How to Troubleshoot a Roomba

Roombas are a lifesaver for many busy housekeepers, but occasionally something goes an little screwy. Before you panic, try a few of the tips below.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Roomba

Instructions On Troubleshooting A Roomba

1. Re-insert the battery. If your Roomba is continually stalling, the battery may be inserted incorrectly, or may have been jarred loose. The battery should just drop in and be pressed down gently.

2. Clean the brushes and bearings. If your Roomba starts, stops and spins, it is probably clogged with debris. Use compressed air for hard to reach spots, and a paperclip for the bearings. Get all hair out of the brushes.

3. Empty the bin regularly. If the Roomba stops , says “Uh-oh” and beeps eight times, it is probably overfull. Dump the contents of the bin and wipe it out with a clean cloth.

4. Place the Home Base in a spot that will not confuse the robot. If your Roomba stops and spins in front of the base, it is getting conflicting signals; one to dock, the other preventing it from docking in cleaning mode.

5. Keep the area you use the Roomba in clear of cords or small objects. Your Roomba can become trapped or entangled, so make sure that it has room to do it’s job by keeping things off the floor.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the virtual wall and the cliff sensor to keep your Roomba from entering areas you want it to stay out of or from falling down the stairs.
• If your battery is completely drained, the charging indicator won’t come on until it has charged for about 30 minutes. Don’t panic; simply leave it on the charger and the light should come on.

[Quotacious]

on 12/2/2008 Step 4 is a good tip; that the charging base should be an easy to access spot, but the last part of the sentence is wrong. A bad position will mean that Roomba will try to go around the base (as it always does), and can thus limit it's clean efforts in that particular area.

The first Tips and Warnings is also worded a bit wrong. The wording makes it sound as if the cliff sensor is some special feature that you could take advantage of, if you knew how. This is not the case. You can use virtual walls to make extra sure Roomba won't fall down stairs, as sometimes the built-n cliff sensors don't always keep Roomba from falling... (ie. if Roomba heads straight for the stairs, sometimes the momentum will flip it over when it stops and down the stairs he goes...)