The robot cleaner is useless without the energy.
How do I know if my Roomba is charging?
If your Roomba is out of battery, then it can’t do the cleaning for you. This is not a serious matter, so you can fix it yourself. In this article, we’re going to inform you about charging your Roomba vacuum.
Table of Contents
Your Roomba is Charging or Not: Signs to Know
1. How to tell if your Roomba is charging?
Latest models of Roomba show no light when charging. Therefore, if you want to know whether or not it’s charging, simply press the Clean button once and you will see the light shows up.
Its color will let you know about the status of the batter:
- Green means it’s charged fully.
- Amber means the battery is partially discharged.
- Pulsing amber means the vacuum is charging.
- Red means it’s nearly discharged.
- Flashing red means the energy is running out.
When the light shows the color of orange or pulsing amber, you can tell your robot cleaner is charging. If you see a solid green on display, the battery is full and ready to work. With other colors, it shows that your Roomba is not fully charged or nearly runs out of power.
Below is the battery status indicator table for Roomba models:
|
ROOMBA |
BATTERY STATUS |
|
500 |
Amber Pulse: No battery Red: Low battery Amber Pulse: Charging Amber: Partially charged Green: Fully charged Quick Amber Pulse: 16 hours refresh chargeLight pulses during the charging process |
|
600 |
Amber Pulse: No battery Red: Low battery Amber Pulse: Charging Amber: Partially charged Green: Fully charged Quick Amber Pulse: 16 hours refresh chargeLight pulses during the charging process |
|
700 |
Red: No battery Red: Low battery Amber Pulse: Charging Green: Fully charged Quick Amber Pulse: 16 hours refresh chargeLight displays 60s during the charging process |
|
800 |
Red: No battery Red: Low battery Amber Pulse: Charging Green: Fully charged Quick Amber Pulse: 16 hours refresh chargeLight displays 60s during the charging process |
|
900 |
Red: No battery Red: Low battery Amber Pulse: Charging Green: Fully charged Quick Amber Pulse: 16 hours refresh chargeLight displays 60s during the charging process |
|
i7 & i7+ |
Red: No battery Amber Pulse: Low battery Blinking white: Charging White: Fully charged Swirling white: Software updateLight displays during the charging process |
|
i3 & i3+ |
Red: No battery Amber Pulse: Low battery Blinking white: Charging White: Fully charged Swirling white: Software update |
2. Does the light of your Roomba displays when charging?
As you can see from the table above, light signals will show differently on different Roomba vacuum models.
For instance, with the 500 and 600 series, the light will blink every 4 seconds to inform the device is charging. Meanwhile, the light will be on display for 60 seconds at the beginning of the charging cycle with the 700, 800, and 900 series. For the i3 series, there’s no light while the unit is charging. However, the charging light is available at the i7 series.
If you want to see the current battery status of your Roomba, simply press the Clean button once. After the light is on for a few seconds, it will return to the charging display mode as usual.
This applies to all Roomba models.
See also: Why my Roomba brush is not spinning?
3. Why your Roomba is beeping during the charge?
What I like about Roomba is that it gives you signals about various problems. It starts with a beep sound twice and then a narrated voice tells you the issue with your robot vacuum. The number of beeping will give you the clue about what the problem it is encountering with.
Here are some other Roomba charging error codes that you should know:
- If it blinks once, the battery isn’t connected.
- With two, three or five blinks, the charging error is occurring.
- Roomba blinking 6 times means its battery is too warm.
- When the unit blinks 7 times, the battery seems to be too hot or too cold.
- If it blinks 8 times, it means your Roomba can’t connect to the lithium-ion battery.
- In case you see 9 blinks, the device is having an error related to the lithium-ion battery.
For anyone using either the 900 series or the 600 and 800 series connected with Wi-Fi, you should open the iRobot app for assistance. The info there will provide more details about the problems of each unit.
Click to know how to reboot Roomba correctly.
4. Why your Roomba has a flashing red light during the charge?
If you’ve just started using this robot vacuum cleaner, please notice that there are two types of flashing red lights. We call it the ‘Pulsing Amber’. When you spot a slow pulse displaying on your Roomba, it means the battery is low and charging. It’s not a big deal, so just let the unit charge itself for a period of time. Then it will return to do the cleaning task once full of power.
The second flashing red light type is faster. If you see a fast blinking, it notifies that your Roomba has gone into a 16-hour refresh charge. Charging in many hours is a part of the unit’s maintenance, so you don’t have to be worried much. This feature is available in 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900 series robots.
Your Roomba will automatically start this refresh charging once the battery has been cycled for several times in a day. Leave it overnight and it will continue carrying out the previous tasks previously scheduled on the next day.
5. Does your Roomba need a dock for the charge?
Many have asked me if they can charge their Roomba without a dock.
Well, the answer is yes. Most iRobot Roomba models can be charged by connecting directly to the charge. Based on my experience, if the unit charges directly instead of going to the dock, probably something happens to the dock.
It’s a simple way to test whether or not the charging dock has any problem.
Your Roomba may not need a dock for the charge, but it will be less effective. For instance, the performance for scheduled cleanings won’t be done properly. You will sometimes find it gets lost and is unable to find the way back to the charging station.
Wrap it up
That’s all for how do I know if my Roomba is charging.
You can try out all the mentioned ways above to find out if your cleaning device is charging or not. Just hit the Clean button and you can easily tell its current status. All the meanings of the light are provided here…hope it helps!
My 600 series Roomba shows only a solid amber light. No matter what I do, it never seems to fully charge nor does the light ever pulse. I use it for 15-20 minutes before the red battery light comes on, i dock it, it’s connected, the light is solid amber and the batter image is amber. What do you suggest?
Hi Sandra,
You could try the reset. Unplug the charger, remove the battery, hold down the clean button for 30 seconds, put in the battery, and then plug in the charger.
Sincere
My green light on base goes out after a few seconds on my roomba 981 no light at all goes on the actual robot. It is totally dead, won’t charge at all. Tried cleaning all contacts, still no result.
Hi Karen,
If nothing helps anymore, you can try resetting the Roomba software. In fact, this is quite simple. All you have to do is press the “Dock” and “Spot” buttons simultaneously for at least 10 seconds. After that, you should hear a beep which is an indicator for the reset.
Sincere
Good article and video with lots of good information. I found it very helpful. My i7 had stopped charging so thinking it was the battery (even though only a couple of years old) I bought a new battery. It still wouldn’t charge. I had gone through the cleaning and other manuvers as you and the iRobot support suggested and my i7 was still was not charging. I cleaned it again with a brand new melamine foam sponge and then as a added step used canned air to spray out beneath the contact points on the base. Voila! It is now charging. Thanks again!