Customer Ratings & Reviews

Best vacuum I-Robot Roomba 960 using 45 days no problem

I really do not know how I lived with out this thing !!!

Don't buy this if you have lots of area rugs, particularly rugs with dar borders. We initially put the base underneath a bench, but when it backed out to start vacuuming, it hit the edge of an area rug. I don't know if it was the cliff sensor seeing the wide dark border of the area rug, or just the transition from hardwood to the rug, but the vac would get stuck under that bench for a good 10 minutes (see the attached photo). Eventually, it made it out. However, when watching it move across the room, it continued to have problems at the edges of the area rugs. Also, if you looked closely at the rug after vaccuming, the area rugs all look like they were brushed "the wrong way" (see the attached image). At one point, the vac ran over a small stuffed cat toy, but it didn't notice and didn't report that as an error. It wasn't until I got tired of it getting stuck on the area rugs that I stopped it manually, went to empty the dust bin and noticed. I'm pretty sure the toy was blocking at least half of the suction port beneath the rollers. If the vac actually did cover the whole floor, it probably would have been OK. I have a eufy 15c that does NOT have issues with the area rugs and doesn't leave the rugs with that "brushed the wrong way" look. But the 15C is one of the less sophisticated "bounce around until it thinks its done" models, and I was really looking forward to the additional smarts in the RoboVac 960. But alas, returned after 1 week.

Roomba grabbed the corner of my carpet and became stuck on it. Never sent out an alert of an issue, instead it kept mowing down the carpet, leaving bold spots and destroying it. -also it never cleans over my other carpet because it has black swirls on it. Garbage for the most part, it is only good if you have no area rugs, no furniture and no black color carpets in your house. I will be returning as soon as covid 19 allows.

It gets stuck quite often. It seems to just push dog hair around. Worked well at first and continues to have more and more issues. Seriously considering returning it at this point. Interesting concept, doesn’t seem to get the job done in an acceptable way.

Purchased 06-15-2020 - reviewed on 07-17-2020 31 days after my purchase the robot stopped cleaning and after further review the rubber on one of the rollers was gone for a one inch strip on one roller and then a part on the other roller. Now I need to spend another $50 to get new rollers every 31 days. I have tile floors I run it on, how did this happen? What could I have on my floor that could be this harmful? Think I have nails or something sticking out of the middle of my tiles somewhere? If this happens after 31 days I know this is going to be a pain point forward.

I was never interested in robot vacuums. I have a Shark that is a few years old and did the job that I needed it to do. I usually vacuumed once a week and the Shark always surprises me with the amount of dirt And hair it picks up. I have two short haired dogs (boxers) and roughly a 1200 main floor. Now enter baby..... after the birth of my son I’ve found it harder to find time to do some of the little things I use to do (vacuuming being one of the things). My father in law recently bought an iRobot at Costco (not sure the model) but he was impressed with the job it did. I did my research and was torn between the 960 and the i7 series. After an internal struggle of trying to justify spending +$1000 on the i7 series with the automatic bin emptying feature I realized all of other things I could buy for $1000. I decided to scale it back and purchase the 960. Overall I am happy with my purchase. It’s only been a few days but I run the iRobot at least once a day. Here are the pros and cons that I have noticed; Pro: - pretty quiet for what it does - picks up A LOT hair/dust/dirt I didn’t know was there - easy to use. Click clean and forget it - I love the carpet lines that are visible in the carpet after vacuuming and this little devil does a good job at that. Con: - I wish the bin was larger. I have to empty the bin usually twice during a cleaning. Hopefully that number goes down as I continue to run it on a daily basis - on more than one occasion the iRobot has fail to return to its base to charge. Pretty sure that was partly my fault because I had the docking station in a bedroom and not a “centralized location” but really who wants to put there vacuum in the middle of the living room?! - It does miss a few small spots but I was expecting that so I’m not too upset about it. I will still have to pull out my corset vacuum every now and then. Ultimately I am very happy with my purchase. I wish I had the money for the newer model with the auto emptying feature but I’ll get over it.

highly disappointed, product barely used and is stuck in error 9 and error 16.

Worst packaging and I’m not sure whether I received a new vacuum cleaner or refurbished one. Totally disappointed with the purchase

We haven’t had to physically vacuum in about 5 weeks now. Roomba does a great job. You will have to empty the bin, and make sure the charging contacts stay clean. We have hardwood, with a few area rugs, but the vacuum has trouble with the runners in the hallway. Sometimes getting “stuck near a cliff” between the rug, and the door opening if the door is closed. Then once moved to restart, it typically won’t re-dock itself to recharge. Aside from the here and there being stuck, it does a good job vacuuming.

The 960 is a solid product though a bit louder than expected. It does a fairly good job of cleaning and handles most oddball rugs just fine. It does get snagged occasionally but almost always on things that don't surprise me. If you have a larger house the 980 might be a better fit since it would be less likely to need to stop mid-clean to recharge.

I've been experimenting with it for a little while now. It does a really good job on both hard surfaces and carpet for regular every day messes. IMO, better than a cheap regular vaccum. But.. it doesn't do a deep clean. It's more like broom clean. If you could broom clean carpet. You'll still need a swiffer & regular vaccum. It's not going to take care of heavy tracked in gunk or dried gunk or big spills. But I'm single with no pets. My initial reaction is that I would only need the big vaccum for major spills and an infrequent pass over. I feel like it will save time and have a cleaner house. My biggest gripe is the thing is absolutely TERRIBLE at finding it's way back home. I cannot stress enough how bad it is at this. As in it basically doesn't happen. The dock is too light. I've tried putting it on a variety of surfaces, but you need to either put a brick on it or bolt it to the floor. The robot will move it just by undocking. Then forget it. Itll never go home. If you ask it to abort and go home, even with plenty of battery left, itll just wander around your house until the battery dies. I watched it do that for nearly 30 minutes less than 10ft away from the dock in an empty room. It just kept wandering around until the battery died and I had to carry it back. This isn't so bad if it can clean in one charge. But not in my house. So it basically doesn't clean the whole house on one schedule. Each time it cleans, it uses a different pattern. So multiple cleaning days will cover the whole house. But areas around the dock suffer from over cleaning wear. Its supposed to go back, charge, and resume. Its done that once. Every other time it got lost or "stuck". It closed itself in a closet once. The biggest tip I have is secure the dock, and ensure nothing is near it so that the robot has a clear path. With obvious multiple open routes. Don't put it near a corner or near anything. And baby sit it. The dust catch is small. I empty after a about 2 runs for ~2000sqft, but I wonder if thats catch up as my old cheap vaccum was terrible. I think the vaccum went through a lot of thought and is mostly well designed. I'm a programmer so I know some of the challenges they must have faced. Especially with the dock issues.

I've enjoyed several generations of Roombas, and each one has been a greatly appreciated luxury. I have always been impressed with their ever-improving functionality (trustworthy obstacle and terrain navigation, reliable parts, proficient vacuum performance) and accepting of their necessary physical limitations (small bin size, limited battery life and motor power). Regular maintenance and a daily routine has always resulted in Roomba keeping the floors incredibly tidy in a household of long hair, a giant double-coated dog, and a medium-hair cat. It's a little thing, but coming home after a 12 hour day at work to freshly cleaned carpets restores an inordinate amount of sanity. When I upgraded to the Roomba 960 after having the Roomba 650, I was especially excited for the new navigation sensors, WiFi update capability and improved monitoring software. Those were key in my choice to go for the considerably more spendy model. Those features have offered exactly what I was hoping for. Roomba 960 navigates efficiently and has no problem with the usual household obstacles, picks up a bin full of dust and small hairs every day, from hard surfaces and carpet alike, which keeps the air noticeably clearer and makes a huge difference for those with allergies.

I've had this 960 model for almost 2 weeks now, and I have no regrets on buying it. I used to vacuum the house myself once a week in the afternoon, and it was always a drag because I just wanted to get home to relax and unwind from the day. Now that I have the Roomba, I set it to vacuum the house 4 times a week while I'm at work and it has definitely been an improvement. We have a small indoor cat, and though she doesn't shed much, the Roomba always does a great job of cleaning up virtually all dirt and hair on the ground. We have a 1 story home with both floor and carpet, and it has no problems cleaning both. The surface area it cleans is about 1100 square feet, and it usually gets it done in 2 waves (self-charges midway). Since we have a pretty thick carpet in our rooms, I believe this is what affects the battery runtime, as it will run about an hour before it has to recharge and then complete its job. It's not the quietest autonomous vacuum, but definitely quieter than your typical Shark or Dyson vacuum, and if you run it while you're out like we do, it won't be an issue. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Roomba does have a learning curve, so it may not clean the entire area you want cleaned on its first run. As it cleans more often, it will get a better lay of the land in order to cover all the intended spaces.

We upgraded from the 690 because it didn't have the ability to recharge itself and resume cleaning which was needed for the first floor of our 4 bedroom house. Also the 690 didn't clean in a consistent pattern whereas the 960 does which undesired to an OCD person like myself. :) Initially the robot seemed to address all of the issues we had with the 690 but then we started noticing problems. -The brushless rollers on this model don't seem to pick up the dirt specs on our hardwood sometimes whereas the 690 never missed them. This is really annoying to see specs of dirt and debris on the hardwood where the Roomba just passed over them. -The unit constantly gets hung on the corner of area carpets, baby high chair feet, couch feet support bars, you name it. I think I am being fair when I say 50% of the time the unit gets hung up. -Every time it's going to run we have to pick up EVERYTHING on the floor and bend the corners of area carpets back down (that the Roomba curled up) just to try and get a successful cleaning. It seems like we are doing a LOT of work just in hopes that the robot works w/o getting hung up which in my mind defeats the purpose of a robot vacuum a little bit. -When the unit does get hung, you are given like 90 minutes to fix it before it cancels the job... seriously this is the worst feature because we have it clean when we are at work and certainly aren't going to get hom in 90 minutes to fix it. The result is if we want our entire floor cleaned that day we have to let it start al over again which can take hours for it to finish given it needs to recharge part of the way through. I would like to set it to indefinitely wait for someone to unstick it so maybe it could spend 20 minutes finished what little it had left. I would only recommend this vacuum to a friend with non-area rugs, furniture it wouldn't get hung up on, and who doesn't care that it can occasionally miss specs of dust/dirt. All in all had I to do it over again I woudl have skipped the 690 and 960 and gone with a competitor's product that was cheaper and hopefully had less issues.

what can I say was a bit hesitant to buy this one because it was a bit expensive. but it does a good job. very thorough in its cleaning. adjustable, accurate overall to the environment it views, and can adapt to new surroundings, objects very well. The parts are pretty easy to remove blockages, twisted wires, cords, string etc if any wrap up in it. the little 3 prong brush on the side can sometimes get stuff wrapped around it easily, but it also pretty easy to remove if need be. but its a bit annoying at time. Especially if u have new carpet like me. :P Only one complaint, but its minor, is that the container for the dirt/debris is a wee bit small, but minor inconvenience for not having to manually vacuum on your own :). My house is very clean, it does a thorough job. is it expensive yes. but its very good considering the price and what it does, and how well. One thing, make sure you have an elevated couch. that helps to get under there :P should be higher than the height of the roomba but even if it is tight the roomba can adjust. or if it seems to be getting stuck or caught on something, it does a very good job of getting itself out of trouble. Must say I am impressed, and pretty good investment and a good buy to be an early adopter of this type of automated technology.

If you want a review that will hopefully give you a little info keep reading. I’ve had my roomba for 3 days now and I am very impressed with it. I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect and I think some people do, however it did exceed my expectations just from the first cleaning. I also like that you can name it (we named ours Alfred) because I can tell my Alexa to make Alfred clean and it’s kind of humorous. We have all tile floors with a couple carpets around which is where we run into the first problem. It can easily get stuck on smaller/lighter rugs. The little sweeper arm goes under the rug and kind of feeds the corners into it. It does do an ok job at getting unstuck, but I’d say 80% of the time you’ll have to pick up your roomba and start it again. It does an excellent job with heavier/bigger rugs, but can still get caught on the corners. It cleans the floors REALLY well! Our floors get dirty and dusty very quick, and having Alfred clean makes them almost spotless. Sometimes it doesn’t get the inside wall corners or around objects in corners that well, but it does go back along the walls to do it’s best. It is a little noisy but not anywhere compared to a regular vacuum. I have it set to start at 6:30am and it doesn’t wake us up, and it is much quieter on the carpets. It takes about an hour to clean our apartment and we only have 500 sq. ft. It does move a bit slower on carpet, so if you have a larger home with more carpet it could take a few times of it going back to recharge to be able to finish it’s job which could take a long time. All in all it does better than I expected, cleans well enough that I’ll probably only have to get the corners and such once every 2 weeks or so, and it keeps the tiles clean so I don’t get dirt on my feet when I walk. Pros: - Cleans very well - Pairs with smart home devices (Alexa, etc.) - Navigates chairs, table legs, stools very well - Goes back along any wall and furniture edges to ensure they are clean - Recharges and finishes cleaning if battery is low - Comes with an electronic barrier to keep it out of certain areas. - Charges fairly quick - Pretty entertaining to watch - You can give it a name! Cons: - Gets stuck on rug corners/lighter rugs - Slower on carpets - Takes quite a while to finish - Can only schedule one cleaning per day on the app, but can schedule multiple with Alexa - Collection bin on roomba is pretty small, and it’s not compatible with the automatic bin. (Boo) - Doesn’t have the smart mapping/specific room cleaning like the i7 & s9

This vacuum really almost had me sold on it, but a couple missing features convinced me otherwise. I really liked the idea of an app controlled robot vac that maps your house and allows you to remotely select a room for cleaning, for instance. When I read descriptions and reviews of this vacuum, I found myself believing that this was one of the features and went ahead and made the purchase. When I got home, I unfortunately realized this wasn't a feature of the 960 (or any iRobot vac, for that matter). I don't hold this against the 960 - I should've been more diligent in my research - but this was a feature I actually really wanted. I also thought the runtime for the battery was too short, given the shortcomings of its navigation. Around 75 minutes is actually a pretty impressive runtime considering its size, but even the improved navigation of the newer generation iRobot vacs still left it meandering aimlessly through my apartment necessitating multiple charges to get the job done for the day. And I guess I'm just not willing to shell out $200 more for the 980 that has a longer runtime. As a vacuum though? I was really impressed with its cleaning abilities - I realized I was a disgusting human being once I had to empty the collection bin. I'd recommend this for a smaller apartment, but not for larger apartments or homes.

First the CONs: - The bin is a bit too small: One quarter bigger would be good but it is also nice that Roomba knows not continue when the bin is full - Battery life: Is good but not great. But the recharging feature is the bonus and almost makes battery life a non issue That's is for the CONs - and that's the reason why I'm giving it FOUR stars. Now the reasons why I love the Roomba 960: - Great cleaning quality - I was hesitant about the cleaning power of the 960 , but it definitely beat my expectations. Our home has been looking clean ever since I bought it. - Brains. I love watching the 960 clear obstacles and find its way around the house. - Noise. The 960 is definitely quieter than your average vacuum cleaner. I wouldn't say it's silent, but Roomba is the quietest Roomba we have ever owned. - Multi-room cleaning. The reason why I chose the 960 over the other models and has not let me down. - Easy to keep Roomba clean: Built into the app are video caring instructions and are super helpful Would I recommend it? Definitely yes. In fact, my only regret is not getting mine sooner

The Roomba 960 is an "I love it but...." product for me. It does an excellent job cleaning, is not unduly loud, works well on a schedule, is easy to clean and set up, but it just does not know how big it is. Every day, it gets caught under a piece of furniture somewhere. It finds that it can get under something, but then it pushes itself until it can't get out. It needs better sensors about its height, and then it would be just about perfect.