Your Roomba Can Now Help You
If this week (or actually a year) taught us anything, it’s that we can’t have good things: a functioning democracy, the ability to hug someone you don’t live with … not even an onion . And now it goes to our favorite vacuum robots – yes, Roomba. When you think about it, they always seemed too good to be true (your very own robot cleaning up after you? Who are you, Judy Jetson?).
And if Roomba someday, say, gets sane and decides to rebel, you can’t blame them for short-circuiting right now. Well, here’s what’s going on (short circuit, no confirmation of uprising) and iRobot, the maker of Roomba, has sent alerts to people who might be having product issues. Here’s what you need to know.
What you need to know about the Roomba alert
On Monday this week (roughly 39 years ago), iRobot sent Roomba i7 + owners messages warning them that the unit’s dock could fail and short-circuit if the robot vacuum accidentally sucked in liquid. As it turns out, the Roomba i7 + is designed for dry picking only and is not a wet and dry vacuum. This is already a robot vacuum cleaner – isn’t that enough?
In situations where it collects liquid and this liquid enters the charging base, this can cause the charging base to short-circuit. And don’t be fooled by the chatty robot from the 1986 movie of the same name: Short circuits can pose a serious safety hazard, potentially leading to circuit damage, overheating, fire or explosion .
“We have learned that some Roomba i7 + Clean Bases may malfunction and potentially be hazardous if liquids are collected by the Roomba i7 + and placed in the Clean Base,” iRobot said in a statement to TechCrunch . “Our vacuum cleaners are only designed to remove dirt and debris from dry floors and carpets and should never be used to pick up any liquid.”
Overall, iRobot estimates that about 222,000 units were affected, of which 210,000 were sold in North America. If you’ve already received an email from the company this week, you can look forward to a replacement power cord or docking station from iRobot.
If you own a Roomba i7 + but do not receive the warning message and want to check again to make sure everything is okay, you can call iRobot Customer Support at 1 (800) 727-9077 for more information. information.