Robotic vacuum giant iRobot this week sent warnings to select owners of the Roomba i7+, noting that the Clean Base docking station has the potential to malfunction and short circuit. According to iRobot, concern stems from “very rare cases,” wherein liquids are deposited into the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal unit.
“We learned that certain Roomba i7+ Clean Base docking stations could malfunction and potentially present a hazard if liquids are collected by the Roomba i7+ robot vacuum and deposited into the Clean Base unit,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Our vacuums are only designed for cleaning up dirt and debris from dry floors and carpets and should never be used to pick up any liquids.”
The company believes around 222,000 units are potentially impacted by the issue. Of that number, the vast majority (around 210,000) were sold in North America. Emails and app notifications have been sent to users, alerting them of the problem. The company will send a replacement power cord or docking station to those with affected serial numbers.
The i7+ was released in 2018. The system sports some key advancements in mapping smarts, along with the impacted docking, which automatically cleans the Roomba’s on-board bin.