benefits of a little automated vacuum. However we had three primary complaints that iRobot has addressed in this new version:

1. Inconvenience of coming home to a dead battery
2. Difficult to clean
3. Noisy
4. Could not focus on dirtier areas; only cleaned randomly.

1. We have gotten into the habit of, as we are walking out the door, putting the Roomba to work. However, we always used to have the problem of coming home to Roomba with a dead battery (inevitably it would die in the worst spots, like under our bed just out of reach). Then we would have to plug him in to our charger (which we had to shell out sixty bucks for) and wait for two hours to use him again. That was complaint one for the old version.

iRobot has fixed the battery issue on the Discovery. The fast charger (which we had to pay for before) is now built in. Secondly, and what has proven to be my favorite new feature of the new Roomba, the little vacuum automatically finds his docking station when his battery is about dead. I do have two recommendations on this note, however. The docking station appears to work just like a virtual wall, Roomba doesn't know that it is there unless it crosses its path, so you make sure that it is in a wide open room where Roomba is sure to cross its path in its waning minutes of power. Secondly, now you have to be extra sure to Roomba-proof the room so that he doesn't get stuck. If he's stuck he won't be able to find his way back to the charger.

2. The new version has gotten much easier to clean, especially the main brush. All the pieces now pop in and out of place easier and there are no screws to remove any of the pieces that need cleaning. This has proven to be a huge benefit.

3. The Discovery is noticeably quieter than the older versions, especially on tile surfaces.

4. The new line of Roomba Floorvacs comes with sensors that can detect dirt. That was the first thing we tested when we got our Discovery. I had pieces of Styrofoam broken into small pieces and it detected it and automatically performed a spot clean on that area. Then I put him in the kitchen where I had accidentally dumped a bag of cereal on the floor and then managed to step on it...Roomba focused on that area and cleaned up every little crumb.

I love my Roomba. I 100% recommend that you get one. However, as much as I love Amazon, I do not recommend you buy Roomba online, unless you do it right here where you can return it to local Sharper Images. I bought mine at a local Sharper Image store in the mall and had to return my Pro Elite version 4 times before I finally got one that wasn't buggy. Then, under the warrantee, after my fourth one went on the fritz I was able to upgrade to the Discovery for free. After 2 months, the Discovery has been bug-free thus far.

Nevertheless, because of the many issues that I have had in the past, and as with any new and emerging technology, buy it where you can purchase an extended warrantee and easily return defective devices...like Sharper Image.

Notwithstanding, buy a Roomba. Even though my wife and I never have time to clean our floors have been spotless for the last two years.

I hope this helps.
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The Roomba--Does it work or not? The answer is surprising., March 22, 2006

This was a pretty hard purchase for me. The reasons were 1) It was a pretty expensive item and 2) The reviews for this product were very extreme--from high praise to the pits. (See previous review about the person who returned *four* of them. Hard to believe, actually.) But the promise of an automated robot that would do the daily vacuuming was...read full review This was a pretty hard purchase for me. The reasons were 1) It was a pretty expensive item and 2) The reviews for this product were very extreme--from high praise to the pits. (See previous review about the person who returned *four* of them. Hard to believe, actually.) But the promise of an automated robot that would do the daily vacuuming was too much to turn down and I decided to take a chance on the Roomba Discovery. The odds were in my favor as the store I purchased it from offered a 60-day money back guarantee. If it didn't work, no problem.

I unpacked the Roomba Discovery and found these items packed with it: the Roomba, battery pack, charger, two infra-red "wall" devices, a cleaning utility brush, a couple of extra air filters, a wall mount kit, the home charging base, a remote control and associated manuals, advertisements and offers.

The Roomba Discovery and all its contents were fimrly and snuggly packed inside their foam enclosures. After reading the manual, (yes, its a good idea to read the manual), I plugged the Roomba into its home base charger and took it for its first test run around the house the next day. An insert note says that the Roomba needs a 16 hour uninterupted charging cycle the first time around, so if you are in a hurry to clean your house, you'll have to wait at least a day before you can. The Roomba is easy to use and uncomplicated even for a non-techie to use. There are four control buttons on the top of the unit which allows you to turn it on, set it to "clean" mode, another to "max" mode, and one other button to "spot" mode. Each one of these commands tells the Roomba how to clean. Clean is the generic command that allows the robot to freely roam, while the max mode tells the device to clean till it runs out of power. The spot mode allows for the cleaning of a small area.

Alright, how does it do? My first test was to set the Roomba Discovery to "clean" mode. It promtly made a few musical notes to let me know it was ok, and started on its mission to clean my house. To be perfectly frank, I did not have very high expectations for the machine. But as the unit bumped and moved along, I was quite amazed at the cleaning power of the Roomba. It was able to pick up a ton of dog hair, debris, and dirt that would challenge most uprights. The onboard computer was able to get the Roomba out of small corners and various other traps around the house and proved to be a very intelligent little robot. The Roomba was able to work continuously for about an hour and a half before it started its run for the self charging station. The power button alerts you to the status of charge of the Roomba--green means full charge, yellow means less than half, and red means almost empty. The Roomba determines if it needs to dock with its station, depending on the state of charge it is in. As the unit started to go down in charge, it started towards the docking-charging station, and out of a scene from NASA, the Roomba homed in on the power station, docked succesfully and started to charge itself. Amazing.

The Roomba Discovery does a fantastic job of picking up dog hair, which was one of the primary reasons for us getting an automated vaccum robot. The daily chore of doing this was pretty time consuming and the Roomba scores an A+ for its ability to reach areas that an upright couldn't possiblty reach. We were all surprised and quite pleased with how the Roomba works. The reason why the Roomba Discovery didnt garner a perfect "5" (I'll give it a 4.5) was due to a few minor issues. First, while the Roomba does a great job of picking up dirt, debris and dog hair, the brushes on the Roomba need to be cleaned of all the wrapped animal hair and fibers occassionally. The second issue revolves around the battery life. While you can get up to 120 minutes on a flat hard surface, if you have lots of carpets,(like we do), the Roomba will run out of gas in about an hour and a half. The third issue is price point. The Roomba will cost you as much as some uprights, if not more. This issue may be one of the primary reasons why many, and until recently, myself, have held off on purchasing the unit.

The Roomba Discovery is easy to use, highly efficient in its vacuuming chores and will save you untold hours of time. If you save up for one and decide to make the leap, just make sure you buy it from a dealer which offers you a money back guarentee. As for the person who had to return four Roomba units, the cause is probably user error, more than anything else. Most probably, the person had thick shag carpets which got caught in the Roomba's brushes. As with any product, it pays to read the manual first. minimize

This thing is magic, October 29, 2004

I'm just ordering my second Roomba Discovery for a friend. Having done the research, read the side-by-side reviews, and observed much information on discussion sites about the previous generation of Roomba vaccuum robots, I was hoping the one I ordered for myself last month would be a Real Thing, not just "a toy with a mission".

And...read full review I'm just ordering my second Roomba Discovery for a friend. Having done the research, read the side-by-side reviews, and observed much information on discussion sites about the previous generation of Roomba vaccuum robots, I was hoping the one I ordered for myself last month would be a Real Thing, not just "a toy with a mission".

And it is the Real Thing.

Our house has three levels, mixed medium carpet, lino and tiles. We have a long-haired dog, and we used to manually vaccuum only intermittently -- once every couple of weeks.

Roomba took one look at our "looked pretty clean" lounge and filled itself up with dog hair and dust in the first hour or so. It's still filling itself on passes a couple of days later.

Our lounge is *complex*, lots of furniture and corners. A couple of lightweight mats had to be lifted, a heavy one was ok. Got cords and scattered clothing/books etc. out of the way, and that was enough.

Having tried it more than once in most of the house now, I can conclude:

a) COVERAGE, even in odd corners, is remarkably good (it can't get right INTO an inside corner of course, but nearly)

b) CLEANING is excellent, at least as good as we would do manually -- also goes places we normally would not

c) RELIABILITY seems fine -- that is, no problems experienced after about ten working hours so far

d) UNSUPERVISED OPERATION is good enough. It goes through *remarkable* hoops to try and get untangled from a couple of situations that can arise in our house (low overhangs, etc), and it usually succeeds. About one run in three it finds a jam it can't extract itself from. That's tolerable, given the geography of our place.

e) MAINTENANCE is adequate -- we have a LOT of accumulated long dog hair, which fills the bin and tends to wind around a couple of internal brush axles. This means I need to check those axles carefully after every clean, and spend a few minutes using the tool provided to remove it. If you don't have lots of long hair around, you won't have this problem. And nor will we, I expect, once our long-term accumulation is reduced by running it regularly.

f) SEX APPEAL is excellent. That is, if you've been waiting for *years* for a real household robot to come out of the science fiction pages, this IS a real household robot. Nobody who sees a Roomba in action, getting into and out of incredible fixes AND ending up with a full dustbin and a clean floor, is going to be saying "it's just a toy, get a life".

This is a practical tool. Think of it like a 1970s dishwasher --it just got good enough to buy, and use.

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Better Than You Are, April 12, 2005

It's very easy to set up: I just plugged in the battery and the charger, pressed the buttons like the little instruction guide told me, and it hopped on there and started charging.

I let the Roomba wander around for a half hour this morning, and aside from a horrible mishap with my bath mat it did well. Although somewhere inside...read full review It's very easy to set up: I just plugged in the battery and the charger, pressed the buttons like the little instruction guide told me, and it hopped on there and started charging.

I let the Roomba wander around for a half hour this morning, and aside from a horrible mishap with my bath mat it did well. Although somewhere inside its little chipular head there is a rhyme and reason to its journey, I could not discern it.

Sometimes it gets stuck, and I just keep an ear out to hear if it needs help. It spent a good two minutes trying to hump a floor lamp, but like an errant cat I swatted at its bumper and it was discouraged.

It's not as loud or as powerful as I thought it might be--it's a different kind of vacuuming. It's basically a sort of robust electric sweeper with a brain. It sometimes has trouble with rug tassels and edges. The acrylic rugs, which are light, peel up off the floor easily and obstruct. The wool rugs are heavier and less trouble.

If you let it wander long enough, it do cover the whole place, though. And that is its big strength.

So does it clean? At first I would have said "so-so," but then I pick it up and go to empty the dirt hopper. Ohmigod. There's cat fur in there from the Jurassic period. I think the big selling point here is coverage--your big human brain is not really built for the mindless repetition of going over and over and over the floor, covering nook and cranny after nook and cranny. Roomba, on the other hand, is completely turned on by the prospect of it. So it gets a lot of the stuff you'd have missed because vacuuming is a mind-numbing chore, and you give it a coupla passes and then say, "Good enough." Roomba has no criteria other than battery power or its sensors telling it there's no more dirt (and with cats that will never happen). So like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going.

The cats are less frightened of it than a regular vacuum (less noise). They are fascinated with it. Boyo had a little Tiananmen Square moment when he deliberately sat in its path and waited for it to come and bump him. Just like in 1989, the tank won.

So yeah, I think it's pretty dang good. And certainly better than doing it yourself. minimize