When I bought my first ever robot vacuum cleaner, a much older model of iRobot Roomba from 2011 or so, it was as a way of freeing up more time. No more vacuuming! My then-girlfriend an I then proceeded to waste hours watching it bumble around our little two bedroom rental, bumping into walls and chairs and slowly, drunkenly making its way around the place. I say that so I can say this — the difference, going from that now ancient model to the iRobot Roomba 980, was like night and day.
Kitted out with an array of what iRobot calls iArray 2.0 navigation sensors and vSLAM, the company’s proprietary “simultaneous localisation and mapping” tech (the same tech that saw iRobot in a bit of hot water over privacy concerns very recently), the Roomba 980 has made a bit of a name for itself in the vacuum intelligence space, a phrase that I never thought I’d use in my daily life but am happy about nevertheless.
Along with all these sensors and hardware for figuring how to get around your home without breaking anything or itself, the Roomba 980 ups the ante over previous models with a full suite of app controls for iOS and Android devices as well as extra wifi connectivity. All of these bells and whistles are great but they do come at a cost — specifically an RRP of AU$1499.
If the price tag sent you reeling, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The steep price of admission will be enough to make most consumers put the device back on the shelf and slouch away dejectedly but, for those that can take the monetary hit, the Roomba 980 has more to offer than most in its class.
It’s possible to have the Roomba 980 scampering around your home only a few minutes after pulling it out of the box. Plug the Home Base dock into a wall socket, yank out the battery’s pull tab and the little yellow insert in the bin underneath, hit the Clean button in the middle of the unit’s topside and away it goes.
Should you need to stop the Roomba for any reason, march over and prod the Home button. From there, the little guy will about-face and head back to the base station, putting itself to bed. Further, the Roomba won’t wait for you to tell it to do this — if it detects that its battery is running low or its bin tray is full, it will go back to bed and call out to let you know.
Better yet, you don’t even have to be standing over the Roomba, or in the same damned room, to control it. As mentioned earlier, the Roomba 980 now comes with an app that allows yout control it remotely from your iOS or Android smart device. Set up is easy, the app is simple to use and the controls are as responsive as they can be over wifi. Stop and start the robot from your phone, schedule up to three cleaning runs per day, tweak its behaviour (like if you want it to adjust what it calls Carpet Boost Mode where it fires the the little engine up to get over especially thick carpet or edge cleaning). Good job, iRobot, that is quite literally all I want in a proprietary app.
Using its iAdapt 2.0 sensors will allow the little robot to wander about your home as it likes, tidying up the floors, without ever banging into anything hard enough to damage it. This is great because it won’t ever fall down stairs or tumble over a ledge because it knows what it’s looking for.
What the Roomba is doing as it goes is creating a map of your home so it can remember specific landmarks so that it can better discern areas it’s already cleaned and areas it hasn’t. This has the effect of making it far more efficient than my old Roomba, which could only clean in a spiral and frequently found itself stuck in the bathroom or under the bed crying for help.
The surfaces the Roomba 980 seemed to work best on were tiles, floorboards and other hard surfaces (and stayed relatively quiet while doing so — those with floorboards know all too well how easily sound can bounce around). The device actively senses when it’s found its way onto carpet and spools up its Gen 3 motor and AeroForce cleaning system to give itself a 10% boost in power.
Underneath, you’ll find quite similar kit to the Roomba 800 — from dual actuators to a spinning brush to help get into corners and nooks. You may find it misses the odd bit of dust in the corners but not often much more than would be left if you’d gone over it with a traditional vacuum.
It can also, to my surprise, clamber over low steps. When I say low, I mean really low like the runner on your wardrobe or the base of a cat’s scratch post. I noticed that the 980 will still, as my old 2011 model did, sometimes get tripped up by any cables it has to run across. That said, it never tried to suck any of the cables in nor get them tangled.
From a full charge, the Roomba 980 can trundle happily around your home for around two hours before returning to its dock for a power nap. You’ll know when its getting low because a) it will tell you and b) a flashing red light will start going on top of the robot.
Removing the dustbin is easily with a large button that’s easy to grasp. While it may appear a bit tiny, the bin can actually hold quite a bit of dust and dirt. Beneath the bin, you’ll find you can access the filter for cleaning at any time.
Despite it’s eye-watering price tag, the iRobot Roomba 980 is a far cry from the robots the company was producing only five years ago. That it can map its environment and use that information to better find its way around is very impressive, that it will put itself away when its done even more so. Though the app could be a little nimbler and it still doesn’t know how to deal with cables, in every other sense this little robot is a winner. It’s hard to go back to a regular vacuum after using one of these.
Score: 8.0 out of 10
Highlights: Excellent navigation; Easy to clean
Lowlights: Pricey; App a bit sluggish
Manufacturer: iRobot
Price: AU$1499 RRP
Available: Now
Roomba provided for review by iRobot. You can find out more about the iRobot Rooma 980 here.
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