iRobot - Roomba Vac Essential robot vacuum (Q0120) - Black

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.

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.

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.