Customer Ratings & Reviews

This little vacuum does a surprisingly good job. Got it for Christmas and waited before reviewing to see how well it would work. We have 2 pit mixes and a Chow and it cleans really well. The reason for the 4 stars rather than 5 are for technical difficulties. The app is so basic it seems like an after thought, the vacuum does not have enough battery power to clean the entire house in one cleaning and will sometimes die before making it back to the base which means it will not resume its cleaning since the battery will not be recharged. It has tremendously reduced the amount of sweeping and vacuuming we do in a week which now leaves us time for other things. If you have pets I would highly recommend this robot vacuum, even with the quirks it is well worth it.

Great product overall. Cleans very well, performs cleaning in straight lines, smart navigation is surprisingly amazing for the cost. Only complain would be the battery does not last long at all and the dustbin is very small.

I heard about a robot vacuum from a friend - not sure what brand they have. I looked around for a while (probably like you). I bought a Dyson wireless vacuum - which is a good idea in theory - but in use, I would rather stay with a conventional vacuum versus a wireless vacuum. The problem with the Dyson was that you always had to keep your finger on the power button (trigger) for the vacuum to work. That became tiresome quickly, so that went back to the store. I finally bought the iRobot Roomba 960 WiFi Connected Robot Vacuum. It too is wireless like the Dyson, except all I have to do is charge the robot vacuum, turn it on, and it vacuums the room(s) that it is in. I do have to empty the dust bin when full - I had to do that with the Dyson too. I move it from room to room on occasion (same with the Dyson) and I have to move it upstairs and downstairs too (same with the Dyson). However, this unit saves time - my time - to be doing something else at home while the robot vacuum does its job. And the great thing about the robot vacuum is that when it has finished vacuuming, it goes back to the charging base station on its own - to recharge. That's a bonus. (The Dyson doesn't do any of these things...) When I get the chance - after the robot vacuum is done - I empty the dust bin, and it's ready to go again. I could buy a second unit - one for upstairs and one for downstairs, but I'm not in a rush to make that purchase just yet. You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned anything about the wifi - well, I don't use the wifi option much. Yes, there is an app, and you can set up your robot with the app - like give your robot a name - and you can program your robot to clean on certain days - or everyday. You can even set up your robot vacuum to work while you are away from home, through the app and wifi (if you so desired). But for those people who don't use or have wifi, the robot doesn't need wifi to work. All it needs is to charge and go. The robot recognizes the charging base as its home, and will always return to the charging base when it needs to recharge or when it has completed the vacuum job. I did look at other brands and many reviews were 50/50. That's too risky to spend so much money on something that "might" work the way I "expect" it too. I didn't go for cheaper options because I wanted a unit that is versatile - something I can use now and in the future. And perhaps I will use the wifi and app options in the future as well. I wanted that choice. I didn't want to be locked down with a cheaper option with less features, only to re-buy a second unit with more features. I do like the unit that has the self cleaning charging base, but that's quite an investment for something I can do myself - for free. My experience with this iRobot vacuum has been very satisfactory. So much so, that I bought a second unit for my father (who is really impressed). He didn't know he needed the robot vacuum until he got one. I wasn't sure about how he would handle the wifi and app options, but he set the robot vacuum up in no time (the day he received it). My father is 73 and only had a few questions - such as how to remove the dust bin - before being completely at ease with his new helper. For those who are interested in numbers: Both my dad and myself have 2 story homes, about 2000 square feet each house. The robot vacuum easily cleans each floor of the house in 1 charge per floor (about 1000 square feet per floor). One house has carpet and stone floors. The other house has wood and tile floors. The robot vacuum has no problem with the multiple floor materials. Though, if you have thick carpet or shag rugs, the robot vacuum might get caught up in those (like a conventional vacuum does). If you are thinking about buying one of these for yourself or as a gift, you should - you won't be disappointed.

Although our Roomba has yet to vacuum at least half the first floor without the battery dying or bin needing to be emptied it does a quality job and lessens us having to sweep with the majority of our floors being tile so that makes it worth every penny!

We have been very impressed with our Roomba 960. It is great being able to multi-task while getting the house vacuumed. It normally requires us to dump it twice per floor before the job is completed, but we do have multiple cats and dogs in the house. We have not had much luck with the satellite devise that sets either a straight or circular perimeter that keeps the Roomba away from a particular area. We have tried different batteries and plan to contact the manufacturer about the problem. Overall, we are still happy with our purchase. We call her Rosie after the robot maid in the Jetsons. :) I think I will add googly eyes to her for fun.

Roomba is helping me save time from running a traditional vacuum. Given pricey real estate in CA, houses are now multi floors. Dragging a huge traditional vacuum upstairs is waste of energy. I find Roomba light and easy to clean. I can switch floors easily with it. After enough passes and setting it on a schedule, my carpet and hardwood floors don't feel dirty anymore

I am actually very impressed with how well this machine cleans. I was also surprised at how quiet it runs. The only fault I have with this is that the bin sensors get dirty now and then and register as full. It is easy to fix with a dry rag dusting.

This vacuum is a GAME changer! We have 2 dogs and a cat and can never seem to keep up with the hair all over our house. This little vacuum is a SUPER CHAMP at maintaining our floors! Our first few times using it, we had to empty the chamber every 10-15 minutes. It took maybe 4-5 empties before it finished the house. We send it out every day now and don't even have to empty it every day (maybe every other). I literally have zero complaints about choosing this model. I did a lot of research and this one seemed the best bang for our buck, and so far it has been! Stop your search now and go with this one. You'll love it!

The iRobot Roomba 960 has been a great addition to our home. It has been (mostly) good. It seems to pick up a lot of dirt and dust, and does a pretty good job of navigating our home. However, sometimes, it just acts really dumb. It'll run headlong into things at full speed with a thud. It has come close to knocking over floor lamps. Sometimes, it will just sit in the middle of the floor and spin slowly in circles for a few minutes before deciding it wants to continue cleaning. These aren't deal breakers for me but I think potential owners should be aware of them. It's far from perfect. Also, keep the dust bin and filter clean and the wheels greased with WD-40. Overall, a good product.

Roomba 960 robot,excellent machine,easy to clean and operate,you can do it through the phone or manually just touching a button,pickup all the pet hair from the floor and keep your house a lot cleaner.

Does a nice job. Happy with the cleaning. Very quite.

This is a great item for small room cleaning. The battery is supposed to last for 75 minutes, which should be more than enough for even a large room. Unfortunately, my unit has a battery life of 50 minutes, which doesn't allow for complete cleaning with the random walk the vacuum takes through the room. It also has trouble finding the home base when not line-of-sight, which is a bit annoying. But it does a good job cleaning, including the ability to get under beds and furniture without getting caught. Bottom line- I recommend the unit, but with serious reservations.

I am going to break this review into two parts; cleaning and functionality. For cleaning I would give it 3.5 stars. The Roomba did quite well for what it is. It would not replace our upright, but it did really well for keeping things nice. I had the roomba for about 2 weeks. In that time it never once found the home base. I spent hours on the phone with iRobot, testing the vacuum, relocating the base station and even getting a whole new base station. All for naught. For functionality I give it 1 star It was exceedingly frustrating. Not sure if we got a lemon or if it simply will not work with our house (an open concept design) but after the time I spent on it I had no thoughts about trying again. I am sure it works for most, but not for us!

I wish it had a longer battery life, but otherwise, this thing disgusts me. It makes me sick every time it runs because it's always pulling up junk I didn't even think could be there. I'm glad it's going in the trash can and not staying on the floor. + Freshly vacuumed carpet, every day if you so choose + Helps keep allergens out of carpet and reduces dirt buildup + Works when you're away (and with assistants, can order a clean job from anywhere) - Short battery life - Moderately noisy (if you're even home) - Requires frequent maintenance when you first start using it, especially if hair is involved - Does some oddly redundant work, can't see logic to some cleaning patterns

iRobot Roomba cautions Tassels; rug tassels and frills have to be taped down. The cleaner rollers will choke on them and the drive wheels will continue to rotate and drive the machine until it pivots around and really twists the tassels and there’s a danger of them getting damaged and also can stop the machine and cause an alarm. I have not found any other solution to this except taping. Shag carpet; not good with shag carpet. Shoelaces; need to be stowed off the floor. (In the shoes?) Bar on floor; Exercise machine whose feet are two bars laying on the floor needs to be raised by means of a bar of wood for the bars to stand on so the Roomba would not attempt to climb over it and get stuck. Cords; Pick up any pairs of earplugs joined by a cord. Pick up loose ear plugs, they can jamb the cleaner rollers. Some can squash and go through rollers but get stuck before going into the dust tray. Pet food; Position an iRobot ‘Virtual Wall’ so that pet food bowl and water bowl are not bumped and pushed around. Line cords; Position an iRobot ‘Virtual Wall’ so that the robot will not attempt to climb over line cords on the floor or attempt to eat them. Chair rungs; If robot gets stuck under low chair cross-bars, add foot pads until chair is just raised enough to clear. Stuck under kitchen cabinet; nail a block of wood or a bar where it gets stuck so it cannot get in under there. Boxes and light furniture on floor will be pushed around by robot bumping it each time it meets it, while robot will slow and be gentle touching fixed walls and such that it has memorized in its map, it will drive straight into smaller things and give them a shove and move them a little at a time. Roomba does not throw up an alarm if the sweeper rotor is jammed or otherwise stuck. It also will continue even when the pickup dirt rollers are jammed and cannot rotate. Because of this it is wise to turn Roomba over between cleanings to check for jammed rollers and sweeper brush because you won’t otherwise know. It will just go off on another job and you won’t know if it cannot do it’s job properly. Good Thing: I have a split level in my place. One area is dropped down from the main floor. Roomba detects the drop-off and will back off and not fall down. It has a ‘cliff’ detector. This will also stop it from falling down stairs, a good feature. Caution: as delivered, the ‘bin full’ sensor is turned off. This is called ‘keep cleaning when bin is full’ or something like that. One can create a terrible mess in the machine if you don’t know to clean out the bin each time. The first thing you need to do on a new machine is to install the app and get it selected to ‘pause cleaning when bin is full’ and it will return to home and pause the job until you clean out the bin and press restart. Obey their instruction to clean the bin sensors each time or you can get premature alarms. The phone app has a nice feature called History. Tap on the day in the list and you should find a map of where it has cleaned. In a large house or complicated room arrangement this enables you to check if it has cleaned the places you want and will show if a door has been left closed, or open which stopped or enabled cleaning, or if some other obstruction was present.

We had a Samsung before this Roomba and are very happy we switched. So far, it does it's job 95% of the time. This current Roomba has stopped several times in the middle of the floor w/out docking itself to charge...it just stops. Strange. But, not a deal breaker. It also likes to continuously get stuck under my recliner. You have to clean out the filter bin often or it will not continue it's cleaning cycle (we have dogs, cats, and ....KIDS...). In other words, our Roomba cleans up a lot. We still have to vacuum certain spots of the house, but the Roomba takes care of a good 95% of the lower level of our house. Worth it? Yeah. Perfect? Nah...but it most definitely helps us out and does a lot more that I thought it would.

I have a one story house (1,300 sqft) house that was getting dirty in between full vacuuming, and with construction in the neighborhood, I didn't want to pull out the full size one. The Roomba 960 was the answer. Worth spending more for the camera version which helps it navigate around with fewer bumps and knocks, and as far as I can tell from the CNET review, a better value than the more expensive 980. It does a great job on my mix of hardwood and area rugs. It doesn't get hung up on the tassels at the ends of each rug, and even if it runs out of power during a run, it has found its way back to the recharger station every single time. The bad? It can get stuck on floor vents for my AC as well as under some headboards, I've bought two extra virtual boundaries (it comes with one) and set it to avoid areas where it gets stuck. That fixed it, and now my house is clean. Using my iPhone to start and schedule cleanings is great, but being able to link it to my Echo Dot and telling Alexa, "Roomba, clean my house" and off it goes is the cherry on top. One of the best pieces of tech I've ever purchased.

During this time of uncertainty with COVID-19, we have had to let our housekeeper go. I bought this and it keeps the floors vacuumed very well. I set the program for every day at 10:00 A.M. and off it goes. It does need emptying from time to time but it sends a message to your phone letting you know the bin is full. We have a dog and a cat so pet hair is a minor issue, this handles it perfectly. The only room it has any problem with is one that has a very thick area rug covering 70% of the room and it can't get up on that rug. Not a big deal and for all the rest it does it's really worth it!

I’ve had reservations about getting a “robot” vacuum for awhile. Thinking how can it work as well as my huge stand up. Well I can say it somehow works better. Swept and vacuumed my house and then set the roomba free and when done it was full. And had continued to be almost full of pet hair every day this week.

I love the Roomba when it does what I expect. Cleans great but has a lot of issues recharging and going “home” when the battery is low. I expected this to work better than the results I’m getting. I still like it but expected better automation for the price.