The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums nab pet hair, dust and lint off floors before they can settle. They also can avoid obstacles such as furniture that is tippy and staircases.

The majority of robotic vacuums require regular maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and occasionally, rinsing it) and wiping the sensors and cameras. They also need to be connected. Many have smartphone apps for scheduling, setting up settings and more.

iRobot Roomba 960

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the latest model in the series of top-of-the-line robot vacuum cleaners that are an essential part in any modern home. This model comes with a HEPA-filter that will aid those suffering from allergies. On top of that it has a most powerful robot vacuum battery that can clean up to two hours and it will return to its dock when its bin is full.

It also has a feature called smart mapping that uses multiple sensors to help determine the areas of your home that require attention and then create a clean path around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does a good job of moving around toys that have been left scattered on the floor, or furniture legs that stick out from under things. It also has a camera sensor that can snap the Roomba back to the real world when it starts to drift away from its original location.

iRobot has also included the option of rolling rollers under the Roomba which do not have bristles which makes them more likely to resist knots than earlier models. These rollers are also taller and can be tucked under beds or couches that are low. They're specifically designed to make this model more movable on various floor types.

The Roomba 980 stands out from other high-end models by its brand new dirt detection feature, which makes use of cameras to identify dirt that has been 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 clean the area three times, at different angles.

In our tests of its performance in our tests of its performance, the Roomba 980 did well on both hard flooring and carpets. It scored extremely well on low-pile carpet and also on mid-pile. It did a great job getting rid of pet hair, but had a difficult time with the long and thick pet hair that was stuck together.

The Roomba 980 is still one of the Best floor vacuum robot 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 find in a flagship model, but it doesn't have all the fancy app-enabled functions or smart home integration that you might find in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is simple to set up and start working immediately. After taking off the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from undercarriage, all you need to connect it to its Home Base docking station or an outlet on the wall, press its large "Clean" button, and let it go to work. It will automatically return to the dock when it is running out of battery or becomes full of trash. There are also indicator lights on top that show when the bin is empty, or when it is in need of recharging or if it loses Wi-Fi.