I’m going to let you know that my Roomba S9 Plus is haunted, however don’t dwell on the haunting. The buttons are caught, which can or is probably not associated. I’ve been dwelling with the haunted Roomba and its damaged buttons since final yr, when it was nonetheless beneath guarantee, however it solely lately began waking me up in the midst of the night time. After I lastly contacted iRobot for help, they informed me that my Roomba was useless (undead?!), and it will be unattainable for them to repair it.
I have to stay with the haunted Roomba or destroy it.
Once more, let’s not dwell on the haunting half. There are a lot of issues you possibly can substitute on a Roomba. After all, you possibly can substitute the filters. You’ll be able to substitute all the cleansing parts, just like the brushes and sweepers.
You’ll be able to substitute the battery, although you’ll want a screwdriver and a few persistence. The buttons, nonetheless, are sacrosanct. If the buttons get caught, iRobot help tells me they can’t be changed. There is no such thing as a approach to repair my Roomba S9 with damaged buttons, and there’s no workaround that may clear the robotic of its ghosts.
A damaged Roomba behaves prefer it’s haunted
Okay, now for the haunting. Someday I used to be sitting in my front room and the Roomba began to hoover. By itself. No schedule, nothing. I despatched it dwelling once more. It saved occurring, as soon as every week at first, however it occurred at inconvenient instances.
My robotic would begin cleansing at 3 AM, by itself. I had a hunch and engaged the kid lock. Now, as a substitute of cleansing by itself, it will loudly yell “The buttons have been disabled. Please use your iRobot dwelling app to scrub.”
One thing was urgent the buttons. I’m not saying it was a particular ghost, however it’s been a tough and tragic few years for many people. I do know individuals who have handed away who would need my flooring clear. I do know others who may wish to pester me at night time for enjoyable. When you imagine there’s a ghost in your robotic vacuum, unhappy with unswept flooring, that concept sticks.
Finally, the unprovoked yelling began occurring every day. I cleaned the Roomba totally and changed all of its cleansing components. I plugged it right into a surge protector after studying on Reddit that energy surges may cause the vacuum to start out a cleansing session. I vacuumed the vacuum itself to clear any mud or particles. Nothing helped.
My haunted vacuum turns into a poltergeist
One night time the haunted Roomba went too far. It began screaming time and again “The buttons have been disabled. Please use your iRobot dwelling app to scrub.” Time and again. There is no such thing as a mute setting for the Roomba. A reboot didn’t assist. My Roomba tormented me.
I shut it down by holding down the facility button. It fell silent. I went to mattress. Then I heard the beeping chime of the Roomba beginning up. The robotic refused to die.
I lined the Roomba with thick blankets to mute the sound, and ultimately it ran out of battery energy. I contacted Roomba, and so they confirmed me how one can take away the battery utterly, to carry out a tough reset. The exhausting reset failed. The screaming continued.
They instructed I arrange a Do Not Disturb interval for your entire day and night time. That truly labored! For a number of days, at the least. My robotic was silent. Then, in the midst of the night time (all the time!), it began to chime because it powered down. Then it chimed once more, powering up. Down. Up. Down. Up. It saved going. I unscrewed the battery, and now it sits like an post-mortem affected person on my desk.
There is no such thing as a repair for a haunted Roomba, or caught buttons
Assist from iRobot says “The difficulty you might be describing implies that the buttons of the robotic are caught, and sadly this subject is non-repairable.” They will’t repair it. My 18-month-old Roomba S9 Plus, which I acquired on sale for round $800 in November, 2022, is kaput.
That’s completely unacceptable. There have to be some path to rectify this drawback, and never only for me, for all house owners. There can’t be a malfunction that causes the robotic to die, with no hope of restore. iRobot should have some approach to repair this subject, or it wants to supply Roomba S9 house owners some approach to commerce our robots for a robotic that really works, and that’s eligible for repairs when it breaks.
This was my first robotic vacuum, and I gained’t be changing it rapidly as a result of it’s an enormous expense that I can not afford proper now. Maybe sooner or later, I’ll contemplate iRobot once more, if I hear that reliability and repair have improved. Till then, I’ll want another choice. Perhaps I’ll get a dustbuster, or possibly I’ll name the Ghostbusters.