IRobot uses what it calls Dirt Detect, focusing more cleaning effort when it detects a concentration of dirt. I spilled cat litter on the hardwood floor and the j7+ recognized it as a “dirt event.” It got to the end of the cat litter spill, reversed itself back to the beginning of the spill area and took another pass at it. Even litter that got scattered by the sweeping motion of the side brush was eventually picked up.
Keeping a constant eye out for pet waste didn’t seem to slow the Roomba J7 down. This Roomba robot vacuum left about half of the material on the floor during this test. It can even mop and vacuum carpets within the same cleaning dyson robot vacuum run by raising and lowering its mopping pad. To do this it first performs a mapping run to locate where your carpets are. The robot mop vacuum then uses sensors to confirm the presence of carpeting where it expects to find it.
Even if you’re home to babysit your robot and rescue it from trouble, that kind of defeats the purpose of having an automatic vacuum anyway. We’ve tested a handful of their laser-nav bots over the past few years, including the Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI (a higher-end but otherwise similar version of their latest models, N8 and N8 Pro). All the ones we’ve tested worked fine when they were new, but you can usually find a better bot for a lower price. Many of those reviewers also noted difficulty getting replacement parts. We can’t be sure whether other models will have similar rates of problems, though the typical user ratings for EcoVacs’ laser-nav bots tends to be a few tenths of a point lower than other brands’ ratings.
This model should run for about 90 minutes when cleaning hard floors before it automatically returns to its base for a recharge. The Roomba 694 was already a great choice for those on a budget who wanted an iRobot device to clean their homes, but now it’s a steal at this early Black Friday price. The iRobot Roomba is equipped with a laser sensor that directs it around obstacles and walls. It also has sensors on the underside of the device dyson robot vacuum that detect changes in elevation, allowing it to transition from bare floor to carpet. It has beater brushes like a conventional vacuum cleaner to loosen and collect dirt, as well as suction that sweeps the dirt into a storage compartment. Top robot models have a proprietary VSLM feature — Vision Simultaneous Localization and Mapping — that takes snapshots as the Roomba works to guide the unit in an efficient path throughout the room.
That can feel quite a while to wait for clean floors, especially if you’re trying to stay out of the robot’s way, or to tolerate its whooshing motor and the sound of it thumping into baseboards and furniture legs. And if you pick up and move the bot by more than a foot or so in the middle of a session , the Roomba i3 will usually get confused and lose its positioning. Every model we’ve tested has gotten trapped or tangled at least occasionally, even the latest models with sophisticated navigation and smart-home integration.
These are small, AA-battery–powered beacons that project an invisible do-not-cross barrier. They aren’t as flexible as invisible barriers that you can draw in an app, but they’re much more elegant than the ugly magnetic strips used with some other cheaper bots . That said, the virtual walls are expensive if you buy them through iRobot, though it’s not hard to find used ones on eBay or similar marketplaces.