iRobot Roomba Vac Essential Robot Vacuum (Q0120) - Black

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.

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.

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.