iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum Review

The iRobot Roomba 960 robot vacuum delivers five times more air power than the Roomba 600 Series AeroVac System. This smart vacuum cleaner is packed with features. In fact, it even remembers which areas of your home have already been cleaned and which areas still need its attention. This brief Roomba 960 review will delve deeper into the various features and functionalities it has to offer, along with a look its advantages and drawbacks. But first let’s learn a little more about iRobot and what it stands for.

About iRobot

A group of roboticists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded iRobot nearly three decades back in 1990. The vision was to develop practical robots, ones that could assist humans in a variety of cleaning tasks at home. Today iRobot has sold over 25 million robots across the world and has offices in United Kingdom, China and Hong Kong, besides an office in California and its headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts. While the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot is its most popular product, iRobot’s line of home robots also includes a floor scrubbing robot, a floor mapping robot, a pool cleaning robot and a gutter cleaning robot. This Roomba 960 review will throw light on the latest advances made by iRobot. 

Features

• iAdapt 2.0 Navigation: This is equipped with visual simultaneous localization mapping (vSLAM) algorithm technology, which enables the Roomba to map its surroundings while it’s cleaning. In practical terms, the Roomba is able to meticulously clean an entire level of your home while navigating any and all obstacles in its path.
• 5X Suction: The Roomba 960 has a 3-stage cleaning system and advanced power-lifting suction, which together deliver 5 times the the suction power than the previous generation of Roomba vacuum cleaning robots did.
• 75 Minutes Clean Cycle: A fully-charged Roomba 960 continuously cleans a particular level in your home for a period of 75 minutes. At the end of this period, it begins recharging. Once it’s fully charged, the Roomba 960 resumes cleaning and continues till the entire level is cleaned.
• Dirt Detect Technology: This technology, along with the navigational capabilities of this robot vacuum cleaner, ensures that the Roomba 960 can navigate around and under all furniture in a room and efficiently clean the floor. The Dirt Detect Technology essentially identifies areas in a room that has the highest concentration of dirt and thoroughly cleans these areas.
• iRobot Home App: This app allows you to schedule a cleaning session at anytime and from anywhere. In fact, you can preset cleaning times up to seven times in a week. You can start or stop a session as well. Since the Roomba 960 is Wi-Fi connected, you can customize cleaning preferences right from the app. You can also view the Clean Map reports to check the performance, including details such as areas cleaned, total coverage and total time taken to clean. You can also access various support features for the Roomba 960 on a mobile device.

• Air Quality: The Roomba 960 has a top quality filter that captures the tiniest dust particles (10 microns) and allergy-inducing allergens and pollens. The air quality inside the home significantly improves with this robot vacuum cleaner. It also does an excellent job of capturing pet hair, which can be a nuisance if not properly dealt with.
• Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes: These brushes are adjustable and flexible, which enables them to remain in contact with both hard floors and carpets during the entire cleaning process. Static brushes fail to cover every inch of a floor or capture dust and debris stuck inside carpets. This isn’t an issue with the Roomba 960.
• Full Bin Indicator: It has an indicator to inform you when the bin becomes full. The status of the bin can also be checked on the iRobot Home app.
• Edge Sweeping Brush: This brush is designed to operate at a 27-degree angle, which enables it to access dirt and debris in tight corners and clean the same.
• Cliff Detect Sensors: It has built-in Cliff Detect sensors that prevents it from falling down the stairs or topple over drop-offs on a particular floor.
• Compatible with Alexa: The Roomba 960 is compatible with the Amazon Alexa virtual assistant, which enables you to control this smart vacuum cleaner via voice commands.
• In the Box: You will get a home base charging station, a line cord, 1 dual mode virtual wall barrier, 1 extra filter and an extra side brush, besides the iRobot® Roomba® 960.
• Specifications: The dimensions of the Roomba 960 are 35 cm x 9.1 cm and its weight is 8.5 lb.
• Warranty: iRobot provides a 1-year limited warranty for the robot and a 12-month limited warranty for the battery.

Pros

• Unlike regular vacuum cleaners, you can focus on other work while the Roomba 960 is cleaning your home.
• The flat, close-to-the-ground construct of this vacuum cleaner makes it perfect for reaching under sofas, beds, kitchen counters, etc.
• The dirt concentration sensors are particularly effective in this and ensures that there’s no dirt build-up in your home.
• It helps maintain the quality of air in the house, which in turn ensures that you and your family aren’t affected by dust allergies, aren’t vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, etc.

Cons

• While it can handle short pet hair, it’s not good with long pet hair. In fact, long pet hair gets entangled in the brush and stops the vacuum from functioning and requires manual intervention.
• It costs more than double that of a standard good vacuum cleaner, which makes it prohibitively expensive.

Final Thoughts

Smart home technology is the future and rapidly it’s becoming the present as well. The Roomba 960 is at the forefront of this smart home revolution. It’s the ideal cleaning system for your home that takes into account every aspect of modern life. We lead busy lives and it becomes difficult to dedicate time for cleaning. With the Roomba 960 you don’t have to worry about taking time out of your busy schedule. You can control it with an app on your smartphone and return to a clean, healthy home. Even when you are at home, you can control it through voice commands. We hope this Roomba 960 review was helpful.