Overview of the robot vacuum cleaner iRobot Roomba 505

    Since their appearance in 1997, robotic vacuum cleaners have been on the market for a relatively long time, but many people, not only have never seen such products, but more often than not have heard of the existence of the class of devices.

Not so long ago, a friend asked me to contribute to the selection and purchase of a robot vacuum cleaner, after studying the available models and buying the selected device - the coveted device was in my hands for a while, I could not miss a unique chance and took up testing in order to satisfy my own curiosity and will share with the habr community

After my brief acquaintance with the vacuum cleaner and a brief study of it, I am ready to share my feedback on the product and conclusions about the class of devices in general.
Attention - there are a lot of photos under the cut (traffic).

    At the moment, in Moscow in retail you can buy almost any model of a robot vacuum cleaner from almost any manufacturer. Although the device class itself has long been on the market, it is still very specific and not popular among a wide range of consumers, so you probably won’t find similar products in well-known electronics stores, but using the Internet search you can easily find small shops or more often market pavilions, who trade in similar vacuum cleaners.

When choosing a robot vacuum cleaner, I focused primarily on the manufacturer's company, the budget allocated for the purchase was no more than 15,000 rubles . Having studied the offers in this price range, I concluded that I have no choice and need to focus on iRobot. Of course, for this price you can buy a product from another manufacturer, but all the time I came across unknown Chinese offices, iRobot is a company born and working in the USA with the date of foundation in 1990.

First of all, I was struck by the absence of any reviews of any robot vacuum cleaners at all, all the reviews found on the network were either about the very first and oldest models of vacuum cleaners, when there was just a stir about a new type of high-tech product and many publications wrote about them, or came across biased mini reviews from the manufacturers themselves, which naturally did not tell anything interesting. In some way, because of this problem, I decided to write this review.

The choice fell on the youngest model in the iRobot product line -Roomba 505 , the price of which starts at about 11,000 rubles .

Photo review:

Having bought and locked the vacuum cleaner home, I arranged a photo session:



    As you can see in the photo, the box with the device is not huge, its weight is about 6 kilograms and there is a handle for transportation, so a trip to the store and purchase of the device will not cause much trouble and you can do all this an event for two.



    The set includes waste paper: detailed instructions in English and Russian, a quick start guide (in English only), a warranty card and a guide to solving possible problems.



    The iRobot Roomba 505 comes with a Russian certificate of compliance with the GOST standard , which can speak of official deliveries to Russia.



    The kit contains a strange warranty card, its strangeness in the absence of the address of the service center, there is only a phone and e-mail. Also, the seller did not bother to completely fill out the warranty card by actually giving an extended warranty.



    Everything is neatly packed and carefully packed in the box; it is practically impossible to damage anything during transportation. The photo shows the vacuum cleaner itself, a charger, a tool for cleaning brushes and 1 virtual wall to limit the cleaning area.

The iRobot Roomba 505 does not have a dock for charging, as more expensive models, the robot will just return to the place where it started when you finish your work, you will have to charge it yourself.

Due to the lack of a decent camera on me, I’ll give the clips shot not with me, but with youtube, but I guarantee 100% compliance of the robot’s behavior in these videos with reality.

Specifications and features:

• Weight 3.8 kg, diameter 34 cm, height 9.5 cm
• Battery life up to 180 min
• Remote control (not supplied)
• 0.50 L dust collector with cyclone filter
• Brushes rotating at a high speed effectively collect garbage in a garbage container, are easily removed and cleaned
• The fine filter holds small particles of dust and allergens
• Equipped with anti-confusion system that helps Roomba not get stuck in wires, cords, carpet fringe
• The side paddle brush allows very efficient cleaning along the baseboard and in the corners of the room
• Equipped with height difference sensors, recognizes steps, other height differences and avoids falling
• 1 year warranty

My findings after use:

    As the advertisement on the official website says, a height of 9.5 cm allows you to climb the vacuum cleaner under many furniture and clean it where you can’t get it with a regular vacuum cleaner with its straight brush. In fact, all my sofas in the house were lower than the robot, and he could not clean under the sofas, in general, like me with an ordinary vacuum cleaner, so we will set off a draw.

A virtual wall can be used to indicate the way out of the room; you may not believe the description on many websites of online stores about the possibility of cleaning several rooms at a time, this is not so. My room is approximately 56sq.m. the vacuum cleaner was cleaned for about 2 hours, there is not enough battery power to clean two rooms, so it is better to mark the exit from the room with a virtual wall if you do not have a door.



    The robot vacuum cleaner overcomes any carpets and wires with ease, for all the time there has not been a single case of jamming. Even having stopped at the computer table in the thick of wires, the robot himself got out of there without noticeable problems.

The noise level is lower than that of conventional vacuum cleaners, of course, it is not possible to sleep in the same room with a working robot, but in the next room you can quite sleep, you can program cleaning even at night if no one sleeps in this room.

You can see the operation of the device in the following video:


    The algorithm for finding a path to disgrace is simple - the robot simply rotates a certain degree to the side when it encounters an obstacle. All turns and distances are remembered and used after cleaning to return to the starting point. I couldn’t find out whether the robot uses this data when cleaning, I didn’t observe it for a very long time, but it seems that it searches for the way by the outrageously simple algorithm described just above, it just turns by chance and that’s all ...

Regarding the quality of cleaning, say good or I can’t say bad words, the dust bag was full, I collected something, it’s hard to say whether it’s better or worse than an ordinary vacuum cleaner.

Another video with the actual operation of the device:

About the class of devices in general:

    For widespread use, robotic vacuum cleaners are still expensive, see for yourself, the price of the cheapest Chinese model starts at 8,000 rubles , you will have to pay even more for a more advanced and high-quality product, when you can buy an ordinary more or less normal vacuum cleaner for 4,000 rubles but over time, the price will only go down. In the meantime, such vacuum cleaners will be a good tool for geeks and enthusiasts who do not like to clean themselves, and you can impress friends with such a machine.

I think that an excellent application for the device will be cleaning a small office, you can program the robot for morning cleaning of the office before the arrival of employees.

In general, my friend, for whom this robot vacuum cleaner was bought, presented it to his wife, who has been using the new device for a little over a month and is quite happy with the gift, so there is no question of regretting the money invested.

Are there any owners of robotic vacuum cleaners on the hub? Share your impressions about the use ...
If you have any questions about the device - please ask them in the comments, I will answer you with pleasure ...

And finally, a little bit of humor:


upd: on the habr there was already a study of the trajectory of the robot, here is what photo turned out with a long exposure: