roomba DISASTER!!! HELP!!!

[loki]

We ran our Roomba Red on Saturday, no problem. I always clean it out in the morning right before running it. So I go to clean it today, and the first step is to empty the dust bin. Much to my surprise, when I shook it, nothing fell out. Shook it again, nothing. I know my floors are not that clean. So I look in, and there is a lot of NASTY CRUST in there.

Yes, my cat VOMITED on the floor, and Ike (my Roomba) ran over it and ATE it. I am trying to remember now if he was giving any distress signals when we got home on Saturday afternoon, but I don't think so.

So, the inside of the bin is covered in dried goo, the rollers/brushes are covered in dried goo, and I have not investigated any further. Actually, the filter looks fine - and it's time to change that anyway, so it's no problem. But beyond that, what do I do?

Can I just clean up the bin and the rollers, turn it on, and see what happens? Is there some thorough cleaning I can do? Or is Ike a goner?

My dumb cat throws up almost every time he eats (always has). I should have seen this coming, but somehow I didn't. I am so sad!

[sorka2]

I would disassemble the bin as much as possible and wipe everything down with a damp cloth.

[RC Eden Carpet Cleaning]

As for the roller brushes I would personally say just start over, get a Roomba Renewal kit and change out those nasy brushes. If you dust bin never comes clean you might be able to convince iRobot to send you out a brand new dust bin. (they sent one to me because I told them that the blue squeegie flaps were wearing out)

[seanrolsen]

Did you say that your cat throws up almost every time it eats?

Wow. Now that is something you don't hear about everyday.

Sorry, and goodluck with the cleanup. If I were you, I wouldn't even bother. You're braver than I am.

[loki]

Well, here's my plan: I'm going to replace the filter, and try to clean everything I can see. Since it's all dried up at this point, I'll start on the brushes with the regular cleaning tool. The dust bin, I'll soak in water. I'll look at all the sensors and see what I can do with them. I'll pay attention to all the wheels. After it looks as clean as I can get it from the outside, I'll just start it up.

I'm figuring that it's probably a goner, so I will do what I can and then see what happens...

[vic7767]

Be VERY careful with the dustbin, it happens to contain the roombas' vacuum motor. If it gets wet, it will be damaged and may not work.

[sorka2]

Don't just be careful. Simply don't submerge or rinse the dustbin in water. You'd destroy the motor for sure. You can take it appart though and wash the parts the don't have the motor attached and wipe down the rest that do.

[AmyPhilly]

I feed my cat 4x a day - twice but 20 min apart in the morning and evening. Otherwise, she eats too fast and pukes. Give it a try. Just split the amunt of total food for the day into 4, feed in the morning, wait 20 minutes (be FIRM!) and feed the next 1/4th. Then in the evening, feed 1/4th, wait 20 minutes, and feed the rest.

My kitty is also on super-diet prescription food. When I adopted her, she was large. I swear, she's so human, she eats to feel better about herself. The only thing that will make her stop is if you sit down to pet her. All she wants is attention, and if she doesn't get it, she wants to eat. She is however a very very nice cat.



Good luck!!

---Amy

[loki]

Wow - thanks for both the Roomba and cat advice.

I haven't done anything with the Roomba yet. So thank goodness I hadn't washed out the bin. I am going to try this tomorrow, when the kids are napping, so I can be super careful.

On the cat side of things - I think we'll try that. He has always done this, and it's because he eats too much, too fast, and it just comes right back up. I like the idea of limiting the portion size. Right now we have dry food in a dish out all the time, and then he gets a little canned food twice a day. We have been working on cutting down the amount of canned to like a teaspoon at a time, and that is helping a bit.

(sorry to all those who might think this belongs in off topic - it's relevant, because it might have killed my roomba and I need to make it stop before getting a replacement, if needed) (and I really need a roomba in order to maintain my current standard of cleanliness)

[beornj]

This is absolutely not recommended, but I know from experience that a roomba can be hosed off and live to tell about it. My dog had violent diarrhea when my disco refurb was running unattended a while back. The mess was horrific, both in the roomba and the carpet. Since the roomba was out of warranty and there was no way I could ever get it clean by wiping it down so I figured what the heck. I took out the battery, held down the power button for 10 seconds to drain the capacitors, and went after both the robot and the dustbin with the spray nozzle on the garden hose. I let it dry for a week, popped the battery in and it works perfectly to this day.

[loki]

I finally got up the courage to clean the Roomba and see what happened. I scraped out the inside of the dustbin, and washed off the brushes and other removable parts, and swabbed off the rest.

And set it off, and so far it seems to be ok. I have it going on the living room and dining room thing. I'm monitoring... but so far, all seems well.

I will be so happy, if this works.

[geekgranny]

We've had two near "disasters" with two different Roombas. A couple of months ago Red was cleaning the tile living room. Annie Mastiff (199 lbs) peed in the middle of floor. Red sucked up loads of liquid. Emptied him and set outside to dry for a couple of days; then wiped clean. No apparent damage.
A couple of weeks ago upstairs Discovery, Hoss, found some very mushy stool from 19 yr old Felix the cat (he is on daily hyperthyroid meds and never has formed stools and boy does it stink!!). We still don't know where Discovery found it. We set Discovery outside to dry for a couple of days. My friend, who lives with us, who is "owned" by Felix, then spent a long time cleaning Discovery. Hoss is going strong with no apparent problems.
Over the years I have had many wet "disasters" with electronics from cordless phones, cell phones, radios, and even pen tablets (computers). So far all "revived" by NOT turning on, removing battery(s) immediately, disassembling ASAP, and throughly drying out. Sometimes contacts and other areas cleaned with alcohol, depending on what the wetting substance was.
Heck. Before keyboards became so inexpensive we used to clean ours by taking apart and using distilled water to throughly clean. Setting aside for a few days to dry and then good as new.
We didn't disassemble the Roombas though. geekgranny

[teb9122]

yall shant be trustin theem robotics vacumes, theis be scoupsnens up all them pisses me cows be puttin down