The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums nab pet hair, lint, and dust off floors before they can settle. They can also stay clear of obstacles like furniture that is tippy and staircases.
The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance, such as emptying (and occasionally, rinsing) the bin and wiping sensors and cameras. They also require to be plugged in. Many come with smartphone apps for scheduling, adjusting settings, and more.
Roomba 980 from iRobot
The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of-the-line robot vacuums , is an essential for any modern home. This model is extremely powerful suction and it comes with a HEPA filter that will help anyone concerned about allergies. It also has an extremely powerful battery that can clean for two hours and returns to its dock automatically when the bin is full.
Smart mapping is a different feature that assists in identifying areas in your home that require attention, and then creates a cleaning path to get around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of moving around toys that have been placed on the floor or furniture legs that are sticking out of the ground. It also has a sensor that snaps Roomba back to reality when it begins to drift away from its initial location.
iRobot has also included a set of rollers underneath the Roomba that do not have bristles, and therefore are more likely to avoid knots than earlier models. They're also taller than older rollers, and will fit better under beds and couches with low sides and are designed to let this model move more easily across different floor types.
The Roomba 980 is distinguished from other high-end models by its new dirt detection feature, which uses cameras to detect dirt embedded. This is an improvement over the previous model that relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover method to bounce around the room and scrub the area three times, at different angles.
The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on carpets and hard floors. It scored highly on carpets with a low pile, and on mid-pile. It did a good job of removing pet hair, but it had a difficult time with extremely thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our top-performing robots, and isn't even nearly as expensive as the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It comes with many of the features you would expect from a flagship model, but doesn't come with all the fancy apps or smart home integrations you'll find in other top contenders.
The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is ready for use as soon as you are ready to. After removing the yellow bin insert and battery pull tab from its undercarriage you simply plug it into an outlet on the wall or to its Home Base docking stations, press the "Clean button" and let it work. It will return to docking station when it is running out of batteries or is full of sand. There are also indicators on top that indicate the bin is empty, when it needs to recharge, or when it loses its Wi-Fi.