I got my Roomba 531 a few years ago. I used it briefly as we were in the process of selling our house. I worked well for a while, but then kept docking very shortly after starting and often had docking errors. I attributed it’s short time working before docking to the fact that it was not docking properly and perhaps the battery life had been diminished by so many brief charges. We did not time to mess around with a house on the market, so we put it away. We have sold and settled in to a new home. I finally pull out the Roomba - bought her a new battery to get a fresh start - charge her up, and let her go. Within 3 days she is back to sitting on the dock with a green light, and as soon as she starts cleaning her light turns orange and she wants to dock. As soon as she is on the dock she is green again!
She honestly has only done our vacuuming about 10 times in her existance - but timing was everything and we had no time to figure her out.
Would there be something in our particular Roomba that just isn’t clicking right and she doesn’t realize she has a charge once she gets going?
Please let me know what we can do. She was a lot of money at the time of purchase and hasn’t earned her keep yet!
Thank you
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
The best way to figure out if your robot is able to charge the battery is to charge the robot without the home base. You can unplug the charger from the docking station and plug the charger jack directly into the side of the robot. Please also verify that the light on the charger is solid green.
Before you do this, it may also be a good idea to reset your robot. You can do this by turning the robot on by pressing the clean button once and then pressing the spot and dock buttons at the same time for at least 30 seconds. See this video for more info.
You can then verify if the robot can clean longer on one charge.
If the battery does not charge at all, there is a possibility that there is an issue with the charging system inside the robot. If the battery only lasts for a few minutes after a few charges, there is also a possibility of a bad battery.
Do not hesitate if you have any questions.