LG roboking review/ preview

[arief]

Hi all,

I have used the new roboking for a few days now. Just sharing my experience. It´s not a full review.. I´ll leave that to someone with more experience. Well here goes...
The Roboking came in with these items
1. Robot and base charger
2. Remote control- and yes, like the old roboking it is RF- so you can control the robot even if you´re in a different room.
3. Has a spare hepa filter
4. 2 microfibre mop
5. a small brush to clean the hepa filter.

The robot has a 50watts suction power. It is quite powerful. I ran it the first day for only 30 mins and hepa filter was almost clogged up. I am not sure if it has brushless motor as per previous roboking. It has lithium battery for power 21V)The robot uses a new magellan mapping technology. It does not state in the manual how this works but from searching on the internet and limited korean to english translation, i figured the robot uses a 3mX3m area as a guide to clean. From observing the robot cleaning, what it does initially is to ¨mark out¨ a 3mX3m space by moving along it´s perimeter, then it starts to clean inside the 3X3m box in a zig-zag pattern. It then moves to the next 3X3m square and so on. It looks good it theory but, in real life, it does not clean the whole floor. Sometimes it only does 2 or three of the 3X3m area, then stops and says it´s done the whole area (still has 100 sqm to go!!).

The robot detects objects using sonar rather than infra red. So it can detect transparent objects like glass. But i found, it does not work 100% (this is especially true on narrow objects like chair legs). However, it does have moving bumpers when it bumps into objects, it will stop reverse slightly and turn.

The main brush on the robot is a hybrid one. Bristle and rubber beater in one. It is belt driven like the one on samsung, but on close inspection, I can see that the belt is driven directly from a motor without any intermediate gearing (unlike the samsung) It has 2 side brushes which does it´s job well.

I think the roboking is more geared towards hard floor as it has problems moving on medium pile carpets. It stops half way then gives a warning speaking in korean. There´s no way of modifying it like the you can on the samsung.

The mopping feature is quite interesting. It uses normal microfiber cloth. But the interesting thing is, when you put on the attachment, the robot somehow senses, the rugs that I have and avoid them (only the medium pile ones). Very thin rugs it tends to go on .

Good points
1. Rather strong suction
2. Hepa Filter
3. Mopping function
4. RF remote

Bad points
1. gets stuck often
2. can´t do medium pile carpets
3. Mapping technology can be a pain- it sometimes thinks it´s finished the whole floor area where in fact in done the same area over and over again


I know, I know.. where are the pictures?? . I'll upload them later..

Arief

[MikeD55]

Arief,

Very interesting overview. Looking at your last comments it appears that the main points are;

- pro - the areas that it cleans it cleans well (good suction)?
- con - doesn't clean the entire area (mapping doesn't work very well)?

Do you have any other comments directly comparing the LG to a 5xx or 4xx Roomba?

Thanks.

[arief]

some pictures as promised

front view- it's taller than Roomba- about twice as high

Top view- the area infront of the black mark moves as a whole- bumper

bottom view- the hybrid brush

belt driven brush diractly from motor- no intermediate gearing

dust bin- has a one way flap to avoid dust and particles out when vacuuming stops

Do you have any other comments directly comparing the LG to a 5xx or 4xx Roomba?

Mike I think the LG has better suction power than the Roomba, and it cleans very well. But... it is not as reliable as the Roomba 5XX, in terms of ability to clean the whole area. The LG will miss spot, because of the funny way it maps the room. Roomba is more reliable in finding the dock as well. A funny thing happened just now where the LG ran out of juice near my dining table. It stopped the vacuum and brush and started searching for the base. It went around the dining table about 7-8 times before I got sick of watching it and guided it straight to the base using the remote.

Arief

[piokrza]

Arief,

I remember that you had Samsung bot - how much suction power it has? Similar to the new LG ?
Does the new LG has delay start or any display?

[Fraggboy]

Thank you for the review of the LG!! You have covered some key points, focusing in on suction power, navigation, and height. It seems the members who own a Roomba love that it can go underneath quite a few items, one for me in particular is my couch. I even had to raise it a little bit so my Roomba would fit, but it does. And, by not doing well on a higher nap of carpet will turn quite a few away.

Is the LG roboking working well in your home overall you think? Do you think it's worth the money spent noting that the navigation is somewhat flawed as well as the other limitations?

I'm sure as time goes by you will update us as to how it keeps up in the long run.

One thing that I personally don't like is the direct belt to the motor. Have you noticed yet if something gets stuck in the bar what happens? Does the motor keep going squealing the belt, or the motor keeps going (stopped) and causing damage? I wonder if there is an overload circuit built-in so it will stop and whine so it doesn't prevent any damage? That's what I like about the Roomba with the main brushes and the side spinning brush. It stops before it causes more damage to itself.

[piokrza]

One thing that I personally don't like is the direct belt to the motor. Have you noticed yet if something gets stuck in the bar what happens? Does the motor keep going squealing the belt, or the motor keeps going (stopped) and causing damage? I wonder if there is an overload circuit built-in so it will stop and whine so it doesn't prevent any damage? That's what I like about the Roomba with the main brushes and the side spinning brush. It stops before it causes more damage to itself.

Exactly, what then happens if the main brush get stuck?

[arief]

One thing that I personally don't like is the direct belt to the motor. Have you noticed yet if something gets stuck in the bar what happens? Does the motor keep going squealing the belt, or the motor keeps going (stopped) and causing damage? I wonder if there is an overload circuit built-in so it will stop and whine so it doesn't prevent any damage? That's what I like about the Roomba with the main brushes and the side spinning brush. It stops before it causes more damage to itself.

The motor will stop if there is too much resistance. In fact this is what happens on medium pile carpets. The brush is turning against too much resistance. It's not the wheel that cannot drive the robot, because without the vacuum on I can easily nagivate the carpet using the remote control.

I remember that you had Samsung bot - how much suction power it has? Similar to the new LG ?
Does the new LG has delay start or any display?

LG has the same suction power as the samsung but LG has no display and no scheduling. I think the samsung is built better than the LG in terms of the overall plastic that it uses , and it looks better too. I don't know why the LG is more expensive compared to the samsung.


I must also add that, in mopping mode, the robot seems to cover the whole area properly. It senses the rugs and avoid them. But it does not sense if carpet is on the same level with the hard floor. I read in the manual that the robot will not cross door sills if in mopping mode.

Arief

[piokrza]

Hi, everybody
The price of LG drop down much and now there are available spare parts http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid ... Categories Interesting, what is the reason of that?

[Hexpod]

Arief,

if you compare the navigation/control of the LG with the one from Samsung - do you see a benefit from having ultrasonic sensors?
I experienced sometimes with the Samsung that it did not "see" black furniture (e.g. the piano). In such cases the Samsung hits it and tries one more time to move in the same direction before it does a 90°left/right turn.
It does the same with the doors. They are coated with a white wood like pvc coating and it seems that this material does not reflect infra red light.

What is the noise level the LG produces? Comparable to the Samsung or same like Roomba?

The Samsung also uses a direct belt drive to the main brush. There is a overheat sensor on top of the DC motor (in one of the pictures i posted) which will avoid overload to the brush motor.
So far the brush did not stop on the carpet's i have - it just makes a more stressed noise but the brush is still rotating.

/Hexpod

[arief]

if you compare the navigation/control of the LG with the one from Samsung - do you see a benefit from having ultrasonic sensors?
I experienced sometimes with the Samsung that it did not "see" black furniture (e.g. the piano). In such cases the Samsung hits it and tries one more time to move in the same direction before it does a 90°left/right turn.
It does the same with the doors. They are coated with a white wood like pvc coating and it seems that this material does not reflect infra red light.

What is the noise level the LG produces? Comparable to the Samsung or same like Roomba?

I think the LG hits less furniture compared to the Samsung. What I mean is, the LG will still hit furniture that is really narrow or if it approaches the furniture at a high angle. But to compared to the samsung , it hits them less often. It does not matter the colour of the furniture.

The LG has almost the same noise level as the Samsung (deep tone rather than high pitch).

After using it for one week, I found the LG picks up more dust than the samsung despite having the same power wattage (50 watts).

Now for the bad part..... The LG suffered a major "stroke" while charging. On thursday night I came home to start it, found it not responding to either the remote control or the buttons on the robot. I switched it off and on again at the main switch under the robot. It was able to wake up and clean for about 2 of the 3X3 squares, then goes into a roomba like cirle of death... goes round in one spot without responding to any input from Remote or robot buttons. It happens now on every run.

I have contacted the seller and discussed this with him. I think it is definitely a malfunctioning robot. Maybe the CPU??. Seller asked me to contact the local LG, to make a warranty claim or go through him. Looking at the manual , it states warranty only in Korea. So I will send the bot to the seller. He says the company will reimburse the freight cost if the robot is indeed malfunctioning.

Arief

[arief]

I have received a replacement robot for free. The seller even pain for the return shipping to korea. I have now used the new robot for 3 weeks. Looks like it's even better in terms of the mopping function. It will avoid all carpets even if on the same level as my tiled floor. How does it do that???

Vacuuming function remains quite good, but navigation is as before. It will miss spots and think that it has finished working in the middle of the house. I I start the robot in the back room of the house, it will cover most of the house. Finding the base still remains an issue, it does not have a memory where the base is.

Arief

[piokrza]

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