10 Unexpected Irobot Vacuum Tips
The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums nab pet hair, lint and dust from floors before it can settle. They can also avoid obstacles like stairs and other obstructions, including tippy furniture.
Most robotic vacuums require maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and sometimes, cleaner rinsing it) and wiping the sensors and cameras. Additionally, they must be plugged into an electrical source. Many have smartphone apps to schedule, adjust settings and more.
Roomba 980 from iRobot
The iRobot Roomba 980 is the latest model in the line of top-of-the-line robot vacuum cleaners that are an essential part of every modern household. This model has seriously strong suction and it comes with a HEPA filter that will aid anyone who is concerned about allergies. It also has a powerful battery which can be cleaned for up to two hours before returning to its dock automatically when the bin is full.
It also comes with an option called smart mapping which uses multiple sensors to help suss out the areas in your home that require attention and create a self cleaning robot vacuum path around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of maneuvering around toys abandoned on the floor, or furniture legs that are sticking out from under things. It also has a camera sensor that can snap the Roomba back to its original position when it begins to drift from its intended location.
iRobot has also introduced a new set of rollers beneath the Roomba's bottom, which do not have bristles, and thus tend to resist tangles better than the previous models. They are also taller and can be placed under beds or couches with low sides. They're specifically designed to make this model more movable on various flooring types.
The Roomba 980 stands out from other models with a high-end price tag due to its latest dirt detection feature, which uses cameras to identify dirt that has been embedded. This is a great improvement over the previous model, which relied on the sensor-driven pseudorandom cover method to bounce around the room and clean everything at minimum three times from various angles.
The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on both carpets and hard floors. It scored extremely well on carpets with low pile and on mid-pile. It did a good job collecting pet hair, but struggled with thick and long pet hair that was stuck together.
The Roomba 980 is still one of the most efficient robots in our list, despite these minor limitations. It's also not as expensive as top-of-the-line models. It has a lot of features you'd expect from a top model, but doesn't come with all the fancy apps and smart home integration you'd find in other top models.
The iRobot Roomba can be set up quickly and is ready to use as soon as you are ready to. After taking the yellow bin insert and pull tab from the undercarriage, you simply plug it into a wall socket or its Home Base docking stations, hit the "Clean button" and let it job. It will return to its dock when it is running out of battery or becomes full of debris. There are also indicator lights on top that indicate when its bin is empty, or when it needs to recharge, or when it loses its Wi-Fi.
