bit-tech Shopping: iRobot Roomba Red 4100 Vacuum

• Bare Floors
• Carpets

Rating: 6

Time with product: 15 Days

Strengths: Cleans well.

Weaknesses: Should come with a quick charger.

Summary: Got this for Christmas, put to use to clean up after m Christmas party. It cleaned well, between hardwood floor and carpet. But it takes a long time for a full charge, so if you want to clean two room, you almost need to do it in two days.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 8

Strengths: Does its job and does it well.

Weaknesses: Does not whistle while it works.

Summary: All right, so here I am finally in college living the dorm life and it's all good except my roommate has got to be the most disgusting human being I've ever seen. He'll hock up phlegm and try spit-launching it at the sink from across the room, missing about 90% of the time and not caring. He manages to get pizza sauce all over his fingers on a daily basis, never washing them, so now there are pizza sauce streaks all over the room on everything he's touched. In 3 weeks so far I've never seen him do laundry, and I think he's showered (I hope I'm wrong here) only a few times. He eats and drinks (yes, drinks) alone in the room, spilling things on the floor, the same things that I've caught him eating *off* the floor days later.The point? I can't live like this. The community dorm vacuums are perpetually broken, my RA doesn't care enough to tell him to shape up, and I can't transfer to another room until one opens up, which is unlikely anytime soon. It's insulting to me to have to clean up after this guy. Enter the Roomba Red. This isn't one of those higher end models that whistles while it works, you can't program a schedule into it or anything, but it gets the job done pretty well. I keep it hidden beneath my bed, and I set it loose whenever my roommate goes to his engineering classes (go figure), and I've discovered that if I run it almost every day there are fewer silverfish that come around looking for his crumbs. In the absence of a maid, and in the absence of a roommate who might respect something called common decency, the Roomba Red is all I've got.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Years

Strengths: easy to use, set it down and push one button

Weaknesses: none

Summary: We have a low shag cut pile carpet, we've had it a year this Christmas. Its not a vaccum, it's a carpet sweeper, but if you use it once a week or twice a week the floors stay clean. Works great under the bed, you can't get a vaccum under there.

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: easy to use , quiet , good quality

Weaknesses: none

Summary: I've owned a first generation Pro Elite for some time now. The new model strives for simplicity of operation and succeeds, but often at the expense of flexibility. As I mentioned in the "Weaknesses" section, I would rather tell Roomba the room size rather than have it decide for itself. Whatever algorithm is being used to determine the area isn't working well in my house, causing Roomba to run much too long in smaller rooms, wasting the precious battery time. In addition, the slightly higher profile of Roomba Red causes more entanglements with my cabinets, furniture

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Months

Strengths: quiet, easy to use, considerable power for it's size

Weaknesses: Must be emptied after every use.

Summary: I knew it would clean on it's own, but I didn't know how well it would work. I had planned on using it frequently to make up for poor suction, but that wasn't necessary. It works better than the old one ever did! Admittedly, the old one wasn't very nice. Regardless, the roomba has pulled up so much carpet fiber it's astounding. The apartment had brand new carpets when we moved in and ever since there's been a major problem with loose fibers clinging to clothes. Not anymore. It's gotten so much up in such a short time that the brushes are always full of my long hair and carpet (which is becoming less of a problem with use), but luckily the brushes are removable. I LOVE this feature. It's kind of a pain to clean them out, but I know will extend the life of the vacuum considerably. I mean, who hasn't had a vacuum die from being clogged with hair? That won't be a problem here (unless you don't take the time). I was also surprised by how quiet it is. Of course it makes noise, but not nearly as much as a conventional vacuum. So not only do you not have to be actively cleaning, but the noise is quite ignorable if you're even home while it's running. There are a couple of features I really liked and didn't see in the description (whether it was from not looking closely or it not being there). The lights on the top indicate what caused the roomba to stop; so you know if it simply finished the room, the battery died, or it encountered a problem. Yes, it will stop when something goes wrong rather trying to continue and breaking itself in the process. Also, there's a small brush that flips around the outside to sweep the dirt around edges into it's path. I really can't say enough good things. It's worth every penny, especially considering it's less expensive than many quality standard vacuum cleaners.