The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

best vacmop robot vacuums sweep pet hair, dust and lint from floors before it can settle. They can also stay clear of obstacles like furniture that is tippy and staircases.

The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance, like emptying (and occasionally, rinsing) the bin, and wiping cameras and sensors. They also need to be plugged in. Many come with smartphone applications for scheduling, adjusting setting and more.

iRobot Roomba 980

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the most recent in the line of top-of-the-line robot vacuum cleaners that are an essential part of every modern household. This model has seriously strong suction as well as it comes with a HEPA filter that can aid anyone who is concerned about allergies. It also comes with a large battery that can be cleaned for up to two hours, and return to its dock automatically when the bin is full.

Smart mapping is a different feature that assists in identifying areas of your home that require attention, and then creates an easy path to get around them. This technology is extremely effective at navigating around toys that are left on the floor or furniture legs that are sticking out from under things. Roomba also has a sensor that snaps Roomba back to reality when it begins to move away from its original position.

iRobot has also added a new set of rollers underneath the Roomba's bottom that don't have bristles and therefore tend to resist tangles better than previous models. These rollers are also taller and can be tucked under low couches or beds. They're specifically designed to make this model more movable on various flooring types.

The Roomba 980 stands out from other high-end models by its new dirt detection feature that makes use of cameras to detect dirt embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous model, which relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom coverage technique to bounce around a room and clean everything at least three times from different angles.

In our tests of its performance it was found that the Roomba 980 did well on both hard flooring and carpets. Its score on low pile carpet was excellent and it also scored a good score on mid pile too. It did a fair job of picking up pet hair, but it struggled with very long and thick pet fur that was stuck together.

The Roomba 980 is still one of the top performing robots in our list, despite these minor limitations. It's also not as expensive as other top-of-the-line models. It's still packed with a variety of features we'd expect to see in a flagship model, but it doesn't have all the fancy apps or smart home integration that you might find in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is easy to set up and get running right away. After taking off the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from its undercarriage, all that you need to do is plug it into its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, hit its large "Clean" button and let it get to work. It will automatically return to the dock when it runs out of battery or becomes full of debris. There are also indicator lights on top that show the bin is empty, when it requires recharging, or when it loses Wi-Fi.