iRobot's somewhat scatterbrained robot vacuum is a life-saver for some and a curse for others. If you love gadgets and hate housework chances are you'll like the Discovery 4210.

This little fellow buzzes nicely about carpets and floors picking up dirt and lint while you're elsewhere--maybe not even home. When he encounters obstacles, not all always goes well. In our test he got caught behind a couch and spent an inordinate amount of time vacuuming there while ignoring the rest of the room. Eventually he found his way out and finished the job.

The carpet looked great--nicely groomed, but we suspect it wasn't exactly deep cleaned like it would be with a good brush roll agitator. For this reason, we wouldn't suggest it as your only vacuum, but instead would recommend using it when you're busy with other things and need the carpet looking fine for arriving guests.

Due to mixed reviews on hard floor surfaces, we came to the conclusion that the first series of this model, the Roomba, performed pretty good on level surfaces. We only encountered serious problems on tile floors with grout. The unevenness of the surface often served to put Roomba into spin mode.

A second generation of the Roomba series, the Discovery 4210 far surpasses the first version. Improvements include two virtual walls, which allow you to confine the 4210 to the room you want cleaned. The quick-charging docking station is also a new and much appreciated addition. It re-charges the vacuum quickly and in many cases lures the Discovery back to homeport for storage and recharging without human guidance.

Lastly, we experimented with the remote control. This accessory allowed us to steer the unit about when he was behaving improperly. The problem with this was it went contrary to the whole purpose for using the unit; we had to take our time to supervise the project.

On the whole, the iRobot Discovery 4210 is fascinating, but still needs some fine tuning. It works fairly well getting under the bed and table--places that challenge conventional machines. It also works fairly well in an open room unencumbered with lots of furniture and obstacles. But throw in some tables, chairs, lamps, and it can easily get trapped, confused, and maybe even work itself into a tizzy.

Pros: helpful time saving tool, appreciated by those with back problems that prohibit vacuuming
Cons: can easily get stuck in a room with obstacles, may vacuum one area incessantly while avoiding another area altogether.

Warranty
1 year, parts and labor