Keep your Roomba running in tip-top shape

The secret to a happy healthy Roomba, maintenance. All that nasty dirt, dust, and fur can really slow your robot down and over time kill its performance. To show you a few tips today I'm using this 700 Series unit, but these tips really apply to all models. Let's get started. Every time your Roomba cleans up, empty out this dust bin. It's easy, takes a minute, and will keep your vacuum running in tip-top performance. Just remove the bin and dump out the contents. Then remove the filters and tap out any obvious debris. You should replace these filters every month or so, but if you wanna delay that a little bit just grab some compressed air and blow out any debris. Once a week conduct level 2 maintenance. That means removing all of the brushes and their bearings then use a comb or one of these iRobot tools to pull out hair and fur that could be slowing the robot down. And don't forget to clean out those bearings. The front wheel also needs attention. Just give it a tug to pull it out and use a dust cloth or compressed air to clean out the wheel housing and get rid of any hair. And finally use a microfiber cloth to clean off those Cliff Sensors all around the unit. Notice that we're not using any sort of spray or damp cloth to clean the Roomba. That's because if any of its parts come in contact with water or those parts don't completely dry before the vacuum starts running, you could ruin it. So stick with things like compressed air, dust cloths, and microfiber cloths. These last couple of tips do require a little disassembly, but that's okay because you only have to do this every couple of months. Grab a screwdriver and remove this screw that secures the spiral brush. Put the screws somewhere safe and remove the brush. There's a bunch of hair and fur in there that needs to be cleaned out. Before you put that back, remove the main screws that secure the cover to the unit. On my Roomba they're labeled with these arrows, 2 where the battery is and 2 by the wheels. When they're out you should be able to remove the cover and immediately you'll see that the Roomba's inner parts are filled with dust. Like before use compressed air or a dust cloth to clean it out. Then just replace the cover and all the screws and that spiral brush. Even though it's your Roomba's job to do the cleaning, it's up to you to keep it clean. If you have any questions along the way hit me up on Twitter and check out howto.cnet.com for the written guide to this tutorial. For CNET.com I'm Sharon Vaknin.