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 🤣

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