iRobot® Roomba® R981 connected Robot Vacuum with Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes - Ideal for Pets - Recharges and Resumes - Personalised Suggestions - Voice-Assistant and Imprint® Link Compatibility

How did I live without it for so long?!? I was very sceptical of robotic vacuums but gloom of winter of home working and homeschooling is such that I’m looking to cut down on all not essential activities. So after my manual vacuum broke I decided to give robotic vacuums a try. I upgraded to Roomba after I got my first robo vacuum (older model of EcoVac) few weeks ago. EcoVac was not right for me as I have almost fully carpeted flat. It was ok but bin was getting full way too quickly (2 /3 times during a clean), it was also getting stuck all the time and what seems to me randomly going around the area with no purpose. Amazon was great and as the vac was not able to complete a cycle without changing the bin they accepted return with full refund. I was devastated as despite drawbacks of it I could see how beneficial those little, clever devices are. Not only they do the choir for you daily, they also motivate to keep House decluttered (and no need to tell of my child to tidy up, he runs to get his toys of the floor when he hears the vacuuming starts). After few days of research I found this vacuum, which is meant to be much better for carpeted floors. I hesitated as it was quiet pricey but the nonbristles brushes technology and raving reviews was enough to convince me to try it out. From the moment I opened the box I had a feeling I will not regret the expense. Just the way it looks already suggested a high end product was in my hands. Much heavier (which generally means quality to me) and the quality of the material, as well as no bristle brushes just scream value for money. Then I charged it and turned it on. First impression was that it was much louder then Eco Vac but with better suction power and turbo boost on it was still ok. The real surprise came when I watched it in action. It is so organised in the way it moves around the room, it just fills me with confidence that all areas will be covered. Now to be fair EcoVac after it completed its drunken rounds and having had bin emptied few times did deliver good result, but this one, I know now after first session, I do not have to watch at all. Plus at the end you get the map of the completed clean on the phone. I’m really impressed with the way it climbs over obstacles! I have generally flat surfaces with couple of ledges going onto balcony. Rumba swiftly goes up and down, sweeps them and it’s back on the carpet with no issue. It also impressively adjust suction when entering kitchen or bathroom. Previous vac was banging against the ledge with no effect until it got stuck and could not go back (did it stubbornly multiple times until I move it away) or it was just banging against dining chair legs. Rumba was so good under the table, it cleverly went round all the obstacles and did a decent job despite multiple chair and table legs in the way! Really impressive having seen what the other one did! Also seeing how much stuff is lifted from the carpet despite daily clean from EcoVac for few days, I am sure this product is a lot more effective. I can only compare it to the model I had which is half the price of Rumba so it’s not like for like comparison with the newest model but I’m happy with the upgrade and seems like no buyers regrets will creep in with this purchase. Really glad I decided to give it another go. Now I can put my legs up and let Rumba do the job!

The media could not be loaded.  So..Sometimes you make a quick decision on something that is regretful, but in this case, when my wife suggested getting a Roomba it made huge sense. We have a handheld Dyson that works great, and it is forever in use clearing up floof balls from our 3 cats, dog, and 2 children who eat like they’re Jackson Pollock painting!I’ve set out some different categories in the review at the bottom, but the high level summary of what is a difficult to justify significant expense is a solidly great experience. My wife is a self-confessed anti technology sometimes. However Graeme (the Roomba app asks you to name your new friend) is simplicity itself.The 981 (British version of the 980) appears to be a solid sweet spot in quite a confusing Roomba range. The super high end “i” series have some great features but in some test reviews I watched on Youtube the 981 performs better or at least as well. Crucially this is the cheapest model in the range to include the VSLAM camera based navigation system. All lower models randomly bounce around your house to achieve coverage. This means they can get “stuck” in a room as doorways create a pinch point. With the camera based navigation you get a Roomba that follows a more human pattern of coverage and knows exactly where it is via its camera sensor.Suction is very good, and again the 980 provides considerable more suction that the next model down for only around £10 more, along with much better battery life.Roomba creates a map that it builds over a few sweeps of an area, gradually adding the hard boundaries of a room, and showing after each clean the areas covered. As a super bonus, it also provides the same map showing wifi strength as it trundles around.For us so far the performance has been remarkable. Each room has great coverage. We had to tidy a little more than a manual clean to avoid things that might get caught, but not too much. The bump sensor is quite sensitive but small things like the Playmobil we have everywhere gets pushed along rather than caught up.Hard floor performance (Karndean and Kahrs) is great, picking up cat floof and crusty bread crumbs well. It manages to bump up onto some coconut matting we have by the back door and cleans it much better than our hand-held or upright Dyson. Carpet performance is great too. I’m not seeing a huge amount of carpet pile in the bin, but the carpets are very clean after use. It occasionally leaves little bundles of fluff but picks them up on the next pass coming in the opposite direction. And to be fair that was on the first run of our cream carpets. The second and third runs were much better.If there was one niggle, it’s bin size, but I think this is the case across any robot vacuum. The i980 can just about complete our floor downstairs with a single bin, but multiple pass mode it’ll probably need emptying (it’s pings your phone to tell you).Battery for this is quoted as 2 hours, and after hammering it around the house for the last week it happily gets this. Not that this is a huge problem, as if needed it’ll go back to base, charge itself, than carry on again.Sensors I’ve already talked about, but all reported sensors work as described. It knows about stairs and avoids easily with cliff detection, whilst still getting close enough to clean. It happily gets into corners. I thought it was stuck at first but it just takes it’s time to rotate a few times and clean right into the corner. Edge pass is great and one of my favourite features, getting all that cat hair from the skirting boards with its side spinning brush.Apologies for what is a long review, but worth covering all the features and comparisons. When we decided to buy a robot vacuum there were dizzying choices and iRobot don’t make it easy with quite alien naming conventions across their range of products. A quick YouTube search makes it all a lot more simple, and there are lots of comparisons of performance and technology. For us, with a busy family life and a menagerie of pets Graeme has become a great addition to our household. Whilst it was a big purchase, it’s one we haven’t regretted.