The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums nab pet hair, lint and dust from floors before they settle. They can also avoid obstacles like furniture that is unstable and stairs.

The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance, such as emptying (and occasionally, rinsing) the bin, best vacuum and mop combo for Vinyl floors and wiping cameras and sensors. Also, they have to be plugged into a power source. Many have smartphone apps for scheduling, setting up settings and more.

Roomba 960 by iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of-the-line robot vacuums, is a must for any modern home. This model is equipped with a HEPA filter that can help those who are allergic. On top of that it also has a powerful battery which can clean for up to two hours, and it will return to its dock once its bin is full.

Smart mapping is a different feature that assists in identifying areas of your home that require attention and provides an easy path to get around them. This technology is extremely effective in navigating around toys left on the floor or furniture legs that are sticking out from underneath things. It also has a camera sensor that can snap the Roomba back to reality when it starts to drift away from its original location.

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

The Roomba 980 differs from other high-end models by its brand new dirt detection feature, which uses a camera in order to detect dirt embedded. This is a nice improvement over the previous model, which relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom coverage technique to bounce around a room and clean it at minimum three times from various angles.

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

Despite these minor shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our best robot vacuum and mop hybrid vacuum and mop combo for vinyl floors (relevant web site)-performing robots, and isn't even nearly as expensive as the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It has a lot of features we would expect from a flagship model, but doesn't come with all the fancy apps or home integration you'd find in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is easy to set up and get working immediately. After you have removed the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from its undercarriage, all 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 go to work. It will 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 is lost.