iRobot Roomba 675 Features
iRobot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum-Wi-Fi Connectivity, Works with Alexa, Good for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors, Self-Charging
Clean smarter
The 600 series is a great way to begin cleaning your home smarter. Schedule it to clean up daily dirt, dust, & debris with the app or voice assistant.
Loosens, Lifts, & Suctions
3 Stage Cleaning system & Dual Multi-Surface brushes grab dirt from carpets & hard floors, an Edge-Sweeping brush takes care of corners & edges.
Adaptive Navigation
A full suite of advanced sensors allow Roomba to navigate under & around furniture, & along edges. Cliff Detect keeps it from falling down stairs.
New App, New level of clean
The newly updated iRobot Home App allows you to upgrade your overall cleaning experience. Enjoy features that work around your life.
Cleans around your life
Learns from your cleaning habits to offer up customized schedules. Suggests extra cleanings when pollen count is high or during pet shedding season.
Senses & eliminates dirt
Patented Dirt Detect Technology helps your robot find the dirtier areas in your home, like high-traffic spots, & cleans them more thoroughly.
Cleans carpets & hard-floors
Auto-Adjust Cleaning Head automatically adapts its height to effectively clean carpets & hard floors.
Automatically Recharges
Runs for up to 90 minutes before automatically docking & recharging.
Connect to clean from anywhere with the Roomba 675 robot vacuum.
The patented 3-Stage Cleaning System is specially engineered to loosen, lift, and suction everything from small particles to large debris from carpets and hard floors.
Just press Clean or schedule Roomba on the go with the iRobot HOME App.
Stephanie De Pue Murphy –
Robot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum with Wi-Fi Connectivity, Works with Alexa, Good for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors. This handy household cleaner, with its robot sensibilities, will clean your floors very well. It can be operated with Alexa, your cellphone or in and of itself: it allows the user to connect to clean from anywhere in the house. Its patented 3-Stage Cleaning System is specially engineered to loosen, lift, and suction everything from small particles to large debris from carpets and hard floors. Its patented dirt detect sensors alert to work harder on concentrated areas of dirt, such as high-traffic zones of your home. Its edge-sweeping brush is specially designed at a 27-degree angle to sweep debris away from edges and corners. Its full suite of intelligent sensors guide the robot under and around furniture to help thoroughly clean your floors while it runs for up to 90 minutes before automatically docking and recharging. Required for use: just charge its battery, press clean or schedule Roomba on the go with the iRobot HOME App or Alexa.
I have two cats in my home, both with Siamese ancestry, so their hair is long, ample and all over the place. Every time I saw a TV commercial for this product, I wanted it, so ordered it immediately when it showed up on Amazon Vine. I did have problems with its installation, at least to my cell phone. There were insufficient instructions so that I could not get the “Continue” button to work. However, once fully charged, it works fine by itself. Once past that problem, can say I’m happy I got it, though it’s a bit noisy, which the TV commercials didn’t see fit to allow to be shown. However, have run it twice, and it has twice filled its bin with cat hair.
J. R. Harmon –
Day 4. 3 Cleanings. Performance thus far has been both impressive and flawless.
I owned a v1 Roomba (before self charging) and that was good if you had a small, clear, rectangle to sweep. When its battery died and I found that a replacement would be North of $100 I tossed it.
A This new one is, well, impressive. It was easy to configure and has been dilligently searching and sweeping ever since. NOTHING (thus far) has made it “get stuck”.
My only “want” is for it to be silent-er. I could also envision a feature whereby it could raise AND lower itself to back out of blocking conditions. …and perhaps a brush reversing mechanism to (attempt to) unwind the proverbial ball of string.
Those thoughts aside I can’t see why anyone would want the more expensive flavors.
☮ S.Trasny –
We have had different brands of robot vacuums. Three that I recall were cheaper than iRobot’s brand and weren’t long lived. Two were Roombas. The most recent one gained is going on five and going strong (with maintenance: battery replaced and scheduled filter and brush replacements). Now, we have a new model of iRobot, this Roomba 692. I like it as well as our other one and am appreciating the Wi-Fi component. Regarding the question of how much help a robot vacuum can be, I vacuum a lot less, but I do still vacuum. The only way that I could be saved from the chore would be if I lived alone without other people or animals. This Roomba 692 is noticeably louder and more powerful than the old one and has no problem moving back and forth, up and down, between rugs and hardwood floors. The iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum has Wi-Fi connectivity. With the iRobot App, the machine can be told to clean, go to its dock or one can enter a schedule to tell the vacuum when to go to work. iRobot’s app works with Google, making it an easy addition to Google Home. Overall, I find this new model 692 to work the best of any robot vacuum we’ve had. It has the most powerful suctioning, the longest lasting battery, and moves smoothly over multiple floor types. If you’re like me and like help keeping up with the vacuuming, I recommend the iRobot Roomba 692 for being the best robot vacuum I’ve ever tried.
Floridamo –
Love, Love, Love this Roomba! We have 3 cats and it picks up all the cat hair. We have all wood and tile floors with some scatter rugs. It does a great job cleaning on all surfaces. Only negative, and I do not consider it a negative since we have 3 cats, is that we have to pause it a couple times during a cleaning cycle to empty the bin. Without the cat hair, it would do a whole cycle before emptying. We are seniors and it is so nice to sit in our recliners and have the Roomba do it’s job. Another plus is that it will connect to our echo dot and so all we have to do is say Alexa start the Roomba. Now if they make a model that can cook, we will be the first to buy it! LOL
Katrina –
This little machine is very powerful and saves me so much time. I have such a floor area and didn’t want to spend all day sweeping. It really does the job.
Chris Mayhew –
My new rescue dog is a major shedder and I find hair everywhere so I decided to try a robot vacuum with a gift certificate I received for x-mas. I read review after review and for the price point I bought the Deik. It also had great reviews but it was horrible. Even the return process was bad but I won’t get into all that. The Roomba is amazing. The install was instant. Adding it to my wi-fi and Alexa was so easy. I like the simple clean or dock mode. No special cleaning modes to choose just clean or sleep. The Deik got stuck everywhere, chair legs, throw rugs, corners, etc. etc. Roomba is like a 4-wheel drive compared to the Deik. You can see it as it lifts itself up to get over obstacles. It is so much faster and doesn’t seem to go in circles like the Deik. Roomba on it’s first day covered every room. Every 15 minutes I would find it and empty the container which was always packed full of hair and even dirt which I didn’t think I had. It pushes obstacles like shoes and cords out of its way. The only thing it sucked up was a couple of socks and a dryer sheet but it stops and notifies you on your phone that it has a problem. I didn’t go around and pick up cords, dog toys, etc. It seems to just roll over them or push them out of the way. It hugs corners and turns very well. The dogs could care less. It bumps into my big dog and he doesn’t even move. My little dog who goes outside when I’m vacuuming could care less about the Roomba. Compared to the Deik it is also very quiet. Somewhere I saw it compared to a microwave and that’s pretty accurate. I’m 100% happy with this purchase and totally recommend it if you have a pet hair problem.
Elizabeth Messer –
Got this on cyber Monday, used it 5x since getting it, pros, totally worth not having to sweep daily (husky hair and a husband that wears shoes inside daily), cons; gets full fast, loud on tile, laminate, gets stuck if you have clothes or crap on floor (basically before you run it you should pick up clutter or it won’t work), pI feel like my house is soooo much cleaner, less dust and less pet hair. Set up is easy (I had an issue with 2.5 WiFi but a quick call to support line had it figured out in 5 min). I feel like it’s totally worth the money just for saving me 3-5 hours per week plus reduced dust and hair…I will sill have to vacuum occasionally though.
Stephanie –
***EDIT BELOW – 1-1/2 years later…! (7/7/2020)***
My husband has offered several times to get me a Roomba…but I really didn’t think they would be worth it, so have always declined.
Enter the Roomba 675, which yes, I was offered to review through Amazon’s Vine Program, but that doesn’t mean I have to give a glowing report. I actually passed it by 3 times, before saying, ‘Eh, why not? Since I expect to be unimpressed, I’d be the perfect person to try one out!’
Our family immediately named her Hazel, and after several hours of hard work, I have no qualms about keeping her on my payroll. 😉
First things: I am not the best housekeeper. I tend to be a clutterbug, and I am not faithful at daily sweeping and vacuuming. I have 2 children and 2 cats, so plenty of dirt accumulates each day. I read the instruction booklet, plugged in home base, and let Hazel charge overnight (she really only needs about 3 hours to a full battery, but I wanted to test her out in the morning after we’d both had a good night’s sleep).
In the morning, the kids and I made sure no blankets, toys, or cords were on the floor and pushed Hazel’s ‘clean’ button. Off she went… in a very random, haphazard pattern. I knew this was how she would probably travel, having read other reviews, but it was still odd to me. I relaxed while she puttered around my first floor, about 1200 square feet of mixed hardwood, vinyl, and carpeting.
She is not very noisy. Much less than a regular vacuum cleaner for sure! I would say it sounded like a fan on high, which really wasn’t bothersome. Hazel really had no trouble around furniture or traveling over transistion strips from flooring to flooring. After about an hour of buzzing around, Hazel docked herself and played a 4-5 note jingle.
Even though she seemed to go in such a random fashion, I could tell my floors were clean! There were a few missed spots on her very first go, but by her third time, no area seemed to go unnoticed. Hazel now seems to ‘know’ my house and is keeping my floors clean! I feel like I can go barefoot with her on the job!!
After Hazel ventured under the china cabinet (who knows when that area last saw my broom), my son said, ‘Hey! The fuzzies are gone!! She’s good!’
One day, Hazel beeped and began ‘clicking.’ I noticed her ‘dock’ button was blinking as well… I don’t know if the two were actually related, but my son paused her and we checked underneath to find a usb charging cord wrapped around her brushes. How simple and easy it is to remove the brushes! We untangled the cord, pressed start, and Hazel happily finished her cycle.
Since then, she has only gotten stuck once – in the ‘flaps’ of the rug that go around the toilet. She beeped at us to let us know, and we quickly unstuck her. There have been a few times we thought she might be stuck under the dining room table in the labyrinth of chair and table legs, but after some bumping and spinning and bumping again, she eventually finds her way out.
I could not test the wifi and app feature – as I live in a black hole with no wifi. But, I think being able to schedule Hazel is awesome. For now, we have to do all the work: bend down and push a button. Hmph! 😉
Really, Hazel is a dream. No, she doesn’t deep clean edges or get under some furniture, but honestly, she’s keeping my floors cleaner than I manage to on my own! I am so very happy with her! Now if only she could make dinner…!
***EDIT 1-1/2 years later…! (7/7/2020)***
TIPS: I still love Hazel! My best advice is to START with clean floors – I mean, on her very first go around after you purchase her. I know, I know…that’s extra work for you! But, a good mopping and vacuuming before will help Hazel tremendously. I then run her every night as we head to bed, and have nicely vacuumed and swept floors in the morning!
If you happen to miss a day…or two… you know what? It’s best to mop and vacuum again! I mean, Hazel is great, but she’s not magic! Your surfaces probably need special attention that Hazel just can’t accomplish. I find she works best for me if I run her faithfully every day. And, if I miss a few days, it’s my hint to get out my mop before running her again (this happens especially during wintertime when my kids bring in wet, dirty boots and leave snow clothes piled by the door. She canNOT work around that — a few gloves and scarves have sent her into a beeping frenzy). After a few days of ‘misses,’ because of snow accouterments, I have to actually clean myself…and then I let Hazel keep it maintained throughout the week.
Her noise level is a bit more annoying than when I first got her. Because of that, I do prefer to run her at night (we have a 2-story house), so I don’t really hear her while she’s cleaning the downstairs.
She does a good job for me. I’m still pleased, and thankful I don’t have to give her a raise! 😉
Centriculous –
QUICK SUMMARY: Having a working Roomba can definitely help you keep your floors cleaner, especially if you’re used to cleaning your floors only once a week. But that’s key: a _working_ Roomba. And it may not work as well as you’d like in _your_ home.
BACKGROUND: I was an early adopter of Roombas, having owned them back in 2007 until about 2011. I think I owned four of them in all, and I think they all lasted less than a year. I finally gave up on them after I bought an upgraded model that died in less than six months. Great idea, but the Roomba “death circle” (web search it) and faulty sensors and poor battery life all led me to abandon the idea of robot vacuum cleaners. The models I had were all similar in cost to this Model 692.
Move ahead nearly a decade, and I get to review this item as an Amazon Vine member. So this is my review, updated for how Roombas like this Model 692 work in 2020.
WHAT’S IMPROVED OVER A DECADE:
– Better step detection. Ten years ago, Roombas would fall off a carpeted step from my dining room to my sunken living room. I used to setup a multi-chair barrier to stop that from happening. With this Model 692, it detects the step and avoids falling off it. (Update: It’s not flawless in step recognition, sadly. Better than 10 years ago, but today it’s gotten stuck 4 times at the step without toppling over the step, whereas the old Roombas used to fall off the step. I still have to get up and attend to “Error code 6” and relocate this Roomba).
– Better “get unstuck” ability. Ten years ago, Roombas would get stuck pretty easily and cry out for help. Since that time, I’ve installed hurricane-resistant sliders in my home which have a much deeper threshold crevice for the sliding doors to roll on. This Model 692 gets stuck on that threshold but, to its credit, this Roomba can sometimes jostle itself free. But not always.
– Better wall detection. Ten years ago, Roombas would crash around the room while it did its job. This Model 692 will sense a wall (or large piece of furniture) and slow down a bit to gently tap the baseboard (or furniture). Note that you need to have some light in the room for this to work properly.
WHAT I LIKE:
– iRobot has a smartphone app so you can start-up your Roomba, check on its battery level, get notifications (if it has a problem, or if it just completes a task), create a schedule, and a bit more.
– It’s very easy to empty the bin, and it’s easy to remove the filter, go outside, and tap it to dislodge the fine dust that’s accumulated on the filter.
– It’s intuitive to setup and start using.
– We have a medium-sized, coarse-haired dog that sheds profusely. This Roomba did a very good job picking up dog hair.
– The vacuum suction is good enough to clean floors without it being so strong that it sucks up small, carpeted floor mats that are on our tile floor (which would lead to an error).
WHAT COULD BE BETTER:
– This Model 692 doesn’t intelligently “see” a room like higher-priced robot vacuums do. So it doesn’t intelligently cover an oddly-shaped area. Working single rooms is easy and done well. My oddly-shaped area is the tiled area covering my entryway, kitchen with an island and a eat-in dining area. In this area, the Roomba doesn’t intelligently work to clean some parts of this space, and spends too much time cleaning and re-cleaning other parts. I wish there was more whole-room sensing intelligence even in a Roomba at this price-point.
– It’s still a noisy vacuum. On carpet, it’s 55 decibels which isn’t too bad (65 decibels when it’s right next to you), but on tile floor, it’s 65 decibels anywhere in the room. A quiet room is 45 decibels, so it’s doubly loud when the Roomba is working on a carpeted area, and 4x louder when it’s working on tile. If you have big grout lines (1/4″), there’s a little extra clatter as the Roomba bumps over each grout line. In sum, I wish the Roomba ran more quietly.
– The iRobot smartphone app didn’t always correctly report the status of the Roomba. And the Roomba is charging literally five feet from my router, so it’s not a WiFi issue. And I couldn’t register my Roomba’s serial number (for warranty service) on the smartphone app. You have to do that on their website (and finding where to do that on the website isn’t as easy as it should be).
– It’s disobedient. When I used the phone app to command my Model 692 to return to its home base, because my son had a web meeting in 3 minutes, it failed to immediately and quickly do as I asked. Instead, it slowly meandered over to home base, turning a half-circle twice to move AWAY from home base while en route TO home base. It took the full 3 minutes to return home!
OTHER NOTES:
– There’s no virtual walls included with this Roomba. I would up springing for 2 virtual (infrared) walls so I can better partition the common areas in which I’ll use this Roomba.
– If you buy this Model 692, you might as well buy the replacement parts (filters, side brush, bristle bar) because you’re eventually going to need them.
CONCLUSION: I’ve always liked the concept of a robot vacuum. The biggest question I have is whether iRobot has improved their products so they last a few years before they need to be replaced. If a Roomba needs warranty service or, worse, stops working just outside the warranty period, it’s too expensive to warrant having in my home.
M. L Lamendola –
This is my second robot vacuum cleaner. I had always been put off by the Roomba prices, but this one is in my price range (I’m doing a Vine review and I consider price when deciding whether to review something). Not only that, it costs less than some competing models with the same features.
The other unit is a little quieter than this one. Only a little. But it requires constant supervision, navigates poorly, and is a real hassle to use. Setting a schedule on it requires a tedious exercise with virtual buttons and after I put in one schedule I realized the thing would not run more than 5 minutes without needing to be picked up, turned off, turned back on, and set back down. Why schedule something when you have to give it nearly constant attention?
The other unit is a little quieter than Roomba because it’s not nearly as powerful. I wear hearing protection when using my canister vacuum, and am used to vacuuming not being a quiet activity. So I have Roomba set to clean when I am almost certainly not going to be home or on that floor of the house.
The Roomba does not require supervision, navigates superbly, and is a pleasure to not use. That’s right, I said not use. I don’t have to do anything except set a schedule via the free phone app and empty the trash bin after it returns to home base to recharge itself. So I’m not actually using it, Roomba is using itself. I really like that.
The cat who owns me used to watch the other unit and try to tell it to come back and pick up the cat hair it just missed. She would get very frustrated, and even swat at the thing. She watched Roomba make a few passes, got bored with it, and leaves Roomba alone. I guess she figures she can count on Roomba to do the job right.
I have a premium canister vacuum and have been using that plus rarely using this other robot. I was surprised to find how much Roomba had picked up. Apparently, when vacuuming manually I don’t go everywhere Roomba does.
The app says Android 7.0 or higher is required. My phone has Android 6.0, and the app works flawlessly. No problem connecting to my W-Fi network.
If you have pets or children, you can keep your home cleaner than it is now without extra work. Roomba will do that work for you. I normally vacuum the floors on Fridays. Now Roomba also vacuums those floors on Mondays and Wednesdays. I just have to empty the bin some time before the next scheduled run and I am all set.
Like any electromechanical device, Roomba does need maintenance. That includes replacing specific parts on a schedule. The app does not appear to have reminders in it, but it does allow you to connect to the irobot store to get the parts you need.
It also can connect to Smart Home devices so you can do things like have Roomba clean the day before you come back from a trip. And if you’re so inclined, you can add a robot to the app. For example, you have two elevations so you have a Roomba upstairs and a Roomba downstairs (sorry, Roomba can’t vacuum the stairs).
This is a great unit and an excellent value for the price.
DF –
The iRobot 675 has changed my life. I’m a mom to 4 young children living in a 1880 square foot house on a large wooded lot. My kids are outside A LOT and track in all kinds of dirt, mud, leaves, grass, etc. My husband, while I love him, is also kind of a mess and has a bad habit of not wiping his shoes and bringing in a ton of sawdust from his projects. On top of all of that, add in the fact that children under 7 really don’t know how to eat properly and drop about seven thousand crumbs per meal per child. Our floors, wood, tile, and carpet, have been a disaster for years.
Enter the Roomba. I have been eyeing this little piece of wizardry for years and wondering if this could be the tool that could change my life. I swept and vacuumed (with a Dyson DC33) multiple times a day. I was constantly telling guests, “hey sorry about the floor but I think we’re just gross and I can never get on top of it”. Well, after finally biting the bullet I regret that I didn’t buy a Roomba years ago. I don’t have to apologize to guests and I can finally walk barefoot in my house without having 100 tiny crumbs attaching to the bottom of my feet. I love this thing more than I have ever loved any appliance or cleaning tool I have every owned.
About half of our home is our 2 living areas, dining, kitchen, and mud room. The other half are 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. I have a baby gate dividing the two halves which acts as a barrier that the Roomba can’t get through. I really like having that barrier and if I didn’t use that baby gate I probably would have gone with the 690 for the virtual wall but I don’t see a purpose for it for us. I run the Roomba every night in our living/eating/kitchen area after we pick up the toys and straighten up the house. This is like magic. I always WANT to have things picked up and put away but I didn’t always do that before the Roomba because we are TIRED. But I love running the Roomba so much that since we have owned this thing we have cleaned up every night since we have owned it. Magic. I run the Roomba in the bedroom/bathroom areas 2-3 times a week in our house. Our kids are a little afraid of it (I want them to be, I don’t want them to touch it, and I may have told them it will bite them) and it does make noise so between all of our napping and sleeping I don’t have as much time to run it back there. I don’t mind though, because the bedrooms do not get nearly as dirty as our living areas.
The things I wish I would have known before purchasing:
– It really does clean all of the floor. It picks everything up. The crumbs and leaves are gone. It doesn’t miss any part of the floor. I was afraid it would kind of get half of the floor and not the other half because it isn’t as intelligent as the higher trim lines of the Roomba. I was wrong. This thing is amazing. I heard from someone else that you shouldn’t watch the Roomba because it will just drive you crazy. This is totally true. I watch it and question every move it makes. Why did it roll right past that crumb? Why is it spending 20 minutes under that couch? Just don’t watch it! It so nice to lay in bed at night, tell it to clean from my smart phone, go to sleep, and wake up in the morning to spotless floors!
– I have needed to clean out the dust bin after every cleaning. I read a lot of reviews that said once you get into the swing of things with your Roomba you only need to clean out the dust bin once or twice a week. That hasn’t been true for us. I’m telling you, we are gross. So if your kids are especially messy or you have really messy pets or track in a lot from being outside that might just be your reality. But that’s fine with me because emptying the dustbin is a lot easier than vacuuming my own floors!
– It charges really quickly. I thought I’d be waiting half a day for a charge. Not so. Ours charges within an hour which is nice because I like to charge in between doing both halves of my house. With as dirty as our floors get I don’t think the Roomba could do the entire 1880 square feet on one charge.
– Unless you really, really want the features the higher end Roombas provide you really shouldn’t look at this vacuum as a cheap item. The technology in this thing is awesome (or at least I think it is, I’m not really super techy). This is a great robot that does an amazing job and seems very durable.
– It does make noise. My mother in law commented that she was surprised it made noise. It’s a vacuum.
– It has changed my life. I am excited to clean my house. I am excited to pick up toys. Nothing has ever made me happier about cleaning. This thing is the real deal. I wake up to clean floors every morning and I didn’t do any of the work. Get yourself one.
Katerine Rosendo –
I received it today, so far so good. It was very easy and quick to set it up with wifi. I used to have the model 655 which i love cause of the suction power, this model(675) is not as powerful as the 655 but definitely is less noisy. I’m very pleased so far and I found the wifi connection very convenient
Lu –
This product is revolutionary! I wanted one since it first came to the market, but they are not cheap, and I was not wholly convinced they could work. Well, I was wrong.
This little robot goes under my furniture, climbs the threshold between rooms, does a fantastic job cleaning my many rugs. It makes a bit noise, but less than the standard vacuum. With the app, I can start it even when I’m not at home (or let it scheduled in advance) to come back to a clean home without experiencing the noise.
Cleaning is fast and straightforward, and it works continuously for about two hours without recharging. Each recharge takes three hours.
It’s essential to clean the robot and the filter between tasks because hair tends to get tangled on its side brush, and it can break if not cleaned often.
The robot follows a pattern, and I would recommend using it every day for better results. I love that it can sense when there is a concentration of dirt, and it stops there to make sure it is all clean.
Highly recommended! A must-have for any household. I’m seriously considering buying the one that mops next.
Amy Goebel Padgett –
There are good points and bad points about this vacuum, as well as some things that I’m just torn on. The “undecided” things include: it alerts your cell phone if it gets stuck (well, if you’re not at home when it’s running, there’s not a lot you can do about it, so it’s kind of annoying to get the alerts); and it talks to you, like when it gets stuck and you “unstick” it and set it in motion again. I mean, okay, it’s kind of nice that it talks to you about its status, but I really don’t need to hear its complaints.
PROS
* It’s easy to set up a schedule via the cell phone app. The app installed easily and quickly and after a few false starts having to do with balancing our wifi network with the connection to the vacuum, the app has worked well. The scheduling is very flexible because not only can you set a time for the vacuum to run, but you can also select days. We run it every day, but it’s nice to have the option of running it every other day, which is the default on the app.
* It does a fairly good job picking up dirt and animal hair (and even human hair). The dust bin is full each time it runs, and the floor is cleaner than it has ever been, as well as a few area rugs, so that’s great.
CONS
* It has a little knob on top which projects upwards about 1/2″ or so (maybe a little less). The knob prevents it from getting under most of our furniture. Our previous robot vacuum didn’t have such a knob and got under almost every piece of furniture we have.
* It’s not very good about finding its way around. We have a ranch-style house so it’s long and all one floor, and we have the irobot starting in our bedroom at one end of the house. It stayed in the bedroom the first two days it ran. It just couldn’t seem to find its way out the door. I finally picked it up and put it in the kitchen. After that, it seemed to be able to find its way out of the bedroom about every other day to vacuum the rest of the house. It keeps getting stuck under my sewing table, though–this happens every day–so I’m going to have to block that. I find that a plain piece of wood is the best option for blocking areas like that. Anyway, it would be nice if it would learn about “problem areas” like that and stop getting stuck every day.
* It’s noisy. A lot noisier than our previous one (our previous one was a different brand). So we can’t run it early in the morning or if we’re on the phone because it’s a very annoying sound.
* The dust bin is shockingly small. It’s about half the size of the bin in our previous robot vacuum. It’s fairly easy to clean–it simply has a little “gate” I unlatch and dump out the dirt into a plastic bag. But the bin is very small. Which is why we run it every day because if we let the dirt “pile up” it wouldn’t be able to finish one room before the bin was full because of the dog hair from our two dogs.
* It rarely finds its way back to its home base. I often find that it has quit in the middle of a room (usually at the opposite end of the house from where its home base is located). Not a huge problem because I just pick it up and place it on its home base, but the robot doesn’t seem that “smart” about learning the layout of the house. It still has problems finding its way out of our bedroom, so a lot of days, that’s the only room it cleans.
On the whole, I like the vacuum despite all the cons–the cons are more annoyances than real problems. I like the app and the flexibility in scheduling when we want the vacuum to run. I just wish the bin were a little larger and that it was a little better about finding its way out of our bedroom.
Amya –
I love this little guy. We named him Wall-E because how could you not? It has made such a difference in my home.
We live in a 650 sq ft apartment. with two cats and a dog. (So not a ton of space, I cannot speak to how he would do in larger living quarters) All of the animals shed like crazy and it just felt impossible to keep up with everything.
Now I just push Clean on phone app, and by the time I get home from work, my floors look beautiful. It has really helped bring down my stress level by allowing me to allocate that time saved to other tasks, be it for work, household chores, or having fun!
I still bring out the big guns at least once a week to do a thorough vacuuming, but even the amount of time I use to vacuum with the big guy has been cut in half. ( I need to come up with a name for the large vacuum. It doesn’t seem fair not to. Maybe Dennis? We’ll stick to the big guy for now)
I will say it takes time to get used to Wall-E rooming around not seeming to go in any particular pattern, but after a few times you can see that he does get everything eventually.
The first few times he runs it will seem like a struggle (at least to me it did). But after about the third or fourth time, he seemed to be able to make his way around the apartment with ease. He has gotten stuck a few times but has managed to wiggle free on his own. He seem to transition well between different floor types. We have carpet, tile, and a rug that he runs across without any problems. I haven’t noticed a problem with the bin getting too full, but sometimes I do pause him and empty mid clean just to be on the safe side.
The battery seems to last about and hour and half which I think is more than enough time to get our apartment clean, but again if you live a larger house I do not know if that would be enough time to reach all the necessary areas.
As far as noise is concerned it is quieter than what I would call a traditional vacuum cleaner, but it is not completely silent. I think the noise level is low enough to not bother me if I am watching TV or having a conversation, but some people may be more sensitive to sound. I do think it would bother me if I were trying to sleep so I don’t run it during the night, but again some people may or may not be bothered by that.
Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this product. It has saved me hours of my life cleaning already and I have only had it for a week! I have also noticed a serious decline in my husband’s allergies as well so I consider a big help in the health and well-being department. Now if only it could do the dishes… 🙂
Susan –
I had been wanting one of these Roombas for years. Finally ordered one a few days ago on Cyber Monday. Arrived two days ago. It worked very well. BUT having said that, it just seemed to take me more time and inconvenience to go around the house to pick things up that it could get stuck on or suck up. Also because it goes around the house kind of randomly it did miss spots. Maybe it would eventually get back to those spots but the battery died. Not sure if it starts all over again each time after recharging but it seemed like it followed the same pattern. It would be really helpful to those who would not have time to vacuum on their own, but I do have the time although I hate vacuuming. For the money, I’d rather buy a good quality stick vacuum and do it myself. Just my two cents worth!
Kyle –
This is definitely a must buy product for anyone who absolutely hates vacuuming…. like me.
On the whole, the Roomba 675 is doing it’s job. It gets under my couch and beneath furniture that I am honestly way too lazy to sweep and vacuum myself.
It is important to remember, however, that this does not replace a real-life human doing the sweeping and vacuuming. It’s much slower, it can’t see spots it may have missed, and it bumps into more furniture and walls than a drunk freshman undergraduate.
When I have guests coming over, I run the Roomba while I’m away and the do a final sweep/vacuum before they arrive. I’d say the Roomba picks up 85% of the dirt, dust, and other crud on my hardwood and area carpets.
This unit is a bit loud. Watching TV, talking on the phone, or having a conversation is a bit tough with the Roomba buzzing around the house and the dust bin is a bit small.
End of the day, if you can spare the cash and you’d prefer to not vacuum or sweep daily/weekly, this is 100% the product for you. Buy it. Now.
Melissa Z –
Works pretty good. I’ve been having issues with it vacuuming all rooms on the first floor. Sometimes it only does the office and hallway, the first day it did those plus my kitchen and living room. So it’s hit or miss if it will vacuum every room, and if I’m not home I’ll never know where it went. Also when i hit the button on top of it to go back to the dock, it doesn’t. Just flashes and keeps vacuuming. I’ll guess I’ll keep it, but I have to babysit it occasionally.
S Young –
As an everyday touch up vacuum, this Roomba isn’t bad. On my hard floors, it actually does a great job with pet hair, dust, etc. On carpet, it’s ok – of course not as good as my heavy vacuum, but it does the job so that I don’t have to run the big one daily.
There are some things you should know about this. You’ll appreciate the ability to schedule and run it when you’re not around, because it’s surprisingly loud on hard floors. The software is pretty good and easy to use on my smartphone, and seems to work well if I kick it off from work. This works well on my main floor, which is open concept without a lot of walls and doors, but downstairs it doesn’t contend well with the hallway and multiple rooms. It kind of wanders around and does some rooms a couple of times and other rooms not at all, and it doesn’t seem to learn from experience. It does deal well with moving from hard floors to carpet, and doesn’t get itself tangled up in my area rugs and runners.
Overall, like you’d expect, it’s good at some things and less good at others, but overall it’s a timesaver, and pretty good at what it does.
AlaskanGirl –
When I purchase something like this item, I hold off submitting a review until I’ve had the chance to use it for a duration, usually a year. I read a funny review online yesterday, about Roomba, which reminded me I needed to do a Roomba review myself. Yesterday’s reviewer gave a one star review, and returned his purchase, stating his Roomba acted like it was drunk, wandered aimlessly, ran into the same item repeatedly, was unable to locate its charging station, and would send him messages saying things like “Help Roomba is stuck on a cliff!”, only to come home and find Roomba sitting in the middle of the kitchen, no cliffs in sight. I read this review, and every thing he says is straight up gospel, even the ridiculous cliff SOS, all 100% true. We call our vacuum Roombo, men vacuum too, unfortunately Roombo, like Roomba, is not the intuitive robotic vacuum I thought I was getting. Roomba and the word intuitive have never met. So why three stars? Because I have 3 dogs and 2 cats living in my home, and even if Roomba spins in a circle in a single room, she is a hair catcher like nobody’s business. Packed full of dirt and hair after every single cycle. That’s dirt and hair I don’t have to worry about. So even if I have to send out a search party to find her occasionally, I’ll keep her. So far, she’s been low maintenance, clean her occasionally and she off to find another cliff to fall off of.
P BLACO –
I was very skeptical at first because I have 2 large Golden Retrievers with a lot of hair.
When the Romba first came out several years ago we purchased one, it did not work very well and I ended up returning it.
This model is wonderful it gets up sand, dirt and hair that the dogs are always tracking in. I love this machine and highly recommend it to somone with long hair dogs. It runs everynight at 4 am. You just have to be careful to pick up plugs and small toys. It learns where it needs to go pretty quickly. Every once in a while it will get stuck, but it will let you it needs help on your phone app. . Great product I am pleasantly surprise!
QueenKatieMae –
This is my second robot vacuum cleaner and while I liked my first one, it did not do as good a job as my new Roomba! I have this thing programmed to do it’s thing Monday-Friday at 9 AM while everyone is at work and it does an amazing job. I haven’t had to vacuum or sweep for two weeks now, I do have to do some touch up in the corners and under the toe kicks, but I am really pleased with my Roomba.
First, it is easy to set up and use. It needs to be charged after you first get it, just plug in the dock, set it in place and let it charge overnight. Second, as much as I don’t like clogging my phone with apps, you do need this one to set up a schedule. You can also check its day to day vacuuming history with your app–today mine ran for 2 hours and 29 minutes before returning to its dock. You can use the app to run the vacuum again if you want. It’s pretty sweet.
It does a really good job cleaning, too. Just don’t forget to empty its dust bin because it’s small and fills fast. Still not sure how it decides where to go. I’ve watched it while its busy at work and it just travels wherever, turns whenever, and doesn’t seem to follow any pattern. At best, I don’t think there is a pattern, not even an algorithm.
It has returned to its dock every time, except for the few incidents involving phone charging cords and I had to unfurl them from the roller. It has a lifter that allows it to travel up and over thresholds up to an inch tall, so it works throughout my entire first floor. Have not lost it down the back steps despite almost falling three times (my old unit tumbled down them a bunch of times) as the safety feature stops it and then it starts yelling about errors so we come running.
I am very pleased with my unit. The price is a bit high but it is worth it. It works 5 days/week, does a great job and doesn’t complain. It even puts itself to bed. Highly recommended.
Aaron M. –
This rumba is amazing. We have 4 pets inside our house and it was a daily struggle to keep up with all the dog hair. This has saved me a lot of time, and our floors looks great, no more left over dog hair. I would highly recommend this item to anyone with inside pets.
Amazon Customer –
This is my first robot vacuum cleaner. I did major research and the iRobot roomba 675 won. The other brands just didn’t come close. While researching, I looked for replacement parts, again the iRobot roomba 675 won. I have had my robot “Rosie” for 2 weeks now. My home is 3800sqft and Rosie does a great job. She doesn’t get everywhere, however she gets 95 percent and that takes a big load off of me! I did have to get a set of virtual walls because my home is so big. The iRobot roomba 675 is a good buy in my book. Just remember, it is a machine and doesn’t clean like you would.
LilSeizuringBoy –
I like the idea of having smart devices and have tried to make my home as automated as possible. I have waited (not sure why) on purchasing a smart robot vacuum. I purchased the iRobot Roomba 675 after reading the high reviews and was not certain what to expect. On initial unboxing, the Roomba was super easy to setup. The base charge was 50%. It charged to 100% in a very short amount of time. The app setup was easy to connect to my home wireless. I set it up to respond to Alexa. Asked Alexa to make the Roomba clean and away it went. I was downstairs and heard it moving about the house upstairs. The app informed me it was complete and the battery was at 22%. However, it seemed to freak out about docking and I will need to keep an eye on that issue. I had the docking station under my bed and it did not seem to like that so I have moved it and will see what happens next time.
I would have given it 5 stars but the issues with the Roomba having trouble returning to the docking station after cleaning and the battery going from 100% to 22% after 1 hour use is the reason for 4 stars. Still, love this little thing!
Results:
I was SHOCKED to find out how full the bin was after cleaning! It was completely full of dust bunnies. I have hard wood floors upstairs with an area rug and a runner rug. So most of the bin appears to have been lint, hair (human and dog), dust. After cleaning, it sounds weird, but I could tell and feel when walking bare foot that the floor was cleaner. I used a flashlight to check areas under beds and hard to reach areas and could see the tire marks of the Roomba and noticed very little dust bunnies that tend to collect with hard wood flooring. It really did a spectacular job out of the gate and hope this helps with cleaning the floors that was done with broom and mop in the past.