Free Roomba

"jariten1781" (jariten1781) 10/05/2016 at 20:40 • Filed to: None

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The continuing saga of getting free stuff from folks who live in a disposal culture.

A few days ago a guy at work mentioned he was annoyed that his roomba had died after only a year or so and he had to buy another.

“What did you do with the old one?”

“I’m going to throw it out...”

“I’ll take it!”

“Whatever floats your boat man”

So, finally got it home a few days ago. Let’s see what I’m working with.

Hmmmm...That could be the problem...

After a bath in contact cleaner and a bit of light scrubbing.

Hook everything up and good to go...literally 20 minutes of effort and I have a working 400 dollar machine.

Stop throwing things away people.

Side note, those guys at iRobot put together a really nice product. Everything is high quality, modular, and very logically laid out for easy repair and maintenance. Something you rarely see in modern electronics, three thumbs up.

Also, the dog hates its new mechanized housemate.

Nauraushaun > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 20:45

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That’s fantastic! It doesn’t always go as well as that.

But sometimes it does ;)

TheHondaBro > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 20:49

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You know what you gotta do now, right?

Paint a helipad on it and land an RC helicopter on it while it’s moving. I did that once.

TheHondaBro > Nauraushaun 10/05/2016 at 20:51

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WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU WINKING DID YOU FORNICATE YOUR ROOMBA?!?!

The Lurktastic Opponaught > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 20:51

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Has your dog ever left indoor land mines? If so, you may want to supervise the robot instead of scheduling it for 2 am when everyone is asleep. Except the dog with the stomach ache.

Just sayin’.

Rico > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 20:53

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Similar situation- Back in April I also took a non working roomba off someone and fixed it. It was a 650 and the battery had leaked a little and corroded so I cleaned up the corrosion and after a long charge it worked perfectly.

We have a dog that sheds and we went from needing to sweep daily to not having to and that’s a big deal. We only kept the roomba on the ground floor and it worked fantastically for 6 months. It stopped working after a run in with the dog’s water bowl and sucking up a bunch of water so we ended up buying a replacement 860 version that had just went on sale on Amazon the very next day for almost $200 off msrp. We got it for $400 and after you’ve had a roomba you realize it’s worth every cent, we didn’t even hesitate and the new one is easily twice as good.

Great products if you understand what they are meant for and DON’T watch it because you’ll think it’s stupid and will never get your floor clean but it will. Just go out and do your thing and come back to clean floors.

jariten1781 > The Lurktastic Opponaught 10/05/2016 at 20:54

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Nah, I’ve got a dog door...no issues.

MrDakka > TheHondaBro 10/05/2016 at 20:54

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How do you think new Roomba’s are made?

Urambo Tauro > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 20:58

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Hook everything up and good to go...literally 20 minutes of effort and I have a working 400 dollar machine.

Hahaha, that’s awesome! And you didn’t even have to do any precision soldering! Are you going to tell your coworker how easy it was to fix?

Rico > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 21:02

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Also forgot to add, is your dog completely house trained? A lot of people have made complaints about roombas inability to see dog poop/cat vomit (like really people?? How is it the robots fault??) and instead spreads it all over the house creating some terrible terrible scenarios.

Edit: never mind saw the dog door comment

jariten1781 > Urambo Tauro 10/05/2016 at 21:04

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Already did plus showed him the same pictures. Also offered to give it back since it was literally just a bunch of screws and light cleaning.

His response was essentially ‘I don’t know anything about that kind of stuff...as far as I’m concerned it was dead so you keep it’

I didn’t argue.

shop-teacher > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 21:14

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Well done!

StoneCold > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 21:29

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One more, and theeeeeeeen...

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 22:13

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That’s a good score.

Nauraushaun > TheHondaBro 10/05/2016 at 23:06

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I repair discarded products then fuck them. You got me

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 23:21

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Haha, nice man! A friend of mine found an older Roomba at the local Salvation Army thrift shop for $15. The battery in it is shot, but it works perfectly otherwise!

Orange Exige > jariten1781 10/05/2016 at 23:21

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Awesome snag!

On the note of our disposable society, it’s up there with the major problems with the world. I won’t say ‘today’ because selfish humans no doubt have always been selfish humans but today vs even just 30 years ago was way different in terms of manufacturing and the cost of plastic. And probably a different culture too.

But anyway, I saw a video somebody posted yesterday about Sweden lowering taxes (or doing tax-free) for businesses that do repairs. I would have never thought about it and I think it’s genius and could possibly make a huge difference in America given enough time to change the culture.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 07:32

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I bought a $700 one about six months ago... We love Carl.

He hit some dog poop recently and got messy. When I took him apart (first time), I was also impressed by the design and construction, especially for something aimed at the consumer market. Most crap you buy is totally disposable, but I bet you can buy all these modular components and swap them right out. A couple screwdrivers and you’re golden. It’s probably easier to maintain than even my hobby grade RC cars, which are designed to be maintained.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Nauraushaun 10/06/2016 at 09:23

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But free thing. Worth a shot.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 10:00

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I used to work for iRobot, and boy people would toss the things for the slightest issue they thought “wrecked” it. Good for you man.

Scimitar7 > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 10:43

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This is why I started getting into DIY repairs that aren’t car related. I did one video on Facebook about replacing some bad capacitors on a TV power supply (which in turn scored me a free 50" TV), and now people are contacting me left & right about stuff that just quit working and asking if I want it because it’s junk to them.

Congrats on the free Roomba, and best of luck on your future ventures!

Ike > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 10/06/2016 at 11:48

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My roomba is Charles we should let them have a play date.

And by play date I mean attach a knife and a ballon to the top of both and see who pops who first. If you loose any blood that’s also a lost

Ike > StoneCold 10/06/2016 at 11:50

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Ah the rooster teeth folk, they crazy

jariten1781 > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 10/06/2016 at 12:37

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Surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be an official parts stream. There seems to be this whole shadow economy on eBay where folks pick up new ones and part them out. Before I actually got my hands on this one I went and looked into it since the description the guy gave sounded like a fried control board (had gotten water on it a few time, some functions working some not) and I figured I might find a couple on there from folks who had torn apart broken ones. To my surprise it turns out there’s tons available brand new along with other things like the wheel modules, cliff sensors, control panels, chassis, etc. Not only that, there’s very little differentiation in models...apparently the whole family of 500s and 600s have alternate and interchangeable parts. PCBs go for 60 (used)-~100$s (new).

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 12:40

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Nice score on the roomba. If you find another you could get a table and play roomba beer pong!

I once scored a full 5.1 channel set of Klipsch speakers for $250 (retail was like $2500 on them) because they “didn’t sound right.” I figured some of them had to be good, and I could get replacement drivers for the ones that weren’t. Well, I get home and discover the owners kids had jammed a bunch of shit in the tuning ports. One of the front towers had an entire curtain rod in it, and it wasn’t even broken. I was mostly impressed by this feat.

I hooked them up to my Best Buy “store closing/floor model” Yamaha RXV-671, which I also paid $250 for (retailed for $5-600) and now everyone in my 12 story apartment building gets to listen along with me to all my favorite shows!

CaptDale - is secretly British > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 18:20

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I try my best not to throw stuff out and fix them.

Steve in Manhattan > jariten1781 10/06/2016 at 23:44

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Mine died after 4 years, they sent me a website to troubleshoot, but so far nothing has worked. Non-Roomba battery, so I’m wondering.

Matthew Phillips > jariten1781 11/22/2016 at 18:39

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almost got a free one that had attempted to eat shit. Literal Dog shit, I passed, but i still wished i jumped on it.