Roomba robot vacuums are great to have, especially the ones with smart mapping and navigation capabilities. But one of the things that people are worried about is wondering if they can move the Home Base charging station.
The main concern about moving the Roomba Home Base is that your Roomba will forget how to return home to recharge if you move the home base dock.
This article will cover moving the Roomba Home Base, the effects of moving the base around, and tips on base locations.
How Does Roomba Find the Home Base?
Your Roomba uses an internal map to locate the Home Base. The map is stored in the Roomba’s memory. When the Roomba starts, it looks at the map to see where it is located.
Your robot needs to find the infrared signal of the Home Base to return back to it and recharge.
Can I Move the Roomba Home Base?
Yes, you can move the Roomba Home Base to other locations in your home. Your Roomba will still find its way back to the Home Base to recharge itself after cleaning if it can find the infrared signal coming from the Home Base.
Keep these things in mind when moving the Roomba Home Base to keep your Roomba safe and working well:
- The Home Base shouldn’t be near stairs or drop-offs. It also shouldn’t be moved while it the Roomba is in the middle of a cleaning cycle.
- The Roomba base must be against a wall.
- There should be enough room around the base, and the base should be placed correctly for the Roomba.
What Happens If You Move the Roomba Home Base in the Same Room?
Your Roomba is smart enough to know how to go back to its Home Base, around obstacles and avoid getting stuck. It knows where it’s been before, so it doesn’t need to be told again. It also knows where it wants to go, so it won’t get lost.
Your Roomba will be able to find the Home Base’s new location by itself if it’s in the same room as it was before. You don’t need to do anything.
The map will update itself after a few runs, so if you still see the Home Base icon in the old location on the map, don’t worry. The icon should update by itself to the new location.
Can I Move the Roomba Home Base to Another Room?
Yes, you can move the Roomba Home Base to anoother room. You don’t need any more training runs for your Roomba to locate the base’s new location.
But if the Roomba is having trouble docking or finding the base, you can manually update its map on the app without remapping your entire home again.
Follow these steps to update the Roomba’s map:
- Open the Map on your phone.
- Open the History Page and Select one of the Old “Clean All” Runs.
- Click on the 3 dots in the Right Upper Corner and Select “Update My Smart App.”
- The New Roomba Home Base location should be updated in the map now and your Roomba should not have any further issues with finding the base.
Can You Move Your Roomba from Floor to Floor?
Moving the Roomba from one floor to another floor is not a problem. All the models will be able to clean multiple floors. Different models with various smart mapping and navigation features will treat different floors differently, but the floors will still be cleaned.
The Roomba models that have smart mapping features will be able to store up to 10 different floor layouts. The models include the Roomba i7/i7+, i8+, j7/j7+, and s9/s9+.
Stored maps of the different floor plans will help the Roomba clean more efficiently. You’ll still need to manually carry the Roomba from one floor to the next, but they will still be cleaned.
Can You Put the Home Base on the Carpet
Your Roomba base can go anywhere, even on a rug or carpet, as long as there’s enough room for the Roomba. It doesn’t matter what flooring you use, as long as your Roomba can get to the base.
Many people prefer using flat surfaces like hardwood floors, linoleum, tile, etc. Carpets are fine though if you have carpet all around.
Your Roomba base won’t overheat while charging if the Home Base is on the carpet.
Can You Have Two Home Bases for Roomba?
Roombas work well in homes with multiple floors and each floor having its own Home Base. You can use them to clean up multiple floors at once. You can also set them to return to a specific home base by starting the Roomba from that particular base.
A good tip for multiple floors for easy recharging and to take advantage of the Recharge and Resume feature is to have multiple Home Base stations. Keep one Home Base on each floor, so you don’t need to worry about moving Home Bases up and down stairs. It’s also much cheaper than buying multiple Roombas.
Your Roomba will always go back to the nearest home base if it finds an open docking station. If you have more than one Roomba and Home Bases, the Roomba may not go back to its original base. The Roomba will look for the closest base to recharge at.
If there are two or more Roombas, they won’t necessarily dock on the same Home Base they started from either. The Roomba will look for the closest Home Base to recharge.
Should I Reset My Roomba When I Move?
No, you do not need to reset your Roomba when you move. Your Roomba will automatically create a new map as it cleans the new location. Even though the Roomba will be fine, it’s still best to reset the maps, so the Roomba won’t be avoiding obstacles that it created from your old home.
Since all the old maps and settings will be tied to your old home, it could be a good idea to perform a reset on the Roomba.
For specific instructions for your Roomba model, check out How to Reboot and Reset a Roomba.
Here are the general steps to reset your Roomba from the iRobot HOME app:
- Make sure your Roomba nad smartphone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Open the app. Go to Setting.
- Click on Remove. You will now see “Factory Reset (Roomba Name)”.
- Click on the Roomba Name and the Roomba will reset to the original default settings to map your new home.
Tips to Choose a Home Base Location for the Roomba
You can put your Roombas home base pretty much anywhere you want as long as you follow these layout guidelines:
Enough Space
Your Roomba needs to be able to move freely. You shouldn’t put anything in the path of your Roomba. Make sure there is enough room for the Roomba to find its way back to the Home Base.
Make there there’s at least 1.5 to 2 feet of space on either side of the Home Base, and 4 feet in front of base. Make sure there’s also space above the dock for clear Wi-Fi reception if it has Wi-Fi connectivity.
If you have virtual wall barriers, also make sure to keep the base 8 feet away from the barriers.
Flat Surface
Your Roomba should be placed on level ground. If you place it on an uneven surface, it might get stuck or go off-course.
The Roomba will have trouble docking to the base to recharge if the ground is at an angle.
Far from Stairs
To reduce the risk of the Roomba falling down stairs, keep the Home Base at least 4 to 5 feet away from the staircase or any drop-off points.
For more ideas on where to store your robot vacuum, check out Roomba Storage Ideas.
Final Thoughts
Roombas are robots that vacuum our floors. They are very useful because we don’t need to do any work to get them to clean our floors. They can be used to clean two floors at once. They can also be moved around easily.
You don’t always have to reset or remapping when you move to a different place, but I’d recommend it. When moving the Roomba Home Base to different rooms in the same house, there’s no need to reset it.
You can also look to iRobot support for more support.
For more Roomba articles, check out these posts:
