The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums sweep pet hair, lint, and dust off floors before they can settle. They also can avoid stairs and other obstacles such as furniture that is tippy.
Most robotic vacuums require maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and sometimes, rinsing it) and wiping the sensors and cameras. They also need to be plugged in. Many come with smartphone applications for scheduling, setting and more.
iRobot Roomba 980
The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent in a line of top-of the-line robot vacuums, is a must for any modern home. This model has seriously strong suction as well as it comes with a HEPA filter that'll assist anyone suffering from allergies. It also has a powerful battery which can be cleaned for up to two hours, and return to its dock automatically when the bin is full.
Smart mapping is another feature that assists in identifying areas in your home that require attention and creates a path for cleaning around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of moving around toys that are abandoned on the floor, or furniture legs that stick out of the ground. Roomba also has a sensor that snaps Roomba to its real-world location if it starts to move away from its original position.
deebot robot vacuum has also introduced a new set of rollers beneath the Roomba's bottom, which do not have bristles, and thus tend to be more resistant to tangles than earlier models. The rollers are also larger and can be tucked under beds or couches that are low. They're specifically designed to make this model more adaptable to different floor types.
What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other models with a higher-end price tag however, is its incorporation of the latest dirt detection feature that utilizes cameras to identify particles of dirt embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous model that relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover method to bounce around the room, and then clean everything three times at different angles.
The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on carpets and hard floors. Its score on low pile carpet was excellent and it scored a high score on mid pile too. It did a decent job of picking up pet hair, but it had a difficult time with very thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.
Despite these slight limitations, the Roomba 980 remains one of our most efficient robots, and isn't even far from being as costly as the other top models on this list. It's still packed with a variety of features that we'd like to find in a flagship model however it lacks all the fancy apps or smart home integration you'll find in other top contenders.
The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is available for use immediately. After removing the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from the undercarriage, all you need to connect it to its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, press its big "Clean" button and let it go to work. It will return to docking station when it runs out of battery or is full of trash. There are also indicator lights at the top of the bin that let you know when the bin is empty, or when it requires recharging, or when it loses its Wi-Fi.