Editorial Review
Life happens in busy homes, and keeping up with accumulating dirt, dust, pet hair, crumbs, and debris can be a daily challenge. Introducing the iRobot Roomba 560- a member of iRobot’s newest generation of Roomba Vacuuming Robots.
Now there’s a better way to maintain cleaner floors every day. With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, particle filtration, and scheduling capabilities, the Roomba 560 picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris from your floors with the touch of a button--so you don’t have to.
The Roomba 560 even cleans on schedule when it’s most convenient for you. Use the on-board scheduling system to easily program up to seven days and times per week for Roomba to vacuum--whether you’re at home or on the go. The Roomba 560 also offers the most efficient room-to-room cleaning available using two innovative, new Virtual Wall Lighthouses.
With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, and particle filtration, the Roomba 560 vacuuming robot picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris with the simple touch of a button. The powerful unit features innovative spinning side brushes that grab dirt and dust from corners and along wall edges, as well as two high-speed, counter-rotating brushes that pick up pet hair, cat litter, food crumbs, and other debris from floors. The vacuum sucks up the debris and deposits it into a large, easy-to-empty bagless dustbin, and its improved fine-filtration system traps dust, pollen, and other allergens inside the unit, reducing infiltration into the living environment.
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Customer Reviews
Roomba 560 Review 
2008-08-25
We all like the product at our home. My wife and I run the Roomba daily. Our dog and cat are amused.
How much easier can it get? Is there a robot that dusts?
Breaks constantly! 
2008-08-24
We bought the Roomba 560 in January '08. So far (in 7 months), we have had 3 of the internal brushed replaced. The side brush also broke, but we have not been able to get a replacement because they are back ordered (most likely because they break for most people all the time). Then, we had a problem where it wouldn't clean, just spun in a circle and gave us an error message. After being told it was the left wheel module, we waited a month to get the replacement part. Then, I called. Come to find out, they decided we needed a whole new unit, but never contacted us (they had my e-mail). So, in 7 months, many accessories have broken, and the whole unit has now broken! We had to send our whole thing back in and are now waiting for a new unit. Be careful investing in this product. It is often out of commission for us, so does not serve its purpose.
My Mom loves it 2008-08-22
It's a Christmas gift for my Mom and she really loves it. The machine saves a lot of time and very simple for my Mom to operate. Definitely, it is not perfect but I still give 5 stars based on my Mom's satisfaction. Few things I would like to see in the future Roomba models:
- Reduce noise level: I cant sleep if Roomba is operating.
- Side bush should be more robust. One finger of side bush was broken after 1 month use.
Disappointed 
2008-08-18
I had high hopes for my Roomba 560, but it failed after 10 days and IRobot's customer service has been very poor. The 560 does a good job of vacuuming when it works, but it started telling me that its brushes needed cleaning when they did not. I called customer care three times before I got through, and after finding that the Roomba gave the same message even with the cleaning brushes removed, the care person said IRobot would send me a new cleaning head module, which I will have to install myself. I was told the new module would arrive in 7-10 days. We are now at 15 days and counting. The jury is definitely still out on this product for me. And a friend bought one on my recommendation. #^#^@&@*^!*!*! I will not be recommending this product anytime soon.
Makes life a bit easier 
2008-08-13
I got my Roomba about 7 months ago. I run it every day at 2:00 so I can come home to a clean floor. I found that the lighthouse feature didn't work so well so I just use them for virtual walls (it almost never found its way back to the base using the lighthouses). I have a small house with tile floors so I run it in the main 3 rooms of the house everyday and then manually run it in the back of the house where it is less dirty a couple of times a week. I find it does a good job for the most part. It is not perfect but with three cats and an enormous long haired dog, it has really helped. I even noticed a lot less dust on the furniture. It cannot get everywhere but on the other hand it gets places that are hard for me to get to like under the bed. It doesn't replace a vacuuming with a regular vacuum but it surely keeps everything pretty nice between major cleanings. It requires a bit of attention daily....especially with the amount of hair from my animals. If you don't clean it the brushes get wrapped up with hair and start to bind. Cleaning it really isn't that big of a deal and takes far less time than sweeping up daily.....a couple of minutes and its done. It finds the base about 80% of the time, it gets caught on a couple of things that I cannot help and sometimes it just seems to stop in the middle of the room for no apparent reason. It also will lock itself in a room sometimes, it pushes the door shut. The side brushes do break but irobot sent me some for no charge, I think I am on my third brush. Irobot's customer service is helpful and easy to reach. My only concern is that my little roomba will not lead a terribly long life. I would likely buy another but I would hope that something this pricey would last a while. It does work hard for me every day and cuts down on my daily housekeeping so overall I am happy.
It is the future, and robots clean my house 2008-08-10
Life happens in busy homes, and keeping up with accumulating dirt, dust, pet hair, crumbs, and debris can be a daily challenge. Introducing the iRobot Roomba 560- a member of iRobot’s newest generation of Roomba Vacuuming Robots.
Now there’s a better way to maintain cleaner floors every day. With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, particle filtration, and scheduling capabilities, the Roomba 560 picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris from your floors with the touch of a button--so you don’t have to.
The Roomba 560 even cleans on schedule when it’s most convenient for you. Use the on-board scheduling system to easily program up to seven days and times per week for Roomba to vacuum--whether you’re at home or on the go. The Roomba 560 also offers the most efficient room-to-room cleaning available using two innovative, new Virtual Wall Lighthouses.
With dramatically improved navigation, cleaning coverage, vacuum pickup, and particle filtration, the Roomba 560 vacuuming robot picks up amazing amounts of dirt and debris with the simple touch of a button. The powerful unit features innovative spinning side brushes that grab dirt and dust from corners and along wall edges, as well as two high-speed, counter-rotating brushes that pick up pet hair, cat litter, food crumbs, and other debris from floors. The vacuum sucks up the debris and deposits it into a large, easy-to-empty bagless dustbin, and its improved fine-filtration system traps dust, pollen, and other allergens inside the unit, reducing infiltration into the living environment.
My Cleaning Buddy! 2008-08-02
We bought our first Roomba last month and from the first day we were very impressed. I had thought that it was more of a toy or novelty, but this is a serious cleaning assistant! I'm impressed by its diligence in cleaning around obstacles and in corners. Yes, corners -- even though this thing is obviously ROUND, it has a small flat brush that spins around beyond the case to get into the corners.
We have a long hair cat and it does a great job picking up the hair. We clean it after every use and I'm amazed at how much dirt and hair it picks up. It's easy to dump out the dirt, but it's also very easy to clean the brush and roller. I really don't mind cleaning it because I know how hard it has worked!
My wife likes this better than I do -- because now I'm in charge of vacuuming and it's fun! I suppose the suction may not be as great as some of the non-robotic vacuums, but because you can run it more frequently, it gets more dirt and our floors are really clean!
It's easy to start using it -- there's even a demo mode that acts out its basic motions -- and tells you verbally what's happening! It navigates cords and other obstacles very well and it gets hung up someplace, it's smart enough to know it's in trouble so it lets out a little tone or says something and then turns off instead of grinding away.
One last thing -- a pet peeve of mine is that vacuums are so noisy. This one isn't completely silent, but it's pretty quiet -- even quieter since you don't have to stand over it -- it sounds pretty quite from another part of the house!
Love this robot 2008-08-01
I just love this robot so much. It did take quite a long time to clean one room (over 30 min for sure), but it always does a great job. Comparing to the conventional vacuum cleaner, this one is much quieter and smaller. The only problem I have so far is that it can't recognize black or even dark blue carpet area. I have a rug with a dark blue edge. This robot can't reach those areas.
I Can't Believe I'm Satisfied! 2008-07-31
I was definitely a skeptic when it came to the Roomba Vacuum. Years ago when we had lots of energy and small brains we purchased a Kirby vacuum cleaner. That thing is like pushing around a Volkswagon but since it cost so much we were compelled to use it for eternity...even if it didn't work. Luckily my wife has been out of town for a couple of months and I decided to take matters into my own hands. That's when Ruby entered my life.
Ruby the iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuum has removed more cat hair that Ima Jean's Groom-a-rama does in a year! The little brush on the side found all of the cat's secret hiding places for chicken bones, rubber bands, popcorn, sweet gum balls, and what-not. The only thing that would make it better would be a built in chipper-shredder. And maybe a little dozer blade on front. Possibly a larger dirt containment bin...say a half bushel.
Seriously, this thing is great. I highly recommend it to everyone that hates to vacuum. I've had it a month and vacuumed more than ever before in my life. It's easy to use and clean. It also seems to be of good quality.
Was Great Then Something Happened... 2008-07-27
We got our Roomba for Christmas last year. Once we got him, we programmed him to clean six days a week with one day off for him to rest and recuperate. For the first couple days I barely got anything done because I was so fascinated with the Roomba, I'd follow him all over the house marveling at how smart and maneuverable he was. Also I loved to watch my dog and cat react to him. He was just enough to make them comically nervous but not enough to seriously upset or hurt them. They got used to him pretty quickly.
He had no problem with most of the surfaces in our house, though he did like to rearrange the throw rugs. He ate a couple shoe strings, a magazine or two (I shouldn't have left them on the floor anyway) and rarely made it all the way through the cleaning cycle without hanging up on something, but the house was SO MUCH CLEANER, that it was very worth any small effort I had to make to get him back on track.
We were VERY happy with our Roomba purchase untill his brushes began to break.
First his little round, octopus brush started loosing arms and then his other brushes rolled up a hair clog and actually warped the square ends so they didn't turn properly. We bought the $40.00 replacement brushes and installed them but Roomba still isn't working like he used to. The new brushes don't seem to be turning so we are wondering if he burned out a motor when he ate the deadly hair ball. We will probably wind up sending him for repair.
So, when this amusing and ingenious little gadget works, it WORKS GREAT! The negative side is that, in my opinion, an appliance should work longer than 7 months before it needs major repair. We have plenty of fur and hair around the house with the dog and the cat, but other than those two its just my fiance and I, so I doubt we have more dirt than the next family. The Roomba comes with a one year warranty, so I will update this review once we see how the customer service works out.
