The irobot vacuum cleaner Roomba 980 Robot automatic vacuum robot Cleaner

Robot vacuums remove pet hair, lint, and dust from the floor before they can settle. They can also stay clear of obstacles like furniture that is tippy and stairs.

Most robotic vacs require some maintenance, such as emptying (and occasionally rinsing) the bin and wiping sensors and cameras. They also need to be connected. A lot of them have apps for smartphones to schedule, adjust settings, and more.

iRobot Roomba 960

The iRobot Roomba 980, the most recent of a series of top-of-the-line robot vacuums, is an essential for any modern home. This model has seriously strong suction as well as it comes with a HEPA filter that'll aid anyone who is concerned about allergies. It also comes with a large battery that can be cleaned for up to two hours and returns to its dock automatically when the bin is full.

It also comes with the feature of smart mapping which uses multiple sensors to suss out the areas of your home that require attention and then create a clean route around them. We've seen this technology in action and it does an excellent job of moving around toys that have been abandoned on the floor, or furniture legs that are sticking out from under things. It also comes with a sensor that can snap Roomba back to reality when it begins to wander away from its original position.

iRobot also added a set of rollers underneath the Roomba that don't have bristles, which makes them more likely to resist the tangles that previous models. They're also taller than previous rollers and are able to fit under low couches and beds and are designed to help this model navigate more easily across different flooring kinds.

The Roomba 980 differs from other high-end models by its new dirt detection feature, which uses cameras to detect embedded dirt. This is a significant improvement over the previous model that relied on the use of a sensor-driven pseudorandom cover to bounce around the room and clean everything three times at different angles.

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

Despite these slight limitations, the Roomba 980 remains one of our best robot vacuum for hardwood floors-performing robots, and it's not even nearly as expensive as some of the other top-of-the-line models on this list. It still has a lot of features that we'd expect to see in a top-of-the-line model however it lacks all the fancy apps or smart home integration are found in other top contenders.

The iRobot Roomba can be set up in a matter of minutes and is ready for use immediately. After you have removed the battery pull tab and yellow bin insert from undercarriage, all you have to connect it to its Home Base docking station or Robot mop and vacuum combo an outlet on the wall, press its big "Clean" button and let it go to work. It will return to its dock when the battery runs out or is full of debris. It also has indicators on the top of the device to indicate that its bin is full, it requires recharging, or its Wi-Fi signal is not working.