iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum-Wi-Fi Connectivity Personalized Cleaning Recommendations Self-Charging Charcoal Grey

13 reviews for iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum-Wi-Fi Connectivity Personalized Cleaning Recommendations Self-Charging Charcoal Grey

1. Rated 5 out of 5

   Stephanie – January 18, 2022

   ***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! 😉

2. Rated 3 out of 5

   Centriculous – February 25, 2022

   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.

3. Rated 3 out of 5

   Melissa Z – March 6, 2022

   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.

4. Rated 4 out of 5

   Amya – March 8, 2022

   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… 🙂

5. Rated 3 out of 5

   Susan – March 14, 2022

   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!

6. Rated 4 out of 5

   Amy Goebel Padgett – March 15, 2022

   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.

7. Rated 5 out of 5

   Stephanie De Pue Murphy – March 17, 2022

   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.

8. Rated 5 out of 5

   J. R. Harmon – March 27, 2022

   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.

9. Rated 5 out of 5

   ☮ S.Trasny – March 30, 2022

   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.

10. Rated 4 out of 5

    Katerine Rosendo – April 11, 2022

    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

11. Rated 5 out of 5

    DF – April 11, 2022

    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.

12. Rated 5 out of 5

    Floridamo – April 15, 2022

    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

13. Rated 4 out of 5

    Elizabeth Messer – April 16, 2022

    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.