a Roomba in the house

[vacerator]

Peter,

I've seen Roomba's for way below the lowest priced Meile. You're talking $300 for the entry level C1.

 

[cranraspberry]

The Roomba absolutely does have suction - we actually had the vacuum part break a couple of months after purchasing, so we got to compare suction power vs sweeping power. It still ran, and all the sweeping parts were working, but the difference in the amount of dust/dog hair was incredible. The sweeper collected maybe 1/10th of what the sweeper+vacuum are able to pick up.

They replaced the part with no questions asked under warranty, and we've been happy ever since. It is such a lifesaver when you have a shedding dog in the house!

 

[maytagmike]

Roomba 4100

Well, well. The replacement battery I bought for my Roomba lasted 3 1/2 months. I noticed this afternoon when I got home the Roomba was green with a flash of red light going through it. The blue light on the fast charger was not on. I called Roomba and told them what was going on. I told her that i had bought the battery off e-bay, and I was told that the after market batteries don't last that well. I'm curious as to why the blue light on the fast charger is not on, do these go bad? I'll have to buy a new battery but I don't want to have to buy a new charger if I don't have to.

Thanks, Mike

 

[henene4]

I'd guess that the battery protection just engaged and thus there is no charging light.
These charging circuts for Li-ion batterys are the counterpart to these DC motors used in some DWs now: They are pretty simple and can sense a lot of operating states.

EDIT: Just recognized your model still uses NiMh-packs. Still, if a battery dies so "sudden", it most likely some sort of short circut, and then most chargers will just stop charging... Saying I think its unlikely the charger broke.