New from iRobot: Roomba 560

Brand new and getting lots of love.

Farhad Manjoo at Machinist just published a glowing review of one of the newest iRobot Roombas (specifically the 560, $350.). We officially are claiming this new 500 series as the straw that broke the camel's back of our hesitation to buy our first robot. It's pretty exciting in that "embarrassed to be this excited about a cleaning product" way.

Manjoo also owns an earlier incarnation of the Roomba so his review is very complete, making comparisons and pointing out the improvements that he has found with this generation. Some excerpts below...

"IRobot's big improvement is in cleaning power. The Roomba 560's rotating brushes are hardier than those of the old model, and its vacuum is more effective; consequently it'll pick up trash -- coins, twist ties, paper, nuggets of food, dead leaves, and all manner of other dust and debris -- that the old version would just glide over.

The 560's traction is also better than that of previous Roombas. I've got a half-inch-high rug in my living room that my Discovery would often fail to negotiate. The new Roomba climbs up and cleans the rug, eliminating a spot I used to have to do by hand.

I also found the new Roomba exceptionally capable of disentangling itself from trouble. The habitat of the tech reporter is characterized by an overgrowth of cables. Stray audio and video cords can be found littering every corner of my house, and my old Roomba often slurps up one of these and gets stuck.

The 560 is much more discerning in what it eats. Once, it sucked in an RCA video cable that was hanging from my TV unit. After a few unpleasant sounds -- call it indigestion -- the Roomba spit out the cable and went along with its work. "

Read the complete review here. Get the official info from iRobot here.

We know that there are Roomba lovers out there...please share your thoughts below. Oh - and we're dying to know - did you give your Roomba a name?

Comments (13)

Nice...I'll have to pick this one up someday. I love the old Roomba but I was pretty disappointed that I could not let it roam around by itself when I would be gone (never figured it out).

My one Roomba tale...I did a "Homer Simpson" to get my first Roomba. I got it as a gift for my parents knowing full well that they would give up on it--making it mine for the taking.

The funny part--they were looking for it a few months after I kidnapped it.

I would love to get one but my shag rug would annihilate and destroy it.

I just bought a Miele canister vacuum a couple of weeks ago and can empathize with the unbridled lust for cleaning that I never felt before. I vacuumed the ceiling! It was so fun!

Ours (no idea what model number) is named Dozer.

It eats the hay the guinea pigs throw out of their cage. That makes me want to hug it.

I lessthanthree our Roombas. We have a 650 sq-ft apartment and two Roombas. This struck me as overkill when I got the second one, but then I realised that I'd probably never have to vacuum under the sofa again, and I became gleeful.

Our older model was the Red, and performed well when I remembered to get him going (he's relegated to the bedroom now, which requires cable triage before every run, aka unschedulable). Our new hotness is a Discovery Scheduler (I got it from Woot!), which is amazing -- I scheduled it once, and now when I come home from work on Monday ,Wednesday or Friday, the angled lines and spirals on our carpet tell me the apartment's clean. Hint: having to keep the floor for your Roomba is another psychological nudge away from clutter.

I don't think I like the idea of a soothing female voice coming from a Roomba. The beeps of ours are very cute -- a human voice is too close to the Uncanny Valley for my liking!

We named ours Roomba 1 and Roomba 2.

P.S. When I got the second Roomba, I considered Roombadome.

TWO ROOMBAS ENTER, ONE ROOMBA LEAVES.

I have the Discovery and yes, it is named. I enjoy it and am very glad I bought it. It is the common enemy that I swear has gotten the cats to get along better. I agree with subbes that it does encourage me to keep things off the floor, and choosing furniture that it can sweep under has helped expand the sight lines of the apartment, giving the impression of a larger space.

It sounds like the improvements in this new model are fantastic. But as long as my Discovery is working, I don't imagine replacing it. Along with the Dirt Devil Kone, which we also recently purchsed, I think we've got the perfect cleaning system for our place.

Roomba frightens me. If you have pets, it probably frightens them as well. My dog growls at it whenever it comes around.

that mad max reference was hilarious

Contrary to everything I've said about robots, DO NOT BUY a Roomba. THEY ARE PIECES OF JUNK and I'm so irritated at that company right now. They don't do out-of-warrantee-repairs, you have to buy a whole new one. They don't last more than a year. GARBAGE. But they do make for fun videos with cats. If you have a cat you want to humilate, get one. Otherwise, don't.

I've just ordered a Roomba...it'll be here next week. Have been looking at them since their introduction. Seems reviews are about 50-50 love/hate. I'll take 50% chance that it'll do what I need it to do, while having a long life.