Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a big fan of automation tech/robots - all that stuff - but I waited a few years on this for the inevitable bugs to be worked out. I also splurged for the 3 year warranty since this is my first robot and it has lots of moving parts. We have a cat and dog that both shed so a good vacuum is a must. Overall - after 3 weeks of 3x/week use and tempered expectations - I am not disappointed. Pros: 1) The standout feature so far is the battery life/charge time of this model. It lasts well over 90 minutes in my house working on mostly hard surfaces. That's enough to do 2 medium-sized rooms. It fully charges in a little over an hour and is ready to go again. All told it takes two battery charges to do about 1500 sq.ft. Not bad. 2) The iRobot app is a nice bonus. The Roomba pushes notifications to your phone (stuck, job done, etc.) and you can check the job/battery status any time. Best of all - it works from anywhere. You can tick a box in the settings that lets you connect to the Roomba from outside of your home network. Brilliant. Worth the extra money for IoT connectivity. 3) While this model is not "smart" enough to map your house and know where it's been (it seemingly just goes in random straight lines from wall to wall playing the odds that it covers everything) - it does do a good job of riding the edges against the wall and getting all but the tightest of corners. Once it realizes it's up against a wall - it hugs it tightly and runs the length getting all the crumbs and hair along the baseboards. 4) The dirt trap and brushes/wheels are easy to access for maintenance. You'll need to address those every time you use it but it couldn't be easier. Cons: 1) Suction is not the strongest. It only gets what's directly underneath it. Other vacuums are strong enough to pull in dirt from several inches around the vacuum. This one is not. I assume that's the trade off for the long battery life. 2) While this robot can go easily go from hard floor to carpet/rug - it doesn't do a great job where the two meet. It fails to get much of anything right at the perimeter of our rugs/floor mats. I'm assuming that once one wheel is higher than the other - the brushes are no longer in contact with the floor and it misses anything under it while it is uneven. Easier to just pull up the mats before starting the job. 3) There is one sensor that sticks out on top of the vacuum that helps it get stuck under our coffee table. While most of the robot is flat and can fit, that one protruding sensor causes it to get stuck. Has happened 2 out of three times. Tips: 1) Use regularly - This is not a heavy duty vac. With pets, I need to run this every 2-3 days in order for it to really work well. If I wait a week - it will not get all of the Black Lab fur that gets pressed into the bedroom carpet. 2) Prep - ours involves moving smaller objects out of the room entirely. The Roomba does a much better with fewer obstacles to navigate. Getting under the dining room table with the chairs in place - forget about it. We move those too. But the few minutes that takes is well worth it for the better results. 3) Go one room at a time. My house has an open floor plan and is too big a job to just turn it loose. We cordon off the open rooms so it can't leave. Currently using a wood plank to trap it in the room it's vacuuming. Probably will soon invest in the digital wall. Doing this takes a bit longer but produces better results than if we let it bounce around the entire house at once and drain the battery before it completes the job. Overall: This robot is indeed a time saver though I seem to spend it watching the Roomba work. While I still have to break out the manual vacuum for corners and crevices - the Roomba dramatically reduces the frequency. I may even get by with only breaking out the heavy artillery once a month from here on out. After reading many reviews, my expectations for this robot was that it would do a decent job of regular floor maintenance and save me time. I am happy with the results and it actually does better than decent. This is a great addition to our busy life.