iRobot - Roomba 800 Series

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.

I have three floors of primarily hard flooring to clean. Sweeping has largely ceased to be a thing due to my robot vac. It does area rugs decently as well. It’s not heavy enough to really get down in the fibers so I pull out the real vacuum every couple weeks and do over the rugs.  I don’t use the damp cloth “wiping” feature because my upper floors are slippery and the robot spins in circles over its own tracks once it has wet the floor. In my basement, my tiles are kind of rough and I don’t think damp wiping would be effective so I don’t use that part either. When it’s time to unleash the robot vac, I do a quick run around for any large enough items or debris that it’s gonna choke on and remove them. I sweep dust and debris out of the corners where the robot wouldn’t fit out onto the main floor. Then I run the bot and come back later to empty. (Usually done before 90 mins) They make ones with vacuum bases that empty themselves. It’s convenient. If you get a vacuum base, get one with washable base filters instead of a vacuum bag that needs replacing after every fill. My friend bought an expensive one that vacuums and mops with spinning pads that self empties, self rinses, and dries its mop pads back on its base with heated water. He seems to like it. His house is all wood-look tile. Unfortunately his has vacuum bags as consumables. I also worry spinning action might swirl some missed grit around on any more delicate flooring. I’ve got a Shark IQ with the self-emptying base(vacuum only),  a secondhand Roomba 890(vacuum only, manual empty every use), and a Yeedi K700 in white and rose gold coloring(he’s pretty). Yeedi has the optional mop bin with the wipe cloth I don’t use. And is manually emptied every use. They make it simple to pass a mop myself after the robot does its run. 

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

As an early adopter, I had a Roomba for 10 years, very reliable 880. I bought a Eufy replacement. Not nearly as effective. Tangled roller. Blockages. Poor coverage and buggy software. So I bought a Roomba Max 705 and very happy with it. I welcome the fast pace of innovation now in this sector though. Being able to clean the stairs will be a huge step. Followed by arbitrary surface cleaning - probably need a humanoid for that.

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.

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.

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.

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.