in this video, I'm going to be doing a review and a full demo
of the iRobot Roomba i4 model which is exactly the same as the i3 model but exclusive to Costco.
So let's get started.
The i4 Roomba, exclusively made for Costco, comes with the automatic
disposal, the robot vacuum and a couple of extra bonuses.
Along with the power cable which I've already connected to my disposal you'll find two
high-efficiency filters, an extra dirt disposal bag which can hold up to 60 days worth of dirt.
The bag also has this sliding cover so as you're taking it out of the canister
it'll seal itself shut so that no dirt or dust can escape from it.
And also a dual-mode virtual wall barrier which will keep the robot out of the places that you
don't want to be cleaned by either creating a virtual wall or a halo.
The i3 and i4 models also come with wi-fi features. Download the iRobot HOME
app on your smart device and you'll be able to create new jobs or set up a cleaning schedule.
Scroll down to history and you'll be able to see where and how your Roomba has been cleaning.
To replace the bag in the dirt disposal,
open the lid on the canister and slide the bag upwards and outwards and then insert the new
one using the guided rails until it slides all the way down and then close the lid.
To connect the power cable, I did have to flip it over so that I could
get proper access to it and then it also comes with this nice cord wrap.
Once the disposal is all connected simply line up
the sensors on the robot vacuum with the sensors on the dirt disposal.
And you'll also see there's a nice place for the wheels to sit.
Once the robot's in place it'll take a few seconds
for it to wake up and then press the clean button and watch it go.
The dirt disposal measures at 12.2 inches wide, 19 inches in height and 15.1 inches in depth.
The robot vacuum measures at 3.6 inches in height and about 13.2 inches diameter.
There is a sensor on top and also a light sensor around the front side
and this also acts like a bumper as well and it weighs about 7.4 pounds making it quite heavy.
And the flashing red ring light indicates it needs to be charged. 'Low battery. Please charge'.
So putting it to the test, I tried out some fine glitter because I do have a lot of arts
and crafts going on in my house. I also threw down some craft feathers and also tiny bits of paper.
I also kept it really close to the stair because I wanted to test out the cliff sensors.
I did stay in front of it just to make sure in case it did fall I was prepared to catch it
but it did seem to do a really good job.
It didn't fall at and I did try it a couple of
times on the stairs and stood by it to watch it but now that I'm comfortable
and I know that it's not gonna fall I think I'm happy enough to leave it on its own.
I tested it on a mat which had some curled edges on it and it seemed to perform really
well it managed to climb over it. At one point it did get stuck on one of the corners of the mat
but it seemed to untangle itself and it made its way back.
The other thing was since I was doing it in the ironing area the iron wire was hanging down and
it did get tangled in there. So just be careful if it does get tangled into a wire that's hanging
it's most likely going to pull the object down and could also potentially ruin the robot vacuum.
Since the dirt disposal is downstairs and I carried the robot vacuum upstairs,
once it's completed it's cleaning it'll make a sound and a solid white ring light will turn on
so I don't need to worry about it trying to find its way back home from upstairs.
When checking how well it cleaned it did, unfortunately, miss one of the feathers and some
glitter specks were still left on the carpet but it did clean up all the pieces of paper.
If I flip it over you can see that the bin is pretty full and you can see all the small pieces
of paper in there as well and because of the rubber rollers there are no bristles in there
so there's no hair or anything that's going to be stuck in the rollers
which is definitely one of the great features of the Roomba.
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I also tested it out in a bedroom where I do have a lot of furniture like chairs and desks
and a bed. I wanted to see how well it would be able to go around each of the furniture items
and clean as much as it can it did a really good job. It worked its way
around almost everything without getting stuck.
And it even found its way under the bed and was able to find its way out of it.
This is one of the biggest features I like about the robot vacuum is it definitely helps
to clean underneath these heavy items that you just can't move all the time.
You can just send the robot underneath and it'll just clean all the way to the back of
the edge and against the wall where you just can't gain easy access to.
The Roomba had no problem climbing onto the mats in the kitchen and it was able to clean
underneath the cupboards as much as it could get under
but I did find that it just kept going on to the same side over and over again.
You can see that it just constantly keeps staying onto the right side and it's not
cleaning the left side so I ended up having to pick it up and turn it around and I tried to get
it to clean the other side of the kitchen but again it just kept going back to the same side
so in the end I picked it up and I put it down and I switched it on to spot mode because I wanted it
to clean this area. That's when I noticed that the cupboard is a little bit lower so
it couldn't actually reach under there. So it still managed to do the spot cleaning.
Just couldn't get in all the way to the end of the cupboard until it got off the mat. And then
it was able to slide and get into the edge of the cupboard. Of course no fault to the Roomba here.
So in the app in Settings, the cleaning pass is default set to automatic. You can set this to do
only one cleaning pass rather than two or more and that should speed up the cleaning time a little.
Although I still felt like it was still going over the same areas more than once
so I'm not sure if that's a software glitch or if it's just that because I was watching
it so much that it felt like it just kept doing the same area over and over again.
So once the cleaning was done I wanted to send it back home. So I manually pressed the
home button and it started looking for its home. But it took a really, really long time
and I ended up having to pick it up and move it a little bit closer to the cleaning base
just so that it can get there quicker. It just kept going round and round in circles
and it just couldn't find its base. I think it took almost eight or nine minutes until
the red light came on telling me that the battery was low. So the thing to remember here is that
the Roomba will perform better if it starts off from its base. It will be able to know when its
battery is running low and it will reach home and recharge itself well before the battery runs low.
In this instance, I think I picked up the Roomba and I put it in the room that I wanted it,
just for the purposes of making this video, but I have run it from its base and let it just
wander around the house and it has actually gone back to its base well before the battery was low
and has recharged itself and then resumed its cleaning once it's fully charged again.
And it does make a loud sound when it's emptying its bin.
It takes about 13 seconds for the sound until it starts to go into charge mode.
Press the spot mode if you want to clean a certain area and it will spiral outwards
about three feet and then back inwards again.
And since we have a pet parrot in the house, the virtual wall is definitely a
bonus for us. I can just pop this down where I don't want the Roomba to go.
And sometimes I find that the Roomba is just bouncing from room to room especially
where there is no door in the way so I like to use the virtual wall
just to stop it from going into the other room before it's cleaned the first room.
Let's talk about cleaning and taking care of the Roomba.
First of all, these two sensors need to be cleaned regularly so that the
dirt disposal base can detect the Roomba once you've placed it on there.
Sometimes, if you find that your disposal is not working it's probably because it can't detect the
sensors. So make sure that these are cleaned and also the four cliff sensors and also the
floor tracking sensor. Here is the edge sweeping brush. Depending on usage this should be cleaned
at least once or twice a month. And to replace it you'll just need to open the little screw here.
To clean the rubber rollers you're going to pinch in this clip a little towards
the left and then lift it up and then you should be able to just pop out the rollers
and then clean everything that you see around it so here. You can see I have some hair
gathered here a little. And give it a wash if you need to and the same with the other roller.
Before putting the rollers back in open up the bin to do that push this button with the
trash can icon on it and it'll pop open the bin. Since I've already used my disposal to
empty my bin you can see that it's 99 percent empty. I can hear a little rattle in there.
So give that a good clean and a wash. Get rid of all this dirt around it and then here is the
filter. To change the filter you'll just slide it off and then pop in the new one.
Whatever you do, don't let the filter get wet.
So the reason why you don't want to put the rollers back in is underneath
where the roller area is you can see a little hole here that connects
from the roller area to the bin. You might just want to give that a wipe down as well
if you do wash the wind make sure that it's completely dry before you do attach it back.
Just hook in the right side first and then slide it in
until it clicks into place and then insert the rollers.
Now if you're not sure which way the rollers go they've actually color-coded it for you.
So the one in the front is the light green and the one in the back will be the dark green.
So you'll just need to slide it in following the arrow and then pop it in.
The biggest feature of the robot vacuum has got to be its rubber rollers. I think they work great
because it's not bristles there's no hair or anything getting stuck
in there and it's much easier to cleanout. And then make sure to secure the clip down
And then lastly, the front wheel you'll need to pull on it really hard until it comes out
and then the small wheel inside the housing. Just push it from underneath and you should be able to
pull the wheel out. Give that a good clean as well and then pop that back in then in case there's
any hair or anything stuck in there. And then give that a good clean and pop that back into the hole.
I wanted to test the battery runtime so with the Roomba on a full charge I set it to work
and it cleaned an area of 29 square meters which is about 312 square foot and it took 1 hour and
21 minutes before it had a low battery and it went back to its charging base to charge itself.
So if it took 80 minutes to clean a 312 square foot area, a 1000 square foot area could take
up to four hours or even more to clean. That's a really long time for a small area. So from there,
I just canceled the job because I just wanted to see how much battery time it would have on it.
And this i4 model that's made exclusively for Costco comes with a 20 percent larger
battery. So I would have assumed that it would have a longer battery run time.
So if this is only running for 80 minutes and then going back to recharge itself
the i3 probably has a shorter run time. If anybody has an i3 and they do want to share
with us in the comments below, please do so or if you have an i4 as well, do drop me a comment
below because I'd like to know if you're getting a longer runtime on your battery.
The dirt disposal is definitely worth the money. I think this will save a lot of time
cleaning it, especially because the robot vacuum has such a small bin
you're going to be constantly emptying it out more or less on a daily basis or whenever you use it.
Whereas with the dirt disposal you can just let it empty itself out and like it says,
it holds up to 60 days worth of dirt. So that definitely is a good investment to make.
My final thoughts. If you have a lot of money a lot of time and a
lot of patience you're gonna love this machine otherwise you're gonna feel like
you're just going round and round in circles and nothing is getting done.
Anyway guys, I hope you found my review and demo useful.
If you do have any other questions or comments please do leave them
below and I hope to catch you in my next video.