iRobot Roomba® 980 Wi-Fi® Connected Vacuuming Robot

When I first purchased this 980 5 years ago, it worked fairly well. It had the usual problems with dark carpet, high pile rugs and such, so I opted to change out things so the robot could run. I've always had issues with it returning home (I do not have a complex floor layout) on and off and most of the time, it did ok. The problem with iRobot appears to be the same one you have with all mobile devices. They have a uncontrollable firmware updates (you can't pick and choose) and apparently a limited shelf life after the manufacturer decides they want you to purchase the new model. After spending big bucks on this thing, I had expected it to last for many years with expected maintenance of course. Getting replacement pieces here and there hasn't really been an issue. The issue is with the crazy firmware process where your bot may be running ok today, then it gets an update and is a completely different beast. Mine stopped receiving updates a little over a year ago and unfortunately the last firmware rendered my bot rather stupid. When it's bin gets full, it just stops and says the job is done - no picking up where it left off. When it runs around until its battery completely dies (almost always around 2h), instead of going home to recharge, it just dies and says the job is over - no picking up where it left off. So now I just get a partial job unless I happen to notice the time and force it home to recharge. Sometimes even then, it won't continue the job. Buyer beware. Far as I can tell, they tend to release untested firmware for you to try out. They abandon older models and leave you sitting with whatever firmware you last updated to (which may or may not be the last version). Even today, try looking on their site for 980 firmware. They've removed the pages from their site.

Roomba used to be the leader in this industry, but now it is not. The AI in my 985 looks like a fool most of the time. The floor plan in my home is pretty simple, but it never got things done and I had to manually break it into multiple separate cleaning runs. The robot keeps repeating some places, while misses other places all the time.

It picks up pet hair efficiently, which is why we bought it (1 dog, 2 cats). We have mostly hardwood. However, we've spent a lot of money replacing area rugs. Much more than we paid for this vacuum. It will pick up an edge of the rug and literally tear it up and get stuck. I wish I would have taken a picture to post of a destroyed rug. I have to pick up rugs before it runs. We have a large rug under our dining room table which I can't lift every time it runs. It's now destroying this one. We used to have a Neato that eventually died, and it never did this. Just our experience.

great helper , cleans house very well

Used it for about a year. Takes some time to prepare for a cleaning... moving some furniture, putting in place virtual walls... When my Roomba encountered cat poop under a bed (unsuspected), it made a mess and never worked right again... even after a thorough cleaning. Selling the parts for salvage.