Can Roomba Go Over Rugs & Transition? (Here’s How!)

I’m all about addressing the most common questions raised by people regarding household issues. I like experimenting with modern day tech and one of my recent experiments was with a Roomba.

People have been asking questions like can Roomba go over rugs and carpets or can Roomba go over transition strips in forums and threads. It’s obvious to have the same query considering how deceiving technology can be these days.

But I can assure you, that a roomba is definitely capable of going over rugs, carpets and transition strips depending on what model you have. 

I know a single sentence is never assuring. The Internet is filled with facts about how robot vacuum cleaners like roombas fail in the query of can roomba go over rugs with Fringe?

Let’s just go through everything there is to know about how you can make your roomba go over rugs, carpets and transitions. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, you’re about to ace how to handle a roomba robot vacuum. First, let’s start with clarifying a confusion first.

After knowing that a roomba can go over rugs, it is meant to be frustrating to see yours avoiding the area rugs every time it goes nearby. Funnily enough, the “scientists and engineers” who made such robot vacuums added a few sensors to help these robots sense danger.

And by danger I mean the chance of falling over from the stairs or a railing with enough gaps. This is foolish! 

What about homes that don’t have stairs? And nobody puts area rugs near the stairwell and definitely no home has a cliff inside.

Still such sensors are understandable and there’s a way you can trick these roombas.

Now, let’s clear out a few more confusions.

Again, if a roomba is feature packed and is not a cheap random one, it can definitely handle transitions. Transitions can be of many kinds. Say you have wooden floors, or tiled floors or even you have plastic or hardwood flooring in a specific room of your home.

A roomba is programmed to understand the difference of flooring to adjust the vacuuming motion, way and speed. If your roomba is only suitable for cleaning only one type of flooring, it will not go over transitions.

But if it’s a moderately priced one which has the feature of understanding different flooring types, it will most certainly go over transitions. You can’t really reprogram a roomba at home. Make sure you get one that can handle the transitions.

In most cases, a roomba that can handle transitions is by default capable of going over rugs and carpets. It will not need any tricks or modification.

Either you have a robot vacuum and want to get a rug or you have a rug and want a robot vacuum. If you have a rug, skip this and move forward. But if you have a roomba and want to get a rug, you better check this out. You know what, just check this out.

To be really honest, the modern day roombas, well, they all are modern day roombas but the newer ones with more features can handle any type of rugs. Starting from leather, shags, viscous, natural fiber, synthetic rugs, anything and everything is roomba friendly.

But the problem is with the tassels (rug fringe). As their tassels are not fixed on the floor like the body of the rug, they often get sucked in by the vacuum of a roomba. That can cause mechanical damage and failure to a roomba. Hide the tassels if your rug already has them.  

However, you can use fringe holder tape that will hide those tassels. Avoid rugs with tassels if you have a roomba at home.

Watch the following video on how to properly tape a rug with fringes:

Now, this is for those who want to keep their roomba off of their rugs. It might seem like I’m downplaying the capability of a roomba but sadly it’s true that a roomba can’t really clean a rug properly.

If you are one of those people who don’t trust their roomba, follow the methods below of keeping the roomba off rug.

• Roll the rug while the roomba is at work

• Place some sort of a physical barrier which it can’t get over

• Use a magnetic tape or a wall accessory. These extra things usually come with the slightly expensive ones

• Keep the lights on if your roomba is dependent on optical or light sensors

The above discussion was for both roomba owners and people who want to own roombas. But this is for those of you who still are confused about getting a roomba. In this part I’ll discuss the pros and cons of the robot vacuum using experience I had. I have a pro-roomba stand.

The main reason why I love a Roomba is it does my work while I’m not at home. Think about it. You’ve been to your workplace the entire day, spending your time dealing with what you do every day. Coming back home to an unclean floor is a nightmare.

Yeah some of us deal with that nightmare. But I chose to outsource the nightmare dealing part to a roomba and boy am I happy or happy!

I have a pet, a cat, which leaves hair literally everywhere on the floor including that fancy rug in the living room. For me, getting back home from work will be a cry for help because I have to get rid of all that cat hair.

The roomba is my best friend in this regard because after I got it, NO MORE PET HAIR! Such a relief.

This little dude is a noisy one. It can be annoying as hell while you’re at home to bear the sound of a roomba being at work. That’s why I keep it turned on while I’m away and off while I’m home.

• Skips the Corner of the Rugs

I don’t really have any plush rugs at home. But many people with plush and thick rugs with a hair like texture at home have told me that the roomba they have, either sucks the hair out of the rug or skips the edges of the rug.

This is a solvable issue too. All you have to do is follow the methods above of keeping the roomba off the rug and you’re golden.

Note: If you’re looking for more rug vacuum cleaners except iRobot roomba check our in-depth buying guide for the top rated vacuum for soft carpet and delicate rugs here.

A Roomba with the capacity of going over rugs can go over rugs. If you keep asking can roomba go over rugs without actually getting a roomba that can go over rugs or making those certain modifications, it’s just unfair.

Just get a robot vacuum that can go over rugs. If you have budgetary issues, just follow the steps of keeping the roomba off rug. But for making the roomba go over transition, you would have to add a few bucks to that price limit. Either way, a roomba is a good friend to leave the home to. It’ll keep the floor clean.