Customer Ratings & Reviews

It’s not the best but it does the job. Sometimes it just stay in one room of the house and doesn’t reach other areas and I have to be moving it manually which it sucks honestly.

TL;DR Entry-level robot vacuum from iRobot that vastly improves on suction and cleaning paths. Tested runtimes are 60 minutes between charges. Does not save the floor plan to do selective cleaning of areas and cannot tell it where to stay out of. Controllable using the iRobot App. The iRobot Essential robot vacuum is iRobot’s way of making its way back into the homes of many, considering the robot vac market has grown considerably since the introduction of the 600 series. At its price point, the Essential brings the basics up front and center: strong suction stamina and methodical cleaning. I’ve owned two 600 series vacuums and I loved them very much; press the clean button and let the vacuum do its thing. I remember how the 600 would ping pong along my carpet and hard floors and, eventually, decide to make its way back to the docking station for a charge. Running the Essential, I can already tell this vacuum means business when it comes to suction. Cleaning about 500 sq ft of floor, the Essential was able to pick up pet dander, dust and dirt from wherever it can reach. It was very strong sounding and the resulting bin full of dirt was quite impressive. If using the iRobot app, you’ll be able to change the suction power (low,medium,high). Depending on how large your cleaning area is, the Essential will return back to its base, recharge and continue cleaning. This will be more frequent if using the high power setting. What really impressed me more is that the navigational software of the Essential is much smarter this go-around; it will methodically create itself a cleaning path much similar to the higher end iRobot models. What it means is a more efficient cleaning and better cleaning times. Transitions from hard floor to carpet depends on how high your hard floor/rug transition is. As far as design, this iteration of the Roomba is a more slimmer, lower profile body that is able to make its way under areas that prior models (and even other manufacturers) dare to try. The bin is ample for a day or two of running before emptying, and the side brush is now a magnet connection as opposed to the older screw-in design. Nice. It has a single soft bristle brush roller underneath as opposed to the standard two-roller design. I wonder if this design actually aids in suction due to the smaller area where air suction is focused. It definitely works great. From the feel-of-the-feet against my hard floors, I can already tell that there are no little crumbs sticking to the bottom of my feet. One huge observation while running the Essential is its ability to get to tighter areas where I wouldn’t normally expect a robot vac to go. And this is based on experiences with prior Roombas (600s, J series, I series). And I found this to be a blessing and a curse. More curse than blessing, actually. The Essential manages to get stuck constantly in areas that it can barely clear. I’m talking about things like getting under the couch, underneath the coffee table and even between the dishwasher and the floor! And since I can’t tell where it cannot go, I have to make accommodations in areas to prevent it from happening. And as a long time Roomba owner, this really sucks that I can’t tell it where to NOT go. The J and I series have this feature, and it’s definitely a must, especially if you have problematic areas where the Roomba will fail. After a few runs, it has managed to gouge itself across the top, probably trying to escape from getting stuck. So what do I think about the Essential? I think this Roomba is definitely well suited for simple living areas. What does that mean? Basically any area, small or large, where the Roomba can’t get into too much trouble. And that’s a tricky proposition. I can honestly say that with all the good that this provides, I wish it allowed for block-out zones in the iRobot app. And it might be enough to shy away from. But if you feel like your living area is not complicated with nice high clearance furniture, then the Essential will shine bright in your home, keeping your floors clean.

I love love love this robot vacuum. This is my 4th one in the house.

The Roomba Vac Essential is iRobot’s no-frills, budget-friendly, entry-level robot vacuum. It’ll perform all the perfunctory duties you'd expect including running on a schedule, remote start and stop via the iRobot app, home automation integration, and returning to the base station automatically to charge. However, don’t expect more advanced capabilities like room mapping, obstacle avoidance, or self-emptying. The robot has a 12.5” diameter and is 3.25” tall with a matte black finish, front and side bumpers, side sweeping brush, and 3 cliff/fall sensors. There are two spring-loaded, large driving wheels on the bottom that allow it to traverse uneven surfaces with ease, a 360° front wheel for executing tight turns, and central roller brush for picking up dust and debris. Both the side brush and roller brush are removable for cleaning or replacement, and the battery can also be removed for replacement or disposal. This robot is designed primarily for cleaning hard floors, as the base station needs to be placed on a hard surface with 1.5 ft of clearance to the sides and 4ft of clearance in front and away from stairs. I appreciated the inclusion of a Velcro cable organizing strap on the back of the dock. The 0.1 gallon dust bin has a small capacity that generally needs to be emptied manually after each run. A cleaning brush and hair tangle razor is conveniently stored on top of the bin to help you clean and maintain the machine. The bin releases from the back of the robot with the press of a button and has a one-way dust flap over the intake to prevent accidental spilling of its contents. The hinged top opens easily for emptying, and it can be handwashed, if needed. There’s also a washable and replaceable HEPA filter in the lid that cleans the air as it exhausts from the machine and a spare filter is included. I find that the vacuum does a good job picking up fine dust and debris and captures a fair amount even after I’ve already cleaned with my upright vacuum. The robot runs back and forth in parallel rows, which I prefer over the “random” path method. There’s also a spot cleaning function to clean a 4 ft diameter circle wherever you place the robot down. The robot is supposed to be able to detect and avoid furniture, though that said, it will still bump your walls and furniture when it first encounters them; once it knows their locations, it will slow down as it approaches any area where it previously made contact with something. A rubber strip at the bottom of the bumper helps cushion the impact, but this can leave black marks on your walls and floor trim. I would have liked to have seen an additional bumper along the top to better protect the glossy plastic over the sensors, as I know from experience that if it picks up enough scratches over time from collisions, they may reduce the effectiveness of the sensors. The main drawback to the simplicity of its functionality is that you cannot control where it travels to clean. It also has no memory of where it has already been, so if the unit returns to the station to recharge before it finishes cleaning all the areas it has access to, on the next run it will not pickup where it left off; it will simply start over again from the beginning. For me, the robot ran for 1 hour and 15 minutes on high suction on our first floor before returning to the station. The robot successfully avoided falling down steps and crossed ¼” high floor transitions between rooms just fine. It was also able to navigate up onto a ½” thick mat, and the short height allowed it to go under and clean right up to the toe-kick of our cabinetry. However, the clearance under our dishwasher is a bit lower due to uneven floors, and it ended up rubbing the underside of the steel door and picking up some scratches on top of the unit. It also has a tendency to push around or knock over lightweight items that sit on the floor. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent the robot from entering an area other than physically blocking its access or path, for example, to prevent it from going near a fireplace or pushing pet food and water bowls. I found that when it went over several power cords, it was able to cross them without getting stuck or tangled, though this may not always be the case. It did get stuck once under a rocking recliner and trapped under the kitchen table in between chair legs and had to be rescued; it sent a notification to the app when this happened. If you cannot locate the robot, you can activate an audible tone from the app that plays for a few seconds to help you find it, provided it has some battery life left and WiFi signal. In the app you have the option to change a couple settings, mainly suction power from low, medium, and high, which may save or consume more battery power respectively, and setting it to clean without a time limit or a timed session of 15, 30, or 45 minutes. You can also schedule regular cleanings to start at a specific time on recurring days of the week or automate it to do so when you leave and/or return home using triggers such as GPS location, smart lock activity, or events detected by other smart IoT devices. You'll have the option of setting up smart home AI control using Alexa or Google assistants, and those worked just fine for starting and stopping cleaning using voice commands. When cleaning is paused, the job will automatically be cancelled if it is not restarted within 1 hr and 30 mins. The app will keep track of data from the 30 most recent cleaning events within the last 90 days, and keeps a count of lifetime number of cleaning jobs, total runtime, and “dirt events” (when it senses an area/areas that may have a lot of debris). Overall, I found this robot vacuum to be a very basic but effective robot vacuum that can automate regular cleaning of the floors. It can be remotely controlled, integrated into a smart home ecosystem, and effectively picks up a good amount of dirt and debris. It’ll work best for folks that have hard flooring, a lot of open space that is free of obstacles like cords and delicate or lightweight décor, and a small enough area that it can be covered in a single cleaning session. Just remember you’ll need to regularly empty its bin manually and physically block it from going anywhere you don’t want it to.

This iRobot Roomba Vac Essential does fine overall. It’s a standard robot vacuum. Good amount of battery, and can clean for over 2 hours depending on the setting. Not to big or heavy. Does a good job at vacuuming carpet. The dust bin is easy to remove and reinstall and comes with a brush to easily clean the filter and cut items tangled in the brush. The unit only has three buttons, everything you need to do can be done through the app, but basic functions can be done on the unit. You will have to make an account with iRobot. Setup was easy overall, except for verifying, it was a hassle. The unit only has a 2.4GHz radio which his to be expected on a lower end model, so that’s not an issue. Make sure your phone is on the 2.4GHz radio for initial setup. It was trying to set it up. I was stuck on verifying for a while. I had a strong wi-fi signal, and it said it connected fine. After doing some research, it seems to have been my mesh network. Once I turned off my other mesh units and only had one radio one, it connected fine. But, you shouldn’t have to turn off part of your network to connect. After connecting the initial time, it connected with no issues with the mesh wireless back on 2 radios. The remaining setup is putting on the side brush and readying the dust bin for use. After setup and charging the unit was ready to go. The unit was placed in a ~500sq ft that has furniture and some tables in it. Overall, the unit got around fine and did the whole room getting a good amount of dirt. I tried it on high suction next, there are 3 suction levels, and it ran out of power in the middle of cleaning, and did not return to base. It just stopped with nothing around it. On high suction it happened more than once. It got under couches and chairs with no issues and backed up on running into things. I did try it near some stairs, and it would stop and turn around upon sensing them. For cleaning the brush is in the middle of the unit. So, there is a ~3.5” gap from the brush to the end of the unit. The add on brush helps, but it doesn’t get in and clean, it just moves dirt on top into the main brush. So, edges may have to be cleaned with another device. The unit is not very loud even on high suction. Unless the sun is directly in the way of the base station, it found it’s back to recharge. When it couldn’t it was easy to place the unit on the base for it to charge. Using the unit through the app was easy and the unit can be controlled anywhere on the web. You can make schedules and see the history of when and how it vacuumed. The dust bin is easy to remove, and open. Shake the dirt out, use the included brush to remove anything from the filter, and replace. Consumables, brush, filter etc are tracking and replacements can be bought through the app. Overall, the unit does a good job. Setup can be a hassle, and edge cleaning will need some help. But for a lower end unit it does a good job.

This iRobot Roomba Vac Essential is great for keeping the house vacuumed. It’s very simple to set up, and it took me no more than 5-10 minutes before it was vacuuming my house. The battery life is pretty good. There are 3 different settings in the application that allow you to set the iRobot suction power. Low uses the least amount of battery power, and is ideal for light jobs. It’s quieter in this mode, and you don’t have to charge it as frequently. The next suction mode is the one I use most. Medium suction is ideal for daily cleaning, but it has to charge more frequently. Lastly, is high suction mode. This mode is for heavy duty jobs, like tougher messes, and of course, this mode requires frequent charging. The application has features that lets you set up a schedule and tasks, so that you can get the job done with a push of one button. I love the scheduling feature, because I can set it to vacuum before I get home, after I leave, or whenever I choose. It’s very convenient. Inside the application, you can also locate your iRobot Roomba. Once you push the button, the Roomba makes a noise, if the battery isn’t dead. The accessories that come with the Roomba include an extra filter, and a tool that fits inside the Roomba on the dirt collector. It has a brush on one end and a sharp piece on the other to cut hair away from the roller. This Roomba might be an essential model, but it does everything I need it to do. I can connect it to my virtual assistant on my devices, so that I can use voice commands. It’s a really great vacuum, and so far I have no complaints or issues.

The iRobot Roomba Vac Essential Robot Vacuum (Q0120) in black is a robotic vacuum priced at the lower to mid entry point that does an okay job with no frills. While I gave it 4 stars, I think that 3.5 is more like it. I requested this type of vacuum with my office in mind. I am a one woman-CPA that has heavier usage of their office during tax season, that we just ended, thankfully, with round one on April 15th. I am also the person that must clean the office and clearly, I would prefer something that is automated and do this chore without me actively involved, if possible. The whole package contains the unit itself, a power cord that connects the base to your electric wall outlet, which is a good length, the simple charging base, one edge-sweeping brush, that must be put into the base, and a replacement filter. Just to note, you can go on their website to buy OEM replacement accessories in various bundle configurations. So, this newer iRobot Roomba. like I said, is a lower-priced, entry into the robotic vacuum market and the buyer needs to temper their expectations on what the vacuum can achieve. While there are models that do mop and release their debris into the docking station, this model does not mop nor discharge the debris, which might be preferrable if one has carpet and hard type floors that require both vacuuming, as well as mopping. As you will see in the pictures that I uploaded to the website, the carpeting in my office has the pile-type of indoor-outdoor carpet, very low to the ground and easy to negotiate by the wheels of the robotic vacuum. This robotic vacuum has a very simple docking station with no frills. There is a Velcro band that you cand fold the electric cord up within to keep it out of the way of the unit when it is in actively vacuuming. What did I have to do to get started? First plug in the docking station and then line up the metal contact on the unit to "wake" it up. There will be a sound produced letting you know that was achieved and then it will start going. I have an android smartphone and there is an iRobot Home app in both the Google Play store and Apple. The download, installation, and connection to my device was very easy and took only a few minutes to do. This app requires that you use a 2.4 vs. 5.0 GHz network. There is a 1-year limited warranty and the warranty states that if you cannot verify your delivery date it starts within 2 weeks from the date of purchase. So, what are my impressions on its performance? This robotic vacuum does bump into furniture and chair legs that are in the room and does not sense those items and automatically navigate around them like the higher-priced robotic vacuums do, I have one of those, too. In my case, there was no damage to either the furniture or the unit because it does not ram into it, but gently bounces away from whatever it touches. The next thing that I notice is its quality of vacuuming. My office carpet was dirty, and I do have a small dog that comes to work with me that while they do not shed, does have some hairs on the carpet. Thank goodness it made many passes over the floor because it took a while to get up the dirt. One thing that you must realize is that you an adjust the strength of the suction through the app-the factory setting is mid and I raised it to the highest for my purposes. Now that I have this robotic vacuum, I can vacuum more frequently and not have as much to dirt to pick up on a regular basis. The last thing that I wanted to mention was that there is a wedge incline that transitions the height of my floors from front to back of office. The device was trying to climb up the edge but could not quite make it up by itself. I am going to work on that feature because it would be helpful if it could do that on its own. However, it did not go off the exposed end of the wedge, like a stair would be and it did travel over the edge to return itself at the docking station that was situated on the lower-level floor. I was impressed with the length of the charge so that it can vacuum for quite a while. You can use the app to map out jobs for the specific areas that you want done at a time. Overall, I would recommend this device having full knowledge on what its good, bad, and not that ugly are. Ultimately, you do get what you pay for.

The Roomba Essential vac is perhaps one of the most simplistic robot vacuums I’ve used. It does not map, it does not mop, it does not self-empty. You put it in a room and push the clean button on top of it or you use the app to select ‘Clean’, and it roams around the room and does its thing. There is little to no assembly required to get the Essential going. It has a small footprint and can fit just about anywhere. To be honest, I didn’t mind the basic minimalist design of the Essential, but the fact that it does not map was a bummer to me. You can’t keep it from leaving a room, for instance, unless you close the door or barricade the doorway. I guess you have to step up in cost to get that function. The big question is, how does the Roomba Vac Essential work in action? I tried it in three different rooms, and then followed it up with one of my other vacuums to see how well it did. Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the Essential’s suction power. My daughter’s room has a litter box in it, sitting on a very low-pile rug. Our cat has a tendency to kick litter out onto the rug, and every few days we have to vacuum it. I put the Essential in the room, closed the door, and let it do its thing. 15 minutes later it was done. The rug still had lots of kitty litter on it. Hmmm… I stepped up the settings in the Roomba app, selecting the highest level of suction. Hit clean again, and then sat there for 15 minutes while it went around the room again. After it was finished and docked, I surveyed the rug again. I couldn’t tell a difference. The Essential did not have the power to get those small little crumbs of kitty litter picked up. For the heck of it, I opened up the app for the other name brand robot vacuum I have upstairs, and using the map, had it come in and clean the room. On normal suction power, it cleaned the rug perfectly. No tidbits of kitty litter remaining. The Roomba Vac Essential just didn’t have the same suction power as the other vacuum. I also tested the Roomba Vac Essential in a couple of other rooms that had less mess in them, and did a decent job in both. The conclusion I came away with is that the Essential is a good, simple vacuum that will work well to touch up floors that already relatively clean and just have dust on them. If you need it to pick up crumbs on the floor, or handle some messes like spilled flour/sugar, you might come away disappointed.

Quick Overview ================================= iRobot has been making cleaning robots for a decades. Though they're pretty effective, they're also pretty expensive. This year, iRobot is introducing the Roomba Essential line that includes a mop/vacuum or one that's just a vacuum. These Essentials are more affordable but do lack advanced features like detailed controls and self-emptying features. Overall build ================================= The Roomba Essentials Vac is a solid black plastic circle that seems pretty sturdy with a slightly matte finish so it doesn't gather fingerprints. There are just three buttons on top including the main Clean button that glows while charging along with a home and spot cleaning button. Set up is easy, but I'm still not in love with no printed manual or quick start. Basically you'll attach the spinning brush on the bottom and set up the charger to make sure the Roomba is charged. The filter is already in place and you get a spare in the box. Make sure to remove the white pads that are preventing the front "bumper" from moving during shipping. While the Roomba is charging, you can download the app and login (yes, you must login to the app) to complete the setup including the Wi-Fi setup. Once that's done, just wait until the Roomba is charged. Performance ================================= Once it's ready to go, just push the large, central Clean button and let the Roomba go to work! I had one of the very first iRobot Roombas many years ago and this really reminds me of that. It's not a "smart" vacuum that you can control or "drive" based on the floor plan. It kinda roams around and bumps into things to learn the floor plan and cleaning area. As it works its way around, it's vacuuming and there's the spinning brush that's bringing dust into vacuum range. I do like the overall cleaning/suction of the Roomba Vac Essential since it seems to pick up the light dust, paper scraps, and hair/lint that is left during our normal vacuum sessions. If I need it to stay and clean a spot (more dust, missed some paper scraps), then I can just press the Spot clean button and it'll continue to clean in a circular spot until it's done. It worked well each time I tested it. There are sensors all over including one that should stop it from going down stairs, but I did have an near miss that I'll talk about at the end. It never ran out of batteries over the times that I used it to clean about half of the floors on our 2nd story, but it did miss some spots on its own. I did pick it up from time to time and have it clean what it missed, but if you do that, it won't be able to return home properly. Not a big deal, since I was home and that wouldn't happen if you leave the house and schedule it to clean. I added some pics of what it picked up (sorry!) and was happy that it got a lot of fine dust, some sandy-looking stuff, some small paper scraps, and hair. In the kit you'll get some cleaning tools and a hair cutter to prevent it from tangling up in the brushes. Near miss: Upstairs, we have a railing around the stairway that has horizontal metal rails and the Roomba can fit underneath the bottom one. I watched carefully to see if it would stop and I think it might have, but it was very near the center of gravity and I fear that it could have fallen over down the stairs. That being the case, I'm not going to use it unattended near the rails unless I invest in some virtual walls or something for it. Roomba is now moving downstairs! Lastly, since it does use a "bump and learn" technique, many light things will get pushed around as it tries to clean and learn the cleaning area. This can include light metal tables by your couch, part of a mat near an elliptical machine, house slippers, power strips, etc. We have hardwood floors and thin/flat carpets so it was able to navigate those surfaces easily, though the lifted corner of one rug did give it some difficulty. That's not the Roomba's fault! Conclusion ================================= As an "old fashioned" cleaner/vacuumer, I do love the idea of Roombas and this one is a great supplement to weekly vacuuming, but it'll never be a complete solution. I was glad to see it didn't get tripped up (tangled up?) by 3 people's long hair, so it should do well with pets as long as you keep it clean. Daily (or every other day?) use will help keep your place clean, dust-free, and hair-free and at this price, I think it's still a winner.

Having been a Roomba user from a few generations past in many ways they have vastly improved many things upon the old design. While these redesigns left me impressed, sadly the core feature of smart vacuuming was lost this time around. Firstly, the good. All of the complaints of previous generations are improved. This model is much lighter than before without sacraficing pick up power. A lighter weight device is always good just in case you need to move it around, which happened quite a lot, but more on that later. The dustbin is larger and easier to empty. Instead of having to empty the bin every cleaning job, I am now able to run several jobs before having the notification pop up to empty the bin. I am now able to choose between low, medium, and high suction power with even the strongest setting running much quieter than my old unit. While it sometimes takes a few attempts to maneuver over tricker gaps, it no longer snags the edges of rugs or loops on end when transitioning from hard floors to carpet. No longer does the Roomba plow into walls or obstacles like a little battle bot. It's lighter more sensitive edge taps obstacles lighter than before, thus avoiding any scuffs. Unfortunately, my unit couldn't find his way back to homebase after a job well done. Several times it decided to make is home under our large sectional, other times it was in front of the closet door. And sometimes he just wandered aimlessly for over 20 minutes trying to find home. I tried moving the base to different areas as well as different rooms but to no avail. Maybe my Roomba's memory was set to "Goldfish", because after every job I had to stop it, pick it up, and return it to sleep like a child that doesn't want to go to bed. While I really like the improvements, my unit just can't be trusted to return to base, needing constant monitoring towards the end of a job thus negating the very reason to have an automated cleaning device in the first place.

I am a robo vacuum believer... I have 2 dogs and a kid and wife who have really bad allergies. So since buying and using robo vacuums this has reduced allergy attacks. I have bought several of these vacuums recently and really like them. I have had a j7 for about 1 year so this Robo Essential (j0) has high expectations from me. Setup... Setup was super simple. I already have a Roomba some just added another device and I was all set. I let it do its run and it mapped about 75% of my bedroom correctly. It took about 3 runs to really map it out completely. This version does not have obstacle avoidance so it uses the bumper to change directions. Which I really like from my j7. This j0 got stuck in between my toilet and tub twice so I had to create barrier to prevent it from happening again. It won't let me avoid an area so just note that. Operation was super quiet. Which is really nice. The j7 is much louder. The brushes on this is the big difference. Roomba change it to a finer brush with a rubber sweep in-between the brushes. This did not have the option to do a double sweep like the j7. But you can control the suction. Factory is set at medium. I put it at high. The noise is not that much louder. Also you should empty this out frequently or else it will foul your HEPA filter and reduce the life of it. I normally just use my big vacuum with a brush to clean it and I am done. For the convenience and all the features and benefits in would recommend this product.

Vacuuming can be a hassle, especially if you have a pet dog. I think that this particular iRobot vacuum is catering to those that just don't have the time to worry about periodic vacuuming and want to have their small space clean and tidy. As far as features, this vacuum lacks any real impressive features but it gets the job done at a lower price point than the competition. For our 250 square foot family room, we have carpet that sees a ton of foot traffic and our dog loves to roam in this area a ton. We had it run and it follows in neat rows and it impressively picked up more dog hair without running out of battery, comparted to our handheld push vacuum. It also got itself trapped around some plant pots that we have on the floor near a corner and it couldn't get itself out of, this would be less of an issue if the vacuum came with a built in camera. There is no ability to map the floor compared to some other higher end vacuums, again due to not having a camera. If you are looking to save time and effort, for a basic but effective robot vacuum that you only worry about emptying the canister on this is it.

THIS… is the iRobot Vac essentials and my third iRobot vacuum to match my s9+ and m5 mopping duo that I have been looking to start phasing out of my house as they are starting to show their age and admittedly, the s9 took a trip down the stairs and never came back! My s9+ was awesome, but my m5 is still the best mop in the house - and even though it doesn’t vacuum the app lets me run my vacuum and then the mop in a 1-2 conjunction through in-app software which is always nice. Lets see how this stacks up to my growing parking lot of home vacuum and mops! This is at the entry-level of robot vacuums and with that, it only vacuums which is awesome because I wanted it for the upstairs section of my house as something that sweeps up the crumbs between manual Dyson sweeps on the weekends (or when I remember). Setup is and continues to be a strong suit for the Roomba, and I think anyone could out of the box set this up. The docking station was rather light so I was worried it would move around as the Roomba docs with it, but I never saw that issue come to fruition and it stayed in place. The app is super clean for iRobot, to the point it is almost hard to find things such as the ability to customize the suction power for the robot but with a few taps it is easily changed! This model does not come with map integration, so no go zones are not gonna be available to you, which for me is somewhat of a hassle as my furniture can be a robot death trap as are some of my rugs as well. This is a feature you will see on the higher models from iRobot so if it is something you think you will need, then stop now and move on up the lineup! I will say, I was completely underwhelmed with the performance and capabilities of the vacuum. From always seemingly needing manual intervention to the inability to pick up floor fuzz, this is truly an entry-level light-cleaning robot. I am also unable to do certain things that we see other competitors in the market have across their lineups such as edit the map, custom cleans and voiding out areas as the robot sometimes can go under furniture and get lost under it and…STAIRS! I took this to my first floor as it is hardwood, and I saw a better performance in cleaning ability. I am rather jaded by my s9+’s serious suction power, and I had assumed that the power would disseminate down the product profile by now… but I guess not just yet. It does, however, leave nice carpet lines…with fuzz left in them lol. Navigation is not a strong point for the robot, but once it gets it paths down it seems to really do a good job at optimizing the room over time, it just takes a significant amount of manual intervention the first several times. Something that was fun to watch was the force that it would bump into things with - even moving my subwoofer over a smidge. Not hard enough to hurt anything, but enough to make you look! I really wish this came with the option to upgrade to a tower to be able to vacuum out the debris that it picks up so that I do not have to empty out the container from time to time, that said it is super easy and not a hassle. I think that this is perfect for your smaller studios, hardwood floors or super simple layouts. It is super quiet, sleek, and easy to tuck away in a corner and after training it to do what it needs to do… isn't the worst. I think for a couple hundred more dollars you get a significantly better product, but that is true with everything ever! I think that while I would recommend this product, it is truly a your mileage may vary product - it is entry-level… so you should come in with the expectation that this technology also didn't exist 10 years ago. That's why shopping at BestBuy is super cool, you never have to worry about getting a bad product, Best Buy has an excellent return policy and even better customer service, so you never have to worry about buying a product that you don’t like… so why not test it out?! iRobot has a large product portfolio, and BestBuy has an even larger home robot profile…so they have something for every level of your home!

My wife and I have been wanting to pickup a robo-vac. We have a large area between our living room, kitchen, office, and front foyer. We are constantly needing to vacuum or sweep up dust. With 3 sons and a pup running around it almost feels like a full-time job sweeping up after them. When we came across the Roomba Vac Essential, the first thing that caught my attention was the cost, this seemed like a great entry point for someone looking for their first robo-vac. Setup was a breeze. There is a pretty large QR code for you to scan to get you going. You download the app, set up your account, make sure your charging station is plugged in and your Roomba is on the station and on. The app then walks you through the steps of getting it connected to your Wi-Fi and you are off. The Roomba has a front and rear bumper that allows it to know when it’s time to change direction and it does a great job of remembering when to turn around. We’ve used it a few times over the last week, and it does a great job of getting just about every part of the house, including under the couches and entertainment center. Battery life is great. It has been able to clean most of the house each time and battery usually goes for over 2 hours easily. It makes a chime and heads back to the charging station on its own when it’s time to charge again. Charging time is kind of long, but it’s not an issue since it is able to take care of the house on one charge. I noticed that it shows you in the app a map of the area your Roomba cleaned, but I have yet to find out how to set up rooms to tell it which areas I would like for it to clean specifically. Not sure if I am missing something or if this version doesn’t have that feature. Either way it can get through most of the rooms with little to no issues, just make sure to move any small items or cables out of the way to not ‘trip up’ the Roomba. This is a fantastic little robot, and I think a great entry point for anyone looking to get a Roomba to keep your floors dust free. Battery lasts a long time, able to tackle our hard floors as well as the carpeted areas with ease. I could easily recommend this to anyone.

The i-Robot Roomba essential is a budget friendly well designed smart robot vacuum. It is slim and will go under cabinets with no problem. It comes with a small changing base that can be placed almost anywhere without disrupting your home decor. This vacuum comes with 1 spinning brush large enough to get around baseboard edges. It is very simple to setup by downloading the I-Robot app and following the instructions. The app is easy to use. It has pretty much one cleaning function to press to get the vacuum started. You can set up schedule cleaning, custom area cleaning and view the history. I found it weird that there's no map layer in the app. However, you can see a map layer in the history. I'm not sure if that is because this vacuum is a budget one or the app needs an update. I also find it weird that you can create custom cleaning but you don't have an option to select which area you want the robot to clean. Even if you change the custom area name the robot will clean the entire house. I don't see the point of having a custom cleaning setting when the only cleaning option is the entire house. Hopefully that gets fixed with an update. The vacuum robot does a good job cleaning. The brushes are large enough to get around the edges of the baseboards and corners. I really like that. The only downside is it only has one brush. It does a really good job on the carpet. The battery life is also pretty good. It cleans my entire house in a single run without a recharge. My other robots usually go back to recharge before cleaning my entire house. The charging is very small which make it discreet compare to larger self cleaning vacuums. That being said the base is just a charging base the vacuum has to be cleaned manually which is very simple. It also has sensors that will prevent it from rolling down stairs. . Overall this is a smart robot vacuum that would do the job well and will not break the bank. It can be controlled with the app or with a voice assistant. It does a good job cleaning with good suction power and does great job cleaning around edges. It's slim design makes it easy to go under cabinets and sofas. In the box you get the robot vacuum, the charging base, power adapter, cleaning brush, spare filter and manuals.

I wasn’t sure how much I’d use a robot vacuum at first, but it has completely exceeded my expectations. This little machine has taken a daily chore off my plate and does a surprisingly thorough job. The suction power is great—it picks up everything from pet hair to crumbs with no problem. I especially love how it maps out the room and navigates around furniture smoothly without constantly bumping into things. It even knows to return to its charging station when it’s low on battery.

I was pleased to receive the iRobot Roomba Essential Vac as I've never owned one before. Upon opening there was a card to scan on my phone so that I could get the iRobot app. I did that right away and then found a great spot to place the charger. I had to set up an account and then proceeded to let it charge. The white CLEAN light blinks until fully charged then just stays solid white. After that was done I connected it to my WIFI which has to be on a 2.4ghz network as it won't operate on 5ghz. Got it after a couple attempts and I was ready to give her a whirl. This vac is a basic model without many features. One thing I really wish it did was self empty. The waste bin is very small and I found I had to dig in with my hands (I did wear a plastic glove) in order to clear out the debris. It's got a nice low height of just 3.15" so it found its way under furniture which was a nice touch. The battery life on regular suction was fine. It didn't drain fast at all. It has a 7" cleaning path and when it was operating correctly would go back and forth in a straight line. I liked the edge sweeping brush and it also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. Now here are the issues I have had and why I am not impressed. My vac has a mind of its own. I felt like I was chasing my 3 year old granddaughter all around the house to keep her out of trouble. It decided to attempt climbing up my antique floor lamp, up on the wood area of my footstool thereby scratching it before I could remove, pushed an antique high chair out of its way, would not stay away from my cat food dishes and attacked a little stroller. In all fairness I gave it time to adjust before having to remove it manually from these items thinking it was learning, but it just would back up and go right into attack mode again. It also attempted to eat my slipper when I put my foot out to try to stop it. To say I was aggravated is an understatement. This Roomba would start out cleaning in normal lines back and forth (getting my hopes up) but suddenly would go crazy. Just circle over and over the same area until I had to physically relocate. I was using it on a very thin area rug in the living room and the other rooms are laminate so it wasn't because I have thick carpeting or bad flooring. At any rate I found it to be much more frustrating than just getting my regular vacuum out. It also would never find its way back to the home base unless I carried it in the room and set it almost directly in front of the charger. Even then, being right in front of the station, this Roomba decided to do a few twirls, run away and I had to grab and push it even closer in order for it to set on right. It does not have floor mapping so if you have a bigger home or lots of rooms I don't suggest buying this model. I've searched the app and did whatever they suggested doing to have it properly work ~ all to no avail. I believe I have too many things in my house for it to learn how to clean this place. Being an antique dealer ~ well there are just lots of beautiful heirlooms and my little vac doesn't like them one bit. Therefore I personally cannot recommend the purchase of this iRobot Essential model unless you are a minimalist and/or have a small, uncluttered home. It might work fine then. For now mine can just sit on the charger and behave itself.

it is very quiet and does a great job cleaning. i am happy I got it

I bought this iRobot to replace the older version of this unit which lasted 8 years. This Vac has a couple of features that make it better than the older unit such as, adjustable run times, adjustable suction levels and it runs quieter. This is the most basic unit and it does the job really well.

Loved how easy it was to set up, and get it running. Does a very good job on bare floors, and carpets, but you have to be wary of any loose wires, because it will get tangled in any wire, or any loose materials low on the floor. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants the carpets cleaned underneath their beds, or couches.