The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

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

Most robotic vacuums require regular maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and occasionally, rinsing it) and wiping the sensors and cameras. They also require to be connected. Many have smartphone apps for scheduling, adjusting setting and more.

Roomba 980 from iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of the-line best robot hoover vacuums, is an essential for any modern home. This model is incredibly powerful suction as well as a HEPA filter that can help anyone concerned about allergies. Additionally it has a powerful battery that can clean up to two hours, and it automatically returns to its dock when its bin is full.

It also has a feature called smart mapping that uses multiple sensors to identify the areas of your home that need attention and create a cleaning route around them. This technology is very efficient in navigating around toys left on the floor, or furniture legs that are sticking out from underneath things. It also has a sensor that will snap Roomba to reality if it starts to move away from its initial location.

iRobot has also introduced a new set of rollers under the Roomba's bottom that do not have bristles, and thus tend to resist tangles more than earlier models. They're also taller than older rollers and can better fit under beds and couches that are low, and they're designed to let this model move more easily on varying floor types.

The Roomba 980 stands out from other models with a high-end price tag by its new dirt detection feature that makes use of cameras to detect dirt embedded. This is a significant improvement over the previous version that relied on an algorithm that was driven by sensors to bounce around the room, top 10 and then clean 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 fair job of removing pet hair, but it had a difficult time with very thick and long pet fur that was clumped together.

Despite these small shortcomings, the Roomba 980 remains one of our most efficient robots, and isn't even far from being as costly as the other top 10 models on this list. It comes with many of the features we would expect from a flagship model, but doesn't come with all the fancy apps and smart home integrations you'll find in other top models.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up quickly and is ready for use as soon as you are ready to. After removing the yellow bin insert and the battery pull tab from the undercarriage, it is simply connected to the wall socket or one of its Home Base docking stations, press the "Clean button" and let it do the job. It will automatically return to its dock when the battery runs out or it's full of debris. It also has indicators at the top for when its bin is full, it needs to be recharged, or its Wi-Fi signal has gone out.