FYI - Roomba Battery Maintanance and Troubleshooting Tips

Becky2259 · Post by **Becky2259** » August 28th, 2007, 9:42 am

Can someone tell me...... what is the significance of unplugging the charger from the wall when doing the reset on the roomba? If the brain is in the roomba then why does it matter if you leave the charger plugged into the wall?

seahorsejl · Post by **seahorsejl** » August 28th, 2007, 9:51 am

Becky2259 wrote:Can someone tell me...... what is the significance of unplugging the charger from the wall when doing the reset on the roomba? If the brain is in the roomba then why does it matter if you leave the charger plugged into the wall?

The significance is to not have any power going to the robot at all. By unplugging and removing the battery, then holding the power button, you are discharging any built up energy stored (for lack of a better description).

Becky2259 · Post by **Becky2259** » August 28th, 2007, 9:54 am

my question has to do with unplugging the charger from the wall. If I unplug the charger from the roomba then why does it matter if I leave the charger plugged into the wall?

seahorsejl · Post by **seahorsejl** » August 28th, 2007, 10:07 am

Becky2259 wrote:my question has to do with unplugging the charger from the wall. If I unplug the charger from the roomba then why does it matter if I leave the charger plugged into the wall?

Ah, sorry, missed that part in the original question. My guess would be disperse any residual charge the charger had also. But it might have just been an extra precaution on that user's part.

glo69 · Post by **glo69** » August 28th, 2007, 10:41 am

It doesn't matter, Becky. It's only necessary to disconnect the charger from the Roomba and remove the battery before pushing the button.

I think Nikolai meant to disconnect from the Roomba or wall.

Becky2259 · Post by **Becky2259** » August 28th, 2007, 10:55 am

Well I have this problem described where my roomba charges for like an hour and then runs for maybe 15-20minutes. I have tried the reset several times, and its not working. I had not unplugged the charger from the wall so I thought it was worth a try. Still nothing. I had an extra rapid charger so I ran the battery out again and did the reset then plugged it into the other rapid charger in a different outlet. We shall see what happens. I ordered a new one though with a great coupon from this site. I am hoping I can fix this one though....I was thinking about putting it in the basement or something.

seahorsejl · Post by **seahorsejl** » August 28th, 2007, 11:01 am

Sounds like the battery went bad. I had the same thing happen on my new (remanufactured) Roomba I just got. iRobot shipped me a new battery free of charge when I described the problem, and steps (doing the long charge) I went through.

Got the new battery yesterday, and let it charge overnight. Will be testing it out tonight.

So if your Roomba was still under warranty, I would get a new battery from iRobot through their warranty replacement.

Becky2259 · Post by **Becky2259** » August 28th, 2007, 11:06 am

I am not convinced it is a bad battery because it happened all of the sudden. Plus it runs green for twenty minutes and then turns red and stops nothing in between. I think its the roomba. I do have another battery with another unit but I am not sure if I will mess up my other roomba by switching the batteries if something is wrong with my one roomba. Also there must be something wrong with my brain because I can not remember when I got my roomba lol

Becky2259 · Post by **Becky2259** » August 28th, 2007, 11:42 am

ok diff charger did not make a difference. I called irobot to ask them when I got it (since I knew I registered it) and I guess it is still under warranty so they are sending me a new battery. lets see if that does the trick. with my old one it still misbaved and they had to send me a new robot. will keep you posted

seahorsejl · Post by **seahorsejl** » August 28th, 2007, 12:07 pm

Awesome! Hope the new battery works out for ya.

geekgranny · Post by **geekgranny** » August 28th, 2007, 2:15 pm

Becky2259 wrote: Also there must be something wrong with my brain because I can not remember when I got my roomba lol

I usually blame my confused or lack of memory on "old timers".

gg=alice

rgv · Post by **rgv** » October 21st, 2007, 7:26 pm

If you live in a rural area where the electricity may vary more than 10% from 120 volts, especially on the low side, commonly known as a brown-out, I would recommend plugging your Roomba or Scooba into a uninterrupted power supply. A week after purchasing a new Roomba Discovery a year ago, a brown-out left it and its charger stone dead. iRobot replaced everything free of charge, but, as they say, once burned, twice shy.

Macushla · Post by **Macushla** » November 3rd, 2007, 6:06 pm

[quote="THX-1138"] If you have a rapid charger, leave the battery in the rapid charger until just before you use it.

Buy a Rapid Charger and Second Battery - Using the optional Rapid Charger and a second battery will allow you to keep the unit running by swapping batteries between the Rapid Charger and the unit.

The only rapid charger I find on the iRobot accessories page is one that plugs into the roomba itself. The above seems to imply there is a rapid charger 'unit' that you put the battery in to charge, seperate from the roomba. Where could I find a charger such as this? I would like to charge an extra battery while the roomba is running.

-Tina

glo69 · Post by **glo69** » November 3rd, 2007, 7:25 pm

iRobot no longer makes the Rapid Charger, they only sell the Fast Charger, which adds to the confusion since it is actually a Roomba power supply, not a charger. The charging circuitry is built into the Roomba

Rapid Chargers are becoming hard to find, but you can occasionally see one on E-Bay. Just be careful and look at the picture, since many people mislabel their Fast Charger power supply as Rapid Chargers. Look at this link to see what a Rapid Charger looks like http://cgi.ebay.com/NIB-Roomba-Intellig ... dZViewItem

wsngmartin · Post by **wsngmartin** » January 1st, 2008, 6:08 pm

Pardon my ignorance but will the rapid charger work on my basic black Dirt Dog battery, or my 535 battery?
I found some on eBay, which I am new too, and just in case my bid wins....I don't think it comes with instructions.
My Yoda (Discovery Sage) is dying after 40 minutes (combined carpet, hard floor) so I just followed the directions and am charging him right now. Should I go with the 72 hour plus charge or just wait till the light turns green? I may have misread the post but looks like some others have had success with just a regular-length charge?
Thanks

vic7767 · Post by **vic7767** » January 1st, 2008, 8:11 pm

wsngmartin, recovery attempts of an exhausted or old NiMH battery just requires a system reset and then a 72 hour continuous charge. Then run the Roomba on a cleaning mission and if the run time improves you can perform up to two more 72 hour charging cycles and possibly gain more battery capacity.

The Rapid Charger that is the stand alone external charging brick is not compatible with the 5XX series batteries since the battery contacts are designed differently. Your earlier Roomba batteries will work in the Rapid charger.

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » January 1st, 2008, 9:07 pm

wsngmartin wrote:...the rapid charger...I found some on eBay, which I am new too, and just in case my bid wins....I don't think it comes with instructions. ...

You may find out all you need to know, and more as you try to ferret out its 'operating instructions' from the information presented on this page.

wsngmartin · Post by **wsngmartin** » January 2nd, 2008, 12:04 am

Thanks for all the tips. 72 hours it is. And then another 72 hours. And possibly another. eh.
Good thing I have Princess Leia bc with Yoda out of commission for 72 hours we will be valiantly battling armies of dog hair (3 large and foul smelling dogs of uncertain breed but all blowing hair of different color).
To pull out the Dyson would be to admit defeat

.

spedter · Post by **spedter** » January 2nd, 2008, 7:09 am

Becky2259 wrote:ok diff charger did not make a difference. I called irobot to ask them when I got it (since I knew I registered it) and I guess it is still under warranty so they are sending me a new battery. lets see if that does the trick. with my old one it still misbaved and they had to send me a new robot. will keep you posted

Hello,

I'm fromthe netherlands and a happy roomba SE owner!
Except my battery..
I had the same problem, also after the reset and 72 hrs. After cleaning was finished, the button turns on green after approx 1 hour and when i hit the power button it started and after 20 minutes or so, the green button suddenly turned red and herbie quits!
I think the battery is defective, but i don't think the battery is under warranty.. I bought my roomba 1 year and 2 months ago and have a warranty of the roomba of 2 years.
Suprised when i read that iRobot sends you a new battery??!!??

andrewjamesh · Post by **andrewjamesh** » January 22nd, 2008, 11:38 pm

I've owned a Roomba for about four years now. I'm a 20 year experienced electronics technician. I've repaired my Roombas many times and it's getting easier now that parts and sub-assemblies are available.

I recently upgraded both of my battery packs to the extended life battery packs. http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2604

After about a month of use, both would no longer charge. I did some swapping around of chargers, batteries and Roombas (I have two). I ended up borrowing a friends to charge my batteries. There is something wrong with the charging circuit and it's not the burned component U-5 I've seen on some other postings.

A good charging Roomba draws about 1.5 amps as confirmed with a clamp on ammeter. I clipped off the charging plug that plugs onto the Roomba and installed a couple of spade connectors. Observing proper polarity I charge directly from the charger into the battery and it draws 1.5 amps.

The problem is potential overcharging. The battery gets pretty hot once it reaches full charge. The length of charge is determined by how discharged the battery got. Direct charging is not for everyone. You have to color code the wires to make sure the polarity is correct. I start touching the battery after about an hour to see how hot it is. Once it gets to about 70 C I stop charging and let it cool down to room temperature. There is some danger here if you forget to stop the charging. The battery could explode and that would be very serious for humans and pets. Again, this is not for everyone but it works for me.

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FYI - Roomba Battery Maintanance and Troubleshooting Tips

Roomba Battery Maintenance

Re: FYI - Roomba Battery Maintanance and Troubleshooting Tip

rapid charger

Re: rapid charger

Simply solution but requires caution