iRobot - s9

Only the Dyson and roomba s9 robots perform on carpet

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.

Are you vacuuming carpet? Sadly nothing these days cleans carpets very well. Best I got was the Roomba S9

We have two Roomba series 9, one upstairs and one downstairs. We also have a German shedder. We owned the first Roomba before the dog, ran it every night, and only had to empty it once a week. We've owned it more than a decade now, so we definitely got our money's worth. With the dog, we have to empty both every day. We got the dog 6 years ago and the second Roomba 5 years ago. The trick to picking up dog hair is replacing the filter and rollers regularly. The filter affects suction and the rollers affect how effectively the hair is gathered and picked up. The sweeper is less critical but it affects how well edges/baseboards are cleaned. If I find ropes of dog hair on the rugs, it's time to change parts. I'd absolutely buy them again. Black Friday is coming up and maybe you'll find a decent deal.

You forgot the most important question which is what your budget is. I have 2 German shedders and a chocolate lab. I've had an S9 that worked pretty well for the last 5 years on hard floors. Technology and anti-long hair tangle has come a long way and, almost any new bot in the mid-range or premium range are going to do great at anti-tangle. I know people really don't like roomba right now but, my max705 just did my while 900 sq/ft space without puking out clumps of hair like my S9 would, on a single pass. I tested a Dreame X50 too and frankly it was about the same result there too albeit the dreame did it much more quietly.

I agree with everyone saying to replace the parts if it gets wonky on you. I’ve had my s9 for going on six years. Four dogs, two homes, combo carpet and hardwood. I’ve only had to repair it once, and it was super simple! YouTube made it easy, lol. Also, if you have rugs that are being torn up / tearing up the roomba, I would just block that zone off from the machine. Unfortunately, most area rugs I’ve found are the enemy of all vacuums and vice versa.

In my opinion the S9 is the top carpet cleaning robot around. I have 2. I don't know what I would buy when they fail. I don't think anyone has ever made a better robot carpet cleaner.

My s9 gets stuck on a 9 mm treshhold. Then again that was only one of its many issues. Glad I finally got a brand that actually works, I have 3 roombas, all were expensive paperweights

That's where mine got stuck. Every damn time.

In that case, it’s likely personal preference. I’m partial to iRobot and have been loyal for the better half of a decade. I wouldn’t recommend a combo robot. If you’re wanting just daily or several days a week cleaning - go for the j8 enhanced, j9 or the s9. Roborock has a pretty good rep and Narwall (spelling?) has a good rep for combo robots. Just see what your cleaning needs are. If price isn’t an issue get the most powerful one. IMO, no such thing as too clean 🤣

All the i and j7 and below series vacuums have the same motor. Only the s9 and j9 have more suction, the s9 is actually better suction. On hard floors any of them will pick up the hair. The s9 will do very well on the area rugs. Not worth buying the combo models.

I don’t believe the Amazon buyout happened. iRobot is overhauling the c-suite and R&D and I’m hoping 2025 and 2026 start churning out innovation. They have certainly lost market share and cutting edge technology AND they’ve managed to stay relevant, make the easiest to repair robots on the market and provide excellent customer service. The s9 is arguably still their best cleaning robot, it just doesn’t have object avoidance. It was released almost 6 years ago. I will stick with iRobot purely for the customer service and repair ability.

If carpets and floors and o mopping needed S9 was the best

this one is really old and became irrelevant ages ago but roomba s9 is really good at cleaning carpets

In my experience, over a few months, it doesn’t mop or vacuum very well. The roller mop bounces and is not consistent. The vacuum leaves springs of hair around the floor for us to pick up, rather then vacuum. Its experienced errors, which SwitchBot repaired and sent back with more issues then when it was sent. They agreed something happened during repair and offered a full refund. I will not buy another one and will stick with our iRobot s9. Gets stuck a lot but it vacuums really well

Shame. Mine is an absolute champ on picking stuff up. Maybe it’s just the comparison. I had a roomba s9 before, and that thing was horrid compared to this.

When they work. They are amazing. I had a roomba s9 for two years and it was misery. Rarely worked, constant issues, terrible mapping. Every morning it was a game to see where it got stuck or why it didn’t finish its job. Sometimes it was just sitting in the middle of my hardwood floor and said stuck. A month ago I bought the Freo an ultra after tons of research and it’s a game changer. I have three dogs so ever other day I had dog hair tumbles all over. No more. The thing works flawlessly (though the app is kind of finicky). The mopping is great. You still do need manual vacuum from time to time but it really helps cut down how often.

Allmost all robots are a downgrade regarding cleaning performance - it is really a shame that iRobot abandoned the "s plattform". In the current iRobot-Pieca universe nothing (also current models like the 705 max (i have not tested the combo yet)) is even close to the s9 in regarding cleaning performance. I have tested 2 other robots so far dominating the s9 in every test i do (carpet and hardfloor) - both are also vac only robots with one being pretty much EOL. Everything else vacuums not very well and even mopping does not archive the same level of just dust removal most of the time depending on your flooring. You can find various examples for this on my channel. A funny sidenote : the 205 combo is able to clean my laminate grouts with mopping while all other fancy spinning mops, roller mops and so on fail. But more on this later :D.

I will say iRobot has been on a losing streak since the J7 but I have a 980 and a S9 my 980 has been cleaning for 650 hours at this point my S9 about half that I haven’t had a single problem with my 980 but I did have a problem with my cleaning head module on my S9 and they sent a replacement no problem

I bought a roomba S9 and it's great. Got it at the auction and replaced most parts with Amazon parts.

iRobot S9 - simply because it has the cleaning head as close as possible to the corner for a robot with a sidebrush, the sidebrush arms angle and how it performs the corner cleaning (rests a longer period). Everything with an extending sidebrush just sweeps and spreads debris around and does not remove fine dust (the s9 also only to some extend).

It is extremely good at cleaning and avoiding obstacles. It not only memorizes obstacles but takes a photo of them that the user can touch while viewing the map to bring up the photo and to rename the type of obstacle if desired. The unit was an upgrade from a Roomba S9. That unit did a good job of vacuuming but was very prone to having problems with obstacles. For example, it would launch itself up onto the circular rod -like bases of several of my chairs and become stuck there. They Roborock 10R correctly recognized all of the bases as something to avoid. Some of them get labeled as chair bases and others simply as wires. **It has avoided every obstacle.** The first few times I ran the unit it stayed several inches away from all obstacles. Once it had completed several runs it began to come close to the obstacles but still avoided them–Getting close to obstacles to clean by them without touching them is great. It does a great job of vacuuming and mopping. I have read some reviews that rank the 10R is better than the 10. Very happy with the 10R.

Really? I have two Roborocks Q5s and they are definitely inferior to iRobot’s S9 which I also have. Worse mapping, worse suction by far. The Q5 struggles with any elevation differences: it struggles to get over thin rugs or floor transition strips. That said, I got the Q5 at a cheap price and it’s been OK. I would just rather the S9 if the price was equal. Of course, Roomba has its own problems.

I really appreciate someone bringing this up! As a design geek, I always struggle when I have to make purchase decisions because not always I find something that I consider "well designed". The robot vacuums category is one of these... However, here some robot vacuums that have a design worth talking about (of course, things need to be contextualised for their time). In completely random order: - **Roomba s9**: a sleek and professional finish, the first (and only) D-shaped Roomba, taking advantage of its shape and bringing to market the best edge cleaning ever (before robot vacuums with extensible side brush were a thing) together with one of the best vacuuming performances ever. - **Roomba i3**: the first one of the newly engineered Roomba mid-range series, bringing to "budget" conscious consumers a new methodical navigation method, together with a modern aesthetics which drops the carrying handle for a new fabric-textured top finish and with modern, clean lines. - **Philips (Versuni) HomeRun 7000**: not a particularly noteworthy product, however a robot vacuum distancing itself from the competition thanks to the typical Philips design, with dual-finish robot and fabric emptying base. Not the best result, but at least an attempt to bring an externally developed product (ODM'd by 3irobotix) in line with the company design style (uses for instance with air purifiers etc). - **Roomba j7/j9+**: distancing itself from its predecessor (Roomba i7, with a good looking "techy" design), it brings a much cleaner design, more minimal, and enriched by a metallic disc on top together with a UI based on the RGB light around the only button (not the most intuitive one, but an attempt to do something different). It also features a newly redesigned self-emptying station, now developed in a much more compact and modern-looking form factor, thing that will be later copied by most other manufacturers. - **Neato Botvac lineup**: overall, Neato products have always been lacking in terms of design (an exception being the Kobold VR300, which changes the design aligning it to the family feeling of contemporary Vorwerk products), however these specific units brought more thoughtful, cleaner lines (to an extent...) together with the LiDAR tower cap in some bold, unique colours. This aesthetic didn't survive long and wasn't - overall - in line with the brand identity of Neato. Still, a good attempt. RIP. - **Dyson 360° VisNav**: not too much to say - it looks good. Perfectly matches a useful D-shaped layout with the Dyson family feeling. Balanced despite the lack of simplicity, modern in a retro-futuristic way, and functional. - **Karcher RC3000**: one of the first robot vacuums with self-emptying station (the first one?), with a bold design perfectly in line with the company identity. - **Dreame W10 Pro**: overall, similar to all other Dreame products, but in the (now abandoned) D-shaped style. Adds a gold accent to differentiate it from the "non-Pro" version which lacks the front sensor array (ToF 3D cam + RGB cam). Clean lines, clean colours, very minimal and stylish overall. - **SmartMi VortexWave**: innovative design for this unique robot vacuum and mop: D-shaped style allowing a large front brush that can be exchanged to leave its place to a roller-style mop. The first robot vacuum supporting both dry and wet vacuuming. Clean lines and a good mix of minimal and techy design. - **Electrolux Pure i9.2 (also AEG RX9.2)**: one one-of-a-kind. The genuine successor of the original Electrolux Trilobite. Developed in-house by Electrolux, this product was one of the first to implement small obstacles avoidance (2017 for the first gen Pure i9) thanks to its navigation method fully based on dual-line lasers. Overall an excellent product, unfortunately killed by the high price, lacking marketing, and growing Chinese competition (at much cheaper prices). Futuristic design for a robot with futuristic features. - **Matic robot vacuum**: the only one that in recent years has dared to challenge the paradigm of robot vacuums. Narrower but much taller. Boxy design resembling a robotic toy, with large wheels and front, "peninsular" brush assembly. Together with a revolutionary vSLAM navigation system based on nVIDIA Jetson Orin. It has its flaws, but it's the kind of competition we need in the category. - **Narwal (in picture, Freo Z10)**: not really a worthy robot vacuum cleaner/brand overall, but one of the first brands to really bet on rotational mops, together with the distinctive clean and alien-like shape of their docks which has now been copied by many competitors. - **Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (Roborock)**: the first LiDAR-based robot vacuum to bring LiDAR and methodical navigation to the masses, at a price that made it the the-facto standard of robot vacuum recommendations in 2016/2017. Together with the new technology at low price, it brought to the market a modern and clean design and a futuristic, intuitive app. - **DJI Romo**: too early to speak about this as a robot vacuum cleaner, but from a design perspective it takes the clean, curvy Narwal style and turns it inside-out giving it a transparent cover. Good result, but durability of the good look is still TBD. - **Mach R1** (sorry, I refuse to call this Eufy S1 Pro): birthed by the Anker Innovations incubator "Mach" (later absorbed into Eufy), it finally brings to Anker-owned Eufy a new style that was really needed. Futuristic and clean, not much to say. A very good result resembling the square-ish shape of older LG HomBot, but in a new futuristic, semi-transparent twist. That's all folks 😬 Edit: pictures in the comment below because somehow embedding doesn't work in this comment.

I bought the Roborock Q5 max after 2 years of constant nightmares with iRobot S9. It’s amazing how quickly it learned my downstairs and cleans without banging into baseboards and furniture. Definitely recommend Roborock!

Thank you for this. I too have gone through 3 S9s and have finally had enough of its shenanigans. I think I’m going to give this one a shot.

I second this. I still have my old cobbled together S9 working on a couple carpeted rooms. Like the OP I have a X10, and it's decent on mopping, mediocre on vacuuming, but doesn't get stuck too often at least. Cobbled together because it once ate its own exhaust fan and I had to buy a "dead S9 off ebay to replace that, since iRobot wouldn't sell or supply the part. Good thing I had the spare chassis, because the thing also ate a string and it wrapped around the side of one roller and melted the roller and the holder into one fused piece. So, part S9 to the rescue!

While I’ve heard the carpet performance was supposed to be good - after a few attempts to have a reliable working S9, it feels like everything else about it was poor.

Of course, S9 doesn't have a front-facing RGB camera. I think the J series is the one having it.

https://preview.redd.it/l9iwh6cg7a7f1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ea0d86576ff93a263eefde67c4e2548518c5c11a The only way to rock an s9, is with tractor tires…..so much better at transitions and deeper carpet.

s9 was and still is a beast at carpeting and hard wood. If it works consistently, doesn’t self destruct or boot loop. If the lid contacts don’t get crushed and need to be constantly pulled up or the rollers don’t load up with hair and melt the CHM. Yeah. Great vac all problems aside. Love the highest level jet engine sound!!! However, it’s Plagued with issues and hall sensor problems affecting lid and bumper, cable jiggles, a frame/carcass that flexes and causes all kinds of issues. Some very poor design decisions that would be awesome to fix and make an s10. Never gonna see it. And that top case that just snaps on….the suction motor grill on the inside of the body where it can get loose and contacts the motor. Yeah. Great stuff…..when they work.

iRobot s9 is awful.

I have an S8+ and 2 huskies and a German shepherd and the S8+ is absolutely awful for dog hair on carpets. Hard floor it does just fine, but it really cannot handle carpets. The Roomba S9 is way better in that regard. Had one that got stolen so replaced it with the Roborock and hate it every day.

I have been a huge S9 fan, I still have mine and it stilll is gong strong. I have a J9+ and while better in some ways, it never came close to the raw cleaning power of S9. But the new 705 Max surpasses it, I love mine and it's been running flawlessly .

I have a Roomba S9. We also have 3 cats. It does a phenomenal job of getting fur out of a lot of corners but my wife or I will vacuum now and then with our Miele as it has mega suction. For me though the roomba is way more aggressive than I anticipated and spends a LOT of time doing a good job.

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.