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My roomba is going around in circles - taking apart a Roomba

alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
Boomer, my roomba, seems to be just going around in circles. Have any of you ever had this happen to your roomba?

Is this some kind of death spiral? Boomer is way past its warranty expiration so I guess I can open her up and have a look inside. I have checked all the obvious stuff like cleaning the brushes and cleaning the sensors on the outside, yet she is still in a spin...
 
alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
They do work with some minor caveats: the stock battery sucks, and they don't climb stairs. Also, when they go into a death spiral like mine, they don't go anywhere.
 
D

Dialog

TRIBE Member
They're noisy and break down all the time. I've lost track of how many times my partner—who has two—has had parts break, gets replacements shipped to him, only for something else to malfunction not long after. Bullshit says I.

Also, understandable, I still shake my head and chuckle every time I notice the little dust bunny forming just behind the Roomba recharger, right where it can't reach. Everytime we set it to clean while we're out, it's fun to guess and then see where in the house Roomba died or got tangled in something.
 
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alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
Well I have taken it apart down to the circuit boards, cleaned it, and put it back together and it worked for about 5 minutes and then began circling around in one place again.

From what I can tell, the circle problem on the Roomba 500 series is very common and involves ordering parts from ebay, soldering, etc. It is not a simple fix and it is not something I signed up for when I bought the little sucker.

Oh well, back to the industrial Shopvac I guess.
 
alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
You know what? As a last resort I gave it a good slap and now it seems to be working prerfectly! Crosses fingers.
 
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