iRobot® Roomba® R981 connected Robot Vacuum with Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes – Ideal for Pets – Recharges and Resumes – Personalised Suggestions – Voice-Assistant and Imprint® Link Compatibility
iRobot Roomba 981 Advanced technology for impressive clean
The Roomba 981 robot vacuum uses 10X the air power* for a deeper clean. It seamlessly navigates an entire level of your home, keeping track of its location and recharging as needed until the job is done. With the iRobot HOME App you can clean and schedule on the go.
Lifts it up, suctions it away, filters it clean.
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30 expertise and continuous innovation
Our robots combine intelligent sensors with a powerful cleaning system to thoroughly clean your home
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Cleans around your home, and your life
The 981 doesn’t rest until your floors are clean.
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Small dust? Large debris? No problem.
Experience a comprehensive clean with Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes
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iRobot Roomba, Your partner for a cleaner home.
Dirt Detect sensors find the dirtiest areas of your home and alert the robot to clean those spots.
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Learns your life. Listens to your voice.
Learns your cleaning habits and suggest schedules to meet your needs. It also recommends for you.
Your life Your home.Your clean
The new iRobot Home App is here. With it, enhanced maps, custom routines, seasonal suggestions, and intuitive smart home integration.
Clean without lifting a finger
Keep doing what you’re doing. Through the iRobot Home app or your Google or Alexa voice assistant simply tell your robot to clean and consider it done
Quality that lasts
Equipped with advanced hardware capable of providing the intelligent features you love today, and access to our latest advancements in the future.
take cleaning off your list
With Imprint Link Technology, your Roomba robot vacuum and Braava jet m6 robot mop can team up to vacuum then mop in perfect sequence.
Your privacy is our priority.
We’re committed to providing you with the highest standards of privacy protection, helping to make sure your data stays private, secure —and is used to improve your experience and your robot’s performance.
iRobot R981 comparison
| | Dirt Detect | |
| | iRobot HOME app | |
10x suction | 3- stage Cleaning | 10x suction |
| | Recharge and resume | |
| | Power Boost | |
Clean by object | |
| | Dirt Detect | |
| | iRobot HOME app | |
10x suction | 3- stage Cleaning | 5x suction |
| | Recharge and resume | |
| | Power Boost | |
Clean by object |
| | Dirt Detect | |
| | iRobot HOME app | |
10x suction | 3- stage Cleaning | 5x suction |
| | Recharge and resume | |
| | Power Boost | |
Clean by object |
- iRobot Roomba i7156
- iRobot Roomba 960
- iRobot Roomba e5154
| Weight: | 4.55 kg |
| Dimensions: | 35.1 x 35.1 x 9.2 cm; 4.55 Kilograms |
| Brand: | IRobot |
| Model: | Roomba 981 |
| Colour: | Night Blue |
| Colour: | Night Blue |
Tried to settle with a chip version of a robotic vacuum, returned it after 2 days realising that if I want a robotic vacuum that does perfect work, I’m gonna have to pay more and going for the real thing which is definitely this irobot. I had one before so I knew what I was looking for. This new version is incredible! Cleans so good! Going between rugs to floors even on my black tiles, going over bar table legs, easily, doesn’t get stuck, the battery is fantastic, it cleans my entire ground floor about 70 square metres, without running out of battery in the middle. Highly recommend this! My new best friend.
Must admit the iRobot is incredible. The only flaw I have is it did not come with a U.K. 3 pin plug but instead a Euro 2 pin plug. Easily enough sorted with an adapter but not ideal
We got this in the Black Friday sales and are very happy with it. It doesn’t have the auto-empty or advanced app of the more expensive models, but I’m not sure they are really necessary – and do put the price up a lot. This model seems to find its way around well enough and cleans the floors well. What more can you expect from a robot vacuum cleaner?
My wife has had 3 major back surgeries
I got her this for Christmas in the sale
Our downstairs area has all tiled floors that are white and you see every crumb on them but the roomba has the place spotless
Gets under sofas etc where you would not do regular if using an ordinary vac
The carpets upstairs are also spotless
It leave lines and the suction is really strong
Great purchase we both love i
Wife delighted at present but needs emptying every day (We have 2 cats +Dog). Easy to set up and workes well
The iRobot Roomba released a 900 series robot vacuum which is supposed to be cheaper than its high-end predecessors. However, it is not that cheap if you compare it with other robot vacuum brands. The Roomba 981 is one of the top vacuums in the 900 series, as it has 10x more power than the Roomba 960.
The Roomba 981 boasts its dual rubberized main brush that can solve one of the most common problems of robot vacuums: the hair tangles in the main brush. The use of rubber extractors makes it resistant to hair tangles.
Like all products in the 900 series, the Roomba 981 uses the iAdapt 2.0 Navigation and vSLAM technology to help the robot vacuum navigate the whole area and plan a systematic cleaning. It also has a camera mounted at the top. The disadvantage of utilizing a camera for navigation is that it may not perform well when there is not enough light, unlike the LiDAR navigation system that uses sensors that work well even in dark rooms.
The Roomba 981 may have a mapping capability but it is not smart enough like other robot vacuums. The map it creates doesn’t have customization options like selective room cleaning, and virtual boundaries, and you cannot divide the rooms on the map. So, the created map is just a presentation of your floor plan.
You can control the robot vacuum through the designated app and voice integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The app allows you to set a cleaning schedule, view the map, view maintenance reports, adjust suction mode, etc. There are three power boost settings within the app: Automatic, Eco-mode, and Performance mode. The Eco-mode allows the robot vacuum to decrease the suction power and extend the cleaning time. It can come in handy if you don’t need that extra suction power and want to experience less noise.
Overall, the Roomba 981 is an excellent option if you are looking for an affordable Roomba product. It is one of the budget robot vacuums within the Roomba products, but it still provides great value and performs really well. It can pick up dirt from fine to large debris, making it perfect for daily cleaning and worth the price.
I have been thinking about getting a robotic vacuum cleaner for a while but found the process a bit of a minefield.
Many reviews tell you of potential problems that people have faced and I was unsure of what to actually expect. In the end, I decided to go with the brand leader to be safe – being aware of some of the comments that people have made.
Here is my experience so far – I love it!! It’s fascinating to watch in the early days and despite the fact that it tells you that it has a sensor for the stairs, I still was on edge as it got to do the top of them.
It’s bigger than I expected and may struggle to get between dining chair legs – so remember to pull them out to allow under dining table cleaning. I was told to expect them to be loud, but it’s actually quieter than a normal vacuum.
It takes its time to do a proper clean, but that’s ok, as you can leave it to do it’s thing.
You’ll never be able to fully get rid of another vacuum. As you’ll need it to do the stairs that the Roomba cant. I also found that it doesn’t do the edges as well as you may like, especially if there is a lip on future. This will be another job for your other vacuum.
On the whole, I’m really happy. As it takes care of the main bull of the job. It’s a timesaver for someone with pets. But will still need to occasionally go round on the areas it can’t get to.
I use on my tiled kitchen floor it’s really good and has a lot to deal with as we have a heave stream of foot traffic all the time. I have 5 dogs so I empty the bin after every job as it’s quite small. Wouldn’t be without it now
Ideal for me, I now have one upstairs and one downstairs. I was shocked when the bin was full within 1minute of hoovering under the bed.
Bought this few weeks ago and waited to give an accurate review. It’s an excellent product, does the job well an suction power is impressive. I put it while I am WFH and my colleagues could not even hear it (robot is next door room but with door open). I put it twice a week, it save me a lot of time and very happy with it!
A must have for saving me from having to use a heavier vacuum
I have always been attracted by the idea of robot vacs and since moving to a bungalow several years ago , Ive been tempted but put off by the price.
My son bought a much cheaper bump and go , non mapping robot vac a few months ago and is very happy with it in his small home..however when he brought it to our larger floorplan, no stairs home to try it out , it was clear it would have taken far too long to do all our rooms . So the more efficient mapping intelligent bots seemed a better idea . It was hard to choose but I chose Roomba in the end for its ease of obtaining accessories and longer guarantee.
This Roomba seems to be settling in to its new home now . After a week of obsessively watching it and thinking, “what the heck is it doing?” and “why has it gone there?” switching it off, interfering with it and thinking “it’s not really doing it properly” , I finally stopped fussing and just trusted it to just get on with the job (and stop interfering with it ) and it has got faster and more efficient as it learns the rooms. Lesson learned ..don’t mess with the bot when it’s doing its thing !!
It comes with 2 virtual wall, infra red beacons to stop it going into areas you don’t want it to do. My home layout was such that I decided to purchase a third beacon (from an unnamed auction site !) I now have all my discrete rooms and areas covered for controlling the bot (I use the virtual wall beacons for areas where I can’t shut out the roomba by closing doors before it sets off on its job). The bot also comes with both spare HEPA filter and spinning brush .
The app is basic. It doesn’t let you put in virtual walls . That’s for the more expensive versions. If your so inclined you can link it to Alexa or Google assistant for basic stuff like starting/stopping the job or sending it home etc to its base. On the app you can see where it’s been with its map report and can schedule its runs. it reports it’s status to you or if has got stuck etc (only once so far, and that was my fault).
One surprise was the bot itself talks to you when it has a problem and makes beeping or jingles as it starts or finishes the job. As far as I’m aware these can’t be muted sadly.
I’m surprised how well it negotiates chairlegs around dining tables etc . It copes well with my bumpy room thresholds hard floors , thick and thin pile carpets /rugs and thick sculpted rug. No problem on a dark tiled floor or a windowless dark floored shower room (so long as the door is open and the camera can sense the dim daylight.)
I don’t think I’d run it at night:
One, because it’s camera requires at least some dim light to navigate properly, and,
Two, in a bungalow it’s noise and start/stop jingles would be heard quite a lot as it moves around the hall and roams past my bedroom to access the other rooms.
I use it in eco mode mostly, which is quieter (but less suction and more battery life) but on full power it can be set to a different automatic mode where it sucks harder on carpets etc but can be quite a bit noisier. It can also be set to double or single pass , the former means it goes over a room twice but of course, this means it will take longer to do the area and might need a mid point recharge of the job is large. ( It resumes where it left off after a recharge if it senses the job has not completed yet ). It also has a spot clean function and if it senses a particularly dirty area it will make a few more passes in that area, although knots in my wood floor fool this function sometimes into thinking it’s a dirty area !
My only gripe with it is the dustbin is small and needs emptying lots, especially if you have pets or carpets that are shedding lots. I have overidden the ” return to base when dustbin full” function as the bin sensors can be a bit over sensitive . I just empty it when it’s finished it’s run or if I’m in, I’ll just pause it and empty mid-job if it’s doing the whole house and the dreaded ( heavily shedding ) new wool rug ! It’s a delight not to have to lug the big hoover round and my house has never looked cleaner. (Although I have kept the big hoover for the odd nook and cranny the Roomba can’t get into) The level of dust in the house has also declined as the floors are now effortlessly vacced each day with my lovely Roomba.
So glad I finally took the plunge.
Really love it. Only slight downside is if it gets stuck it goes back to where it started so you can’t tell where it was stuck.
This is absolutely stunning value for money, the cleaning power exceeded expectations, the simplicity of use is just what I need, don’t have WiFi atm but just press the clean button and get on with something more interesting than vacuuming. It’s simple to maintain, so vacuuming the whole house requires occasional cleaning of the rollers and emptying the bin, takes seconds.
The vendor is really helpful and with great service. The robot vacuum is good purchase and value for money. And does great cleaning job.
Easy to setup with wireless network and Alexa.
It does pick up most things (cept the cat).
Easy to schedule.
Produces a map of the rooms it has vacuumed.
Expensive….but Delighted.
Bought this on a bit of a whim, but it’s been much better than I expected. I was a little disappointed that it doesn’t have the smart mapping of the newer, top-end, models, but it works fine anyway.
One thing it’s been particularly helpful for is cleaning under the bed – there isn’t room to move it to clean under, but the Roomba can easily travel underneath it, and needed emptying a number of times on it’s first pass!
This was a surprise pre Christmas gift for the house, on unpacking I had suspicions that it had been clumsily opened prior to me receiving it. Setup was easy, I was happy to sit and watch as the robot navigated round furniture and along the edge of rooms in the ground floor of my house. After its first few cleans it became more obvious that it had learned the floor layout, making it more efficient each time. I can now view a floor layout map on the irobot app, which matches my layout perfectly. Cleaning has been satisfactory all of the time, picks up most small bits of detritis, the battery is sufficient to complete a full clean of our ground floor from one charge. The 981 is capable of moving under coffee tables but not sofas, it moves and adjusts between hardwood floor to carpets, but can move or tangle on mats used for our dog feeding area. A great labour saving tool that probably has more features than we utilise. It a saves us from pushing the vacuum around the house manually, and that’s really all we need from it.
It works better than I expected. However I am so fascinated by it I keep watching it so time saving is less than thought. Takes some really peculiar routes but eventually does seem to cover the entire surface.
Very pleased
Even better than what I expected. We love our Roomba.
Had the 960 Roomba (Audrey) which is good but takes its time to clean as it is random. The 981 (Brenda) is much better as it has navigation so cleaning time is at least half of the 960. The suction power is much better than 960, it must also be going over areas that the 960 did not as the bin has filled much quicker. There is also a deep clean function. Map is okay to see where it has been but not really sure what it adds except maybe move furniture so it can go to areas it has missed. We don’t use a conventional hoover anymore except for the stairs.
I bought this as another gadget, to alieveate boredom, but it is great for cleaning all 3 levels of my house. A very clever vacuum .
Just set it away and watch my Westies run upstairs until it has finished .
Does as good a clean as my Dyson 11 plus I can have a cup of tea instead of actually doing it! You can also see a map of where it has been every time it has completed a level. Recommended.
Love this thing. Expected to be disappointed but actually it has turned out to be so much better than I expected. House has never been so clean !!
Very good product with impressive algorithms for cleaning and navigation. Advanced features are only available via the App.
This has replaced one of its “ancestors. Notably noisier than it’s predecessor (because it’s a vacuum, and our earlier one was more of a sweeper) it’s effective and quicker to complete too. It appreciates being kept on permanent charge
I now have a self hoovering house, thanks to the gadget commonly known as the Cat Taxi. The cats have eyed it suspiciously since it arrived so this is a misnomer and the Cat Taxi is not yet fulfilling its secondary objective. I have high hopes of a thawing of relations before Christmas though.
The house is now very well hoovered, set to run three times a week. Before the scheduled hoovering times I make sure there are no trailing cables or laces and that any ‘cliff’ like objects are separated (notably breakfast bar stools) and then I let the blessed Cat Taxi do its thing. The first few runs were halted due to the amount of dust but once the bin is emptied it starts again. With this routine, we haven’t had a run halted due to full bin since the first week. Emptying the bin and checking the wheels for hair and wrapped objects takes seconds and keeps the Cat Taxi happy.
The house is also generally tidier as a result (bit like cleaning before the cleaner comes in!)
A brilliant time saving device that actualy works above and beyond.
This little machine is a game changer when you have pets and carpet. The hair removal is unbelievable. My usual vacuum is a top of the range product and I hoovered my carpets with it, then set Roomba to hoover straight after. Roomba picked up a shocking amount of dog hair that my state of the art hoover could not, its bin was full! It has just made the world of difference for me and given me one less thing to do! Well worth its money!
The iRobot does an amazing job of cleaning the house. Its a lot more reliable than I am , and seems to like cleaning much more than I do. Its also a little dumber, as it eats anything left lying around; I need to make sure that cats toys, shoes and other things are tidied up before letting it loose. Thats all OK as it means that I am putting things away that I used to ignore before. On the whole, absolutely fantastic.
Love my roomba, has to send first one back because wireless stopped working and batteru sometimes didn’t charge but new one is working fine
This is a really great product, I did a bit of research and most sites say you can’t go wrong with an iRobot Roomba and I have to say they are not wrong.
I could not believe the amount of dirt this little machine gets out of the carpets even after we had vacuumed it. Dog hair, no problem.
It switches power modes when it moves from carpet to wood floor and happy moves around the house doing its job. I’d even say that it has even refreshed the carpet a little too.
Even though this one is mid range it is amazing.
How did I live without it for so long?!? I was very sceptical of robotic vacuums but gloom of winter of home working and homeschooling is such that I’m looking to cut down on all not essential activities. So after my manual vacuum broke I decided to give robotic vacuums a try. I upgraded to Roomba after I got my first robo vacuum (older model of EcoVac) few weeks ago. EcoVac was not right for me as I have almost fully carpeted flat. It was ok but bin was getting full way too quickly (2 /3 times during a clean), it was also getting stuck all the time and what seems to me randomly going around the area with no purpose. Amazon was great and as the vac was not able to complete a cycle without changing the bin they accepted return with full refund. I was devastated as despite drawbacks of it I could see how beneficial those little, clever devices are. Not only they do the choir for you daily, they also motivate to keep House decluttered (and no need to tell of my child to tidy up, he runs to get his toys of the floor when he hears the vacuuming starts). After few days of research I found this vacuum, which is meant to be much better for carpeted floors. I hesitated as it was quiet pricey but the nonbristles brushes technology and raving reviews was enough to convince me to try it out. From the moment I opened the box I had a feeling I will not regret the expense. Just the way it looks already suggested a high end product was in my hands. Much heavier (which generally means quality to me) and the quality of the material, as well as no bristle brushes just scream value for money. Then I charged it and turned it on. First impression was that it was much louder then Eco Vac but with better suction power and turbo boost on it was still ok. The real surprise came when I watched it in action. It is so organised in the way it moves around the room, it just fills me with confidence that all areas will be covered. Now to be fair EcoVac after it completed its drunken rounds and having had bin emptied few times did deliver good result, but this one, I know now after first session, I do not have to watch at all. Plus at the end you get the map of the completed clean on the phone. I’m really impressed with the way it climbs over obstacles! I have generally flat surfaces with couple of ledges going onto balcony. Rumba swiftly goes up and down, sweeps them and it’s back on the carpet with no issue. It also impressively adjust suction when entering kitchen or bathroom. Previous vac was banging against the ledge with no effect until it got stuck and could not go back (did it stubbornly multiple times until I move it away) or it was just banging against dining chair legs. Rumba was so good under the table, it cleverly went round all the obstacles and did a decent job despite multiple chair and table legs in the way! Really impressive having seen what the other one did! Also seeing how much stuff is lifted from the carpet despite daily clean from EcoVac for few days, I am sure this product is a lot more effective. I can only compare it to the model I had which is half the price of Rumba so it’s not like for like comparison with the newest model but I’m happy with the upgrade and seems like no buyers regrets will creep in with this purchase. Really glad I decided to give it another go. Now I can put my legs up and let Rumba do the job!
Have had this for a few weeks now and it’s changed our lives. I did a lot of research before buying this one (days worth!). Really pleased I went with this one in the end, was more expensive but worth it.
Works well on hard floors but seems to dislike area rugs. It doesn’t clean the rugs it just glides over the edges.
Love this new robot. This is my second irobot my first one lasted well over 10 years. I love the extra suction on the carpet and how easy it is to programme. I would highly recommend.
Effectiveness
We also have the henry hoover (the one with the more powerful suction not the newer models that had to have its suction reduced due to some sort of legislation). This beats that henry 5 fold. which really suprised us. I was expecting to swap the suction power for the convenirnce factor however. We hoovered the entire house with the henry just before the iRobot was fully charged. just because i was curious, I decided to let the irobot go around afterwards to see how it does and to our surprise it found alot more dust very quickly as we had to empty the roomba bin 3 more times before it said it finished.
when you first purchase this product and let it finish charging, Expect to need to change the bin multiple times as it surprises you. After it has gone around a few times you wont need to empty the bin as often as it will then be just keeping the house to a certain standard other than going into battle. When the device finishes a clean, gets stuck on something or needs its bin changing you will get a notification on your phone letting you know.
Price
Expensive however worth getting this one than the others. This specific model the “980” or “981” (same model but different regions) offers much higher suction and features than the others therefore giving more value for money.
Ease of use
Easy to empty the bin, If you live in a house with alot of hair the hair will be pushed into a kind of hair bin in the sides of the rollers. you will know what i mean when you see it in action. When you empty the bin. you queeze a clip and the rollers will easily pop out and the hair will be rolled into a circle which you just slides off and into the bin with ease. (hair doesnt tangle in the rollers whatsoever). However, sometimes hair may get wrapped around the 3 armed spinny thing and you may need to unscrew that to pull out the hair.
What i like
It does an extremely good job and cleaning the house, you can set up shedules for it to go around the house and it keeps you updated.
What i dont like
sometimes hair gets wrapped around the spinny arm (not the rollers) and you need to unscrew it to take the hair off otherwise the spinny arms stop spinning. Although you may spend time doing this, it saves you much much much more time than cleaning your own house. Also, all hoovers have problems with hair, even the shark product they are advertising which has special hair wrap technology that doesnt work.
Summary
Excellent product, the only improvement would be to have the automatic bin emptier that comes with the higher end products which are three times the price.
Edit: Just editing this to say I’ve changed my mind over the app (see initial review below). I was disappointed to find I couldn’t use the maps to point Victor to an area but I’ve got over that. In bed the other morning, heard Victor set off the vacuum the hall – made me laugh because I thought I’d got a hoovering burglar! Realised that I accidentally set a schedule so reached for my phone to turn him off and send him back home without getting out of bed – success! Secondly, the base station is now tucked away under a cupboard which makes it difficult to reach him manually – no problem, open the app, tell him to clean, and out he comes. Victor can find his way back with a bit of manoeuvring even though the base doesn’t have the room at the sides that are indicated in the manual.
First to say, I love Victor (Victor Vacuum – my previous one, Horace Hoover, died and went to vacuum heaven). He (yes, we all refer to him as a person) is very efficient and covers any room he’s working in really well. Unlike Horace, he’s great at going over obstacles and very rarely gets stuck in a corner. I haven’t noticed him leaving any fluff or bits behind and I’m very pleased with how well he hoovers on both carpet and hard floors. He makes short work of mats and you can hear him change suction from one floor type to another.
However, and I admit that this is my own fault because I should have checked more carefully, I expected to be able to control where he went via the mapping function – that is, I expected to be able to see the map and tell him to vacuum ‘this space’. As I said, it was my error but I don’t think I’d have paid 500 if I’d have realised that the mapping function is literally telling me where he’s been – and I can see that from the clean floor!
You can create a schedule for him via the app which would be useful if I wasn’t going to be in but we have someone in the house all day, so not so much for our family.
He goes back home without issues. Before I got Victor, I worried about where to put the charging unit but that was because I thought it had to be fixed to a wall, however, it’s actually free-standing so that wasn’t a problem in the end. It does have to be against something firm that won’t move when Victor docks but that can be anything. At the moment, it’s against a chest of drawers that is tucked out of the way – I thought I would have to move the drawers to allow the unit to be fixed but that wasn’t necessary. He does sometimes move around, seemingly aimlessly, when he’s going back, but that’s apparently a ploy to make me think he’s lost because most of the time, he just heads off and finds the unit with no trouble – a few little shifts to line up and Bob’s your uncle. My grandchildren take him out literally just to watch him go back ‘home’.
I did say I might not have paid so much if I’d have realised that the app didn’t allow me to send him to a specific area but I can’t complain about how efficient and effective it is so it’s probably worth the money just for that. I wouldn’t want a less powerful model certainly.
All in all, glad I bought Victor – my carpets had been suffering since Horace’s demise and now, every day, I have clean rooms even when I’ve been working all day.
I love this. So useful, best vacuum I have ever used. My carpets are so clean and fluffed up. Love the app telling me when done, with a little map.
I must say, me and the wife are both pretty impressed with it, probably having it in our flat is more of a challenge than most but it seems to be coping nicely with the combination of different surfaces like thick rug, wood and thin carpet in different areas and sometimes all three at the same time.
I like the fact that I don’t have to hear any moaning anymore, that alone makes it well worth the tag price of 500, but I got an exceptional deal on it which made it extra tasty, would highly recommend it specially if you have a big flat and not the time or the inclination to get the vacuum out every other day.
Quite loud so if you think it going to be quiet its not, But then again if you want good suction I guess it’s a compromise.
Could do with some extra spare parts and a larger dust hold. And why not have the spiny brush thing on both sides, instead of just one?
I am sure must be a good reason for it.
The best point about Rufus is that he is not just a vacuum cleaner and, as such, he works especially well on carpets and rugs. Before Rufus sucks up dirt and debris he “agitates” the surface being cleaned via 2 rubber rollers underneath (which iRobot call extractors) to loosen any dirt, hairs, fibres, debris etc. You get a deeper clean.
Setting Rufus up on the app seemed pretty straightforward. I suspect it is wise to place the robot in its docking station near your router while doing it. I was a bit put off by the maintenance schedule in the manual but actually Rufus is quite easy to dismantle and put together again.
The other thing that I wasn’t sure about having read the manual — which is not very helpful — and the app — which is considerably better — is whether you could take him to clean a room without taking his docking station along (which is nuisance as you have to find enough clear space for it near enough a socket). Well, it seems you can. Rufus doesn’t seem to panic if he can’t go home. He just stops if he runs out of charge (or the bin is full or he has finished) and you can then carry him home. He’s heavy but easy to carry using the built-in handle.
Now for the negatives. The bin is small, as many people have commented, and you may have to empty it frequently. This was certainly true for carpets and rugs on his first run round the house but, having done the “heavy work” first time round, it’s less of an issue now. Be careful not to leave trailing wires and the like around the floor—he gets tangled up in them and stops. The display lights on top of the robot, showing when the bin is full etc., are hard to see from any distance.
Rufus’s dustbin full sensors are very sensitive and need to be given a wipe with a soft cloth when you empty the bin fairly often. The app (and the display light) tell you when the bin is full (and when other things happen eg. he finishes or gets halted by an obstacle). As you are likely to be somewhere else in the house — or not — doing something else, it is annoying that you can’t opt for a sound alert. I’ve also found that cleaning the sensors may not be enough to turn the light off. Fluff at the back of the bin compartment where dirt gets sucked into the bin can also keep it on. Equally, that fluff collects in the inlet to the bin and you have to be careful when taking it out to empty not to drop some on the floor.
Sometimes you make a quick decision on something that is regretful, but in this case, when my wife suggested getting a Roomba it made huge sense. We have a handheld Dyson that works great, and it is forever in use clearing up floof balls from our 3 cats, dog, and 2 children who eat like they’re Jackson Pollock painting!
I’ve set out some different categories in the review at the bottom, but the high level summary of what is a difficult to justify significant expense is a solidly great experience. My wife is a self-confessed anti technology sometimes. However Graeme (the Roomba app asks you to name your new friend) is simplicity itself.
The 981 (British version of the 980) appears to be a solid sweet spot in quite a confusing Roomba range. The super high end “i” series have some great features but in some test reviews I watched on Youtube the 981 performs better or at least as well. Crucially this is the cheapest model in the range to include the VSLAM camera based navigation system. All lower models randomly bounce around your house to achieve coverage. This means they can get “stuck” in a room as doorways create a pinch point. With the camera based navigation you get a Roomba that follows a more human pattern of coverage and knows exactly where it is via its camera sensor.
Suction is very good, and again the 980 provides considerable more suction that the next model down for only around 10 more, along with much better battery life.
Roomba creates a map that it builds over a few sweeps of an area, gradually adding the hard boundaries of a room, and showing after each clean the areas covered. As a super bonus, it also provides the same map showing wifi strength as it trundles around.
For us so far the performance has been remarkable. Each room has great coverage. We had to tidy a little more than a manual clean to avoid things that might get caught, but not too much. The bump sensor is quite sensitive but small things like the Playmobil we have everywhere gets pushed along rather than caught up.
Hard floor performance (Karndean and Kahrs) is great, picking up cat floof and crusty bread crumbs well. It manages to bump up onto some coconut matting we have by the back door and cleans it much better than our hand-held or upright Dyson. Carpet performance is great too. I’m not seeing a huge amount of carpet pile in the bin, but the carpets are very clean after use. It occasionally leaves little bundles of fluff but picks them up on the next pass coming in the opposite direction. And to be fair that was on the first run of our cream carpets. The second and third runs were much better.
If there was one niggle, it’s bin size, but I think this is the case across any robot vacuum. The i980 can just about complete our floor downstairs with a single bin, but multiple pass mode it’ll probably need emptying (it’s pings your phone to tell you).
Battery for this is quoted as 2 hours, and after hammering it around the house for the last week it happily gets this. Not that this is a huge problem, as if needed it’ll go back to base, charge itself, than carry on again.
Sensors I’ve already talked about, but all reported sensors work as described. It knows about stairs and avoids easily with cliff detection, whilst still getting close enough to clean. It happily gets into corners. I thought it was stuck at first but it just takes it’s time to rotate a few times and clean right into the corner. Edge pass is great and one of my favourite features, getting all that cat hair from the skirting boards with its side spinning brush.
Apologies for what is a long review, but worth covering all the features and comparisons. When we decided to buy a robot vacuum there were dizzying choices and iRobot don’t make it easy with quite alien naming conventions across their range of products. A quick YouTube search makes it all a lot more simple, and there are lots of comparisons of performance and technology. For us, with a busy family life and a menagerie of pets Graeme has become a great addition to our household. Whilst it was a big purchase, it’s one we haven’t regretted.
The unit comes well packaged along with its docking station, a spare filter, a spare side brush and a virtual wall barrier. The virtual wall barrier can be set into “wall” mode (to block doorways up to 3m wide) or “halo” mode (to block a 60cm radius around the device, such as around pet bowls).
Setting up the Roomba was very straightforward. The app (available for iOS and Android) walks you through the steps to get it connected to your wi-fi. This is optional if you’d prefer to just start the Roomba manually instead using the buttons on the top.
My house is a mixture of medium-pile carpets, tiles and lino. The battery lasted for about 80 minutes before the Roomba automatically returned to the docking station for a recharge. After recharging, it automatically continued from where it stopped.
The Roomba cleans using a combination of powerful suction, rubberised extractors (instead of bristles which get tangled with hairs) and a side brush for the edges. The vacuum performance is very impressive indeed. Before its maiden outing, I cleaned the floors thoroughly using my Dyson V6. I was horrified (and impressed) with how much dust and debris the Roomba collected!
It navigates excellently using a camera on the top, sensors on the front and sensors on the bottom (to stop it tumbling down stairs). If it detects an area is particularly dirty, it will return to the area a couple of times until it is completely clean.
One point to note is that the Roomba is very noisy! I usually use it when I am out of the house, so this isn’t a problem, but it could be a problem if you intend to use it while at home.
The app is excellent and allows you to control and monitor the Roomba from anywhere. In particular, you can start/stop it, see its status and change various settings including extra suction and edge clean. I particularly like the map it produces so you are confident that it has cleaned everywhere thoroughly.
This is the first robotic vacuum cleaner which I have been genuinely impressed with. The cleaning performance, mapping and app are all faultless and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this.
Really good product but quite expensive. This version could have more options for app and itself such like – virtual walls and remember maps (i7 and s9 have this). I do believe that is possible but company want to sell higher version of their devices. If Rommba 971 had virtual walls and remember maps would be 5/5.
I love this, it has transformed my life. We have a hairy dog and Roomba copes well with his constant shedding
Great product, my only criticism would be that it doesn’t always get the dust along the walls and skirting boards or in corners. Great time saver though.
Works much better than expected.
Only issue is the bin needs emptying at least twice while cleaning the downstairs as we have two dogs.
I spent A LOT of time researching this purchase. The 500 I spent on Black Friday was a major amount of money for what could have turned out to be a gimmick. There are lots of cheaper options on the market, and the choice can be confusing for most.
It’s brilliant. I’m a tech guy and it really impressed me with its smarts. It’s mapping technique and suction power sets it apart from all the lesser IRobot model numbers and competitors.
It is slim enough to live under our sofa and works to the schedule you set – we have 9am every day.
It’s not too loud (I happily sit on conference calls one floor up while ‘Scooby’ is at work and I can set it off through Alexa.) Though you’re not going to watch tv with it in the room doing its thing. (My kids do happily bit then tv..)
My dog finds it (him) intriguing. He takes about an hour to do the downstairs which I appreciate is unhelpful without me giving you the size – which I don’t know. London Town house.
One thing – you need to keep the floor relatively tidy – mainly shoes with laces as that causes indigestion…
Truly a remarkable machine which will no doubt be superseded by a model that can do the dishes at some point but I’m glad I spent the extra money on this, my first robot.
If you can afford the extravagance- then treat yourself.
Excellent product. If it could have had more stars I would have given them.
It works fantastically, pulling up more dirt from the already clean-looking floors than I thought possible. Easy to set up and hands-off cleaning which suits me to a T! It really gets to all your dirt. This is no plaything, but a lean mean cleaning machine. It is quite noisy, but not as noisy as a standard vacuum. You can also set it to clean quieter, but this comes at the cost of a lighter clean.
The dustbin is quite small, but you can set the Roomba iRobot app to alert you when full or alternatively it will carry on with a full bin (obviously not able to accept more dirt into the already full bin!).
I recommend WiFi set up by plugging your base station/ charge dock into somewhere right near the router. It wouldn’t set up my robot’s WiFi a short distance away from the router, despite having adequate WiFi connection, but it was happy to be set up close to the router and then moved further away.
I love it! No buyers remorse for this purchase.
Worth every single pennies,roomba is a life saver for me ,my house always clean and less dust .really powerful and effective,maybe one of my best purchase .
Clever logic when cleaning a floor.
Quiet operation.
Good suction.
I’d decided, that if I am ever to get a robot vacuum, it would have to be one of, if not, the best one available.
Keeping an eye on the price of the Roomba 980/981, last year during the Black Friday event, I saw the price go down to 699, I thought, this is it, now is the time to buy. But, I hesitated, I still couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money on a vacuum cleaner.
We have two black and white cats at home, and a Henry hoover. Henry does ok. But, just being a vacuum with no spinning brushes or anything like that, cat hair is mostly left in clumps on the carpet which I have to then stab at with the hoover head to try and pick up. It’s not great.
My main concern with spending so much money on a robot vac was I would ultimately be disappointed with it. I was worried that it wouldn’t pick up the cat hair, and like Henry, would just leave clumps of it lying around on the carpet.
I noticed at the beginning of April, that the price of the 981 had dropped to 694, and before I could give myself the opportunity to rationally think about it, I just clicked the buy button and put myself out of my misery of constantly checking prices, watching videos and wanting this thing so badly.
Marvin (you get to name your Roomba, so I decided to name mine after my favourite robot from tv, from Hitch Hiker’s guide to the galaxy) arrived on a Monday. Now, I had vacuumed the whole house on the Saturday, all three bedrooms which are carpeted, the living room, also carpeted and the hallway and kitchen which are laminate flooring.
Marvin was easy to set up, I put him on charge and was keen to send him out on his first cleaning mission.
When he ventured out on his first tour of downstairs, after half an hour, he sent me a message to say his bin was full. I was rather put out by this, thinking that this isn’t going to work, if he can’t clean one floor without the bin needing emptying half way through.
Bearing in mind that I had only vacuumed the house two days earlier, when I looked in Marvin’s bin I was pretty surprised to see how much hair and dust he’d collected. I emptied the bin, and let him carry on.
The good news is, since that first clean, Marvin has never stopped mid-clean because his bin was full. It just goes to show how great he was as vacuuming, that he managed to pull up so much stuff that had clearly been missed by Henry every time.
Marvin has now been programmed with a schedule, so he will clean pretty much every day of the week, alternating between upstairs and downstairs when everyone is out of the house.
Each day, he has a handsome collection of cat hair and general dust and debris in his dirt bin which I empty when I get home.
Marvin has only got into trouble once, when my son left his football boots on the kitchen floor with the laces dangling everywhere. Marvin got a bit tangled in them and ultimately stopped in the middle of the kitchen floor. Fortunately, there was no damage to the laces or to Marvin.
Although I can’t say he was worth the money, because it’s an awful lot of money after all, for what ultimately could be achieved with a cheaper manual vacuum, but, I am hugely relieved that after having lived with Marvin now for over a month I do not regret buying him. Not one little bit!
I love coming home to see the carpets looking freshly vacuumed, it makes the whole house just seem cleaner. I know cats shed a lot of hair, I can see that by how much Marvin is picking up each day. Previously this would be collected once a week when I went round the house with Henry. Now it’s collected every day.
I did consider the 960, but was concerned the suction power wouldn’t be enough. As it happens, I run Marvin on eco-mode (which I believe is the same power as the 960 anyway), so I’m not actually using the increased suction power available on the 980 anyway. But, at least I know if I want to give the carpets a bit more of a deeper cleaner I can put Marvin into ‘performance mode’.
So, if I could go back in time to the point where I ordered Marvin and stop myself from doing it, would I? No. definitely not! I’m glad I bought him, after several years of torturing myself about whether I should or not.
Roomba is pretty smart. It explores the layout of the floor as it cleans and it leaves no area ignored. Our little flat has two floors and Roomba always successfully cleans every part. It’s also able to detect cliffs, like the stairs, and it safely avoids falling down.
We schedule it to run every weekday when we’re at work. Sometimes we request ad-hoc runs through Alexa. There is nothing cooler than saying “Alexa, tell Roomba to clean” and see a smart robot go do its work. It’s like living in Star Trek.
Setting up is extremely simple, take it out of the box, plug in the base and stand the robot on it, let it change, download the mobile app and (once changed) click ‘clean’ – that’s it. The robot will then go round your house and clean it, returning to the base when it needs recharging and returning when it’s finished. It will send you updates as it goes along. At the end of the cleaning cycle it goes round all the edged in all the rooms -i.e. by the time it finished it knows exactly the layout of your house / flat. It’s very gentle too, it does not bang into anything too hard.
Removing the dust / cleaning it is simple too, although the dust container is quite small, it’s just about enough for around 100 sq meters / 1000 sq feet, however that is OK as we have it setup to run every second day while we’re at work so our place is never too dirty.
As to stairs – it’s clever enough not to fall down – it never did in our house.
I also comes with two ‘exclusion towers’ you can put around places you don’t want the robot to go to.
Couple of small bits to remember – it’s not the quietest and it can get stuck on socks… i.e. do not leave your clothes on the floor when Roomba is working!
I expected it to bounce aimlessly around the room, but it uses a range of sensors to map it out and once it knows the room it goes around in a neat, orderly pattern. The performance is great; it’s actually better at doing the corners than my upright. And it’s not a problem if it runs out of charge before finishing (unlikely in most homes as it can last two hours on a charge). If it gets low, it plugs itself back into its charging station, and once recharged it carries on from where it last got to. It does a very good job of navigating round obstacles, and being very slim (about 11 cm tall), it gets in and cleans under more furniture than I might have expected.
The app integration is nice too; you can set a cleaning schedule for certain times and days – even asking for it to go over again each time (which it does at 90 degrees to the original direction) if you want an extra thorough clean. And you can control it remotely; so if you want the floor spotless for when you get home that’s an option. You can view a map of its progress via the app.
It looks great, and is really well built so hopefully it should last for years. The only thing it doesn’t do is empty itself, but it has a pretty big capacity to compensate for that.
Yes it’s expensive, but it’s amazing.
I have been using a robot vacuum for about 8 years and for me the hallmark of a good robot vacuum is they do the little bit of maintenance every day that keep things in order. With that said they still can’t do stairs and they don’t enjoy a cluttered home. The iRobot Roomba 981 is built to handle a little more clutter thanks to its silicone paddles. Its also made to be easy to use thanks to an easy to setup and understand app. You can run the robot manually without the app; but thinks like scheduling really need the app to configure. The 981 is 7 years more advanced than my first Roomba; but in operation it essentially follows the same random patterns around the room to clean up. I also have a neato botvac connected which takes a more planned approach thanks to sensors. I ran the 981 after the botvac to give it a simple test and the Roomba did pick up some dust that the botvac missed. Emptying the Roomba does feel a bit less practical than the botvac – and the bin isn’t as big. Though with a schedule the size of the bin doesn’t matter greatly as a weeks use will never fill it.
The battery life on the new Roomba is excellent; I have found I can run it downstairs; take it upstairs and it will clean both without running low. Thanks to the app if it gets lost under the bed you can also easily find it ; which ends the game of hide and seek I got used to playing with the non connected version.
The silicon turbine paddles are a new style with my previous vacs using brushed paddles. Where the 581 got upset with tassels on a rug the 981 breezed passed them; and it also did much better pickup up test bits of plastic and even a pen; though the pen got stuck which led to me learning how to use the app to find the pen when it gets stuck. The 981 notable didn’t get stuck on furniture as much as the older models; it isn’t as good at straight avoiding things as the neato’s but I haven’t Come home to find it stuck on my ottoman which regularly happened with the 581.
I’m completely sold on robot vacuums; vacuuming where im involved is mostly about the stairs which is a once a month task; though you need a separate vacuum for it which is frustrating – and playing hide and seek when a robot finds a power cable or other obstacle that trips it up; oneway we will get a robot vacuum for the stairs. Having wooden floors definitely makes things easier for the robot – but I haven’t seen a floor dust bunny in years and I was surprised how quickly they appear when I first moved into my wooden floored home.
The 981 didn’t change my life; than happened when I got my first Roomba. It definitely works better – even little things like the virtual walls you get for stopping the vacuum wandering into a bathroom say take AA instead of D batteries and are about 1/5th the size which makes them much more discreet. The app make it so much easier to use than the button programming on my old Roomba. Its a considerably better vacuum picking up move dust and not getting trapped by things around the home. The 981 is a huge step up from my 7 years old model in ease of use and battery life; its not a huge step up from the neato robot in terms of functions – it is massively easier to setup- includes two virtual walls in the box rather than the strip the neato used and has a significantly better battery life which for me makes it a wi
I had always thought these robotic vacuum cleaners were a bit of a gimmick until this little gadget came along. Anyway, setting it up took no time at all after installing the app (iOS in my case) after which you can do things like set a schedule (day/time) when you want the cleaner to start or just set it going straightaway. I love how it intelligently goes about cleaning a room, doing it in a methodical way rather than just randomly bouncing off walls. What’s more, if it runs low on power it’ll return to its base station to charge up then carry on where it left off.
Regards cleaning power it seems to pick up as well as a cylinder vac, although I have to say it is quite noisy as well but no louder than an upright. The robot also had no problem in the lounge where there are wood floorboards with a central rug, it would happily move from floorboards on to the rug and back again without getting stuck. One thing I would say is that the base station must be against a wall, if not the Roomba will just push it along until something stops it.
Build quality feels really good and the filter is easy to access and remove. Rubber ‘rollers’ on the underside help agitate carpets and sweep up crumbs etc., plus the edge brushes really do get in to edges and skirting boards where dut and bits of fluff accumulate. Overall very pleased!
The simplest way to use it is then to press the Clean button on top and stand back as it sets off. There are sensors around the edge of it that stop it hitting an obstruction hard and it follows a clear line back and forward
You also get two units that set up boundaries for the cleaner if you want to restrict the area covered – they are either create a boundary line or an area not to be touched – seem to work well
You can use it just like that – but the real fun is using the smartphone app
This allows you to start the robot remotely via wi-fi , schedule cleaning times where it will start automatically and get cleaning data , sq metres cleaned. – and you can name your robot – ours is called Harry..
You can also turn off things like carpet boost because the default is that it revs up on a carpet to get a deeper clean.
It also has a a neat ‘ return to base ‘ option if you have had enough – it will then return to the base charging unit (liked that ..)
We also tried this on the landing and it recognised the drop off … thank goodness
It runs for at least 40 minutes on a full charge – plenty time for our house
On a plus side it also entertains our dog as it trundles around ..
The only downside from my perspective it that dust compartment is quite small but its simple enough to remove and empty – but with animals it needs emptying each day
Its also quite pricy at around 900 for this model – but if you want an automated cleaning system for your carpets amd floors this is a neat solutio
To get the elephant in the room out of the way first. yes, this is very expensive at 900. To be honest with you, I received this as a review price or I wouldn’t be able to afford one. HOWEVER, if 900 is a breeze to you and you hate to hoover, this is the machine you’ve been praying for.
The Roomba arrives in a pleasingly huge Amazon box. When removing the product box is feels very good quality and sturdy. Removing the Roomba and the included accessories was very simple.
As advised in the instructions, we first put it on charge for 3 hours and installed the Android App (also available on ios). This allowed us to name the device as she will henceforth be known as Rooby.
Once Rooby was charged, we hit the CLEAN button on top of her and she sprang into life. Or trundled. I think trundled is probably an accurate description. For a small device, the Roomba is surprisingly powerful and loud. Not as loud as a plug in Hoover but not that far off.
She then spent 40 minutes methodically cleaning our, fairly large, living room carpet. When done, and this is the best part to watch, she emitted a beep and sent a notification to our phones and then found her own way back to the docking station to recharge. No hands needed! Amazing.
The results were nothing short of astonishing. I can honestly say, of all the hoovers we have owned, none have got the carpet as clean as this. It even felt cleaner to walk barefoot on!
Cleverly, the Roomba has a rotating brush which lets it collect debris from corners and edges, so nothing is missed.
When she is done, the bin in her front can easily be lifted out and emptied. The instructions show and tell you what else will need cleaning and when (as will the app) and the Roomba itself will send a notification if it needs anything cleaning.
Included in the box are are spare brush, instructions and two little “invisible gates”. These ingenious devices run off batteries and can be placed near areas you don’t want the Roomba to wander into. Flipping the switch on one up will emit a horizontal beam which acts as an invisible barrier across, say, a doorway. Flipping the switch downwards will create a semi circular 180 degree barrier (in the example provided this is placed by pet bowls to keep the Roomba away). Very clever.
The Roomba will also detect ledges so is in no danger of ever falling downstairs. It will also detect the thickness of the carpet and adapt its suction accordingly. When cleaning a hardwood floor, it is noticeably quieter.
This is, quite simply, a VERY clever and very well designed device (even the app is a triumph of simplicity) which will both save you hours of labour and probably do a better job of the hoovering than you ever did anyway!
This is our first robot vacuum cleaner and with our two cats shedding hair, we were excited to give it a go. On opening the box, Roomba has a very sleek and expensive appearance.
Setup was fairly straightforward, all orchestrated through the smartphone application. The only annoyance was selecting a 5Ghz Wi-Fi network to only then be told that it will only work with 2.4Ghz networks. Once connected and named it needs to charge for three hours and then it’sready for first use.
The robot navigated around our house well on both carpet and tiled floors. It is capable of hoovering our rug but it would struggle with a much deeper one. Unfortunately it won’t fit between the legs on our dining chairs. The pick-up is impressive and we’ve had to empty it several times in one run – however this may be due to our new carpet. It is very effective at cleaning right up to the edge of floors and into corners.
The beacons work in that they prevent the robot from dropping down steps, however, I’d rather be able to have it remember the layout so they don’t need to be left on the floor.
At the time of writing integration with (If This Then This) IFTT and Alexa (i.e. “Alexa trigger Roomba”) isn’t working for an unknown reason.
Ultimately it won’t replace having to use a traditional vacuum cleaner at all but it should help to keep the house cleaner on a daily basis.
Interestingly – Roomba won’t remember the layout so you can use it across multiple floors in a house. When complete it will just return to it’s starting location, multiple bases are not required.
Roomba certainly isn’t a cheap solution to the chore of cleaning but on the basis of performance, it definitely deserves the 5 stars given to it.
Awesome that it can be controlled through the app, making it effortless to operate. Love it.