Review: iRobot Roomba 4150 Robotic Vacuum

“Look at him go, he’s so cute, he’s so amazing! Awe, I love him!”

Yep, that’s exactly what you will be saying if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who purchase an iRobot Roomba Vacuum.

I got mine at Khol’s about 2 years ago for a nifty price tag of $199 on sale. Yay!

I knew Mom was going to love this one and all of us would benefit from it, seeing how we all seem to have too busy of a schedule (too lazy) to vacuum the house ourselves.

Once we got it home, we had to wait a good 5 to 6 hours for the Roomba to fully charge before we could see what the hype was all about.

Once our little guys’ green light gave us the go, we pressed the clean button and ‘doo doo doh doo doo doo’ he began. (That’s the cute welcome noise the vacuum makes when you turn it on. It’s almost like its saying ‘Roomba reporting for duty!’

We were all skeptical on this iRobot vacuum. We figured he would get stuck in corners, or that he would die pretty quickly seeing how it’s not the sturdiest little vacuum in the world.

Once he got going though we realized how much of a bully he really is. Don’t let his loose rickety exterior fool you; this vacuum can take a beating.

The Roomba 4150 is the cheaper of the Roomba models simply because it does not come with a ‘wall’ or a self-charging dock.

Honestly we didn’t need either. Our living room is the only carpet we have in the entire house, which is already closed off, so we were not worried about Roomba falling down stairs or dying because we didn’t get the self-charger.

We may have been too lazy to vacuum before Roomba, but we surely could plug him back in to charge when he ran out of juice.

Our robot vacuum is not too big in size, he’s just as wide as a large serving dish, and does not take up much room at all.
Oh not good enough right? You want to know the technical junk right? Well the vacuum 13 inches in diameter, and just about 4 inches tall. It weighs about 12 or 13 pounds. Happy now!? Good.

It has a sensor that resembles a giant smiling mouth. When this sensor hits something the vacuum simply rotates a little bit and moves on.

On the bottom there is a spinning cleaning brush that sweeps in dirt from corners that Roomba’s circular structure cannot reach. It is recommended to clean this brush at least every week. This particular model also comes with an extra brush.

What’s neat is when the vacuum finds a dirtier spot, a little light will come on saying dirt detected, and Roomba will spin around in a circular motion until no more dirt is detected.

*It is recommended not to leave large items such as socks and clothing on the floor. Roomba will try to suck them up and it could jam its mechanisms. Just like with a regular vacuum, you wouldn’t want to attempt to suck up socks.

Not only that, but you can purchase the self-charging unit and wall unit at any time in the future. Just because this model does not come with it, does not mean it cannot be purchased separately. It can.

Functions:

SPOT

Our Roomba has four buttons on his head. One is for spot cleaning. This is similar to when the Roomba detects dirt. When set on ‘spot’ the vacuum will focus on one specific designated spot until you either turn him off, or switch his function.

MAX

The Roomba will clean and clean until it runs out of juice. This is great for when you want to leave for work and have the vacuum clean while you are away.

CLEAN

This is the usual button pressed on our Roomba. It will pretty much clean the house for an hour and turn off.

POWER

Do I really need to explain that one? All right, why not? Yep this is how you turn it on, and turn it off.

ROOMBA NEEDS TO STAY CLEAN TOO!

Between every cleaning you should empty out the dirt collection bin.
It is also recommended to keep the brushes and wheels free of hair that may cause malfunctions.

Why We Love It...

-Well nothing is better than having someone do your dirty work without moaning and complaining about it, and this is exactly what the Roomba does. It does all of the dirty work that we normally hate doing. It’s really a blessing and saves us at least 2 hours a week.

-It never misses a beat. I mean that, I have never once seen any particles or dirt on the carpet after letting Roomba at it for about an hour.

-He cleans up tons of dog hair, that usually gets stuck within carpet fibers. I was glad to see that for something so small it had a lot of sucking power.

-It comes with an additional cleaning brush, and we haven’t had to change it yet, and it’s been 4 months now.

-It can take a pretty good beating, it rams itself into walls and so far nothing has broken on the machine, so it is safe to say that it’s going to last for quite some time.

-It’s bagless. No more bags! Freedom!!!
Yep all you have to do is dump the dirty tray and that’s it. This saves us big time!

-The way he bounces from wall to wall reminds me of an old Atari video game. It’s pretty neat.

He Can Be Naughty Too Though…

Like I said, Roomba can take a beating, but it’s not fun when he beats up your things while he happily goes on his way. I don’t know how many times he has knocked over my DVD shelf causing them all to come crashing down, all 100 or more of them. So make sure you keep an eye on Roomba around things that it could easily knock over.

-For such a little thing, it sure is loud. It produces the same noisy racket a regular vacuum cleaner would. So don’t expect this robot to be quite and peaceful as he makes his way about the house.

-iRobot has a hard time getting on to other carpets within the room. For instance if you have a smaller carpet mat in front of the door, Roomba may think it is a wall and totally back off of it once its wheels hit it. Roomba has some pretty nifty looking heavy-duty wheels; only it never really uses them to reach anything not level with the rest of the rooms flooring.

Overall:

iRobot Roomba 4150 is a great new addition to the family. We are happy to watch as he makes his way around the house cleaning everything in his path. He has become more like a pet than a vacuum and everyone who sees him in action wants to know, how much, where to get it, and what is it?

Well it is out high tech futuristic maid coming in at around $200 at Khol’s. (You can find iRobot in many stores. I know Costco is selling them, as well as Sears. I’m sure it won’t be long till Walmart is carrying a generic version soon as well. Heck they may already be selling them!)

Roomba is a definite ‘go ahead and purchase product’ in my opinion. This robotic vacuum will save you time, energy and even money. It has for us!

Although it may not clean as wonderful as a standard handheld vacuum, it does a wonderful job at picking up any crumbs or dirt on the floor.