There are some models which can collect pet hair along with all other kinds of mess in a single pass. The gold accents and unique shape of this robotic vacuum make it a true statement piece to have gliding around your home. The s9+ model promises to pack the most power of all the Roombas, so if you have a habitually dirty home full of pollen, dust, or pet hair, irobot vacuum cleaner this could be a great feature for you. We loved that it cleans daily and empties itself without any effort on the user’s part. We did, however, find the battery life is closer to 60 minutes than the advertised 120 minutes. And while we found it to be easy to set up and effective at cleaning, we did notice some debris left on the floor around the base.
When finished cleaning, or when the battery is nearly depleted, Roombas except for first-generation models will try to return to a base if one is detected. Roombas with mapping capability can also recharge and resume a cleaning job, enabling them shark cordless to clean large areas that take more than one full battery of charge to complete. Roombas except for first-generation models also support scheduling, allowing cleaning to start at the time of day and on days of the week that the owner desires.
The powerful suction allows the vacuum to pick up crumbs and sand with just as much ease on both hard flooring and carpets alike. It received perfect scores on both flooring surfaces, and we found that it was also excellent at maneuvering around socks and other small obstacles scattered on the floor. When it comes to simplifying your home cleaning routine, you don’t always have to pay top dollar to get the best product. The ILife V3s robot vacuum cleaner is the least-expensive robot vacuum we tested, yet we were surprised to find that it outperformed several other models that cost hundreds more.
But when we tried the s9 in 2020, it was one of the clumsiest navigators we’d ever tested. We watched it stubbornly try to shove itself into spaces where it obviously couldn’t fit, roughing up some furniture in the process. This behavior would be annoying from a $400 robot, but it’s especially frustrating from a robot that can sometimes cost more than our favorite dishwasher. IRobot representatives told us that the company fixed the navigation problems via a software update following the robot’s launch, so we plan to reevaluate it in future testing. Some robot vacuums, including versions of our pick, the iRobot Roomba i4+ EVO, and our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5+, are self-emptying (or auto-emptying).
It can even detect and avoid staircases, so you’ll never come home to find a broken Roomba at the bottom of your stairs. The Roomba s9+ stands out from the pack for its self-emptying Clean Base, which automatically empties the onboard dustbin when it’s full or when it completes a job. This automatic emptying does more than save you some work — it keeps the hair and dander the machine just picked up from re-entering your home when it’s time to empty the bin. A disposal bag inside of the base neatly closes up when it’s time to remove the full bag.
If you are looking for the best clean for your buck and want to avoid the possibility that the robot won’t finish its run because of stray clutter, the Roomba j7 is the one to go with. Its cleaning prowess is largely unmatched thanks to the decades of experience iRobot has in this space, and it’s one of the easiest robot vacuums to use. The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. Plenty of models (including our picks) can reliably clean homes, both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout the home and making a map of where they have or haven’t been.
You can get it with an auto-empty dock for a list price of $550 (i.e., probably lower). However, it tends to bump into things more often than the j7, resulting in a few toppled chairs during testing. So it isn’t the right bot for you if you have delicate items like vases on pedestals. The mapping feature allows you to set a schedule for cleaning certain rooms or send it off at any time to clean just the kitchen or living room.