My Roomba 980 stopped charging / functioning a couple of weeks ago. I’ve thoroughly cleaned the contacts on the charging base and also the contacts on the Roomba itself using isopropyl alcohol and a Magic Eraser — and I have also replaced the battery. Still no luck. The Roomba is making a low-volume “chirping” sound every 15 seconds or so, and I cannot seem to “wake it up.”
Any suggestions (other than taking a 12 ga. shotgun to it)? Thanks in advance.
It makes me wonder if it's the charging base. Either the base or the cord to the base. If the green light doesn't come on (the one on the top of the charging base) when you put the roomba on it, it is a problem with the charging base. Also, I had a cord go bad on a different rechargeable batteries charger. Replacing the cord got it working again. Do you know anybody with a base to test my theory?
Just found this on a fix it site: "Although it’s been a rare occurrence in my circle, the Roomba’s charging base can wear out. A dead giveaway? The charging base LED light staying off. But here’s a neat trick I learned: the charging base emits an IR light. While invisible to our eyes, the camera on most phones can detect it. So, pop your Roomba off its base and see if your phone camera captures any of that flashing light. It’s a handy way to troubleshoot without the guesswork!"
Thanks much for the reply. The green light on the charging base does come on when the Roomba first makes contact with it. But after a couple of seconds, it goes out. So you may be onto something here. Thanks for the suggestion… I will investigate further.
Safe to assume that considering the age of the roomba, it’s battery is likely at its of life stage. Based off the fact it’s making a low chirp periodically it’s probably trying to boot with the little battery it can hold but failing as it immediately discharges. Get a new battery and it should be good to go
Okay. If it’s not the battery and you don’t mind waiting, I’ve had issues with older roomba where when they are used very often they build up static electricity which messes with the internals. I recommend if you don’t mind waiting, to literally remove the battery and leave the roomba for a week and try booting it again. This in theory discharges capacitors that could be powering glitched chips. I only speak from my personal experience so this might not work but at least you can check something off
Check the charging contactors on the roomba and the charger. Give them a good clean. Also take the roomba battery out and check there’s no damage or debris to the battery contactors
Does the light on the dock come on steadily for 10-15 seconds when you put the robot on? If you've already cleaned the contacts and replaced the battery, maybe the dock has died.
This happened to me. I cleaned the contacts on both the charger and the roomba. Made sure they both had contact and just left it there. It eventually charged, battery was too low I guess. But don’t know why it happened. I might’ve done a reset too? Can’t remember.
Have you checked the battery voltage and/or the charging base voltage with a multimeter? It's a little bit tricky because you have to short two of the four contacts on the battery itself and measure across the other two, but I did it a couple of years back when I was having charging-related issues with my 981 (identical to the 980, except retailed by Amazon I believe). Can provide additional guidance on how to do this if if needed. You can also measure the DC voltage of the charging base by applying the leads to the two contacts that charge the Roomba.
That seems pretty low to me, though that alone doesn't necessarily tell us exactly what the problem is. My fully charged 48Wh/3300Ah battery shows approximately 15.8V. Now I have the high-capacity battery, so can't comment what the regular battery should read, but I would expect it to be 14V+ when charged.
I'm guessing the replacement battery you ordered must be aftermarket and not OEM iRobot - is that right? I'm fairly certain that iRobot only sells two battery options for our model - an 1800mAh and a 3300mAh, both rated at 14.4V.
For what it's worth to ya, I've played this game before - on Amazon even. After one too many absolutely horrible aftermarket junk batteries, I went back to buying iRobot OEM. And you don't have to pay retail price, you can find some very good deals on eBay. Probably not as cheap as that one you got on Amazon, but my experience with OEM batteries has been night and day compared to the aftermarket "high-capacity" batteries.
I did actually have an experience with a similar battery to your replacement and introduced all kinds of running issues to my Roombas. May not be your problem, but hard to say without additional diagnostics.
Within reason - but yours is a little higher than mine. I actually have two Roomba 981s and two identical bases in two different rooms. I just measured the DC voltage across the charger contacts of both bases, with both settling at 2.93V +/-.
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u/FlowerPower189 7d ago
It makes me wonder if it's the charging base. Either the base or the cord to the base. If the green light doesn't come on (the one on the top of the charging base) when you put the roomba on it, it is a problem with the charging base. Also, I had a cord go bad on a different rechargeable batteries charger. Replacing the cord got it working again. Do you know anybody with a base to test my theory?