The iRobot Roomba 980 robot vacuum & mop Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums nab pet hair, dust and lint from floors before it can settle. They also help avoid obstacles like stairs and other obstructions like furniture that can tip.

The majority of robotic vacuums require regular maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and Robot Vacuums sometimes, rinsing it) and cleaning the cameras and sensors. Additionally, they must be connected to a power source. Many come with smartphone apps for scheduling, setting up settings, and more.

Roomba 960 by iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the most recent in the line of top-of-the-line robotic vacuum cleaners that are a staple in any modern home. This model is incredibly powerful suction as well as a HEPA filter that will help anyone concerned about allergies. In addition, it also has a strong battery that can clean for up to two hours, and it will return to its dock when it is full.

Smart mapping is a different feature that helps it identify areas in your home that require attention, and then creates an easy path to get around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of moving around toys placed on the floor, or furniture legs that stick out from under things. Roomba also has a sensor that snaps Roomba to its real-world location if it begins to drift away from its initial location.

iRobot has also included the option of rolling rollers under the Roomba which do not have bristles, and therefore are more likely to resist knots than earlier models. These are also a little taller than previous rollers and can better fit under beds and couches with low sides and are designed to let this model move more easily across a variety of flooring types.

What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other models of this class, though, is its inclusion of a new dirt detection feature, which uses cameras to identify particles of dirt embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous model, which relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom coverage method to bounce around the room and clean at least three times from different angles.

The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on both carpets and hard floors. It scored highly on carpets with a low pile, and on mid-pile. It did a great job getting rid of pet hair, but struggled with long and thick pet hair that was stuck together.

The Roomba 980 is still one of the top performing robots we've reviewed despite the slight limitations. It's also not as expensive as top-of-the-line models. It has a lot of features you would expect from a top model but does not have all the fancy apps or home integration that you'll get from other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is simple to set up and start working immediately. After taking off the yellow bin insert and the battery pull tab from its undercarriage you just plug it into a wall socket or its Home Base docking stations, hit the "Clean button" and let it do its work. It will return to its dock when it is running out of battery or becomes full of sand. There are also indicator lights at the top of the bin that let you know when its bin is empty, when it needs to recharge, or if it loses Wi-Fi.