5. Irobot Vacuum Projects For Any Budget

The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot vacuum mop cleaner robot Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint, and dust from the floor before they settle. They can also avoid obstacles such as furniture that is tippy and stairs.

The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and occasionally, rinsing it) and wiping the cameras and sensors. Also, they need to be plugged into the power source. Many have smartphone apps for scheduling, setting and more.

iRobot Roomba 960

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of the-line robot vacuums, is a must for every modern home. This model comes with a HEPA-filter that will aid those suffering from allergies. In addition, it also has a strong battery which can clean for up to two hours, and it automatically returns to its dock when it is full.

It also comes with an option called smart mapping, best robot vacuum with mapping which makes use of multiple sensors to help suss out the areas of your home that need attention and create a cleaning path around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does a great job of maneuvering around toys that are abandoned on the floor, or furniture legs that stick out from under things. It also has a camera that will snap the Roomba back to reality when it begins to drift from its intended location.

iRobot has also added a new set of rollers beneath the Roomba's bottom that don't have bristles and, therefore, tend to be more resistant to tangles than earlier models. They're also higher than the older rollers and are able to fit under beds and couches with low sides and are designed to allow this model to move more easily across different floor kinds.

What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other models with a higher-end price tag, though, is its inclusion of a new dirt detection feature, which uses a camera to spot tiny bits of dirt. This is a nice improvement over the previous version, which relied on the sensor-driven pseudorandom coverage method to bounce around the room and clean everything at least three times from different angles.

In our tests of its performance it was found that the Roomba 980 did well on carpets and hard flooring. Its score on low pile carpet was impressive, and it scored a good score on mid pile too. It did a good job of picking up pet hair, but it had a difficult time with extremely thick and long pet fur that was stuck together.

Despite these minor shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our Best robot vacuum with mapping-performing robots, and it's even nearly as expensive as the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It has a lot of features you would expect from a top model, but it doesn't have all the fancy apps and smart home integrations you'll get from other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is available for use right away. After taking off the pull tab for the battery and yellow bin insert from the undercarriage, all you need to do is plug it into its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, press its large "Clean" button, and let it get to work. It will automatically return to its dock when it has run out of battery or becomes full of trash. There are also indicator lights at the top of the bin that let you know when its bin is empty, or when it needs to recharge, or if it loses Wi-Fi.