iRobot - 960

I’ve had Roombas since ~2016, a 960 and an i7+. While I wish they integrated with HomeAssistant a little better, they have been rock solid, especially the i7+ due to the self emptying. Currently the i7 runs daily on the main floor and the 960 runs in my bedroom(when I remember to empty it). Had to replace some parts on the i7 and they were mostly easily acquirable directly from iRobot, so that has been nice. Do a little bit of network monitoring and they don’t really ever seem to randomly phone home, so that’s nice.

I have a 960 with a dog that sheds, and the wheels and rollers will sometimes jam. Have had it for 4 years and still runs, but will require extraction of dog hair from time to time. Also, it's a little noisey but powerful.

iRobot Roomba 960 here, going strong after 6 years. Regular filter and brush maintenance seems to be key

We had a Roomba 960 and the rollers would get long hair wrapped around them alllllll the time. My j7 combo has never had this issue. Sometimes you need to remove the rollers and remove some hair that gets stuck in the sides, but I’ve never had it wrap hair around the rollers itself. So I say, pretty good!

Unpopular opinion: iRobot. They’re easy to repair and there’s an abundance of filters and spare parts. The i5+ is a mid level entry robot. You can likely find it around $300 or just stay on the lookout for a sale. Even better mid level option, the j5+. Probably above your price range, but it’s a good investment, per say. I say that having had a Roomba 960 since 2017. A Roomba j7+ since 2021 and my most recent addition a Roomba s9+. Honestly the 960 is still a beast. I have several floors, for the record…they’re not in a closed glass case. 🤣 Roborock has some models that do well, as well. I’m not sure if them off the top of my head. PS: A combo robot just isn’t it quite yet, I wouldn’t spend the money on a combo at this point, especially at your price point. Question: what size is your place? Square feet wise.

We have had a Roomba 960 since 2018 without any major issues. 1 battery replacement and the usual wear parts as needed.

I’ve had my roomba 960 since July 2018 when I got a good deal on it on Prime Day (only “deal” I’ve ever gotten on prime day). And it’s saved me 1,483hrs and 58 mins of cleaning time. So, yes, do get a robo vacuum! We also have 2 small dogs that shed, however, I haven’t vacuumed in over a year with the big vacuum. Half of the house is carpet and other half is hardwood. The roomba, if ran every other day, picks up all the fur and dirt and the dust bin is mostly only ever 1/4 full. https://preview.redd.it/42t2438v3wme1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7a9aa164c0eb63f045955148989139d9b8175f9

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 205 with the compactor works great on my cat hair. It can do the entire house several times where my old 960 had to be emptied 5 times. Unfortunately their recent update is bricking everyone's 205..

I purchased my first (and to this day only) robot vacuum in 2020. I got an iRobot 960 Roomba. Surprised to see you say you would never purchase one. It’s a beast and been working without an issue since the day I got it. $400 (think that’s how much it cost) well spent. I recommend them to everyone and would buy another in a heart beat.

I’ve had my Roomba 960 since 2018—still runs like a champ with regular filter and brush cleaning. Worth every penny.

I have a Roomba 960 for 10 years now. And it works very well! I just changed the battery after 9 years. It's connected to my Home Assistant, disconnected from Internet and all could stuff. But today I am looking for a new one. I would like a self-empty station. It's not an easy stuff to find a new one. Ten years ago, market was IRobot and Neato. Today, Neato is dead, replaced by more than 10 Chinese brands. All with a lot of technology: Mop, cartography, cameras, vacuum suction of 10000Pa, and a budget of more than 1000$ in most of the cases. It's ok, this is the new market. I want something simple: * Clean the ground, and do it WELL! * a self-empty station * a little bit of cartography, but not too much * no mop, it doesn't work well, and it's more maintenance * A reliable product, that will work in 10 years, I want to be able to buy replacement part if something fail. * No internet connection. It's a vacuum, it doesn't need to go on the web, just to clean. With my shopping list it's not easy, and I have two models in competition: Roomba J5+ vs Roborock Q8 Max. But both seems to be garbage! J5+: * Irobot doesn't give the vacuum suction. But based on reviews and comment, it's less than Roomba 960 (9.3CFM for 960, 7.3CFM for J5+). I should expect a worse result * I can jump to J9+, seems to have a better suction, but more expensive Q8: * Everybody love Roborock, but when you look at the reviews, it's broken after one year * When it's not broken people say "It's work well, it's my 4th Roborock in 4 years!" Why do you change your vacuum every year??? So I have the choice between a vacuum with 5000Pa of suction but will probably have failure in one year, on a Robot that will be robust, but a suction below than we have 10 years ago...

My Roomba 960 is 10 yr old and works well 

Get the computer, comb eBay for a Roomba 960 or preferably a 980. Can schedule it or just chuck it in the middle of a room and hit the button. (Twice). Vacuums in efficient straight lines, does a great job, and no shortage of parts today even though these are 8-10 year old.

The 9xx are robust creatures. 960 cleaning should be comparable to J7. J9 has better cleaning than both. The obstacle avoidance features in J7 will make it a lot less likely to get caught on things, but also likely to stay away from things you may want it to clean The robot itself doesn't have that much more that could break. The j series are easy maintenance  I'd be concerned about battery on a 9xx since they are old, may need to buy a new one.

Biggest annoyance with my j7, is that the charging contacts get dirty fast and it won’t charge. My 960 rarely had this problem, also poop detection technology does not work

I have a roomba 960 and it’s been running great for 4 years.

Update 2: mapped the whole house (1400 sq ft) in 20 minutes. Thing is fast. the only downside, due to the Lidar turret, it couldn’t go under my TV furniture. Am gonna do another mapping run. The dock also doesn’t have any “ramp” . Also, my oldest Roomba is a 960 not a 680 lol. Typo in the opening post.

Haha my 960 still going strong in the garage .

You are not the only one reported dog hair stuck on using the new dreame two roller that first present on the x50. It seem to have issues only for some situation. I think that the old dreame robots with one brush like the tri cut was much better for house with dogs as it cut the hair using blades so even if there large amount of hair in one place, it wont get stuck. For me, on a house with no dogs, the 2 brushes are great, I clean the the brush once a month and there are very minimal hair on the brush. I had the irobot 960 before and I needed to clean the brushes all the times as hair get stuck on. I have the x50 ultra that have the same brushes. The Narwal Flow have one brush but have very slimier design that have one side of the brush open so I do not think it will be better.

My Room a 960 was fine after 4 years of Mon-Fri use, no issues with that battery. No different to charging anything else when you're not in the house.

Just avoid Roombas. They're really loud so you can't really run them when you're in the house whereas Eufy and Roborock are very quiet (maybe not all of them just the ones I've seen). Roombas have also fallen behind on software, I spent €900 to replace my 4 year old 960 with a J9+ Combo, it's constantly struggling to dock, if you take if off the dock yourself it loses the mop function unless you restart it literally 10 times and it's forever getting stuck or ignoring the saved map. Now I have the clean bag full error after two months when the previous bag lasted me a full year. I got a J5+ for upstairs and it's equally bad. Can never find the dock or will do a random 10 minute clean before going back. My 960 wasn't perfect but when I bought it, it was one of the only decent ones on the market as they hadn't taken off at the time and it was also on the US market for like 4 years by the time I bought it.

I don't know about the new lineup, but nothing beats a Roomba 9-series on carpet, though. Even on hard floors, my Saros 10 misses a lot of spots that my J9 never did.

I have a 900 series and a j7. I don’t really have an issue with either one. They rarely get stuck and complete jobs regularly. However I recently bought a Roborock and it is definitely better. The app is much more advanced and lidar seems to be more efficient and accurate.

Firstly going by the suction numbers alone never tells the full story. That's all marketing. Both will probably vacuum well and the roomba probably has a slight edge on deeper carpet. Both should work offline with basic functions. No idea about home assistant compatibility. Longevity, well, frankly thats not a guarantee on any model from any brand. I've had a roborock for a few years and its been perfectly reliable for me. But again, that varies. And I've heard you can get parts on ali express. Your 900 series roomba was probably one of the most reliable generations of robot cleaners made. Irobot is still pretty good with spare parts. But I've seen some of their newer models aren't built modular anymore. Plus the company has had a rough couple years financially and are struggling to compete. If they went under...well spare parts may get more difficult to find. The unfortunate reality is more money doesn't buy you more reliability, expecting 3 to 5 years is a little more reasonable these days. Planned obsolescence etc but it's industry wide.

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

I had a crappy experience with a Roomba. But it was an older model from around 2017. The thing kept running into things and getting stuck along edges where 2 types of flooring would meet. IDK if newer models are better, but that thing was pretty disappointing, IMO. You could make a game out of sweeping and vacuuming so that your kids will be eager to help out. The goal is to eventually have them do it out of habit. 😅 I actually got my friend's son into vacuuming when he was 2 or 3 yrs old. The idea paid off several yrs later. My friend was a single parent (toddler and a newborn) with multiple pets and a huge home, mostly carpeting. She seemed to be suffering from Postpartum Depression, so I'd stop by at least once a wk to help clean and just to give her a break from her toddler. Her son was very difficult to manage - clingy, sensitive, always wanting undivided attention, always wanting to be held, never content to play alone, never wanting to follow instructions, prone to throwing tantrums and acting out, etc. But he was also VERY curious and full of energy - which were qualities I could work with. I bought the kid a toy vacuum. Minor problems solved! He would finally stop interrupting me while I vacuumed. In fact, he would "vacuum" along side of me. He would shout, "Go to your kennel," "Coming thru," and, "Lift your feet," along with me. It was great! No fussing, and I could keep an eye on him bc he was always right next to me, copying my movements and words. It was also just amusing to observe him and teach him little things. He became a great helper. He was eager to pick up his toys and other items that were in the path of the vacuum. He also became great at directing his pets out of the way. Fast fwd about 6-9 mos... The kid lost interest in his toy vacuum. He could tell it was not the real deal. He figured out the real vacuum was cable of sucking up dirt & debri. He would keep trying to use the real vacuum, but it was too large and dangerous for him to handle - even tho he had learned to stay clear of the suction area. He started getting in the way again. So I gave him an old cordless hand vac. And he got pretty good at using it! He started vacuuming the couches, dining chairs, and entryway. Eventually, we "put him in charge" of all the hard flooring. 😂 That kid would get territorial if we tried to clean "his" areas. He vacuumed daily and even started sweeping with a hand broom. (He was sloppy, but got better over time.) (Parent humor incoming!) About a yr later, my friend bought him a cordless Dyson for Christmas. I got him his own handbroom, dustpan, and Swiffer. We bought these items as a joke. We made him open them before all other presents, thinking he would hate them. But he was so excited! 🤯 Especially for the Dyson (which my friend actually bought for herself). My friend's son became pretty good at vacuuming by the time he was 8. He naturally took charge of vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, AND dusting as part of his household chores. He continues to do them without hassle to this day. Another thing to consider is an automatic dustpan. IDK how child-friendly they are, but it's another item my friend invested in to get her children interested in helping with chores.

The later Roombas with a camera/vision system are pretty good at avoiding things that could cause snags/clogs. I used to be vigilant with clearing the floor and even putting dining chairs on the table, but now I just have my Roomba run every night with dog toys, kid toys, wife's shoes and purse, chairs, charger cords, laundry baskets, and everything else blocking its path. It probably only cleans about 60% of the area I want it to, but I can still feel a noticeable difference when I walk barefoot through the house.

Our roomba tries to keep up. Hal (main floor roomba) needs maintenance every few days. But man 2 days where Hal is off duty and you can see it. The tumbleweeds roll in. Hal doesn’t replace vacuuming or steam cleaning area rugs. He does however help keep the dusting down and limits the tumbleweeds . My better half will tell me don’t pause Hal he is doing https://preview.redd.it/7mmkuro4c1ef1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fd808d8cc6c7e830934f5fb947860ae71518915 Gods work ROFL. We have 3 dogs 2 super shedders GSD and Husky/GSD mix and 1 wire hair terrier. This year we have had to even vacuum dogs as well. They are so worth it! ❤️❤️❤️

Irobot has a camera for object avoidance. I think it works pretty great.  It worked perfectly in the beginning, but God forbid when you are training the ai(?) by reviewing the photos you ever allow anything as "not an obstacle" then it will run over similar things forever. Like string, after I told it a cord off the ground was not an obstacle. :(

I have a roomba we named homewrecker because it leaves a trail of destruction behind it. It always knocks over something or gets tangled up in wires.

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.