Features:

  • Sleek, premium design complements your home décor; includes 1 Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barrier for more control over where your robot cleans
  • 3-Stage Cleaning System and Dual Multi-Surface Brushes pick up everything from small particles to large debris
  • Patented Dirt Detect sensors alert Roomba to work harder on concentrated areas of dirt, such as high-traffic zones of your home
  • Full suite of intelligent sensors guide the robot under and around furniture to help thoroughly clean your floors
  • Clean and schedule from anywhere with the iRobot HOME App; compatible with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant
LOVE it!

I have 2 dogs, a cat and a kid. This means that at least one of my days off every week is devoted to cleaning. Obviously part of that process is vacuuming. Living in a two story house, vacuuming entails carrying my Dyson Ball upstairs and downstairs, stretching the cord from room to room and moving beds/furniture. I've frequently looked at Roombas, but always decided that it probably wasn't for me. I doubted the robot's ability to properly vacuum and wasn't willing to gamble a few hundred bucks to let it try to prove me wrong. When this Roomba showed up on the Vine, I couldn't pass it up. In the box is the Roomba, charging/home base, an extra filter, invisible gate with included batteries (more on that in a bit), and a cleaning multitool. Setup is pretty easy. Plug the home base into an outlet wherever you want it, place the Roomba on the charging contacts, download the app and setup the wifi so it can be controlled via the app and receive updates and you're done. Wifi was easy to set up. Just put in your wifi info and press 2 buttons on the top of the Roomba and it syncs up in under a minute. The app is pretty straightforward. You can name your Roomba, I named mine Bender Rodriguez because I'm a nerd. It shows you the most recent jobs detailing their duration, dirt detect count (times when it detected dirt deposits), status (if it completed the job, was cancelled, something happened etc) and the date and time it was started. It also keeps track of maintenance schedules, informing you when things need to be cleaned or replaced and has a direct link to their store to order replacement filters/brushes/etc. The main page shows the status of the robot, how full the battery is and has a giant button in the center which, when pressed, will tell the robot to clean - even if you aren't at home. The app also allows you to set a custom cleaning schedule (up to once a day for 7 days/week). The app keeps you posted of the progress, sending you a message when the job is completed or if there is an issue such as if your Roomba is stuck or is having any functional problems. Charging only takes about 2 hours. You can either press Clean within the app or on the robot itself. It will get to work and automatically return to its charging station upon completion. Cleaning time obviously depends on the size of the space its cleaning and number of dirt detect events (it will go over the same area frequently when it detects dirt). I find that it cleans the second floor of my house (2 bedrooms and a hallway) in about an hour. Due to the pets, I have the schedule set up for every day. It would be nice if they could make the collection bin bigger. I empty the bin each day when I get home from work, which - while it'd be nice to go a couple days - it's nicer to not have to worry about vacuuming the second floor. It's really impressive what it picks up. I've pulled change, bobby pins, silica gel packs and even a metal bracket from a bed frame out of the bin. It has run over phone charging cords without destroying them, although we do make it a habit to keep them off the floor these days. It's pretty quiet. You can't really hear it when you're downstairs. When you're upstairs it's very similar to the sound level of an R/C Car. The animals were wary at first, but after a couple days they don't even pay attention to it. Watching it vacuum is puzzling. It seems very random in its journey. I'm sure its all very formulaic and probably is actually covering all the surface area, but it does seem to move very randomly and cover some areas multiple times and not others (assuming this is the dirt detect at work). I would expect it to move in a straight line until it hit and obstruction and the turn 90 degrees to move over and then go back the way it came in parallel to the path it just cleaned. Instead, its very similar to the screen saver on the old DVD players where the logo travels until it hits the edge of the screen then ricochets at an arbitrary angle until it hits something else. Again, I haven't actually tracked its path to determine that every square inch of floor is covered, it just has me suspicious. In researching, I found that the 900 series models have a camera and more sophisticated tracking that leads them to take more logical paths and bump into things less. While I would've greatly appreciated the opportunity to review one of those models, I'm not looking a gift robot in the brushes. It includes an invisible gate with batteries. You can use this in one of two modes to tell the Roomba not to clean certain areas. The first mode is just a straight beam you can use to block off doorways without closing the door. The second is a circular gate than projects around the beacon. Their example is setting it between dog bowls so the Roomba doesn't run into them. I assumed I would need this for the stairs, but the Roomba's cliff detection works so well it's not necessary. Really, I just verified that both modes work (they do) and then threw it back in the box as I don't need it. The results really speak for themselves and alleviate any concerns I have about it covering the entire breadth of my upstairs. I come home to soft, freshly vacuumed carpet every day. You'd think we had a maid. It's comforting knowing that we don't have a colony of dust bunnies amassing beneath our beds, biding their time until they reach critical mass - launching an offensive to usurp my family and claim the house as their own. I love essentially halving my vacuuming time on my day off. I even brought it downstairs the other night and had it go over most the first floor too while I fed my daughter and did the dishes/laundry. It's very light and easy to move around if you want to put it to work outside its normal domain. It moves between carpeted floors and hardwood/tile/vinyl seamlessly. It senses edges perfectly. I don't have anything blocking it from our stairs and when it gets to the edge of the landing, it hits the brakes and turns around without fail. If you have it away from it's home base (ie. using it downstairs with the base upstairs), it will just stop when it's completed. There is some maintenance involved with this. Let's be honest though, if you want your vacuum to last, this is the case for any vacuum. The front wheel, brushes and filter need regular cleaning. It can all be accomplished with the included multi-tool and completed in 10 - 15 minutes. They all need to be replaced on an annual or bi-annual basis. 3 side brushes will run you 15 bucks, 3 filters are 20, front wheel is 6. They have replenishment kits that are pretty much all in one for about fifty bucks. There are also various upgraded parts, i.e. batteries and brush assemblies. It's pretty cheap and well worth it to keep your Roomba rollin'. The app tracks when you should be replacing/cleaning various components. I did have some issues during the first day or so where a job would inexplicably cancel. It seemed like it was complete, but I'd get a message on my phone saying that it had been cancelled. However, it hasn't been an issue after the second day. It does take up to 48 hours for the Roomba to update to the latest software/firmware so it's very likely that there was an issue that was fixed once it updated. Overall, I absolutely love my Roomba. It saves me time, ensures that my floors are clean and works exactly as they claim. Having it automatically vacuum daily is perfect for those with pets as it ensures that hair and dander isn't building up within your carpet. I've noticed the upstairs smells much fresher since Bender has been on the job. If you've been on the fence about adopting a Roomba because you have a lot of carpet and pets, I can attest that the Roomba can handle it.

Outstanding

Got this yesterday, also ordered the Deebot n79s for the upstairs so I'll have a nice comparison. I am extremely impressed with the Roomba. We have a 1500 sq ft open area on the first floor which includes the kitchen, sunroom, living room, and dining room. I've run this guy several times over the last two days and it has done an amazing job. The first time through it cleaned over 90%, not everything but to be fair the floor was ready for a good vacuuming. After the second run, I can say the place looks really good. The sunroom has hardwood and there are sliding glass doors all around. The doors have been open with the screens in and the pollen has been pouring in (we have a lot of trees around the house). This little fella got it done. We have dark oak hardwood floors so I made sure to keep an eye on the robot the first run or two to make sure there would be no scratching. No problems. The brushes are stiff enough to get the dirt but I don't see any way they could scratch the floor unless a piece of hard wire got tangled and the thing kept running, very unlikely. I did read in the instructions, yes I'm a guy and I do look at the instructions usually after the fact, and I noticed in the maintenance schedule that they say to keep an eye on the well that the front caster sits in once a month to make sure nothing clogs it to inhibit the roller from being able to roll. If that were to happen I could see an issue with the dragging motion across the floor but other than that I just don't see any issues. It cannot climb two of the three Orientals that we have. They are just too high for it. It handles one in the living room that has fringe on the ends and although the fringe gets 'out-of-whack' during the cleaning as it would with any vacuum it's easy enough to just kick back down when cleaning is over. I'll work out a way to get it up on the other two carpets probably by just putting a throw rug down to give it an on-ramp. We have three throw rugs in the kitchen in strategic spots (sink, oven, and fridge). The robot has no problem going up and cleaning those as well as the floor. (UPDATE: The robot does not do the two Orientals because they have a black border. I set the robot up there and it couldn't get off of the carpet because of the black borders. It thought it was a drop-off. So if you have black-bordered carpets, this would be an issue. Also, there is a lot of black inside one of the carpets and that freaked the bot out. It just stopped and waited for help). The Alexa app was amazingly easy to setup (yes, read the instructions). It took about a minute and a half to get it working. I have noticed that when I tell the robot to go home it still meanders for a bit but I assume it is looking for its beam back home. I think it searches for an IR beam that shows it where to go. The bot docks itself flawlessly. We put the docking station in a spot that has about a foot and a half on each side of it as per the instructions. It has had no problem finding the docking station. The battery life does not seem to be an issue for us. It has run for about 90 minutes once. Now it seems to complete the mission in about an hour before it returns home. We'll see how it holds up. So, bottom-line: The time to vacuum the floors on a regular basis went from not getting done as often as it should and taking about 45 minutes or more to well, a couple of minutes to clean the dirt bin after it runs. The floors get cleaned regularly now and the bin is not nearly as full as it was after the first couple of cleanings. I think with by following the routine maintenance schedule outlined in the manual this little guy should do a great job for quite a while. My wife and I couldn't be happier. And she laughed when I ordered it. She's doing a bit of a jig now. Me, too. UPDATE: I received the DEEBOT N79S and I am returning it. It did not work very well in my house. We have several thick area carpets on the hardwood and it had plenty of issues where the Roomba has no issues. I think if I had just hardwood and tile it would have been excellent. I'm picking up another Roomba.

Way better than I expected

The roomba 690 does a great job at what it was designed to do. It is a sweeper/Vacuum and will keep your floors dust free from everyday particles which can accumulate quickly. I have a cat- I am surprised at how much cat hair gets picked up at each session by the Roomba. It does NOT substitute for a heavy vaccuming session with a conventional sweeper vacuum. I have large floors, rugs on concrete - and live in a fairly dusty desert environment. I need to use a conventional vacuum once a month to stay ahead of the dirt. That said, the Roomba compliments the cleaning program nicely and my floors feel grit free 24/7 with the combo cleaning program. I was a robot vacuum skeptic prior to this purchase- now converted believer in robot vacuums as an easy way to keep floors clean.

My Betty

What can I say about my Betty (Roomba). I am so thrilled to have her. I just took a chore off my list, who gets out their vacuum daily? I like to, but with work and other responsibilities, it's a delight to take it off my list. I am pleased....the kitchen, dining room, living room, long hallway and the bathroom if I leave the door open. I keep the bedroom doors closed, only because I keep my dogs out of my room when I'm gone. I program her to come on while I'm at work during the week, and then on the weekends, I turn her on manually when I'm ready to have her work. It's AMAZING how much comes out of the container when I empty it It's amazing. I have stairs, no issues there, and I haven't had her get caught up in anything. I am so happy I finally got the Roomba. Next the Braava...lol If only iRobot made a laundry and cooking machine! I can wait I guess. My sister and niece bought one of these since I got one, and they both rave as well. Good product.

Instant Quality of Life Improvement!

This is one of those things you may think you can't justify, but, if you can afford it, definitely buy it. It may not replace your vacuum entirely but it does a mighty job of carpet sweeping whatever it can get to with no participation on your part (although it may hit some initial trouble spots on its first few runs). Circumstances have me living with four cat roommates which inevitably means the daily annoyance of tracked litter everywhere---no more! I run this guy once a day and each day I am amazed: it kills on the litter as well as all other assortments of daily crud that make it to the floor. You'll still need to run a vacuum on areas that it can't get to, but for any clear traffic area, you are going to be very happy with its performance. It does sound like a vacuum and does do a lot of bumping and rattling, but you'll be amazed how well it gets around...and the app control, of course, makes it ideal for anyone with mobility issues as it can be launched and paused remotely. When it's finished or the battery starts running low, it finds its way back to the charger and settles down with a little blip of happiness for a well-deserved nap. You will need to dump its dirt drawer regularly and clear its brushes occasionally, but that's about all the attention your new best friend will need.

My New Best Friend

LOVE! My only regret is that I didn't get it sooner. Pros: 1. I have a cat & am constantly battling cat hair. Even with an air purifier in every room of my house & daily vacuuming (not exaggerating); my short haired cat sheds more than I can even describe! I have this vacuum on a schedule via my app on my iPhone to vacuum daily..yes DAILY. Every day there is a handful of cat hair in the bin! When I vacuumed with my Dyson daily, it would take a week before I had the same amount of hair that the Roomba picks up in one day. As a result I have noticed a HUGE improvement in the air quality; less car hair floating through the hair, on my furniture, clothes, etc. 2. You really can't get anymore low maintenance. I had an issue with a chair leg (funky modern chair that has an usual base) & I would come home to find it stuck the first week I used my Roomba. But after getting creative & placing a box in the area, Roomba learned to to remember that area and eventually stopped attempting to climb over the chair leg. You read that correctly; it learned, it remembered & after about a week, I removed the make shift box barricade and it was no longer a problem. 3. Did I mention it vacuums daily! I just use the app to adjust the schedule time the night before, based on when I know I'm leaving the house the next day, since my schedule varies. I do it the same time I set my alarm clock. 4. The app rocks! I'll be away from home & will get a notification that "Roomba has successfully completed its job" 5. The app also shows your Roomba's cleaning history; dates it cleaned & how long it cleaned for; I.E. my house is under 1,000 sq ft. and the Roomba averages 1 hour clean time (think about that, when have you ever vacuumed for an entire hour straight?! Never! That's why it picks up so much dirt!) 6. Battery life has not been a problem; cleans entire house on a full charge. 7. Super low maintenance. I empty the dust bin daily (mostly b/c I'm curious). But haven't had to take it apart to clean any other parts yet. Cons: NOTHING in my opinion!! *If you have animals that puke, pee, poop on your floors; either get them properly trained or put them in another room while this vacuum runs. B/c Roomba will most definitely smear your pets body fluids all over you floors. And then you're not only going to have to clean your floors but the Roomba too. Additionally, watch your pets around the vacuum for the first week or so. My friend had a perfectly trained, house broken dog, who come to find out, was not a fan of this vacuum and ended up pooping in the house (either out of fear or protest) and she came home to dog sh*t smeared all over her floors. She was so pissed, she threw the vacuum in the garbage! Don't be like my friend. Only other thing I want to say, is people; use common sense. This is not a maid. If you have stuff on the floor that would get tangled in a standard push vacuum if you ran over it; guess what...it's going to get tangled in this one too! Duhh! You don't have to pick up everything off the floor..it will navigate around shoes (as long as the laces aren't dangling out), pillows, boxes, magazines, books, furniture, etc. with no problems! But if you have your phone charger, shoe laces, anything similar to thin, pliable rope shaped stuff laying around.. it will get tangled in that. Power cords, thicker cables (I have my air purifier on the floor, which is plugged into the wall; that is not a problem. It won't rip that out of the wall or get tangled, it usually goes around it or rolls over it with no problems). In a nutshell; you still have to pick up off your floors. Otherwise; it will either vacuum around your stuff or possibly snag (cut any frays off floor rugs, for example, otherwise it will pull your entrance floor rug across the entire house as it vacuums). If that's too much for you; get a cleaning service & hire a maid. Don't blame my new best friend; Roomba. The little guy can't do everything for you. Be realistic.

A little patience, and you'll find yourself in love

*updated after 3rd week of use* We bought Ruby after several weeks of debating, researching and reading reviews. I'm cheap. I hate spending money. For a little background, we are two working adults living in a wooded area, with a German Shepherd and a Pitbull. The German Shepherd sheds as if his skin is constantly on fire and his fur is running for its collective lives. I'm talking some serious shedding here. The pitbull loves dirt and mud and anything gross and will gladly collect as much as she can possibly manage to bring back inside with her. My husband and I both enjoy the outdoors and bring in our own dirt on top of all this. Typically, once the floors started showing signs of needing a good sweep/mop, it took about 2.5 hours to complete the job start to finish. This does not include the time we both spent trying to trick/bribe the other into doing the floors for us. After all the slaving, inevitably a doggie hair tumbleweed or two would sneak its way out from under a sofa just to make sure we knew we were not in control here. Enter Ruby. Oh Ruby... how I love thee. I ordered Ruby on a Sunday, coincidentally the same day I talked my husband into sweeping and mopping the floors without my assistance. By Thursday when Ruby arrived, the Doggie Hair tumbleweeds and dirt were beginning to take over the house again. Ruby was easy to set up, and while she was charging for her maiden voyage, my husband and I set out to reconfigure some areas in our home where we had things stored on the floor, under beds, or cords were left in the way,etc. While we were at it, we went ahead and swept dirt out of the awkward corners into the main floor area to see how she'd do. Our home is one level, 2400sq ft mostly hardwood and tile with carpet in just the bedrooms. We do not have rugs with the exception of a bath mat in 2 of the bathrooms. Our house is older, and has been remodeled so there are a couple of awkward corners. On Day one, Ruby struggled. Oh bless her poor little drunken soul. She bobbed and weaved and missed areas and spit things back out and eventually died lost in a back bedroom. We re-charged her and ran her again. She did ok the second time, but again got stuck somewhere with a dead battery. (I emptied her dust bin a total of 5 times that day and it was incredibly full each time. For shame!!) We went ahead and set up a schedule for her, and thought If we weren't happy after a week, we'd return her and go back to fighting and slaving over the floors and finding excuses for people to not come over. After 6 days, I can honestly say I'm in love with Ruby. Six whole days of us not touching a broom (aside from sweeping the dirt from an awkward corner into her path the first day), there is not a single doggie hair tumbleweed on our floors. My feet are pretty clean when I run around barefooted all day. I'm no longer embarrassed or panicked when someone says they're going to stop by the house. It's even clean under the beds and couches!!! $324.73 and WORTH EVERY PENNY!! Here are the questions I really wanted answered before I purchased, so I'll try to answer them for you. 1. No, she doesn't go in a direct grid pattern. Run her everyday, and she'll get what she missed yesterday today. Give her time, she really does get better each day! *After the first week I watched her work and I've noticed she now follows a more grid like pattern. It's not a perfect grid, but it's obvious there's a method to her madness* 2. Wifi function is great for setting a schedule, and for locating her when she occasionally can't find her way home when her battery dies, and for starting her away from home if you need to. I think we probably could have lived without this function, but I'm not sorry we have it. 3. My white baseboards and all furniture legs are perfectly fine 4. The same dogs that are petrified of my upright Kirby and upright Bissel Shampooer don't pay any attention to Ruby unless she runs into them. 5. Watching TV or going about regular life while she's running is no problem. Working from home means she needs to be in a other part of the house due to the noise 6. Yea, she can't always find her way home when her battery dies. My husband and I decided we're perfectly willing to go chase her down and put her on her base in exchange for not having to manually clean our floors. *Ruby has now docked herself everyday except for 1. I guess she just needed to learn the floor layout that first week* *Week 3 she now always docks herself* 7. She has not scratched our original hardwood floors. 8. She transitions easily from one flooring to the next, even over the little connector strip thingies (All of my flooring is light colored) 9. Give her a week. While moving things off the floors and out from under beds the first day, I left her a couple of treasures (dog hair that was embedded around the bed posts and other tight areas). I checked today,(6 days later) and she has gotten all the hair that's wrapped itself around furniture legs in the whole house 10. Mopping: Originally I had planned to purchase a robotic mop shortly after getting Ruby. As the weeks went by, I noticed it was 3 weeks before the floors needed to be mopped again and frankly , I could have gotten away with a spot mop then. What we had normally spent about 20 minutes on once a week, has turned into 20 minutes every 3 weeks. So overall, we've traded in an average of 2.5 hours a week of our time cleaning floors each week for a new average of roughly 10-15 minutes per week between dumping ruby and occassionally mopping. Thank you Ruby!

Love it!

This device (we have the 690 model) has proven to be much better than I expected. I have pets with long hair and while you have to run it a lot to get all the hair, there is no way we would ever have the patience to vacuum a rug for as long as the Roomba will do it. You can vacuum and then run this and have a lot more hair picked up. I put it in our bedroom, close the door and let it run until it needs recharging (about an hour). It's also fun to watch it learn if you happen to be in the room with it. It works well on our short shag and gets up under things to vacuum the hard to reach places. The only down side is that there are no attachments so you can't use it to vacuum pet hair off of furniture. Another possible down side is that anything spilled or if you have a pet that is not quite housebroken - as smart as the Roomba is it cannot smell or see - it will spread anything just like you stepping in it and walking around the house without knowing.

Nice update over our ten year old Roomba

Our red 4100 Roomba (Hazel) has developed a few issues lately. Either a gearbox finally wore out or it just needs the brush gearbox disassembled and cleaned - which I will do so we have two Roombas. So, we bought a 960 (Florence). Can't tell anything about the durability yet as we only opened the box 24 hours ago. Similar design, similar (but reduced) noises, more effective than the old Roomba. The old 4100 Roomba was no slouch either. When it can see an obstacle (usually something wide) it will slow before it strikes the object. Narrow objects like chair legs are not reliably seen and it bumps into those just like the old Roomba. The brushes and rollers have been updated and may (MAY) be less prone to getting hair wrapped around the shafts. We have a long haired person and a long haired Irish Setter at our house. Both shed. There is a plastic tool that can be purchased cheap on Amazon to clean the brush by passing the brush through the tool - usually twice. I can clean out the 4100 in about 3 minutes after every few uses. The 960 has Wi-Fi and a scheduling feature. The app shows the status of the Roomba and the battery charge level. Surprisingly enough I can launch the Roomba from outside the house via the app. Not sure I like that or not since it represents a possible IT security vulnerability for an IOT. I could block it with my router if I wanted to. May or may not. The 960 has a "home base" which the 960 will start looking for near the end of the battery charge. Basically it continues to toddle around the house cleaning until it notices the IR light (invisible to you and me) coming from the base and then it will turn towards the base and slowly zero in on it. Then it will recharge. I can also pause or end the cleaning cycle from the phone app and then tell it to return to the charging base. There is a scheduler built into the app as well. There is no way to plug the 960 into a charger, you'll need to rely on the base for the charging. Our old Roomba has a cord and a charging port. That's no more on the new Roombas. The 960 has both tones and voices to communicate its status or to ask for help. It is quieter than the old Roomba by a little bit. Not a bad noise considering that it is accomplishing a chore. Run it after you depart for work or while you make dinner if the noise is a problem. Battery: the old Roomba had a NiMH battery that needs to stay charged. The 960 has a lithium-ion battery that requires a screwdriver (or more) to remove whereas the old Roomba battery could just be popped out with no tools required. The new battery charges quickly. i'd say an hour or so. Runs for maybe an hour as well. No big deal since it docks and recharges itself. If it needs to run twice or three times to get the chore done, then no big deal. The cleaner the house (because the Roomba is used daily) the less it will need to run to maintain the condition of the house. Brushes: we had not run the big vacuum yet this week and the 960 made a noticeable improvement in the house last night. Even fluffed up the nap of the rug. As everyone has said, it won't replace a full size vacuum but it will reduce the frequency of using a full size vacuum. Brains: the 960 toddles around the house randomly like the 4100. It is smarter about a few things since it can see more than the older 4100. It also seems to be a little more sophisticated which can prevent getting trapped under furniture. Use ti frequently and it will clean the whole house - every spot will be cleaned sooner or later. We have a few narrow places in the house which causes both robots to dwell like our laundry room. That's fine b/c the laundry room needs alot of frequent deep cleaning as it functions as a mud room, cat litter box is located there, dryer lint, etc.

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