Autonomous cleaners like iRobot’s Roomba have eased the burden of cleaning in many homes. However, for the vast majority of the cases, it has been used on the same floor.
Due to its automatic nature which includes avoiding floor objects such as tables and chairs and also avoiding stairs from falling over it usually operates on the floor, it has been configured to clean.
So, if you want to clean a different level of your house, can you move a Roomba to another floor?
Can you move Roomba to another floor of your house?
Yes, you can always move a Roomba to another floor due to its portable nature. However, before moving it, there are specific key points to note, one of them is moving the Home Base along with the Roomba as it will want to dock for charging its batteries and another is the setup of navigation and floor plan of the other floor.
This article explains whether you can carry your Roomba to another room and also if you can move it to another floor.
We will also discuss if it’s okay to move Roomba Home Base and how to teach your Roomba to clean a new floor.
Related:
- Does Roomba Clean Base Tell You When It’s Full? (Explained)
- Can I Have 2 Roombas on the Same App? (Simple Explanation)
- Can Two Roombas Share a Clean Base? (Explained)
Can I carry my Roomba to another room?
Roombas may find navigating the rooms in larger homes tricky, necessitating a manual transfer. If your home’s layout is a little complex, you may have to carry your Roomba from room to room.
Two reasons for this are:
- The Roomba’s battery power isn’t enough to clean all the rooms in one cycle.
- There are too many obstacles in the way, causing it to waste time and battery power navigating them.
Since moving a Roomba between rooms may be your only option, it would be best to buy a suitable model.
Any Roomba higher than the Roomba 960 is ideal for cleaning multiple rooms. In addition, they have better navigation, scheduling, and mapping skills, with more battery power.
Can I move roomba to another floor?
The beauty of a multi-floor home seems to dim a little when you consider cleaning all that space. Thankfully, your Roomba is happy to do the job for you, and you won’t have to concern yourself with vacuuming the floors.
While you know your Roomba can clean a floor just fine, you might wonder about moving it to another floor. Well, set your mind at ease, because you can move a Roomba to another floor: upstairs or downstairs.
The technology gets better with each new product that hits the market, and the recent ones can clean multiple floors. Roombas clean in cycles, and most can clean one house level in a single cycle.
Their ability to map and clean multiple floors does not automatically mean they can climb the stairs. Roombas consider stairs as obstacles and avoid them on an encounter. Since they cannot navigate the stairs, you’ll have to carry your Roomba when you want it to clean another level.
What to do when you take your Roomba to another floor
Although some models like the Roomba i7 can store up to 10 different floor plans, all models can work on multiple floor areas. If you take your Roomba to a level it hasn’t cleaned before, just set it on a flat surface and press the clean button.
It’ll first map the area with its sensors, detect the dirtiest spots and focus on cleaning them. Then, when it’s through with a cleaning cycle or the battery runs low, it will locate its Home Base and dock.
For this reason, move the Home Base to the new floor as you move the Roomba. Here are some tips for a simple move and efficient cleaning of the new floor:
Stop or pause the cleaning cycle
It is best to wait for the Roomba to finish cleaning one level or complete the current cleaning cycle before moving it.
If you must move it in the middle of a cleaning cycle, pause the cycle before carrying it.
Pausing most Roombas is easy, and here’s how to do it:
- Press “Clean” on the iRobot HOME App or the Roomba’s Home Base.
- This will pause it, allowing you to pick it up and move it to the new floor.
- Set it where you want it to start and press “Clean.”
- The Roomba will start cleaning
Move it early in the morning
Most people charge their Roombas overnight and have them run while family members are at school or work. So, they’re fully charged in the morning, making this the best time to move them to a new floor. Also, the basement or upstairs area will get an excellent vacuum instead of a sub-bar one because the battery dies halfway.
Do some prep before cleaning
When your Roomba gets to a new floor, it takes some time to figure things out as it cleans. You can make things easier for your robot by removing some obstacles and programming it correctly.
Open all the doors, lean chairs up, and kindly ask the kids to pick clothes off the floor. Create physical barriers if you can’t program your Roomba to avoid certain areas when it cleans.
The Roomba i7+ and S9+ are ideal for cleaning multiple floors because they have an auto-empty base and Imprint Smart Mapping. However, with lots of pet hairs or dirt on the floor, you may have to empty your Roomba multiple times without the auto-empty base.
Imprint Smart Mapping speeds up the robot’s process of mapping out the floor, saving time and battery power. If you don’t want to carry your Roomba constantly between floors, you can buy another Roomba.
Is it okay to move a Roomba Home Base?
Sometimes, you may have to move your Roomba to another room or floor. Under those circumstances, it’s okay to move the Roomba Home Base.
There’s no docking or recharging your Roomba without your base, so it should always be within your Roomba’s reach.
A common complaint among Roomba owners is that their robot gets stranded or stuck. Reducing the Roomba’s travel complexity or distance to its Home Base is a simple way to prevent this. When setting up the Home Base at a new location, see your home’s layout through the Roomba’s eyes.
Consider the space’s design and the obstacles it has to navigate. If it spends more battery power in transit, there’ll be less for cleaning. Here’s what you should keep in mind as you move a Roomba’s Home Base:
Don’t move it while the Roomba is cleaning
Your Roomba’s Home Base location is mapped into it so that it can return for charging and retire after cleaning. To move the base while it’s cleaning is to confuse your Roomba and hinder it from returning to dock at its base.
Unplug the Home Base properly
Turn off the power outlet (if possible) and unplug the Home Base from the power source. Next, clean the charging ports and contacts by wiping gently with a melamine sponge (Magic Eraser). Ensure you carry everything associated with the base, including the power cables and braces.
Set up the Home Base according to the space rules
Certain rules ensure that your Roomba’s Home Base has enough space around it, and your Roomba can locate it easily.
Below are the rules:
- Set the Home Base in an uncluttered and open area.
- Maintain at least 18 inches of space around the Home Base—at least 1.5 feet (0.5 m) on each side.
- There must be at least eight feet (2.5 m) between the base and virtual wall barriers.
- Keep at least four feet (1 m) in front of the home base, barring furniture in the area.
- Keep at least four feet be at least four feet between the base and any drop-off point or staircase.
- Place the Home Base flat against a wall and on a level surface to enable the Roomba to dock correctly.
Wi-Fi coverage and power
The Home Base must be in an area with an excellent Wi-Fi network, allowing you to instruct your Roomba from the app. You can test with your mobile phone: if it has sufficient signal strength at the location, your Roomba will receive information.
Also, keep the Home Base plugged into a power source constantly. You don’t want your Roomba to dock and fail to charge.
After setting up the Home Base at the new location, place the Roomba about six feet away and press “Dock.” This is to allow your Roomba to familiarise itself with the new Home Base site before it cleans. If the new position is in an already mapped-out room, you may not have to do this.
Instead of moving a Home Base, you can buy two or more bases and set them in the rooms or floors where you usually carry the Roomba. These bases aren’t cheap (especially an auto-empty base), but they’re cheaper than buying new Roombas for each area.
How do I teach my Roomba to clean a new floor?
When you move your Roomba to a new floor, you don’t have to teach it how to clean the area. Roombas are smart enough to learn about the new space and clean it well. All you have to do is place the Roomba on a flat surface and press “Clean.”
Since it often takes multiple passes to map an area, you can schedule a regular cleaning. Alternatively, you can send the Roomba to clean the floor many times a day. The newer robots use visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) technology to create Imprint Smart Maps.
The Roomba moves around the room, looks for unique areas it’ll use as landmarks, and takes snapshots of them. Then, it creates a picture or map of the layout, stores it in its memory, and stores up to 10-floor plans.
