The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint, and dust from floors before they settle. They also can avoid obstacles such as furniture that is tippy and staircases.

Most robotic Vacuums Robot require maintenance, such as emptying (and occasionally rinsing) the bin and wiping cameras and sensors. Also, they have to be connected to an electrical source. Many come with smartphone applications for scheduling, adjusting setting and more.

Roomba 980 from iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980 is the most recent in the series of top-of-the-line robot vacuum cleaners that are an essential part in any modern home. This model comes with a HEPA filter that can help those who are allergic. It also comes with an extremely powerful battery that can be cleaned for up to two hours before returning to its dock automatically when the bin is full.

Smart mapping is another feature that assists in identifying areas of your home that require attention, and then creates an easy path to get around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does a great job of moving around toys that have been left scattered on the floor, or furniture legs that are sticking out of the ground. It also has a camera that will snap the Roomba back to reality when it starts to drift away from its original location.

iRobot has also introduced a new set of rollers underneath the Roomba's bottom, which do not have bristles, and thus tend to be more resistant to tangles than previous models. The rollers are also larger and vacuums robot can be placed under beds or couches that are low. They're specifically designed to make this model more adaptable to different kinds of floors.

What makes the Roomba 980 stand out from other models of this class however, is its incorporation of the latest dirt detection feature that utilizes cameras to detect particles of dirt embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous model which relied on a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover method to bounce around the room and scrub everything three times at different angles.

The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on both carpets and hard floors. It scored extremely well on carpets with low pile and on mid-pile. It did a good job of removing pet hair, but it had a difficult time with extremely thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.

Despite these small shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our most efficient robots, and it's even nearly as expensive as the other top-of-the-line models in this list. It has many of the features you'd expect from a top model, but doesn't come with all the fancy apps and smart home integration that you'll see in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba is easy to set up and start running right away. After removing the pull tab for the battery and the yellow bin insert from the undercarriage, all you need to do is plug it into its Home Base docking station or a wall socket, hit its large "Clean" button, and let it get to work. It will return to its dock when its battery is out or is full of debris. It also has indicator lights on the top to indicate when its bin is full or it requires recharging or its Wi-Fi signal is lost.