iRobot - 960

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!

Fwiw my Roomba 960 still works like a champ going into year 6. One battery replacement and of course consumables.

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

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 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 

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.

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 .

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. :(

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.

MOST DURABLE? Alright then, new robot vacuums wont really do that. I know i will get downvoted for this but if you dont need self emptying, mopping etc, just pick up a second hand Roomba 500 series, they are known for being extremely reliable. Some 600 series like 675 or 690 are 500 series with wifi and some minor improvements, they are pretty common, cheap and easy to repair. Want mapping? Roomba 980 or any 900 series roomba (do note that roomba 900 series doesnt have keep out zones). 900 series are known for being reliable and just good robots over all. Why did i recommend these? Because newer robor vacuums these days have too many moving parts, and they work best at homes. While the roombas i listed above were also made for homes, old irobot was different than current day irobot, more reliable and roombas are pretty modular, you can take then apart and drop in a replacement part easily. They can work decently in commercial environments, especially 500/600 series. This subreddit is mostly "against" irobot, so i'll say this, i am not paid by irobot, i am a 14 year old on the internet who is passionate about this stuff :)) Edit: Check out Makita's industrial robot vacuums as well. Way more suited to commercial use.

We have a Roomba 9xx series that runs every night. It does an acceptable job of cleaning up the cat hair and crumbs, and lets us get away with only using a proper vacuum once a week.