Roomba maintenance and troubleshooting

My 6+ year old Roomba is misbehaving, so today I'm giving it a servicing and diagnosing the problem.
And giving it a long overdue cleaning.
After several comments, I decided to do this: • Roomba repair update
Place your bets on how long it will last.
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This isn't the only way to do it.
It's probably not the best way to do it.
But it's how I did it.

[@benben341]

If you use aftermarket battery replacement, you need to know the secret battery reset command. which you will have to use every so often - to get it to completely recharge. You use the main corded charger not the docking station. You plug the charger in holding the clean button for 10 seconds - and that resets the battery "use" counter - and enables battery to be fully recharged. You will know when to use this method when the battery charging light will flash twice as fast indicating battery charge fail.

[@laurijorgenson6683]

Wonderful video. Loved seeing what was inside. You have a great way of presenting things. I always tinker but electronics is not something I have ever delved into but would like to. You won me over as a new subscriber because I like your style and your attitude and curiosity. Thanks so much for the education.

[@AnotherMaker]

I finally let first my roomba go after 11 years. I did 2 battery replacements and 2 countless brushes, but it just kept going. Thanks for the video!

[@xSubject2Change]

This is a great video, however it didn't personally cover my needs. There is an enclosure off of on the side of where the rollers go, that enclosure has a bunch of gears, my gear box was full of dust and debris, cleaning that out got the rollers moving to full speed again. I only found the area after buying a new motor off eBay and replacing it didn't fix my problem.

[@frankowalker4662]

I love the way it's assembled. So easy to maintain. I think it's illegal to make things repairable these days. LOL

[@markusallport1276]

That was a fun and relaxing video. I have been curious of the inner workings of the Ruoomba, and now I know. Sadly not many manufacturers think in terms of serviceability these days, it's a throw away world mentality. Thankfully, curious minds such as yourself and many of your viewers, enjoy "ripping" things apart to fulfill our inner mechanical desires, it's just so satisfying to open something up and discover how and why things do what they do.

[@kousakasan7882]

You should have added a washer on top of the final gear to prevent it from lifting and skipping gears.

[@tinygriffy]

".. or when it drives off a cliff" .. When doggy gets puppies, roomba is like "That's it, I have had it, enough is enough... jeronimOOOOooo" 😄

[@Elnufo]

Having Access to spare parts is always so satisfying 😌

[@davidv1289]

Interesting video, thank you! I always wondered what those looked like inside. As others have suggested some shims might be needed if the housing is worn. I would also suggest a felt washer on the shaft (outside the housing) to help keep dirt out of the gears. Regards, David

[@Gossamer2]

I have a Roomba 500 series which looks just like yours which is in pieces on my desk for repair at the moment for a problem with the front bumper sensor which made it continuously go in circles. I was surprised on how much information there is on how to repair and how to get parts. I could have sourced the actual IR sensors, but I was able to find the entire front sensor array for $13 CDN so I went for that. If you ever run in to problems, there is a diagnostic mode you can put it in to by hitting/holding the buttons in a certain sequence which will allow you to test the sensors.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Its interesting to see the insides of a Roomba, it definitely shows that the far east clones are a pale shadow of the real thing. Its really pleasing to see the modular construction designed for maintenance - just a shame that they didn't decide to continue making spares for them for a bit longer. I really don't like this trend of everything being WiFi connected and cloud based when it isn't necessary - I know a lot of people find these programmable and remote features useful and fun, but sometimes you just want something that does a simple job and does it well.

[@jerril42]

Gear is gear. If your a techie any good gear has it's beauty. Well designed gear is always worth seeing, for that matter so is the bad stuff because there is something to learn. Thanks Mr. Stuff, take care.

[@garyhart6421]

Very nice modular construction.

[@onecircuit-as]

It seems the stl files for those gears are available on different sites assuming you have appropriate filament? Might keep you going until the real deal appears. 👍😀

[@pileofstuff]

I though about that briefly, but I'm not sure my printer has the resolution for that fine a gear pitch. Regardless, it's been like this for months already, so another few weeks isn't going to be much hardship. I'm well accustomed to waiting for things to arrive from overseas. Update: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnvcqoqQl92Yba8

[@tinygriffy]

@@pileofstuff Same thought.. and also I thought might be too small to print with a standard 0.3 mm nozzle.. but printing it round (or badly with 0.3mm) and filing the teeth to shape with a triangle file might be a possibility... after all the gears you get might be printed ;) Nylon I would guess ?

[@TBL_stevennelson]

You could make a mold of the parts you ordered when they come in. Reproduce them incase it breaks again. Gives you a reason to buy a cheap mold kit on ebay

[@matambale]

So, not only do these things actually work, but they are maintainable??

[@markclark787]

I have the same one only 2years old

[@JosephStory]

Some thrust washers/shims perhaps would take out that vertical slack in those gears.

[@pileofstuff]

Possibly. I'll give that a try when I get the replacement gears.

[@geertvackier]

I've been printing pretty fine gears on an Ender-3, on Thingiverse you can even find the STL files for this particular gear. Even when you ordered the parts already, I'd still give it a try on your 3D printer. Shouldn't take too long to print it out either. Nice experiment and you would get a feel how fine your results would be...

[@pileofstuff]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnvcqoqQl92Yba8

[@geertvackier]

@@pileofstuff Aha: the tinkerer in you tried it, nice to see!

[@johndii2194]

I would move my beer away from the work area.

[@brake_4_cake]

Every user removable/replaceable part was blue. Is that by design?

[@pileofstuff]

Yes, thwy intentionally made it very easy to repair

[@johnaverick7468]

My old roomba model 527 . My vacuum motor is not getting power for some reason. The motor test is easy just crossing the contacts with a 9 volt batt. . So I know its not the vacuum motor itself. Any Idea why my vac motor isn't getting power ? Everything else works btw.

[@andrewomagad8497]

and i hoped for a gear repair video ☹☹☹

[@pileofstuff]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnvcqoqQl92Yba8

[@KARLLARK100]

ello why not 3d print the cog,.//.,

[@pileofstuff]

I didn't think my printer had good enough resolution. However... kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnvcqoqQl92Yba8

[@jumperdk81]

why don't you use your 3d printer to make a new gear

[@pileofstuff]

check the link in the description