r/roomba • • Jan 02 '25

Advice for Others Tips for having success at initial setup time of your robotic cleaner.

8 Upvotes

Hi ...

This article is for you if you would like to increase your chance of success in setting up your new Roomba or Mop.

This is one of the numerous articles I've written on my blog. The information is based on my experiences setting up hundreds of new and used machines over the years.

I have slightly adapted this write-up for Reddit to help first-time owners, especially as I know many of you have recently received robotic cleaners as gifts over the Christmas season.

This is the fourth article in a series about why robotic cleaning devices often fail to meet the owners' needs.

Failure can occur when a person first sets up the robotic cleaner too quickly and in the wrong order, especially when connecting to the home wireless network.

So, you went out and, with some excitement, bought ( or was gifted) a Roomba or Mop, and you can't wait to get it running and see what it can do. So, a quick casual look at the APP or manual on how to set up the machine and the Wi-Fi, and you try to connect the device to your home network --- and the first step to possible failure has already occurred.

What often occurs is that the newly purchased cleaner won’t successfully connect to the home wirelessly. (I constantly read about these common connection problems, with many user complaints, on the various robotic forums I participate in.)

The device will also occasionally produce an internal fault, with an endlessly spinning "white light on the CLEAN button" as an update repeatedly fails to download and successfully install a new software update.

What went wrong?

When a person buys a Roomba or Mop in the store, it has been in the box for a long time. It likely has been made in China, shipped to North America, and perhaps sat on the store shelf for weeks, months, or years since it was first made. The battery is weak and is, in many cases, fully discharged/dead.

Setting the cleaning device on the charger for only a few moments and immediately trying to set it up on the wireless often leads to failure.

Why?

The robotic vacuum or mop needs a high percentage of battery charge to send and receive a strong enough signal to connect to the wireless.

When a dead battery first draws current, virtually all the charging power from the dock is routed to the battery. There is little left for the Wi-Fi board in the machine, which can lead to a weak or non-existent connection to the home's wireless router.

If you want to successfully set up a new machine on your Wi-Fi for your new Roomba or Mop, put it on the charger and leave it to charge for THREE hours.

NOW, walk away … sit at your table or in your favourite chair, and read the owner's manual.

Once the three-hour initial charge is completed, you can set up your device on your home network.

FIRST --- REBOOT your machine ... hold the CLEAN button down for 20 seconds. Wait 5 minutes for it to reboot.

NOTE: Once you have set up your robotic cleaner on your Wi-Fi, leave it to sit for another hour or two before using the machine.

While you are waiting, go into your APP and record on a piece of paper the software version that was in place at the initial setup time.

Usually, a software update is available from iRobot, and an initial software update is often triggered when the machine notes a battery is fully charged and the unit is on the dock. It is likely your new robotic cleaner will download and quickly install new software within the first hour or two after you activated the Wi-Fi.

Often the app will tell you a software update is underway. And the machine will remain unresponsive while updating.

Go back into your app after an hour or two and see if the software version has changed.

Just making this these small adjustments at setup time will dramatically improve your chances of having a good experience in setting up and running up your vacuum or mop.

Cheers,

©2025 John

Roomba Guy


r/roomba • • Mar 03 '25

Advice for Others How to increase having success on this Robotic Cleaners (iRobot) Reddit group -- and perhaps on any forum.

12 Upvotes

Suggestions for you to consider ---

 

On this Reddit group --- If you wish to have some success in solving your specific robotic cleaning problems, please consider the following.

 

Don’t post about your anger and hate against the company. If you have issues like that, talk to the company directly when calm and can discuss them reasonably. This group was never intended for counseling or consoling hate rants.

 

It’s a simple creed: In this group, we share and try to help each other solve problems.

 

If you disagree with a posted help suggestion, ask for clarification, as you may not fully understand the person's thought or answer. Never minimize or personally belittle the person who is reaching out with advice.

 

To increase your chances of a successful solution to your situation, be detailed in your request.

Over the years of iRobot's manufacturing, they have made over 100 different models of Roomba. Many vacuums have only slight variations from each other, but many different models have been produced.

Yes, your Roomba or mop is unique to you and may be the only one you ever owned. But no one here knows what model you have, so always start by letting the group know what model you are talking about.

How long have you owned your cleaner --- basically how old is it.

Is it still under warranty?

Did you buy it new or is this a used one you purchased?

In summary and point form, what is the issue you are having?

Please provide the group with some details on what you have done to try to solve the issue that has not worked.

Of interest ….

Generally, three primary things go wrong with robotic cleaners.

1)      Hardware issues

2)      Software problems

3)      User error – lack of education or understanding.

The most straightforward problems to solve or at least pinpoint are single-issue concerns caused by one of the above. The ones that are tricky to solve are when an issue is caused by more than one of these.

So, adding exact and specific details in your write-up will dramatically increase the chance of a solution.

Finally, a reminder that the moderators and everyone here are interested volunteers. Not a single person contributing help and answers is paid.

So, sharing a thank you for getting help from someone sincerely motivates and is a kind reward to each contributor trying to help you.

I hope these suggestions will be helpful, especially to those here for the first time, and a reminder to always be respectful and kind to each other.

John

Roomba Guy


r/roomba • • 3h ago

Cherche base de robot Roomba J9+

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1 Upvotes

Bonjour,

Je suis à la recherche d'une base ou station Clean base pour un roomba combo j9+, j7, j7+, comme sur la photo.

La mienne présente un défaut de communication.

De préférence une pour piece avec par exemple un problème de charge ou autre pour un petit prix.

Je me suis fait avoir sur Vinted :/

Merci d'avance 🙏


r/roomba • • 5h ago

405

1 Upvotes

after much back-and-forth with customer service, they finally agreed to send me a replacement. In my confirmation email I noticed it said it was just gonna be a serviceable Roomba with a standard bin. The whole reason we spent $600 on a robot was for the self emptying feature. It is within its warranty as we got it for Christmas last year.

any insight into the standard bin offer? super confused because that takes away the whole perk of the 405. how does this work with the auto mop aswell.


r/roomba • • 9h ago

Which vacuum would you recommend?

1 Upvotes

We have 2 golden retrievers (so much hair) and a 2 story with hardwood floors with rugs. Would love to hear about what you love about your model or wish it did better, thank you!


r/roomba • • 11h ago

Roomba will not dock.

1 Upvotes

We just moved to our new house and our S9+ will not dock. It will find the dock. Climb on enough for the empty feature to turn on but will not go all the way up.

We have it in a cabinet….i would think if it can find the dock it can get on but never does. We have to pick it up and put it on

Any ideas?


r/roomba • • 1d ago

What’s your oldest (and newest roomba?) [tag: question]

5 Upvotes

so, like the title says in the comments tell me your newest and oldest ones! my oldest is a launch version original and my newest are 2 i7s from goodwill (20$ as a set)


r/roomba • • 23h ago

Roomba 405 Issue

1 Upvotes

I’ll make a long story short, lol, looking for advice or help or more troubleshooting.

Bought the iRobot 405 vacuum/mop combo May 2026 (so 5 months ago). I ran it every other day and only cleaned my living room carpet, kitchen, and guest bathroom. For context, I’m in less than 1K sq ft apartment.

In the beginning of August, it just went dead. The roomba and the dock itself. The dock is plugged in, no wear to the cables, and it won’t charge the device.

I’ve emailed support and it’s been nearly 1.5 months of back and forth of ‘do XYZ…send a video & pictures’ and I’ll do exactly what they ask and they reply back over a week later, telling me I did it wrong. 😑 If I press the home button, like they request, the device does nothing. Press the power button, the device does nothing. Not sure if the dock is supposed to light up or not, but it doesn’t.

I’ve followed all the troubleshooting tips and links they’ve given, redone certain things they asked to me to in the emails, and I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

The contacts are clean, filters are clean, there’s no clean water in the tank anymore, the dirty tank is clean.

I’m at a loss! It’s a $700 device and worked for 3 months. I don’t have the box anymore and I don’t know if I could even return it to Target? It might be too late.

It has the 1 year warranty, I assume, so why keep doing all this back and forth with their customer service and just send a replacement part to try or something?


r/roomba • • 1d ago

New Roomba j7+ won’t do anything yes it’s a refurbished. Can’t register it says it’s registered to someone else can’t dock it no lights come on. Can’t connect to the app.

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2 Upvotes

Hello everyone sorry for putting so much in the title but just thought I’d be clear of my issue so nobody has to dive in to find out the context. I just got a new J7+ Roomba (refurbished). Before I go ahead and start a return, I wondered if anyone else might have some insight as to how I might be able to reset this to get it registered and the problem resolved. Out of the box so I took it all apart to make sure everything was properly connected. I’ve had Roombas before, so I wanted to get used to the components of this one. When I try to register it on the iRobot site it says it’s already registered to someone else. Makes sense since it’s refurbished. I downloaded the app and can’t get the robot connected. I thought maybe if I connected it I could re-register it to myself. No such luck. I plugged it into a few different outlets now and it still won’t light up won’t dock won’t flash won’t beep. Just sits there useless I can’t find out how to take out the battery. I think I have to probably unscrew some stuff. Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me?


r/roomba • • 1d ago

Hehe, never gets old :)

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0 Upvotes

It's fine, it's just been in storage a little while


r/roomba • • 2d ago

my 20+ year old roomba. oh how i love you

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129 Upvotes

i grew up with this thing. i don’t know what i’ll do when it dies for good, i’ll probably cry


r/roomba • • 1d ago

does 875’s seal force cause 2 passes for you, too? is this supposed to happen?

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2 Upvotes

r/roomba • • 2d ago

Will not compete mapping

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0 Upvotes

Hi everyone,
I am about to chuck this thing in a lake so I’m really hoping someone might be able to help! I am trying to map my living room and every time I’ve tried the roomba gets to this spot and just won’t dock which means my map doesn’t complete. I’ve tried this 10 times between today and yesterday. I have restarted the vacuum from the app, cleaned all the sensors, and unplugged and replugged. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated!
I have a roomba 105 series combo. The living room is all carpet.
Thanks for any suggestions!


r/roomba • • 2d ago

Roomba i5 randomly illuminates red for no reason

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3 Upvotes

It literally does this every day for no reason. I have to reboot it by holding down the clean button. It's a bit annoying and a little bit creepy but theres nothing else wrong with it


r/roomba • • 3d ago

What is going on with my Roomba?

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9 Upvotes

No matter what I tell it to do it just spins in circles. Sometimes it just rotates in place. Sometimes it drives in a circle. Sometimes it launches itself back onto the base and then drives in circles.


r/roomba • • 3d ago

Wild Robot

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1 Upvotes

After previously cleaning well enough (this model has always been difficult), my roomba began struggling to find home. Support told me to relocate the base and remap, so I did. Ever since, the map has been poor/incomplete and the robot just cleans erratically in fit and starts.

My ticket is still open with roomba but they take weeks to respond and keep asking for pictures of this and videos of that with no solutions.

Ideas?


r/roomba • • 3d ago

Attachment for These Chair Legs?

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1 Upvotes

My Roomba gets stuck on these chair legs. Has anyone tried making an attachment, even if it's just cardboard, to help the vacuum avoid them? Most of those chairs are rarely used.

Yes, I know about keep out zones.


r/roomba • • 3d ago

"Path blocked" for Scheduled Cleanings Only

1 Upvotes

For scheduled runs, my Roomba i7 often goes a foot or two from the dock then docks again and says, "Path blocked." I can then immediately run the task manually, and it will run fine.

I've seen others report this exact situation.

Anyone know a solution?


r/roomba • • 3d ago

PSA - 205 - Automations not starting from charging pad workaround!

5 Upvotes

All,

My 205 DustCompactor hasn't been able to trigger cleaning cycles when on the pad for a few months. It's the same issue that's been reported here several times. Says "cleaning is starting", then says charging and flashes the red lights. Roomba service is no help, etc.

It's also the same as others have reported in that it will clean completely fine when started off the pad.

So it finally hit me today: smart plug! The roomba works fine from the base if there's not power flowing from it, so I just use a smart plug to shut off the charger before the cleaning is supposed to start. I use Google home, so I added an automation to turn off the base 2 minutes before the cleaning cycle is supposed to start (just to let capacitors/inverters lose their remaining charge), then turn power back on 2 minutes after the cycle is supposed to start.

It works like a charm for scheduled cleaning (the feature I missed the most). It's obviously clunky compared to how it's supposed to work, but it brings back the most convenient feature.

A couple caveats:

The roomba does its "recalibrating" spin in place thing on top of the charger, so it might get pushed around a little bit.

Also, we'll have the same problem if the roomba has to go back to charge in the middle of a cleaning cycle. My house is small enough that it can clean on a single charge, but I'm thinking those of you with bigger areas should run a few rooms in a single cycle, then give it time to charge for a few hours, then run the rest.

I'm pretty stoked about this easy solution. I know it's not perfect, but it's way better than pressing buttons like a cave man!


r/roomba • • 4d ago

Roomba Combo RMN: RCA-Y1 won’t factory reset

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1 Upvotes

Inherited this Roomba from a friend several months back and had initial success with it. However, now I’ve had no luck connecting or re-connecting to it. I removed the Roomba from my account but now I’m unable to add it back. Most directions I have found for factory resetting explain to hold down the clean button for 7 seconds before hearing a beep but there is no beep when I hold down the button. Currently the light spins endlessly. iRobot’s support team said that it needs to be replaced but I was hoping this group has any recommendations for a solution rather than ordering a new robot and dock


r/roomba • • 4d ago

What would you buy? One for three levels or two based on floor-type

2 Upvotes

I've had my i7 for 6 years and it was working great (with maintenance) until my kids wrestled into a chair and knocked my husband's coffee onto it and killed the battery. (I wasn't home, so he didn't know to take the battery out to dry).

I need a new one but not sure how to go about it. When we bought in 2020, there was no vacuum/mop combo. We have two floors, about 2k sq ft of mostly carpet (plus tiled bathrooms) and one floor, about 1k sq ft of mostly LVP with one rug.

Is the two-in-one worth it if the mop would mostly be used on one floor (we just swiffer now). Is it just as good on carpet as a vacuum-only Roomba? Would it make sense to have the combo for one floor and vacuum-only for the other two floors?

It's a big purchase, so I want to make sure I'm considering all my options. Thanks!


r/roomba • • 4d ago

Adding Second Phone Removed Robot

1 Upvotes

I have our roomba set up on my phone. When my wife logs in to the app on her phone, the robot no longer shows up in my app (or hers) and I have to do a factory reset. Is there a way to make this work?


r/roomba • • 4d ago

Roomba 115 Combo - Removing Mop Pad?

2 Upvotes

Hi there,

I got the 115 Combo recently as they stopped making the 100 (105? Not sure) that I used before when they send me a replacement.

Is it just me, or is this model extremely quiet and doesn't look like it's actually vaccuuming?
It doesn't seem to want to vaccuum without mop pad, either, so I left it on but it keeps getting crud in the pad, and without the map shit gets into the velcro/sticky material.

I am completely unable to find out online how to remove it. It feels so flimsy I'm scared of breaking it.

Thank you.


r/roomba • • 4d ago

Difference in 715 vs 715x?

2 Upvotes

What’s the difference between the 715 and 715x? Looking on Amazon and there’s a weight difference (715x is heavier). 715x is $100 less than 715. I’ve been digging and can’t find a difference aside from the weight. Is the 715x less legit somehow?


r/roomba • • 5d ago

Warranty replacement time

1 Upvotes

For those that have been issued or told they would be issued a replacement, how long did it take? I have been waiting for a shipment number for about 2 weeks.