Anyone had this problem? 'Marks' on carpet...

[walmer3]

Our carpets are light beige in colour and only about 15 months old. We've had the Roomba for about 4 or 5 months. Recently I've started to notice a pale border about 2 inches or so from the skirting boards in many of the rooms. The border is maybe an inch or inch and a half wide, and tends to run in a straight line parallel to the skirting boards. It's not dirt. If anything, it's lighter in colour than the rest of the carpet - possibly the pile is a little different in these borders too.
We are trying to get to the bottom of whether this is caused by some fault with the fitting of the carpet, or whether the Roomba is causing it? What seems to point to the Roomba is that this line seems to be the same width as the ball which helps the Roomba to move... and is possibly around the same distance in from the skirting board as the Roomba would generally operate.
Has anyone else experienced this?

[rene]

Interesting.

I have light wool carpeting (not sure what color you would call it) and I have had a roomba for about 15 months. In some areas of the carpet there is a band about 4.3 cm wide (~1.7 inch) from the wall visible (very tricky to photograph, otherwise I would show it here). This is about the distance from the left/right wheel to the outer edge of roomba. Not sure this the same you have. The pile in this band is definitely higher. It looks like this is the area of the carpet that never gets touched by roomba's left/right wheels.

As the carpeting is much older than my roomba it could probably due to many things, but I suspect my roomba is causing it. I always knew I was taking a risk (what will those brushes do to my wool carpet?) but this is really the only 'problem' I have. I am not sure how to prevent this from getting worse (other than switching back to my regular Nilfisk vacuum cleaner...)

[walmer3]

Rene thanks for your reply. What you're describing sounds exactly like what we have too. Anyone else out there...?

[Fraggboy]

walmer3,

Welcome to Robot Reviews!!

I haven't experienced this before, but with your description (And Rene's), that it is where the Roomba 'does' vacuum with the brush, but gets matted down with the front wheel, thus the dfferent shade of color.

Was this vsible before using the Roomba?

I don't think there is any "Harm" caused to the carpet. To pin-point the culprit (Defect Carpet, or Roomba), should be answered with the above question.

[walmer3]

Hello Chris and thanks for the welcome. Honestly, I don't think it was visible before getting the Roomba. Originally when I noticed it, I thought it corresponded to the position of the gripper below but we've checked, and it doesn't.

Like Rene I am at a loss to think how to solve this. I love the Roomba and it suits my family's lifestyle very much... but if it's having this effect on my carpets I don't know how I can continue using it. I'd love a solution!

[Fraggboy]

I'm sorry. I don't know how to stop the Roomba from doing that.

[rene]

What puzzels me a bit about this problem is that I only have it in certain areas (hallway) but not noticably in other places (I have the same carpet all over my apartment, except in the kitchen and bathrooms).

To me it looks like: 1) there is a 5-6 cm wide strip along the edge that never gets vacuumed by Roomba (the sidebrush gets there, but not the main brushes or the vacuum), and 2) there is a slightly narrower strip (the 4.3 cm I mentioned) that is never flattened by Rooma's wheels. I think the latter is causing the pattern described here. Obviously, also the nature of the carpet will contribute.

The only thing you can do is 1) vacuum the 5-6 cm strip yourself and 2) maybe artificially 'flatten' the carpet along the edge yourself? Not sure this will work though.

[mfortuna]

You still need to break out a regular vacuum once in a while. The roomba tends to flatten the carpet a bit.

I just got done using a rug doctor upstairs and the carpet was nice and fluffy. Now it is beginning to show a pattern were the roomba doesn't reach. I'm not worried about it.

[RoombaRules]

I may have an answer to your problem guys. I need to know what model of Roomba you have though.

[rene]

I'm ready for a solution: I have a 560.

Also, I had a closer look and in full daylight you can also see these 'roomba marks' in other carpeted places in my apartment.

[Fraggboy]

I'm interested in this answer also.. Would be good information to know to help other member who come across this..

[RoombaRules]

Hmm okay so I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is your Roomba shouldn't be doing that. Even worse is, my solution was based on the assumption that you had an older Roomba. This was a problem with older Roombas, especialy on wood floors. But have no fear, I don't plan on letting you down. But first, some background. See, Roombas only need that third wheel of theirs for stability. So iRobot just threw on a cheap plastic front wheel and called it good. With the older models, this caused all kinds of problems for some people. First of all, the wheel could spin, but it couldn't turn. This saved money, but it sure as heck didn't save people's floors. Imagine if your cars wheels didn't turn with you and, instead, the car simply applied power to the wheels opposite the direction you want to turn. Well, it would work...and your car might be a bit cheaper...but you'd be replacing your tires a lot sooner. Not only that though, the part that's realy relevant here is that your town would have to redo the roads a lot sooner. But somehow I don't think your going to want to redo your floors more often just because of your Roomba. Well luckily, iRobot realized this as well. They changed the design for the model you now have and the wheel is now able to move in any direction pretty easily. But here's where the good news (atleast for you) starts. There was another, even bigger problem with this design approach that iRobot took. Hair would sometimes wrap around the tiny axle. It was hard to see and even if you did notice it, there wasn't much you could do...the wheel was difficult to take out. Over time, friction would build and eventualy the wheel would have trouble spinning (let alone turning). Needless to say, the end result was flattened carpet, scratched flooring, and unhappy customers. So why did I call this good news? Well because this can still potentialy happen and may well be at the very least contributing to the problem. But the even better news is, if this IS happening, the new 500 series is very modular and is easy to take apart, the front wheel is no longer super hard to get to and shouldn't be a huge hassle if it needs maintanence.

Wow okay so I just typed that all from a cell phone and my thumb is sore. I hope that helped, but if it didn't, I have more tricks up my sleeve. Let me know and next time I'll respond on the PC.

~Seth

[mfortuna]

I've been running fixed wheel roombas for years and have no scratches on my wood floors that are related to cleaning. Have a couple were furniture was pulled and scratched the floor. But playing tug of war with a dog doesn't scratch the floor either. Weird how these laminate floors stand up to rampaging dogs and robots but can't stand being soaked with liquids.

In bedrooms were there is a long run of bare wall you can see were the roomba can't touch the carpet. There is something like 2-3 inches of space between the roomba's side and the rotating brush. as a result this carpet never gets touched and stays fluffy and a slight line is visible. Like I said, I don't worry about it.

[rene]

I don't think the 'marks' on my carpet are made by the front wheel.
After a few tries this is the best picture I could produce:



This is not produced by the front wheel: it is just the bit of carpet along the wall (about 4.3 cm wide) that is never touched by Roomba (except by the sidebrush).

[RoombaRules]

I understand what's going on now. You are right, this has nothing to do with the front wheel. How old is the carpet? I know Walmer3's carpet is only 15 months old.

[Fraggboy]

Rene,

Just like Mike said, I wouldn't worry about it. If you feel the carpet is not being cleaned enough, it's time to break out the upright.

The Roomba does a good job, but every once in a while, I break out the upright to get the deep down dirt and fluff the carpet back up. The Roomba's brushes and vacuum can't compare to an upright, hands down. You might be asking why even own a Roomba? For me, it still helps with the vacuuming. Granted, it might not get the carpets clean like an upright, but it has helped me vacuum less.

[SE_machine]

That strip could be caused by a number of things, but since the sidebrush doesn't have the cleaning power of the main brush (it's only designed to get loose stuff away from the wall), it won't clean like the main brush. Since hardly anything runs on the carpet up against the wall, that strip isn't getting the traffic like the rest of the carpet, causing a color difference. Running an upright real close to the wall might blend the carpet back to normal.

[walmer3]

I've been re-looking at the marking problem on the carpet and I'm positive it's not the centre wheel but a side wheel issue. I ran the roomba without the dust box and I've noticed the wheels are not running level - not by much but definitely not horizontal. I think this may be causing uneven pressure on the wheels, which is leaving marks on the carpet.

Any one else who has the marking issue notice this?

thanks

[mfortuna]

The spinning main brushes in the roomba can't reach the wall. The marks you see are not caused by the wheel but are caused by the brushes not being able to reach the wall. Measure the width of the strip and then measure from the outer part of the roomba to the outside edge of the brushes. I bet the measurements are very close.

[walmer3]

Thanks for the response. In this case, and as time is going on, I can definitely see that it's not a 'mark' as such but a difference in pressure. The line is a pronounced area about two or three inches in from the edge of the wall, where the carpet is being affected differently rather than where there is a build up (or other) of dirt/dust.