My housekeeper vacuums the living room every other week, but here is what 10 minutes of the Roomba picked up. Love it!
First off, I have to subtract a point simply because IRobot will not give single floor home owners, with no hidden black holes in the middle of their living room, a tiny little switch dedicated to disabling the sensors looking for vertical drops which might damage the vacuum if it fell down the stairs for example. The problem sensor, frankly, does its task all too well. The magnificent little robot, without fail, detected dark coloring in my carpet patterns as actual vertical drop-offs. Most of my living room remained without vacuuming for weeks until my wife and I ran across an online article discussing IRobot's super nagging problem of having to remove favorite carpets or vacuuming a lot of your carpet by hand. We simply had no idea why these areas were being ignored. We thought our brand new carpet had some kind of manufacturing defect -- well -- I mean, the robot was superb in every other section of the house -- must be the carpet. Right?
I'm not going to go into the actual steps we had to take in disabling the "dark hole" sensors. There's all kinds of info out there now. Just Google it.
You'll find all the help you'll need.
The vacuum itself and the "non-dark hole" software is first rate. Easy job getting vacuuming every day. We just have to empty the trash bin. My wife and I love how it keeps up with a daily schedule, returning home to re-charge, and completing each task. Being Floridians, my wife and I are both bare-footers and we always hated the feel of gritty, sandy stuff tracked onto a tiled kitchen floor. No More Grit! Roomba gets an amazing amount of debris from every room in the house. Great movement and location awareness. After the little bit of brain surgery we had to perform the Roomba from IRobot gets top marks.
Don't get me wrong, I like Spot, as my wife has named our Roomba. He is noisy, but he's a vacuum cleaner. He's fun to watch. We limit him to the downstairs wood and tile floors. We tried a beacon under the Christmas tree, not sure if it worked or not, he got caught under the corner of the couch that night. We run him at 4:00 AM every morning. He does a great job of picking up medium size stuff and smaller. Large pieces of paper, pieces of wire tend to wrap around his wheels, and brushes. At that point he just stops and gives up. His little trash bin is full every morning, and he packs it in. He does a great job with daily sweep up type of duties. He isn't going to give you a really deep clean. You will still need to come back and get the corners yourself later. But that's a once a week type thing. If you want to have fun with him, play a game of guess where he will go next with him. I have yet to figure out the thought process he uses to decide where to go next. But he does a decent job. There is room for improvement though.
1. I want the ability to see on a map where he thinks he has cleaned and the path he took to get there.
2. larger trash bin
3. better ability to start back up when you have to pick him up and remove trash tangled in his underside or when he gets stuck and you have to release him, or you have to clean out his trash bin mid job.
4. Integration into home automation packages like wink. He talks to my wifi, so let me give him more instruction, and gather more information while he is running.
5. Spot has a problem if there isn't enough light to see when he is cleaning, so give him some headlights. That would really freak my dogs out.
All in all we like spot and home for many years with him.
2 week update: Still very pleased with my 'Florence' , it's great having a clean house when I get home. App works really well - can manually start from work, scheduling works great. Takes about one re charge to complete our main living area and master bed (about 800 square ft) We solved the issue with getting stuck under the recliner by placing two narrow shoeboxes under the sofa which was enough to stop it going under. It sucked up a necklace locker once & immediately docked itself with bin full message (I was watching and saw it happen). It did get tangled in some floor length curtains because a long trailing thread caught round the wheel (guess it's time to hem those curtains!). All in all still a life changing, stress relieving gadget. Worth it.
Took a long time to decide to make this purchase but glad I did. I was not paid or given anything for this review. As a busy professional who travels a lot with 2 teens & 2 cats (one long haired) I needed a helping hand. Our home is open concept so we had a large area to clean. Reviews recommended the 900 series for large areas. It was costly but first results are impressive. Will review again after a month. The Roomba 960 (aka Florence!) was very easy to set up & sync with our wifi & the app. We ran it 6 times over the weekend to give it a good test. Finding the right base station location took some testing. As first I had it in a corner blocked by the dining table & it seemed to have a little trouble finding a clear path but managed to find its way to dock. The instructions have suggestions & a hallway worked better. We have a combination of carpet, wood & ceramic tile in our home & Roomba had no problem negotiating any of these or changing between them. I was amazed at how much hair & dust it picked up, despite having vacuumed the same week. Obviously it is not silent, but rather like a noisy fan. It's quieter than my old Dyson (which I still love FYI). We could still chat & watch TV. Initially Roomba will spend time mapping the space as it finds its way around. It negotiated obstacles really well. You do have to Roomba-proof the space a little to allow it access to clean. It did run over a flat phone charger cable & not get caught up. It fluffed up the carpet really well thanks to the vacuum boost feature. I starting moving clutter out of the way so it could get everywhere. The Roomba would redock itself when it needed to recharge - on average about an hour. It also stopped the cycle when it needed the bin emptying & redocked. It is an easy process to empty the bin. Again the filter picked up so much dust. Roomba went under the furniture it could & around those it couldn't. The path it takes seems random at first but I learned it maps the space as if the walls aren't there & divides it into sections. It would start an area & then appear to move to another place before finishing. It always came back & finished though, so you just need to let it do its thing. The only problem was that it kept trying to get under the back of my reclining sofa & got trapped. We just pulled it out, pressed the Clean button & off it went. We will monitor this to see if it is a problem. The control tower that came with it did a good job of protecting the cats food & water dishes with a invisible field, Roomba never went near them. I could do with another one to divide up the open concept space for specific area cleaning though. These are available separately. Our house smells fresher & cleaner already. I plan on a 4 time per week cleaning schedule. This is very easy to schedule with the app & I got regular updates for every job status, battery & bin status & the couple of times it asked for help when stuck. Altogether, I am very happy with results (not to mention geekily wowed by the technology!). The cats keep their distance but seem to enjoy watching it move. I hope it continues to clean well and is reliable. This is my first ever Roomba purchase. I also bought the Braava Jet mop at the same time. Will review that separately but in our test it also did a good job. If you are considering this Roomba, I say give it a try!!
I saved for this model and I'm so glad I did. We named him "Rick". Rick is awesome! He has learned our house and has become very efficient. We have a Golden Retriever that sheds constantly. We run Rick three times a week and the hair on the floor has all but disappeared. Rick is so easy to clean and maintain. The app tells you when. Rick also maps your house and posts a cleaning map of where he cleaned that session. Just amazing!
Feature Product
- Power-Lifting Suction delivers 5X the air power* for improved pick-up performance. *(Compared to Roomba 600 Series and AeroVac System)
- Patented iAdapt 2.0 Navigation with vSLAM technology allows the robot to map its surroundings to clean an entire level of your home, around objects, and under furniture.
- Ideal for homes with pets. Premium 3-stage Cleaning System cleans the dirt and pet hair you see and the allergens and dust you don't.
- Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes adjust and flex to stay in constant contact with carpets and hard floors.
- High-Efficiency Filter traps 99% of cat and dog allergens.
- Automatically recharges as needed, and then continues cleaning - until the job is done.
- Connect and schedule from anywhere. Use Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands to control cleaning. Use the iRobot HOME App to schedule & monitor cleaning sessions.
- Featuring Roomba Essentials- Wi-Fi connected, Smart Navigation, Patented Dirt Detect Technology, Edge-Sweeping Brush, Auto-Adjust Cleaning Head, Works on Carpets and Hard Floors
- Box Content: 1 Roomba 960 Wi-Fi Connected Robot Vacuum, 1 Home Base Charging Station, 1 North American Line Cord, 1 Extra AeroForce High-Efficiency Filter, 1 Extra Side Brush, 1 Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barrier(2 AA Batteries included), Owner's Guide, Documentation Package
- iRobot does not guarantee the quality or authenticity of products purchased from non-authorized resellers on Amazon, and they are not eligible for warranty or replacement from iRobot
Description
The Roomba 960 robot vacuum seamlessly navigates room to room to clean an entire level of your home, recharging and resuming until the job is done. Roomba 960 loosens, lifts, and suctions dirt with up to 5x more air power and requires less maintenance. Just press CLEAN or schedule Roomba on the go with the iRobot HOME App.
My two dogs don't like the robot, but they have gotten used to it, by moving out of it's path just in time. If you aren't into phone apps, I would recommend saving the $150 and opt for the lesser Roomba 880. If apps are your thing, then the Roomba 960 is a bit more fun.
I am still amazed at the amount of hair and dirt the robots can pick up. What is even more amazing is that if I clean on Monday, Tuesday the dirt bin is full again. Must be the dogs. My home doesn't have any carpet, just hardwood floors and rugs. It does an admirable job on both.
A robotic vacuum is certainly a luxury, but if you can leave your home, go to work, and come home to a clean home, it's worth every penny. It's one of those items, that you didn't think you needed, but find it indispensable once you have it.
UPDATE: After using this for 14 months, there is a noticeable reduction in our allergies to dust and dog hair. We programmed the Roomba, via the Android app, to automatically clean our ranch home every other day at 10:00am. Promptly at 10:am, our little friend starts his tour, and returns to the base to recharge before automatically starting again to finish the job. We marvel at the amount of hair and dust it picks up. It is necessary to spend about 5 minutes once a week to clean the unit to keep it running perfectly. It is not a messy or difficult job especially after you've done it a couple of times.
UPDATE (9/29/2017): After a little self-inflicted problem I was having and the wonderful experience with customer support, I am upgrading my rating from 4 to 5 stars. I also find myself more impressed with Roomba the more I watch it navigate. I'm still not impressed with the path planning algorithm, and I stand by my original statements, but after figuring out how the algorithm works for the most part, its simplicity is rather elegant. I do think they could make a simple change to make it slightly more efficient, but it might only be better with layouts like my house rather than all homes, and I'd obviously have to actually test my theory to be sure either way.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
There's a lot to analyze on this little fella: vacuuming, navigating and obstacle avoidance, path planning and the AI.
Starting with the most important, vacuuming ability: sufficient but certainly not a Dyson. It just doesn't have the suction power, but does it actually need it? Probably not, but that depends on your own personal needs. For me, I only use it on hard surface floors, so I don't know about carpet, but it works incredibly well for the hard surfaces. I am shocked by how much it finds every day, with 3 cats and 2 kids there are always messes, but this thing can keep up with it and more. But, it's not perfect, and I highly recommend getting a feel for how it operates before setting up the schedule for cleaning every day.
Where I'm extremely impressed, given I've designed a control system for a 4 wheel, independently actuated, autonomous rover, is the navigation system they designed. The mobility of this little rob is incredible, working its way around obstacles (furniture, shoes, random objects), it can get into tiny areas where it barely fits, then it can find its way out, which is not an easy feat.
Unfortunately, there is some serious room for improvement where any artificial intelligence is at play. The path planning algorithm certainly works, it's nothing to be ashamed of, but I wouldn't be very proud of it either. Observers will notice some random behaviors that come out of the decision matrix, most of which make the whole thing less efficient. There's also some technologies that as a developer I am aware of, but are not being incorporated that should be. The biggest oversight that I can see is that after a certain number of cleanings, one would expect the developers to take advantage of the map that's created every time and use that knowledge to create a more efficient cleaning path. Instead, the developers decided to take things a small section at a time, ensuring that a certain area is fully cleaned before moving on. A more efficient system would take the map, create a desired path based on the dock location, and only make minor adjustments in the case of some new obstacle. All that said, this does not affect its ability to clean or navigate, and in fact, some of that inefficiency actually helps make it clean a little better by accidentally covering certain areas twice. And in fact, the navigation/mobility team did such a great job figuring out how to drive around that any shortcomings from the lack of any real AI are rendered moot by its ability to perform its intended function.
We have the robot clean a couple of times a week. It is remarkable for the amount of dirt and hair it sweeps up from carpeted rooms and hard floors. It is really good at navigating itself through the house, under some furniture, various rooms and cleans effectively. So. Alex has got itself caught under furniture, scratched the top under a recliner, gets stuff tangled into the wheels, the brushes, and the sweeping brush out the side. It then quits and awaits assistance to get it going again. It does not "like"rooms that are cluttered. So it is not exactly set and forget. It does clean well under our beds and through chairs in the dining room.
I am now on my second robot as the first was replaced no questions asked when it failed. It cleans, yes and the bin is full three times a week. DO NOT EXPECT THIS to be a set and forget product that will effortlessly clean your house. The robot "requires your assistance" comes up as often as three or four times per cycle. It winds up fringes on rugs, shoe laces, cords, goes under furniture and gets itself stuck or gets cornered and occasionally cannot get out. Use of the "do not enter" device is not foolproof as it has entered and got stuck. Sometimes lamps are found on the floor as Olivia and the lamp had a tug of war and Olivia(our name for the robot) won. Under our bed stuck on a cord is not fun. So set and forget, sure just make sure your house is empty with no impediments.
OK- we have tried out a few different robot type vacuums and this is my favorite. I love that it doesn't track in perfect patterns. Why? Because neither does my dirt. Yes, after he runs our 1100 sq ft home with multiple nooks and crannies ALL of the floor ends up clean (about 2.5 hours with recharging time). He mostly runs a back and forth pattern, and I LOVE the edging feature you can select. He goes back around the whole house and does just along the edges of the walls and furniture. It also means you can move furniture (chairs that don't get pushed back under, backpacks dropped on the floor, etc) and he just adjusts to go around the obstacle. Other ones we have had that mapped just kept banging into the moved items and got mad.
This iRobot easily transfers himself between floor rugs (medium pile, thick bathroom pile rugs, and foot wiping) along with the slight incline seams of the hardwood to tile between bathrooms and halls/bedrooms. The springy powered wheels lift it up and over everything except our 1" between the hardwood and tile entryway that we haven't placed a transition piece on yet (awaiting installation). That is where he draws the line... but he tries.
We have 2 cats, one long and one short haired. 2 teenagers, and a busy home. This has allowed me one less item to think about everyday as he goes about his job. We haven't run into the issue of him running over something nasty, yet. Our cats are good about litter box habits. Even if this was an issue, the ease of how the iRobot comes apart on the bottom for cleaning would make it a doable chore.
The sucking power on this rivals a full-sized vacuum, as experienced by volume (this isn't a quiet little guy, nor is it a full fledged vacuum sound) but I have found sticky notes, receipts, and bobby pins in his dust bin when I empty it. The unique picker upper rollers on the bottom make it easier for him to grab larger objects alongside dust bunnies and kitty fur. This also means he gets stuck on the occasional sock or pencil. Easy peasy- just pop open the bottom, remove one debris wheel, remove stuck object, pop back together and replace on floor to continue on. No mapping means he doesn't get lost. He can ping to his home-base and find his way back... if he doesn't run out of battery. To be fair he has to figure out his way back, right? You bump a few walls and chairs to figure it out.
I haven't noticed any marks on my walls or furniture. The bumps are gentle and don't make much noise or movement. Others we have tried have actually chipped furniture! We heave been running Hairball (yes, the app lets you name it) for about a month now and couldn't live without him. Seriously, I haven't vacuumed since we installed him... but I have hardwood floors, so each home is different.
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