iRobot - 971

Why not iRobot Roomba? My 900-series works perfectly. Low carpets are easy, high carpets are difficult. My roomba runs every other night when we are asleep :)

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.

I bought a Roomba that can mop and vacuum (pricey models are great). I bought a bunch of replacement rags/mops on Temu for a few euros, and exchange them every now and then. All you have to do besides that is fill its water tank with clean water and floor soap. I also went on my Roomba's App, drew out a map of my house, and set a cleaning schedule for every single day on setting 'deep clean'. And he keeps the floors like 98% spotless, while we have 2 long-haired dogs and 1 short hair cat. We still vacuum and mop ourselves like once a week or so. But if need be we could easily skip that. The difference has been amazing. Googly eyes are optional. ;) Why do it yourself if a robot can do it for you?

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.

Indeed it is. Not just for its vacuum ability, but it, and other VSLAM Roombas, are the only ones that can clean close around my round dining table pedestal. All lidar-based bots leave about a 1" gap of crumbs.

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.

I’ve had an 800 or 900 Roomba for decades until one died and then luckily somebody was upgrading and I got another one. The more fancier ones did not seem to clean as well and the newer ones with mopping. I only use on my carpet works relatively well, but it doesn’t get into the corner and against the walls as well. I’ll keep him until they die and then hopefully they will have something that works well on rugs.

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! ❤️❤️❤️

I love my Roomba (no mop), and have owned it since Covid. Use my Upright e/o week, then Roomba 3-4 days each week. Am Amazed at the amount of lint/dust/hair/crud I find in Roomba on day-1 after 4 days of not using either. The upright bag needs replacing only once a year.

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