May 23, 2019
Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback! I've had a Roomba 770 in the past. It was ok. Completely unpredictable. I felt like it cleaned by luck, bouncing off things until it cleaned something. I wanted something that cleans SMART. Because of that, I purchased a Roomba i7 and named it Billy. I didn't get the i7+ because it was the same robot, and I'm not lazy. I want to take part in the cleaning of my house. I can empty a bin, right? Well, yes. Turns out I can empty a bin. Billy is AMAZING. We have cats, and it still blows my mind how much it picks up every day. He runs every night at 10pm, which is my cue to go to bed, and it cleans the whole bottom floor of the house. It’s mix of mostly hardwood and linoleum, with two area rugs, one that’s medium pile and one that’s low. It cleans everything beautifully. With the room mapping feature, I was even able to map areas right in front of the litter box, so it actually cleans that 2 additional times a day.
The Roomba i7 is relatively quiet compared to most upright vacuums. I can’t really even hear it from our second floor bedroom when it’s running. While it is a little annoying, you can still hear the TV over it. Most importantly for me, it’s predictable. It cleans in straight lines and it’s really easy to get of out of way of it. The cats barely even notice it at this point. They know when to get out of its way.
I loved Billy so much, I ended up buying another Roomba i7+ and named it Dorothy. This time, I coughed up the money for the bin. While I wanted to take part in the cleaning of the house, one bin was enough. Dorothy cleans our second floor every morning after we leave for work. Our second floor is almost all carpet, and let me tell you… it is AMAZING to come home to a vacuumed floor every day. Dorothy picks up a lot of cat hair, because oddly enough carpet attracts it. When her bin is full, she just heads back, empties herself, and gets back to work where she left off. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve had her for 3 months, and I’ve emptied the bin twice. The bags are ultra cheap on Amazon.
Maintenance wise, because we have cats, I do have the clean the rollers every week. This is super important as I learned, because the rollers can be damaged if you don’t get the hair tangles out. It’s SO MUCH EASIER to clean than the previous generations like the 770. You just pop a latch, pull it off, pill the fur ball off the side, pop it back in. NO MORE BRUSHING STUPID BRUSHES. I’ve only had to replace the torn rollers on Dorothy, as well as the spinny brushes and the filters when they reached 2 months. You can get maintenance kits for like 50 bucks on Amazon. It’s not bad considering.
As far as eating things, both Robots have eaten lots of cat toys, a few iPhone cables and each one ate a wet hairball. I was AMAZED how well it took this. They immediately stopped before damage was done and pinged me on my iPhone asking for help. If they can survive eating a cat hairball, I think these guys are going to last.
The last thing I’ll mention is Alexa. Yes. It works with Alexa. But does it really work? You have to be SUPER SPECIFIC when asking it to do something. You can’t just say, Alexa clean the living room. You have to say, Alexa, Tell Roomba to tell Billy to clean the Living Room. It’s kind of a pain. I’ve never really gotten it to work well. When it does work though, it really impresses your friends. So definitely make sure to memorize the correct phrasing for those moments. But really that’s all it’s good for.
In any case. Thanks for reading my review. You should totally buy a Roomba i7 or i7+. They are amazing pieces of technology. iRobot really has outdone itself. Is it worth the price tag? How much is time worth really? I would rather spend time playing with my kid or enjoying free time than cleaning. Yes, for me, it's worth it.