Malfunctioning Roomba: bumper mechanism failure

This shows a disfunctional Roomba. It is without orientation, cannot track along walls nor go in one direction straight.

Initially, it starts the increasing circle, but as soon as it hits the wall, it gets disoriented. As if it's encountering an obstacle in front of it and needs to back up.

Suggestion on Roomba site to clean the cliff sensors: They are clean.

The fix was to clean the Roomba with compressed air and "slap" the front bumper. Apparently, the front bumper mechanism failed and got stuck with the first contact on the wall/baseboard which made the Roomba back up.


Now, it's running fine again.



It is the fourth Roomba going bad on me again, so I thought initially, but it got fixed.

2 x replaced under warranty, originally bought 11/2004.
1 x out of warranty 05/2006.

Problems were: Broken transmission, failure to start at all - completely dead, disorientation i. e. going in a circle on one spot, similar to the problem shown in the video.

I think Roombas are good, if they work, but one needs an extra unit to keep one going and be prepared to buy replacements when warranty expires.

And - out of warranty replacements although they cost less, they do not carry full warranty and do not contain a new battery.

Battery will need to be replaced periodically as well.

This movie shows an excited new Roomba user:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=I_QQr3EKZPo

See if he is still so excited after a year or two.

That's a great looking promotional video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqhIMFQNGCg

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Roomba
• Test
• Technology
• Cleaner
• Robot
• home

[Whack78]

Clean the cliff sensors, they're on the bottom of the bumper. If they get too dirty, it think's it's about to drive down stairs, and backs up.

[SorryAlrTaken]

Please read the video info up right (click "more info") - written when I posted the movie! Case was closed back then, almost 2 years ago.

And - FYI - it's not the cliff sensors, it's the bumper sensor mechanism which gets stuck somewhere and when it gets triggered for the first time by hitting the wall, it does not release and keeps sending the signal that there is a hindrance in front. That's why it backs up continuously.

[thehumanracesux]

@TrainTrackTrav it is funny be glad it didn't suck the wall paint off

[themaris0009]

Tap the bumper 10-20 times to dislodge any debris under the bumper

[mechmove]

Been using Roomba for a few years, had this same problem. At some point, cleaning with compressed air and slapping the bumper will not work. I actually took my Roomba completely apart this afternoon and did a "deep cleaning" with compressed air. This is the only thing that works now. Too bad it takes so long, but this is what it comes down to. The next Roomba model should have an quick "dissassemble" feature to faciliate easy cleaning, I cannot be the only one to have experienced this problem!

[78ibanez]

Wheel sensors need to be cleaned

[imayneer]

The issue is, you need to replace the IR LED at the front. If you were in the UK I could make it much durable for you. When I modified any Roomba, it sure to last longER.

[DarkMew1337]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO­OOOL

[imayneer]

A Roomba cost about $399 (Made in China). Roomba cost $699 (Made in USA) LOL

[maleman876]

i have this same model, with this same problem. i went into the diagnostic mode to see what the sensor was doing, and sure enough it was sticking. blew the whole unit out with an air compressor and it seems to be fine now.

[TrainTrackTrav]

I'm sorry, I can't help cracking up at 0:28. It's how it just keeps hitting the wall. LOL. Again, sorry.