The 3-Stage Cleaning system lifts dirt, dust and debris from carpets and hard floors while an Edge-Sweeping brush takes care of corners and edges. The 694 is ideal for smaller areas and will work best in rooms without clutter. An auto-adjust cleaning head helps the unit transition easily between low-pile carpet, medium-pile carpet, hardwood, and bare floors. It can run for up to 90 minutes before automatically recharging, but it will need to be reset before its next run. Through the company’s Imprint Link technology, the iRobot Roomba i3 coordinates with the Braava Jet M6 robot mop so users can vacuum and then mop in sequence. When it’s running low on battery—after about 75 minutes of runtime—the Roomba will automatically recharge and then resume cleaning.
We lab-tested leading models from Neato, Samsung, iRobot, Roborock, Eufy, Ecovacs and other brands to pick the best robot vacuum. Before you start a cleaning session, you should pick up any laundry, charging cables, or lightweight mats—most bots will get stuck on them. And you should expect a few hiccups during the first handful of sessions.
Models with an interface come with a Mini-DIN connector supporting a serial interface, which is electrically and physically incompatible with standard PC/Mac serial ports and cables. However, third-party adapters are available to access the Roomba’s computer via Bluetooth, USB, or RS-232 (PC/Mac serial). Roombas pre-October 2005 upgraded with the OSMO hacker device allow monitoring many sensors and modifying the unit’s behavior.
Get honest reviews on top products & services — delivered weekly to your inbox. Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here. The novel coronavirus is most easily spread through face-to-face interactions and in close quarters. If someone in your household has been sick — even if it’s not with COVID-19 — it’s recommended to clean and disinfect the area. I spent most of that time installing firmware updates after connecting to the app.
We can’t pinpoint one spec or feature that helps a robot navigate well—we just have to test the bots and see how they do. Some cheap, dead-simple bots are incredibly nimble, while certain high-end models struggle constantly. But for the most part, modern robots are pretty good at this, and many models now give you the option to draw invisible boundaries around problematic areas using a smartphone app.
The S series features a newly designed “D” shape and corner brush for optimized edge cleaning deep into corners and along edges. Other new features include an anti-allergen system that traps 99% of pollen, mold and allergens, 40 times the suction compared to the 600 series, 30% wider rubber brushes, and the most advanced navigation system to date. Similar to the I series, the s9+ comes with the self-emptying Clean Base.
Some of the higher-end Roombas also include intelligent features that allow the vacuum to “talk” to the robot mop, allowing a tag-team approach to cleaning. Roombas all come equipped with a self-charging feature, so when they are low on battery power, these smart devices will return to their charging stations. Some include a “recharge and resume” feature so that the device can continue cleaning irobot vacuum cleaner where it left off, but others will have to be reset to cleaning mode. The Roomba app will also log the machine’s cleaning history so users can keep track of which areas have been vacuumed. To use the convenient voice-activation feature, most models are compatible with Alexa or Google Home. As a bonus, some models can also be linked with iRobot’s smart mops for coordinated cleaning.