The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums sweep pet hair, dust and lint off floors before they can settle. They also help avoid stairs and other obstacles such as furniture that is tippy.
The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance, like emptying (and occasionally, rinsing) the bin and wiping sensors and cameras. Additionally, they must be plugged into a power source. Many have smartphone apps to schedule, adjust settings and more.
iRobot Roomba 980
The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of-the-line robot vacuums, is a staple for any modern home. This model comes with a HEPA filter that can assist those who suffer from allergies. Additionally it also comes with a powerful battery which can clean for up to two hours and it will automatically return to its dock when it is full.
Smart mapping is another feature that allows it to identify areas of your home that require attention and creates 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 left scattered on the floor or furniture legs that stick out from under things. It also has a camera that snaps the Roomba back to reality when it starts drifting from its intended location.
iRobot has also introduced a new set of rollers beneath the bottom of the Roomba that do not have bristles, and thus tend to resist tangles better than earlier models. These are also a little taller than previous rollers, and will fit better under beds and couches with low sides and are designed to let this model move more easily on varying flooring kinds.
The Roomba 980 differs from other models with a high-end price tag by its brand new dirt detection feature that makes use of cameras to identify dirt that has been embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous version that relied on the use of a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover to bounce around the room, and then clean the area three times, at different angles.
In our tests of its performance it was found that the Roomba 980 did well on both hard flooring and carpets. It scored highly on carpets with a low pile, and on mid-pile. It did a fair job of picking up pet hair, but it struggled with very thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.
The Roomba 980 is still one of the best robot vacuum with mopping function performing robots on our list despite the slight limitations. It's also not as expensive as top-of the-line models. It has a lot of features we would expect from a top model but does not have all the fancy apps and smart home integration you'd see in other top contenders.
The iRobot Roomba is easy to set up and get working immediately. After taking the yellow bin insert and battery pull tab from its undercarriage you simply plug it into the wall socket or one of its Home Base docking stations, press the "Clean button" and let it do the job. It will return to the dock when it has run out of batteries or is full of trash. There are also indicator lights on top that show when its bin is empty, when it is in need of recharging or if it loses Wi-Fi.