iRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot

I'm not sure how durable this will be, but for the price it is a great deal. This made short work of several of my gutters - cleaning wet leaves and pine needles effortlessly. It's the first time I had fun cleaning my gutters! When it turned over I just followed the directions and it righted itself. One problem, no fault of the looj, is that I had a piece of aluminum trim that was sticking out and caught the looj and dislodged the treads. Once I bent that back, no problem. This is my third Irobot product. They are not perfect, but are all great time savers.
 
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Before I ordered this little remote controlled robot I read all the posted reviews and deceided to take a $30.00 "chance". As usual it was easy ordering thru buy.com, and the lil robot arrived in perfect condition in 5 days. I charged him up (using a timer)for exactly 15 hrs. As another reviewer suggested I tied a rope to the device and let him loose on my 22 ft long gutter. He did flip on his side a couple of times (now I know why using the rope is important), but with very little effort he cleaned two 22 ft long gutters in about 30 mins. I am extremely frugal and fearfull of heights. I was able to place the lil guy at the end of the house standing on a short 6 ft step ladder on my raised deck, so I was comfortable with the height. I feel since I usually spend $100 to hire someone to clean the gutters, I'm $70 ahead after today's trial run. Some reviewers have complained about the garbage going all over the place. I hosed off the outside of the gutters, and picked up the garbage that fell on the lawn with a bagging mower. I guess the next time I use the lil guy will be in late fall after the leaves fall. Extremely happy with todays results.
 
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I was skeptical that this product would work as described but for the price I felt I had to try. I was pleasantly surprised. I have not tried with wet debris but it devours dry stuff. The only problem I had was the antennae was stiff enough to get caught under the shingles a time or two as it passed under the hangers. I quickly learned to move back and forth a few times to break free. I normally do not write reviews but I felt this product deserved a little credit.
 
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My gutters were installed 8 years ago and the hangers are too low for this machine to work. It needs 2 1/4 inch clearance and I didn't read far enough. The battery life is great as I cleaned out my gutters by hand I discharged the battery, it was still going strong for quite some time later.
 
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I have standard gutters with a combination of cedar, pine and misc. other trees around. The looj plowed through it all, dry or wet. It does occasionally turn itself over, but then your Fwd becomes Rvs. If it gets stalled, just reverse the auger and back it out. It isn't fast as it has to break down piled up debris. I hadn't cleaned out my gutters in awhile. If you had less piled up, it would work faster. The only issue was that it ran out of juice before I'd finished all the gutters, but that is probably because it was ploweing through heavy wet muck. Well worth $30 Don't discount the fun factor of a remote controlled tool!
 
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I've been wanting one of these but couldn't justify spending > $100. But for $30, I figured why not. I have 4" sized gutters, and the Looj just BARELY makes it under the spacers. It got caught in one spot. My guess is it works much better with larger gutters. But it did manage to sweep out the leaves and standing water. I just had to let it sit in a spot for a little while to sweep out all the leave. It doesn't just run down the gutter at full speed and clean everything. It left a lot of junk on the outside of the gutter, which I had to hose off. It works, but is not the holy grail of gutter cleaning. Overall, for $30 I'm happy. If I had paid full price, I'd be disappointed. Hint, if you are sending it down a long run and think it might get stuck, attach a long string to the back, so you can pull it out without moving the ladder. It is also very good at freaking out house pets.
 
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I ordered the iRobot Looj thinking that it would be a great way to avoid having to manually clean my gutters. It was the worst piece of trash I might have bought in the last twenty years! Don't misunderstand, I think it is a great concept. But in practice it is anything but. After ONE use, (a use that included my having to unseat/re-seat the device no less than seven times - each time requiring that I move the ladder to that spot), I finally gave up and just cleaned them myself. When I took the robot out of the gutter, I found that the auger at the front which is used to do the cleaning, had bent! Instead of returning it, we are keeping it for our dogs. We're going to attach a toy to it and use it for a RC dog toy. All I can say is, I am SO glad I didn't pay the full suggested retail price. Avoid this like the plague!
 
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This is an older version of the iRobot Looj (thus the discounted price). Most of the really bad features of this model have apparently been corrected on the newer models. First, the antenna is external on this model and kept getting stuck on my gutter edge. Second, the battery cover no longer requires a screwdriver to open, like the model listed here requires. The newer models also have an automatic variable speed system that adjusts to the degree of debris. As best I can tell, the model 125 (retail $129.99) is the updated version of the model on sale here. The 135 includes a storage case. The 155 includes the storage case and an extra battery (retail $149.99 and $169.99, respectively). The batteries are nickle cadmium so you need to fully discharge before charging to avoid shortening the battery life. In addition, the battery takes 15 hours to charge, when fully discharged. The charger is NOT a "smart charger" so it must be disconnected after 15 hours to avoid over charging and damaging the battery. The remote control uses 2 AAA batteries that need to be replaced after each discharge of the main unit's batteries. The unit was easy to assemble and relatively easy to use (except when the antenna got stuck on the gutter). As for the performance, it sucks if your gutters are fully filled with wet leaves/pine needles. It it simply not powered to handle this amount of volume and the auger rubber flaps do not catch the wet leaves. The wet leaves also got all caught up in the drive belts. However, clean-up is very easy (just slip off the belts and hose it down.) The brushes got pretty beat up with one use. I have not tried it yet with dry leaves, but suspect it will work better with that type of debris and for maintenance cleaning of gutters that have initially been cleaned of major debris. It is made of cheap plastic that would likely shatter if dropped. The buttons on the unit and remote seem cheap to me. I'm concerned they will wear out quickly. Overall, I think this device is a piece of junk for cleaning gutters with heavy debris. I think it might work better if they had an auger with long brushes instead of the rubber flaps. A "drill-type tip" might also help it break through the heavier debris. The features on the newer models seem to be big improvements, but I'm not sure if they will ultimately lead to improved performance. I certainly would not recommend this device if one were to pay retail. However, for $40, it might be worth a try if you are looking to have something for maintenance cleaning.
 
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This is a well-built product, but didn't work in my situation. It seems the treads are too narrow and therefore not enough traction on wet surfaces (common and bottom of gutters). There was not enough forward force to clean out heavy debris. Also, the unit often flipped over. It may be useful to maintain gutters once heavy debris is gone. Hopefully, new version will have design improvements, including wider treads.
 
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When you get into your 60's, you have to look at gutter cleaning as a very dangerous task. The thought of falling off a ladder or the roof is always looming over your head. The manufactures' videos seemed too good to be true, so for 50 bucks I had to order it and try it out. Although it is still very cold here, I had to use it to see if I liked it. It worked as advertised and even more. I put it into a north facing gutter not realizing it had some ice mixed with the goop and pine cones. I was amazed to see the goop, pine cones and ice flying out of the gutter. What a power house!!! Also, if you look at the cost of the replaceable parts on the MFG. site, they are very reasonable. And if you get bored looking at it after you have cleaned out all of your gutters, you can put it on the garage floor and run it as a real radical remote controlled vehicle with challenged steering!!
 
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We have (4) four iROBOT Vaccums and have been looking for one of these, when I saw your Price I couldn't hesitate, and I wish I had more gutters so I could by another one for that price. Keep up the good deals and you will have customers out the but. Thanks, Tom Perry
 
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