iRobot - Roomba 800 Series

I have been using roomba 805s, two 960s and two 980s without the app - no wifi connection. They are probably the best irobot made, but they are really old. I recently bought a Matic vacuum (there is a reddit group for it) since the security is much better than other new robots. That was part of the design criteria.

Agreed. I had a Roomba top model since 2014. I recently got a Dreame L40. I cannot belive how far iRobot fell behind. I always stuck with them becaue I always had good response and customer service, but wow. What these newer ones can do is amazing.

My Roomba is also lasting like forever, I just replace the battery every couple years and it still comes back with a lot of debris it captured. The bot is 880. Also their new LiDAR bot is high quality too

I'm looking for a new self-emptying robot vacuum. What's my best choice for something that can go at least 5 years without service beyond periodic cleaning and battery replacement? I'm not interested in a mopping model or anything with unproven new features like the robot arm. Those are cool features, but they introduce more moving parts. My top criteria are reliability, powerful carpet cleaning that can capture cat hair, and good suction when transitioning to tile areas. Boring, time-proven mechanisms are ideal for me! I loved my Roomba 880 units. They performed daily cleanings for a decade with only a few easy self-service wheel swaps and battery replacements. These really set the standard for me. I only replaced the pair because I wanted a newer unit with mapping and the self-emptying feature. However, newer Roombas have proven to need more babysitting and have out-of-stock replacement parts. I'm 24 days into waiting even to get a reply with an ETA on the warranty service for my Combo j9+, which is fully out of commission. (This, despite buying it with their premium warranty upgrade!) Even before that, it was prone to getting stuck in places where the Roomba 880 didn't, and app misfeatures often frustrated me. I suspect my new daily workhorse should come from another company. The comparison tool on the Roborock website wanted to steer me toward a mopping model or the robot arm model.

We have had roomba for 12 years now (first a series 8 , now a J7+). Couldn't live without, esp with kids, keeps the house clean with no effort at all, but you know this already. Buy something quality, sensors and software really make a difference, favor companies with solid software development. If i had to buy now, i would go for a roborock, the J7+ while very good, sometimes is just disappointing dumb. Also good brands have all aftermarket replacements parts, we keep reviving our roomba 8 from 10+ years ago.

I bought a new roomba in 2016 i think it was an 800 series. It was an absolute piece of crap from day 1. Would get lost, couldn't get up on its dock, would just spin around and move it along. Wouldn't run on schedule. And eventually got to where it would just run into things full speed like it's sensors didn't work at all. We did customer support and they just said to do firmware updates but never fixed. Gave to my sister who ultimately threw it away. I'll never own another.

Not aware of any random navigation models avaliable with a self empty station. At least none that are currently avaliable and work adequately well. Even budget models are more often including lidar and app functionality. Your options are going to be limited no matter what, and all the random navigation models are going to be the cheapest of the cheap now and unlikely to perform all that well. It might be worth finding a used irobot roomba e5 or 800 series model or similar. Those are about the highest performance random navigation models irobot ever made. You could also look for a 980 which had smart navigation but works totally offline if you prefer.

Yeah it was iRobot’s game to lose, and, well, they fucked it up royally in ways that will be case studied for decades to come. That said I have an iRobot 805 as my garage roomba and what an unstoppable little beast it is. Except for the fact that it gets stuck under my 911, it’s practically perfect for that use case.

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

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.