10 Irobot Vacuum-Related Projects To Stretch Your Creativity

The iRobot Roomba 980 robot vacuum and mop combo Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint and dust off floors before they can settle. They also help avoid stairs and other obstacles, including tippy furniture.

Most robotic vacuums require maintenance. This involves emptying the bin (and sometimes, rinsing it) and cleaning the cameras and sensors. Also, they have to be plugged into an electrical source. A lot of them have apps for smartphones to schedule, adjust settings, and more.

Roomba 960 by iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the most recent in the line of top-of-the-line robotic vacuum cleaners that are an essential part in any modern home. This model is equipped with a HEPA-filter to help those who are allergic. In addition it comes with a powerful battery that can clean up to two hours and it automatically returns to its dock when it is full.

Smart mapping is a different feature that assists in identifying areas in your home that require attention and creates an easy path to get around them. This technology is very efficient in navigating toys left on the floor or furniture legs sticking out from under things. It also has a sensor that snaps Roomba back to reality when it starts to drift away from its initial location.

iRobot has also added a set of rollers underneath the Roomba that don't have bristles, and are therefore more likely to withstand tangles than previous models. The rollers are also larger and can be tucked under low couches or beds. They're designed to make this model more maneuverable on different flooring types.

The Roomba 980 is distinguished from other models with a high-end price tag due to its latest dirt detection feature that makes use of a camera in order to detect dirt embedded. This is an improvement over the previous model which relied on the use of a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover to bounce around the room and scrub everything three times at different angles.

The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on carpets and hard floors. Its score on low pile carpet was very good and it scored a good score on mid pile, too. It did a great job collecting pet hair, but struggled with thick and Best Budget Robot Vacuum long pet hair that was stuck together.

The Roomba 980 is still one of the best budget robot Vacuum performing robots we've reviewed despite the slight limitations. It's also not as expensive as top-of the-line models. It's still packed with a variety of features that we'd expect to see in a flagship model however it lacks all the fancy apps or smart home integration that are found in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is simple to set up and get up and running immediately. After taking off the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from undercarriage, all you have to connect it to its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, hit its big "Clean" button, and let it go to work. It will automatically return to its dock when the battery runs out or it's stuffed with debris. It also has indicators on the top to indicate when its bin is full, it needs to be recharged, or its Wi-Fi signal has gone out.