Why your Roomba keeps saying it’s time to empty the dust bin

Wait, didn’t you empty your Roomba’s bin just a day ago? You sure did, yet here’s your Roomba, insisting once again that its dust bin needs to be emptied. 

In some cases, it could be that the recently emptied Roomba bin truly does need to be emptied again. If your Roomba is vacuuming a rug that hasn’t been cleaned recently and is covered in pet hair, for example, a single cleaning could be enough to stuff the bin with debris. 

Sometimes, however, the Roomba app will insist that the bin is full even though there’s only a few fluffy whisps of dust and hair inside—and even when you clean that gunk it, it might still refuse to budge. 

This how-to is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robot vacuums.

So, what’s going on? One of two things might be happening: Either the IR sensors in your Roomba that detect a jam-packed dust bin might be dirty, thus tricking the bot into thinking its bin is full when it actually isn’t, or there might be a clog of debris in the channel that leads into the dust bin. 

Here’s how to fix both of those problems—and if neither of these issues is the cause of those “dust bin full!” false alarms, it might be time to send your Roomba in for maintenance. 

Clean your Roomba’s “full bin” sensors 

The look and location of the full bin sensors on your Roomba will vary depending on the model. Roughly speaking, they look like a pair of square- or rectangular-shaped black modules that are (more or less) flanking a translucent section of the dust bin. These diagrams from iRobot can help you locate the sensors on your Roomba. 

If there’s enough debris in the bin to block the IR light emitted by the sensors, the Roomba will report that its bin is full. But if one or both sensors are dirty enough to interrupt the IR beam, the bot might think the bin is full when it’s not. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Using a soft dry cloth, wipe the full bin sensors clean, and then see if your Roomba begins operating normally again. 

Clean out the opening leading to the dust bin 

Here is the fix that solved my own “bin is full!” issue with my Roomba j7. After pulling out the dust bin and determining that there was hardly anything inside, I picked up the Roomba for a closer inspection of its innards—and found a big clump of debris that was almost entirely blocking the channel leading into the bin. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

I cleared out the blockage, and then took another look at the dust bin—specifically, inside the compartment containing the high-efficiency filter. Lo and behold, there were more chunks of dust and gunk, which I dutifully removed out. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Speaking of the high-efficiency filter (assuming your Roomba uses one–not all do), check to see if it’s particularly dusty and grimy. If so, try tapping it on the inside of a garbage can to knock out the excess debris.

Finished with my impromptu vacuum maintenance, I slotted the dust bin back inside the Roomba j7, and—for now, at least–that’s put an end to the incessant “your dust bin may be full!” alerts. 

Just don’t forget to perform routine maintenance on your Roomba; otherwise, those “bin full!” false alarms will almost certainly return.