We’re doing a tire change for 15 Bucks.
If your Roomba just spins and spins in mindless circles, the problem might be her wheels.
We have a 700 Series Roomba and she had a case of the spins. One wheel have zero tread and the other was completely gone. Needless to say we had sticker shock when we when looking for new tires. If your Roomba needs a tire change here’s how. As with all directions, read all of this before you start.
STEP ONE
You can get all OCD and measure the space on the wheel and mark off the tire. I used the “Christmas Paper Method.
I eyeballed the center of the tread and then noticed the tread pattern where I’d cut. Like Christmas paper.
Once again, the OCD method is to make it as flat as possible and scruff up the surface of the rubber for better adhesion.
At this point there are two schools of thought. You can fit and glue the rubber to the wheel and not move the wheel. Some feel than turning the wheel damages the electric motor. While removing the old rubber from the wheel, I found out that you can turn the wheel until the cows come home.
Use drop of couple of drops, little by little until you get to the “top”. “Top” shown above. I found the pulling the ends using Method One made for a better fit because the rubber gets skinny when you pull it and then fills the space quite nicely.
In a perfect world, the ends are cut to fit perfectly. If you miss, pick through all that cut rubber on the table and pick a little piece that will fill the gap.
The other method of turning the wheel was what I used on the second wheel. Scraping off the old rubber took about an hour. But moving the wheel was much faster than Method One and did a better job of fitting and gluing. Pull the end of the rubber as you glue to make the rubber fit nicely but not too hard. It’s not “Instant” Instant glue. If you go with 45 second breaks between pullings you’ll be fine.
Reassemble Roomba.
HINT: We wash the roomba bin in the sink with dish soap. Soon we’ll get brave and see if it’s dishwasher safe. If you already know it is, leave that info in the comments below.
Don’t forget to bookmark this for the next time. Leave comments on how your tire change went and add your hints as well.
