The Reasons Irobot Vacuum Is Everywhere This Year The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint, and dust from floors before it can settle. They can also avoid obstacles such as furniture that is slippery and stairs.


Most robotic vacuums require maintenance, like emptying (and occasionally rinsing) the bin and wiping cameras and sensors. They also need to be plugged in. Many have smartphone apps for scheduling, setting and more.

Roomba 980 from iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the latest in the line of top-of-the-line robot vacuum cleaners that are a staple in any modern home. This model has seriously strong suction as well as an HEPA filter that will aid anyone who is concerned about allergies. It also has an extremely powerful battery that can clean for two hours and returns to its dock automatically once the bin is full.

It also has an option called smart mapping which uses multiple sensors to help it suss out the areas of your home that need attention and make a tidy path around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of maneuvering around toys abandoned on the floor or furniture legs that are sticking out of the ground. It also has a camera sensor that can snap the Roomba back to the real world when it begins to drift from its intended location.

iRobot has also added an additional set of rollers beneath the Roomba which do not have bristles which makes them more likely to resist tangles than previous models. These rollers are also taller and can fit under low couches or beds. They're designed to make the model more adaptable to different floor types.

What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other models with a higher-end price tag Its main feature is the inclusion of a new dirt detection feature, which uses cameras to identify bits of embedded dirt. This is a significant improvement over the previous version that relied on an algorithm that was driven by sensors to bounce around the room, and then clean the entire area three times at various angles.

The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on both carpets and hard floors. It scored extremely well on low-pile carpet and also on mid-pile. It did a good job getting rid of pet hair, however it struggled with the long and thick pet hair that was stuck together.

Despite these slight limitations, the Roomba 980 remains one of our best-performing robots, and isn't even far from being as costly as the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It's got plenty of features that we'd expect to see in a flagship model however it lacks all the fancy app-enabled functions or smart home integration are found in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is ready to use right away. After taking off robotvacuummops and yellow bin insert from undercarriage, all you need to do is plug it into its Home Base docking station or an outlet on the wall, press its large "Clean" button, and let it get to work. It will automatically return to the dock when it is running out of battery or is full of sand. There are also indicator lights on top that show the bin is empty, when it needs to recharge, or when it loses its Wi-Fi.