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iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver

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Brand: iRobot
Category: Kitchen

List Price: ~~$449.99~~
Buy New: $312.88
You Save: $137.11 (30%)

New (7) Used (2) from $312.88

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

176 reviews
Sales Rank: 76

Color: Black
Shipping Weight (lbs): 14.6
Dimensions (in): 24.3 x 18.2 x 8.4

MPN: 56001
Model: 560
UPC: 853816560011
EAN: 0853816560011
ASIN: B000UUBCNO

Release Date: August 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: FREE UPGRADE to EXPEDITED SHIPPING! SEALED in Original Factory Packaging. APO/FPO/PO Boxes/AK/HI Do NOT Qualify For Expedited Shipping. Does NOT ship to the following states: WA, NY, KS, KY. (Seller Notes: #92492)

Features:

•	Vacuuming robot picks up dirt and debris with the touch of a button
•	Easy-to-empty bagless dustbin; fine-filtration system traps allergens
•	Anti-tangle technology; gentle-touch bumper system; built-in cliff sensors
•	Self-charging Home Base, 2 Virtual Wall Lighthouses, an extra filter, and more included
•	Measures 16-3/4 by 21 by 5 inches; 1-year limited warranty

Similar Items:

•	iRobot R3 500 series 3 pack filter kit
•	iRobot R3 500 series replacement brush kit (inc. Bristle brush,beater brush, side brush with screw and brush cleaning tool)
•	iRobot 5950 Clorox Scooba Cleaning Solution
•	iRobot 5800 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
•	iRobot Scooba 350 Floor-Washing Robot

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Life happens in busy homes, and keeping up with accumulating dirt, dust, pet hair, crumbs, and debris can be a daily challenge. Introducing the iRobot Roomba 560- a member of iRobot’s newest generation of Roomba Vacuuming Robots.

Now there’s a better way to maintain cleaner floors every day. With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, particle filtration, and scheduling capabilities, the Roomba 560 picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris from your floors with the touch of a button--so you don’t have to.

The Roomba 560 even cleans on schedule when it’s most convenient for you. Use the on-board scheduling system to easily program up to seven days and times per week for Roomba to vacuum--whether you’re at home or on the go. The Roomba 560 also offers the most efficient room-to-room cleaning available using two innovative, new Virtual Wall Lighthouses.

With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, and particle filtration, the Roomba 560 vacuuming robot picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris with the simple touch of a button. The powerful unit features innovative spinning side brushes that grab dirt and dust from corners and along wall edges, as well as two high-speed, counter-rotating brushes that pick up pet hair, cat litter, food crumbs, and other debris from floors. The vacuum sucks up the debris and deposits it into a large, easy-to-empty bagless dustbin, and its improved fine-filtration system traps dust, pollen, and other allergens inside the unit, reducing infiltration into the living environment.

Customer Reviews: Read 171 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Fragile July 4, 2008
The plastic roller on the extremities of one of the brushes partially melted. Already I have to buy a replacement after only using this thing only about 15 times!

2 out of 5 stars

Not ready for prime time July 4, 2008
I've had my eye on iRobot's nifty Roomba for a couple of years now, and when I saw that the 560 had a daily scheduling function and auto-docking, I finally took the plunge. However, despite my enthusiasm and desperate attempts to rationalize keeping the roomba, I finally decided to return it.

Some background: I have a three bedroom house with tile floors and throw rugs, two cats who shed copiously, and a husband who is allergic to cats. We read lots and lots of rave reviews of Roomba from people like us, who used the robot to keep daily pet hair on the floors to a minimum. Here are the problems we encountered:

1) Roomba doesn't really do very well transitioning between hard floors and rugs. It can climb onto the rugs just fine, but due to the seemingly random way that the robot crosses the floor, it never cleans the dust and dirt right next to the rug. In fact, it seemed to push the dirt and hair up against the rug, then never vacuumed it up.

2) Roomba doesn't deal well with rug tassels. I was concerned about this at first, but then read on the website that if it sensed rugs, that it would stop sucking and back off. It might actually have done this, but it still ended up with lots of rug tassels wrapped around the brush.

3) Roomba's "lighthouse" system doesn't work as well as advertised. On the box, there's a picture of four rooms that are arranged as a square with doors between each of them, with the claim that roomba can clean four rooms then re-dock itself. Well, if you're like me and your rooms come off of a hallway, then it's a little more complicated. I used the lighthouses to split the rooms up, and occasionally the roomba made it to the last room (more on this in a minute). However, by the time it finished cleaning the farthest-away room, it couldn't find it's way back down the hallway and into the docking station before it turned itself off due to low battery.

4) Roomba just can't deal with the amount of cat hair that my two cats produce. From four weeks of using the roomba, it seems that a lot of the cleaning it does comes from the three brushes. They spin the dirt into the vacuum which then sucks it into the dustbin compartment. I didn't have the problem that some other reviewers had, that they had to empty the dustbin every ten minutes when they first started using it. It seems that most of the cat hair never made it past the brushes and into the vacuum. It got stuck on and wrapped around the brushes themselves, but worst still, the brush bearings and the brush joints. The only way to get the hair off was to use tweezers and pull all the hair off for about fifteen minutes every day. I might even have overlooked this, if Roomba could have made it through a cleaning cycle without stopping and asking to have its brushes cleaned. But the Roomba hardly ever made it past the second room of the cleaning cycle before shutting itself off because the brushes needed to be cleaned. Every day, I would come home, hunt around the house for the Roomba, clean its brushes, then set it going again... etc., which completely defeats the purpose of having it scheduled to clean while you're not there.

The breaking point for me was when I looked in my dining room yesterday and saw that the roomba has left a line of gray about three inches off the floor-- it looks like the rubber from the front of the robot has left marks on my white paint. At this point, I have to admit to myself that Roomba is increasing my cleaning workload, not decreasing it. Sadly I returned it to the store today.

On a positive note, the scheduling function was easy to use and worked well, and the "lighthouse" concept is cool in that it allows you to schedule roomba to clean one room for half an hour and then lets it move onto the next room. Too bad it didn't work for us.

If you have light cleaning needs that don't need strong vacuum suction, or even maybe a fully carpeted or fully hardwood floor, this might be the thing for you. However, my family has found that the Roomba 560 can't live up to (all) of it's promises.

5 out of 5 stars

The Roomba 560 is great. July 3, 2008
To put things in perspective, understand that we have nine cats. We first used the Roomba in our large ceramic tiled kitchen. We hadn't vacuumed for several days but the Roomba 560 picked up all of the dust bunnies and stray cat food.

When we used it in the carpeted family room it stopped twice and asked to be emptied. It was full of cat hairs. The Roomba likes to work under the sofas in that room. We seldom move the sofas to vacuum the carpeting under them. The Roomba glides under sofas and eventually comes back out. After four cleanings, it's still picking up hairs but is only about half full after finishing.

We purchased two lighthouses expecting to clean kitchen, family room, and foyer on a single charge. We tried that once and it didn't work very well because of size of the kitchen and the furniture in the family room. We prefer to do one room at a time.

We tried the docking unit once with marginal success. We don't like the idea of leaving Roomba on the floor to recharge because of the cats. They like to chew on things. We charge it on a table now dedicated to that use. BTW, the cats are curious but don't panic. Of course, they take off whenever Roomba heads their way.

In the ceramic tiled foyer, Roomba does a great job on the floor and on a throw rug. It will clean the attached small powder room without getting trapped inside.

The virtual walls work nicely but to get the doorways cleaned, we place them about a foot into the adjacent room.

We read the existing reviews before purchasing a Roomba. There were several reports of side brush legs breaking off and trouble ordering extra side brushes. We ordered extra brushes right after first using Roomba. There were 3 units left when we ordered. We also bought an extra brush kit which included one side brush. After 4 to 6 uses in the various rooms, no legs have broken off the side brush. We've removed it three times for washing. The leg tips become very black and stiff after a couple uses but they seem to be intact. We've noticed that the side brush stops rotating whenever it encounters an obstruction other than table legs or baseboards.

The Roomba seldome gets stuck but our family room is a real challenge for it. The open gap under our entertainment center is just high enough for Roomba to attempt to travel under it. It gets part way in and half of those times it can't get out and shuts down. We're very comfortable letting Roomba work unattended in the kitchen or foyer, but not in the family room. We do that room while reading or watching TV. The sound isn't disturbing, in fact, it's quite nice hearing how much work is being done with so little effort on our part.

In a nutshell, we're very pleased with the Roomba 560. We're thinking of Scooba next for the kitchen and foyer floors.

1 out of 5 stars

Please Stay Away! June 30, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

As you can tell if you read these reviews, the Roomba works great until the day it doesn't. On that day you are completely out of luck with any servicing. Ours quit operating properly shortly after the one year warranty expired. I would expect to pay for shipping and even pay to have my unit serviced. But all Roomba would do is offer to sell me another one. Why would I buy another unit of something that already broke once and that no one on God's green earth can service? It is a complex machine. So about a hundred different things can go wrong. If you are beyond waranty period forget IRobot company helping you. Their phone support is pitiful, and their service department does not exist. Any company that wilfully turns happy customers into unhappy customers everyday will soon be out of business.

4 out of 5 stars

Roomba not good for hairy dogs June 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I love roomba. I love having roomba zoom around my house like a slow moving a slightly curious cat. Roomba does a wonderful job, if run every day, keeping the floors clean and barefootable. He vacuums under furniture, avoids things like piles of laundry and does a great job in corners.

However, roomba is not up to two Welsh Pembroke Corgis. Every other vacuuming we have to take roomba apart and give roomba open heart surgery by picking the dog hair out of all the little gears. If this doesn't happen roomba merely wanders around the house pushing piles of dog hair about and depositing them on the edge of carpet. Our roomba makes a horrible, bone grating, noise as a result of his issues with dog hair. If he isn't making this unforutnate noise he isn't working.

Also, roomba is passive aggressive. He will wander around and around, avoiding the clump of dust sitting RIGHT THERE. Can't you see it? Arrgh! A remote control now seems like a wonderful idea.

Rooba also tends to be a bit obsessive compulsive, vacuuming the hallway for 45 minutes if not shooed out into the larger part of the living room. He does also shut himself into rooms by pushing the door closed, and will vacuum our 4' x 4' bathroom until his little battery gets tired and he goes to sleep.

One of our dogs periodically runs past and bites roomba, but roomba doesn't seem to mind at all. He just putters on underneath the couch or the chair like nothing happened.

Overall I'm glad to have roomba. He has a personality all his own and I've gotten rather fond of him. However, we need to replace the red cartridge full of gears in Roomba and so far have had no luck with iRobot. However, we have not exhausted all of the steps that we have been asked to do by iRobot.

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