The iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Best inexpensive Robot vacuum vacuums take pet hair, lint, and dust from the best automatic floor vacuum and mop before they can settle. They can also avoid obstacles like furniture that is unstable and stairs.

The majority of robotic vacuums require maintenance. This includes emptying the bin (and sometimes rinsing it) and wiping the cameras and sensors. Also, they need to be connected to a power source. Many have smartphone apps to schedule, adjust settings and more.

Roomba 960 by iRobot

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of the-line robot vacuums, is a staple for every modern home. This model is equipped with a HEPA-filter to aid those suffering from allergies. On top of that, it also has a strong battery that can clean up to two hours and it will automatically return to its dock when its bin is full.

Smart mapping is another feature that allows it to identify areas in your home that require attention, and then creates a path for cleaning around them. This technology is extremely effective in navigating around toys left on the floor or Best Vacuum Robot Mop furniture legs sticking out from underneath things. It also has a camera that snaps the Roomba back to its original position when it begins to drift from its actual location.

iRobot has also introduced a new set of rollers beneath the Roomba's bottom, which don't have bristles and therefore tend to be more resistant to tangles than earlier models. The rollers are also larger and can be tucked under beds or couches with low sides. They're designed to make this model more adaptable to different floor types.

What sets the Roomba 980 apart from other high-end models however, is its inclusion of a new dirt detection feature that uses cameras to identify tiny bits of dirt. This is a nice improvement over the previous version that relied on the sensor-driven pseudorandom coverage technique to bounce around a room and clean everything at minimum three times from various angles.

The Roomba 980 performed well in our tests on both carpets and hard floors. It scored very well on carpets with a low pile, and on mid-pile. It did a good job of picking up pet hair, but it was struggling with very long and thick pet fur that was stuck together.

The Roomba 980 is still one of the most efficient robots on our list despite the slight limitations. It's also not as expensive as top-of the-line models. It still has a lot of features that we'd expect to find in a flagship model, but it doesn't have all the fancy app-enabled functions or smart home integration that you'll find in other top models.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up quickly and is ready to use immediately. After taking off the yellow bin insert and pull tab from its undercarriage it is simply connected to an outlet on the wall or to its Home Base docking stations, press the "Clean button" and let it do its work. It will automatically return to docking station when it has run out of battery or is full of trash. There are also indicators on top that indicate the bin is empty, or [empty] when it is in need of recharging or if it loses Wi-Fi.