Customer Ratings & Reviews

This Roomba 205 DustCompactor vacuum puts minimalist with power. While it is a full size Roomba, it comes with a very small base station, that is used just for charging. Out of the box, it is very simple to put together and get charging. There are quite a few protective stickers that need to be removed, and two little foam pieces that protect the impact sensor that need to come out as well. The literature inside the box is pretty useless in my opinion. The base station has a power cord that is pretty decent in length to give you some options where to mount, and you are able to wrap the excess cord up around the back. Once you set the roomba on the charging pad of the base station, you will have to hold the power button in order for it to turn on initially. Normally in my experience they will usually power on once they touch the power pad. This is not the case. You will then need to download the Roomba Home app, which is different than the IRobot app other roomba's use. You will have to connect the Roomba through the app to the homes wifi. After installation and setup, you can then program a map for the Roomba to run. Starting the map is very easy and the roomba maps out the room very quickly. Unlike previous mapping where it needs to travel around the entire perimeter to map, the Lidar on the Roomba can map out the rooms with just a few passes back and forth. Once the map is created you can see all of the different rooms and adjust them. Once you start the vacuum cycle, then the roomba travels around the entire perimeter of the map first, then systematically fills in the rest and does a pretty good job getting around obstacles. It did get caught up for a minute under my dining table with all of the chairs, but did eventually make its way out. You can see live on the map where the roomba has traveled during its cleaning. The Roomba itself is of a different design than others. It has a waste compartment built into the roomba that uses a fast spinning like paddle that breaks up what is sucked up and kinda of pulverizes it or "compacts" it like its name says. Most of the operation is normal from other roombas, but this one is a bit louder due to the rotation of that paddle, and also states that it has more suction power versus others. Overall I can't complain about the operation of the roomba, but with no removal system in the base station, you will have to empty the bin after several uses. Removing the bin is easy, but the paddle sits on a splined shaft as part of the bin, so it has to be lined up to snap back onto the roomba, which can be a bit difficult to line up if it moves out of place. Overall I am very satisfied with this Roomba. It doesn't require a giant base station, which helps with space, and it still does a great job at vacuuming. It also does a very good job at mapping and finding its way around.

Great except mine doesn’t always get back on the dock correctly. Otherwise I love it!

I prefer the roomba sweeper than the combo. I tried the combo and it stopped working after 2 months. The sweeper is the way to go.

It's only an assistant. You'll still need to vacuum yourself if you want a clean house.

Discovering Roomba for the first time has been eye-opening. This 205 model I tried boasts an onboard mechanical compactor that holds debris for up to 60 days—no bulky dock required. This was very important to me as my house is small and crowded and not possible for a dedicated dock to take up precious space. The Roomba’s three-stage cleaning system delivers 70× more power-lifting suction than prior models and uses a multi-surface rubber brush plus a corner sweeper to capture crumbs, pet hair, and dust bunnies alike. LiDAR mapping feels futuristic, guiding the robot in neat rows around furniture, even in the dark. The initial mapping of my home was very quick, a lot faster than a different brand I had used in the past. The mapping was also accurate without any issues. I effortlessly scheduled cleanings from the intuitive app, setting zones to target high-traffic areas or skip empty rooms. The Roomba’s battery lasts over three hours before automatically recharging and resuming where it left off. At under a foot tall, its sleek design blends seamlessly with home decor and tucks neatly under couches. As someone new to the Roomba brand, I’m impressed by how this compact powerhouse simplifies daily floor care, saving time and maintaining clean floors without hassle. I no longer have to trot out my heavy vacuum and do weakly cleanings now that I have the Roomba.

I wish I had bought this earlier. This has been a game changer for the dog hair to be manageable.

Very easy to use. Excellent coverage of our tile floors.

I enjoy this product it makes my life so much easier!

Don't waste your time. This thing quit working after about a week. After reading some troubleshooting help, I got it working again. I did a GREAT job....for about a month. Then it just stopped working again. The app said there was an update but it couldn't connect to the network. After an exhausting hour or so trying to get it to reconnect, it just locked up. The lights on top are on, but it won't do anything. I even tried a factory reset, but it won't even let me do that. iRobot customer service is the textbook definition of "useless". The virtual assistant keeps saying "I can't find an answer for that" (no matter what I ask it), and you can't talk to a human to save your life. $300 paper weight is all I have, and they apparently don't stand behind their product, because they won't even talk to you. Save your money, you have been warned.

I purchased this vacuum because I wanted to get away from the huge charging base that our present vacuum needs. This one came defective from the factory. Not very good quality control at all. Everything went well as far as setup goes. The vacuum would not move off the charging base at all after 6 hours of charging. It stopped as soon as it disconnected from the charging post. Obviously, I will be returning it to Best Buy.

Worked fine, mapping feature wasn’t the best. A little pricey for what it is compared to others

I highly do not recommend this robot. It constantly gets lost. The side brush is always coming off. The cleaning performance is not that good. Irobot really took a step backwards when coming out with this new line of Roomba they took away the dual brushes the dirt detect and a whole bunch of other features. I would highly recommend getting an older model over this model. Yeah the lidar navigation is cool and I think it works better because you can run the unit at night but it’s still constantly getting lost and can’t find its way back home. The dust compactor is pretty cool. Don’t get me wrong but very difficult to clean because once you pull the bin open. A big plume of dust goes everywhere. I would probably stick with the J9 plus I plan on returning this unit and getting the new 705 max and hoping that one performs better

I was so disappointed in this purchase. The app is horrible and customer service was worse. After two phone calls and sending pictures and model number/ serial number etc, I was promised an escalation call within 48 hours. I could not get the unit to complete the initial mapping at first and then I closed all my doors and only had it map a small area. Still would not clean. After waiting for five days for help, I returned the unit to Best Buy and bought a Shark which has worked incredibly well. iRobot customer service finally emailed me after almost a week. The rep who reached out was good and apologetic and promised to look into how they did not follow up with me.

The iRobot - Roomba 205 DustCompactor Robot Vacuum increases the amount of dirt and dust it can hold with it’s new compacting feature. With this new feature, you don’t have to empty the bin after or before it use. It seems to hold the dirt and dust for weeks of use! The suction and brush action is very optimized. Having 3 big dogs, I honestly cannot live without the iRobot - Roomba 205 DustCompactor Robot Vacuum. The dogs don’t wipe their feet outside before they come in, so tracks dirt and mud (on rainy days) in and expect me to clean it 😊 With the iRobot - Roomba 205 DustCompactor Robot Vacuum, it’s my cleaning companion. The noise is not overly loud, definitely a lot quieter than your standard vacuum cleaner. Downloading the app connecting to it, you can start it when you are not home. Initial setup, it maps the cleaning area using a lidar laser. Which means it’s better than the ones that use just a bump and turn style. It sits a little higher than other robot vacuum cleaners, so it might not clear under some furniture. The dust bin is bigger than most robot vacuum cleaners, it has a paddle that goes from side to side to compact the dust and dirt. It also has a mopping, that like previous models, is like using a wet wipe on the floor. The compacting dust bin, I wouldn’t say it’s a game changer, but it is an evolution. It really is just nice to not have to empty the bin after or before each cleaning session.

Do not buy. The first one failed and had to be replaced. About 6 weeks later, the second one failed for the same reason. Tech support from Roomba is not helpful at all and is difficult to reach. Now I'm beyond the return period with Best Buy and stuck with a non-working vacuum. Not Best Buy's issue but don't buy a Roomba

The iRobot - Roomba 205 DustCompactor Robot Vacuum - Black is one of the latest robot cleaners from iRobot. I have been using robot cleaners for about the last 5 years in my house, my daughter’s house, and my daughter’s store. During that time, they robots have gone from marginally useful to almost essential devices, with improvement in routing and Lidar object detection, more functionality, and greater suction ability. The Roomba 205 further improves in these areas and also provides onboard compaction so that the robot can be run for several months without emptying. The Roomba 205 is easy to setup and operate. Just download the App, setup and charge the robot per instructions in the app, and you are good to go. The charging station must be placed on a hard surface with the back of the unit against a wall or other vertical surface. Because the charging station is very small and light (unlike some vacuum docking stations that I have used), it is more sensitive to positioning and surface. In operation, the robot is quiet and can effectively clean both floors and rugs. When it is done or needs a charge, the robot returns to its small base station. I highly recommend the Roomba 205 to anyone looking for an effective and easy to use robot vacuum cleaner.

I was super interested in this new vacuum from Roomba because I was looking for something that came in a compact formfactor but was able to handle dust and hair for longer periods of time without my intervention. I was especially interested in the new Dust Compactor since previous robot vacuums had struggled with the resulting volume of hair which gets sucked into their self-emptying stations and often trigger a “full” notification and require the bag to be changed. The 205 DustCompactor, as the name implies features a dust bin that compacts, rather than emptying into a docking station. After using this vacuum over the past several weeks I have walked away with several impressions: - The Roomba navigation is logical and top notch covering the perimeter and middle of each of the rooms. The navigation has so far been repeatable and reliable. - The app and status of the robot is lacking in my setup. Sometimes the status and location of the robots isn’t clear or lags substantially. This may be due to the fact that I have multiple access points in my home and the robot is disconnecting from one and reconnection to another which causes the delay. The robot seems to update when it wants and when updating there is no progress bar or anything indicating when it might be done, just telling me if it doesn’t become available after a certain period of time that I should intervene and restart it. I assume typically the updates shouldn’t affect the user experience, but I would like the ability to select a preferred update time window. - Does well with dog and human hair, but hair still gets caught inside the roller and it isn’t clear if that will cause issues later. I have Great Pyrenees which are exceptionally hairy, so this might only be a concern if you have comparatively hairy dogs. - It is VERY quiet but very effective and picked up almost all the visible dust and hair on its first run in my living room. It does get louder on carpet as it adjusts its suction, but you could easily run it at night with your bedroom door closed and never know that it ran. - Room editing tools work well for defining zones and “no-go” areas. Trivial to make changes and get everything setup. - A small critique for a small detail, but the battery terminals do not match up with the robot when the robot is pushed all the way forward on the dock. You should place the robot on the dock and back it up half an inch or so until you see the lights come on. I had placed the robot manually on the dock only to come back a week later and realize that it had died and that I hadn’t actually placed it on the charger. When it docks automatically this isn’t a problem. Overall, I have been impressed with this novel take in the robot vacuum cleaner space. After having this unit for a month I still have not had to empty the unit so the dust compactor features seems to be working wonderfully especially on something like hair that would usually take up a large volume. It’s a very cool idea and I’m glad to see them trying new and different approaches in what has become a mostly iterative category.

we are absolutely loving having the IRobot Roomba 205 Dust compactor robot vacuum as a part of our office cleaning schedule. it was pretty easy to set up. although I had to do a full factory reset from the very beginning. the App makes it very simple to know where you are in the set up process. once I had it set up it asked me to create a map. It took about 15 minutes to create a whole map of my office. I have 4 regular rooms, a hall way and 2 bathrooms and it caught everything. I was then able to set it to clean. It did a great job on its first clean. where I live there is a LOT of fine dust that covers everything and anything. This makes sweeping really hard. The robot was able to clean the whole office and still have space add more dust in the bin. All in All I would definitely get this robot again if I was looking for a vacuum only robot.it was easy to set up and easy to use. light weight and able to fit in small places! I am still trying to find the right schedule for everyone with the noise

I’ve owned many robot vacuums and feel they are a necessity for me especially when you have cats. I don’t have complaints but always procrastinate when it’s time to empty the debris collection chamber by the charging station. With this roomba 205 dustcompactor you now don’t have to worry about it for up to 60 days. There is a new feature where debris is compacted and allows more to be stored inside. That is a huge plus for me. Now as far as the roomba itself, it is very well constructed with an incredibly well made app. Easy to set up on your WiFi. Cleaning is what you would expect from this great company., and the 205 does disappoint at all. Battery life is also extended and lasts for a very long time. Noise is about the same is my other roomba, not bad really and cats do not get scared of it. Really my favorite part remains the app. You can control so much and it’s so easy to use. So ye this is a great purchase at a cheaper price point then a lot of competitors and well worth the investment.

Did not like it. It seemed like it would get confused and kept just driving around