I have a Roomba model 4000, which I bought used from a co-worker. It was only about a year old when I got it, and it had very little use. After about 2 weeks of heavy use at my house, the left drive wheel seems to seize up after only a few feet of a new cleaning cycle.
When this happens I must remove the battery before it will re-start. Once I put the battery back in and push the clean button, it moves only a few feet, lists to the left and shuts down.
I removed many of the covers and cleaned everything as best I could. Beyond dust and some cat hair, there really wasn’t much to clean. Both drive wheels seem to move easily and evenly. This is when I started to think this wasn’t the wheel, but maybe electronics or programming.
Any thoughts? Is it worth fixing, and if so, at what cost? I will most likely need to ship it some place.
Well, this is strange. The last time I tried to use it was about 4 months ago. After posting this message I plugged it in this morning to charge the battery. I wanted to be able to tell you what beeps it made when it died.
Well, wouldn’t you know, I took it off the charger after work and pushed the button and it has now been whirring away happily in the next room for the past ten minutes. As soon as it finishes the room I’ll get the serial number to see if it needs a software upgrade.
When your robot shuts down, does it give you a beep error code? Usually it will beep two times (sounds like it’s saying uh-oh), followed by a specific number of beeps. The number of beeps helps us determine what kind of problem the robot is having.
When your robot starts at first, is it spinning in circles forwards and then backwards? From what you’ve described, it sounds like your robot may need to have it’s software updated. The software update fixes an issue the robot has in communicating with the wheel sensors. For the Discovery series, robots manufactured before August 1st 2005 need to have their software updated. If you can give us your serial number, we can confirm if this is the problem. The serial number is located on the frame, behind where the battery clips in.
If the robot does not need to have the software updated, then it is possible it needs to be repaired. Please see our repair service details here.
