Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought my Roomba i7 only a couple of weeks after its release. I had tried an earlier model but it did not have the “brains” to find its way back to its charging station in my large (4,300 sq. ft.) single story home. I was intrigued by this new model because it was not only supposed to build a map of my home but could store its map for use finding its way back to its charging base and for use during future cleaning jobs. This seemed like it should solve the problems I had encountered with the earlier model that randomly ran around on cleaning jobs, then got lost. I had already learned that the documentation and user information provided by Roomba is VERY limited and insufficient. So, I began learning by experience and by calling their support group for answers to questions. This was my experience: • The charging base had to be located near the center of my space to be cleaned and should have 3-4 feet of free space to the sides and front of the base. • I could not move the charging station after mapping my home without confusing my Roomba. So, I chose a location that is out of the way and would not change. • It worked best to map my area using training runs rather than cleaning runs because less power is needed and the mapping process was accomplished faster if there are fewer returns to the base for recharging. • Training was faster if I removed obstacles to the Roomba. That meant turning kitchen and dining chairs upside down on to tables, rolling up area rugs that caused difficulty in navigation, removing clutter such as shoes from the floor, etc. • Doors to all rooms that I wanted Roomba to clean had to be open. • I was careful not to pause or stop my Robot during training runs. This seemed to confuse the mapping process when Roomba was interrupted. • Roomba suggests reasonable lighting during training runs. So, I trained my i7 only during the day and would leave lights on in dark hallways, closets and bathrooms. • I was sure to clean the charging contacts and sensor windows on the bottom and top of my Roomba to help with docking and charging. • After several failed attempts to map my home and two updates to my Roomba firmware and application, I was told by Roomba customer support that I had to limit the number of partitions and room names to no more than 10. • It took 14.5 hours of training runs over three days to generate a successful map of my home. I learned that maps cannot be edited after the first edit. So, I learned to be careful to partition and name rooms correctly the first time. Otherwise, I’d need to spend another 14 hours generating a new map. • After weeks of trial and error, I was finally able to send my i7 on a successful cleaning run to a room of my choice. • Unfortunately, the final map was not stable. One room partition and all room names were lost after only two hours. The application would then let me edit the map again but the map still wasn’t stable. Strangely, the cleaning schedule continued to run correctly. • Now I cannot pause or alter the cleaning schedule without an error because it contains data from the map that has been altered by who knows what process. Random??? • Roomba has two levels of support tickets they call tier one and tier two. Unfortunately, the staff for tier two are no different than tier one. So, being advanced to tier 2 did not give me the benefit of better trained or more experienced help. Summary: I finally tossed in the towel after 5 weeks of working with iRobot customer support and two ticket escalations. I feel that the hardware is solid and the concept is good. Unfortunately, the software that operates the i7 is just not ready for market. I requested a return of my i7 and a refund of my money. I may try again after 6 months if I believe the bugs have been worked out of the operating software. Or, I may wait until the next model and try again. I just was not willing to take the risk that Roomba would refuse to return my money if I waited much longer to request a return.