Why Irobot Vacuum Is More Dangerous Than You Realized

The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums sweep pet hair, dust and lint off floors before they can settle. They can also stay clear of stairs and top robot vacuum Cleaner other obstacles like furniture that can tip.

Most robotic vacs require some maintenance, like emptying (and occasionally rinsing) the bin, and wiping sensors and cameras. They also need to be connected. A lot of them have apps for smartphones for scheduling, setting up settings, and more.

Roomba 960 by irobot robot vacuum

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the most recent in the line of top Robot vacuum cleaner-of-the-line robotic vacuum cleaners that are an essential part in any modern home. This model comes with a HEPA-filter that will aid those suffering from allergies. It also has an extremely powerful battery that can be cleaned for up to two hours before returning to its dock automatically once the bin is full.

Smart mapping is another feature that assists in identifying areas in your home that require attention and provides a path for cleaning around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does a great job of moving around toys that are placed on the floor or furniture legs that are sticking out from under things. It also has a sensor that will snap Roomba to its real-world location if it begins to drift away from its original location.

iRobot has also included an additional set of rollers beneath the Roomba that do not have bristles, and therefore are more likely to resist knots than earlier models. They are also taller and can be tucked under beds or couches with low sides. They're designed to make the model more adaptable to different flooring types.

What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other models with a higher-end price tag however, is its integration of the new dirt detection feature that uses cameras to detect particles of dirt embedded. This is an improvement over the previous version that relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover method to bounce around the room and scrub the area three times, at different angles.

In our tests of its performance it was found that the Roomba 980 did well on carpets and hard flooring. Its score on the low pile carpet was excellent and it also scored a high score on mid pile, too. It did a fair job of picking up pet hair, but it was struggling with very thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.

Despite these minor shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our best-performing robots, and isn't even nearly as expensive 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 doesn't come with all the fancy app-enabled functions or smart home integration that are found in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is ready for use immediately. After you have removed the pull tab for the battery and the yellow bin insert from undercarriage, all that you need to connect it to its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, press its large "Clean" button, and let it go to work. It will return to docking station when it runs out of battery or becomes full of debris. There are also indicator lights at the top of the bin that let you know the bin is empty, or when it requires recharging, or if it loses Wi-Fi.