Run it daily if you can; it won’t keep up as well if it only runs once a week. If you want hands-free cleaning everywhere, you’ll want to budget for one per floor or be prepared to move it around. You can also buy extra charging bases, and some models can map multiple floors. This brings the level of this bot way up, making irobot vacuum cleaner it much more reliable than some of Shark’s previous models. It’s also designed exclusively as a self-emptying bot, and for the money, it’s a great deal. It’s loud and ugly, and its AI isn’t nearly as good, but it has most of the features of the Roomba j7 Plus for somewhere around half the price (depending on the day).
If object avoidance was an advertised feature, we tested that by putting a USB cord, sock, and chocolate pudding on the floor, and then we took note of whether it successfully avoided those obstacles. Lastly, not all Roombas are self-emptying, so we rated each one on the ease of emptying the dust bin or included bag. Then, we had our tester assess the overall value based on how well the product performed in all of the tests, in comparison with the price tag and promised features. Though it wasn’t the best at any of the skills in our slate of tests, it was powerful and versatile enough to keep up with the competition at just about every turn. It’s right on par with the top robot vacuums we test on low-pile and midpile carpets, and it outperformed every other cleaner on hardwood floors except for the $1,100 Roomba Combo J7 Plus. Its lidar, laser-aided navigation was sharp and consistent, and right on par with what we’d expect from other top brands that put that technique to work, including Neato and Roborock.
That means it’s perfect for homes with a lot of corners, door frames and other hard-to-reach spots. The round Roomba vacuums often struggle to access dirt that’s deep in corners, so the D shape of this vacuum helps pick up where those models miss. It operates with a 3-stage cleaning system that promises to loosen, lift and eliminate dirt and debris. The extra-large multi-surface brushes mean it will be best for navigating between hardwood floors, tile, and area rugs compared to other Roombas.
On hard floors, this robot vacuum struggled a bit to suck up the cereal pieces we’d strewn across the ground, but it had no trouble collecting smaller particles. Our tester specifically noted how easy and straightforward this vacuum was to use, especially when compared to some of the high-tech robot vacuums he’d already tested. Additionally, we challenged each vacuum by creating a small obstacle course of furniture for it to navigate, placing socks and USB cables in its path to see if it avoided the objects or ran them over.
The Roomba S9+ is self-emptying and deposits the debris from each clean into the 14.9oz / 440ml replaceable dust bag in the charging and emptying station – meaning you won’t have to empty the robot vacuum regularly. Instead, you’ll get an alert on the app when it needs replacing, and the vacuum offers integration with Alexa and Google Assistant. If you’re using a standard charging base, you may have to fix it to the wall, so the robot vacuum won’t knock it out of place. If you’re lucky enough to own a robot vacuum with a self-emptying base, it should be heavy enough to hold itself in place. Although this does mean it will likely require more clearance space and will protrude further out from the wall as well.
ZDNET’s recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. If you have a small home or an apartment of around 1,000 square feet or less, the Wyze Robot Vacuum should have no problem covering your entire space in a single run. If it runs low on battery before finishing the job, the robot will return to its base station, charge up, then pick up where it left off.
The newest Roomba technology is the PrecisionVision Navigation feature that helps the vacuum avoid small obstacles like pet messes and cords. According to iRobot, an accidental robot vacuum run through pet waste was a huge concern for their customers. With this technology, the Roomba uses a small camera on the front of it to bissell crosswave cordless identify obstacles and work around them instead of running through them. After the Roomba’s cleaning run is complete, the app will show you what it avoided, and you can mark whether it was correct in avoiding that spot or not. This way, the machine continues to learn your home and adapt to temporary and permanent obstacles.