The iRobot Roomba 980 robot vacuum black friday Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint and dust from floors before it can settle. They also help avoid obstacles like stairs and other obstructions such as furniture that is tippy.

Most robotic vacs require some maintenance, such as emptying (and occasionally, rinsing) the bin, and wiping sensors and cameras. They also need to be connected. Many come with smartphone applications for scheduling, setting and more.

Roomba 960 by iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent in a line of top-of-the-line robot Vacuum Mops vacuums, is an essential for every modern home. This model is extremely powerful suction and a HEPA filter that'll aid anyone who is concerned about allergies. It also comes with a large battery that can clean for two hours, and return to its dock automatically when the bin is full.

Smart mapping is another feature that helps it identify areas in your home that require attention, and then creates an easy path to get around them. This technology is very efficient in navigating 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 wander away from its original location.

iRobot has also included an additional set of rollers beneath the Roomba which do not have bristles, and therefore are more likely to resist the tangles that previous models. These are also a little taller than older rollers and can better fit under beds and couches with low sides and are designed to let this model move more easily across different flooring types.

The Roomba 980 differs from other high-end models due to its latest dirt detection feature, which makes use of a camera in order to identify dirt that has been embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous version that relied on the use of a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover to bounce around the room, and then clean the area three times, at 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 the low pile carpet was very good and it scored a good score on mid pile too. It did a good job of picking up pet hair, but it had a difficult time with very thick and long pet fur that was stuck together.

Despite these minor shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our best rated robot vacuum-performing robots, and isn't even far from being as costly as the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It's got plenty of features that we'd expect to see in a flagship model however, it doesn't come with all the fancy app-enabled functions or smart home integration you'll find in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is ready to use as soon as you are ready to. After you have removed the pull tab for the battery and robot vacuum mops yellow bin insert from its undercarriage, all that you need to do is plug it into its Home Base docking station or an outlet on the wall, press its large "Clean" button and let it get to work. It will automatically return to its dock when the battery runs out or it's full of debris, and it has indicators at the top for when its bin is full or it needs to be recharged, or its Wi-Fi signal is not working.