iRobot - 650

I’ve had many roombas from the 650, i7, S9x3 (they sent me 3 replacements), and a braava jet 240. They work good for awhile, but the crappy software updates, constant errors and resets broke me. I seriously love iRobot hardware vacuum performance as in the amount of dirt they pick up, but the software is absolute garbage and a vacuum is completely useless if it can’t navigate correctly. I still have my first 650 bouncing around in my basement and the i7 has been moved to garage duty. The S9 ended up in pieces. My main two robot vacuums are roborocks and I love their navigation. I wish I could take the navigation from a Roborock and put it into a roomba.

See if you can find an older Roomba at a thrift store. I thrifted my Roomba 650 for $25. Replaced a couple of simple parts. No app, does its job

My neighbor threw away a perfectly good 960 and I've been using it for three years, 3 times a week on 750 sq ft. (It had hair wrapped around the brushes, once I cleaned it out it ran just fine). It's easy to take apart and clean. I haven't had to change the tires yet, they are still going strong. I'm still on the original battery as well. The bin latch to the filter breaks easily (I've gone through 2 and now I just leave it broken). I do have to clean hair out of the brush ends often but that's easy enough to do. It's hasn't broken down on me yet. On my old 650, I replaced the side brush motor and tires which would be the same process on this model. I'm very happy with it especially since it was free.

The older Roombas could be set to clean once per day at a specified time, so you could have 7 scheduled cleanings. There are buttons to set the clock and then a cleaning time for each day of the week. I still have 2 of them, one is a 650 and the other is a 500 something. I don't think they make them anymore, but I am sure you could find one. These 2 both still work. I don't have an app for them, but I have a 3 foot dowel rod I use to push the start button, If you have connection problems or simply don't want to connect to the internet, the solution is to not connect. Just push the start button. The advantage of the Roomba brand is that you can get replacement parts easily and they run forever. There's lots of info on how to repair them. Don't know if the other brands have that knowledge base yet.

I have a "dumb" Roomba that I bought way back in 2016 on a Prime Day sale. It doesn't have any of the smart features that a lot of the newer models have. In general it's not perfect but I would say it does a pretty good job and if you don't like vacuuming as a regular chore it'll allow you to vacuum more often than you personally would which overall is a net positive. Since moving to a bigger place a few years back, I ended up buying a Miele canister vac so that I can efficiently clean different parts of my home simultaneously. So the Roomba is vacuuming one section while I use the Miele to vacuum another section. The smaller your place the more effective a robot vacuum will be as your primary vacuum, but if you have a bigger place you'll still have to charge the vacuum after one section, then move it to another location to finish the whole house.

I have one basic Roomba that moves around randomly and another that supposedly maps the space. The cheaper, random movement robot is vastly superior in all ways.

Buy an old roomba instead, (500/600/700/800/900) they are the most reliable you can get.

If it's just one room, get one of the old random bounce around Roombas with the bristle roller. 500 or 600 series. They're great at picking up litter and combing embedded pet hair out of carpet. I have a 692 I keep just for that. They're also super cheap because everyone wants the self-emptying models now. I see the older ones pretty often at thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace for under $30.

Older roombas are simple, reliable, durable, effective, and cheap. But they don't have smart navigation or mapping where you can ask them to clean specific areas. If you want navigation they become less cheap and less durable. I have a 10yo 600 series roomba and a new Roborock Q5. Q5 is great but I'm skeptical that it's going to last as long.

I have a Roomba 564 Pet I bought when my son was 6 months old. He's now 14 and the Roomba would be still doing the job if this little bastard had not screwed the elly plaque's screwheads. I bought a new battery I cannot replace because of that (I'll Dremel them out after the Spring clean out). So it was working since 2011, August. The other Roomba, a 600 something bought on discount in a clearance sale when my son was 6 or 7, is still going strong. I wonder how the Dreame L50 Pro Ultra is going to perform. It is my Mother's Day present, but we're not done with the Spring-clean so it just worked in the living-room.

Look for an irobot roomba 600 series. Random navigation, effective cleaning performance, durable and easy to repair, cheap spare brushes/filters/batteries. I mostly use a newer roborock, but when it dies, I've got a roomba 600 on standby in the closet.

I'd recommend an older roomba model as well, 500 or 600 series. They're very easy to take care of and repair, clean really well, are simple, and last. I have one of those cheap ionvac models you've probably seen. It's better than I expected, but an older roomba is way better still.

We have had an iRobot Roomba for 17 years. We initially bought the 535, it’s been upgraded with the new bin (aero vac 2) and running gear from the later 600 series It has had two battery replacements in its life, and has had a replacement main board once, which added the schedule feature. It cleans better than the 780 models relatives have. This Roomba, with replacements when things wear out, has outlived most other appliances we have. You can still buy the 600 series which is based on the same platform, and if ours ever became unrepairable, we would buy one. Heck, considering you can change all of the parts with a screwdriver and a bit of basic knowledge (how to plug/unplug things), a second hand one would be fine.

Picked up a Roomba 600 Series at Costco going on 10 years ago now. Changed the brushes and beater bar a few times and it's still working flawlessly.

675 or other 600 series model from a thrift store. $20. Doesn’t empty its self but if you want that you prob need to buy a new one or from someone off marketplace. Honestly emptying the bin yourself after it’s done takes 30 seconds :)

I have a roomba 6xx series. It was a gift. Thought it was gonna be a gimmick but it surprised me with how well it actually works (when its not getting hung up on cat toys.) Just dont forget to empty the hopper after each use and buy a full supply of extra parts. (Filters, brushes, the little wheel in the front.) Once a week I have to pull all the hair off the bristle brush and the cat fur from around the spindle ends but its a small price to pay for its constant upkeep. That particular brand iRobot is cool cus they seem to like Makers tinkering with their products sonthey make them very easy to fix. You can swap batteries out, motors, wheels... anything.

The basic 600 series Roombas don't have much to go wrong, and there are OEM and generic parts available all over the Internet. I'm not sure about high-end models, but the basic ones have been made for years and have excellent support

If you are into servers and self-hosting, Valetudo is an option. It's a self-hosted replacement for some robot vacuums' cloud services I also don't think the Roomba 600 series need cloud features. They use random navigation

Basic Roomba 600 series are what you want. Been in production for a long time, OEM and third party replacement parts available everywhere, no cloud services necessary. They have basic random-mode navigation, which is not as nice as a mapping feature, but it gets better coverage than most people would assume, and doesn't need any fancy sensors or software features

Go out on Ebay or your local thrift store and pick up old 500 or 600 series Roombas for parts. They usually just need a new battery. Be sure the charger comes with them. The older Roombas are superb cleaners and very durable. This is what we mostly use at our house along with several iRobot Scoobas for the mopping.

Pull it out once a month and put it through its paces and keep the battery charged. Pull the charged battery and store it separate from the robot. This way, your robot will be ready to go to work when you need it.

We got the Costco iRobot Roomba on sale (just sweep function) and it’s been really helpful. Definitely worth the time savings and it probably does a better job than our manual vacuuming. We don’t care for the mop function that much, just don’t want to deal with the water compartment