$549.99
- CLEANS UP AFTER YOU, AND ITSELF – Forget about vacuuming for months at a time with the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal that allows the i7 to empty itself for up to 60 days.
- POWERFUL PERFORMANCE AND POWERFUL PICK-UP – Pulls in stubborn and messes with a Premium 3-Stage Cleaning System and 10X the Power-Lifting Suction. (Compared to the Roomba 600 series cleaning system)
- GUIDED BY SERIOUS SMARTS – With vSLAM navigation, the i7 learns the layout of your home and builds personal Smart Maps, enabling it to expertly clean and navigate in neat, efficient rows.
- VACUUMS MESSES IN THE MOMENT – Cleaning crumbs is now as easy as “Roomba, clean under the kitchen table.” A simple request to your voice assistant* or via the iRobot Home app enables the i7 to clean messes for you, right when they happen.
- COMPLETE CONTROL OF YOUR CLEAN – With Smart Mapping, your robot knows your kitchen from your living room, so you can decide where it cleans and when. With Keep Out Zones, your robot knows to avoid sensitive areas like pet bowls or play areas.
- A CLEAN UNIQUE TO YOU – The Roomba i7 robot vacuum is smarter than ever, learning where and when you normally clean and suggesting personalized schedules so you can focus on everything else.
- IDEAL FOR HOMES WITH PETS – Unique Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes don’t get tangled with pet hair. Brushes adjust and flex to stay in constant contact with carpets and hard floors. High-Efficiency Filter traps 99% of cat and dog dander allergens.
Out of stock
iRobot Roomba i7+ Features
iRobot Roomba i7+ (7550) Robot Vacuum with Automatic Dirt Disposal – Empties Itself for up to 60 days, Wi-Fi Connected, Smart Mapping, Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors, Black
Cleans up after you, & itself
Forget about vacuuming for months at a time with the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal that allows the i7+ to empty itself for up to 60 days.
Powerful performance
10x the Power-Lifting Suction & Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes that pull in dirt, debris, & pet hair from wherever it hides.
Guided by serious smarts
Intelligently maps & cleans an entire level of your home. With vSLAM navigation, i7+ maps your home to navigate in neat, efficient rows.
New App, New level of clean
From customizable routines to customizable maps, complete control is in your hands. Personalized cleaning suggestions help you stay ahead of messes.
Vacuums messes in the moment
Cereal on the floor? Cat knock over a potted plant? The i7+ can target specific areas within your rooms, like in front of the couch or under a table.
A clean unique to you
Learns from your cleaning habits to offer up customized schedules. Suggests extra cleanings when pollen count is high or during pet shedding season.
Complete control of your clean
With Imprint Smart Mapping, your robot knows your kitchen from your living room, so you can decide where it cleans & when.
Steer clear of objects
You can tell your robot to stay away from certain areas or objects with customizable Keep Out Zones.
Ideal for homes with pets
Unique Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes don’t get tangled with pet hair. High-Efficiency Filter traps 99% of cat & dog dander allergens.
The dream team of clean
With Imprint Link Technology, the Roomba i7+ robot vacuum & Braava jet m6 robot mop team up to vacuum then mop automatically in perfect sequence.
Clean without lifting a finger
Through the iRobot Home app or your Google or Alexa voice assistant, simply tell your robot when & where you want it to clean – & consider it done.
Take out the dirty work
Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal holds 60 days of dirt, dust, & debris
Vacuuming that fits seamlessly into your life. The i7+ learns your home and navigates to where the messes are, right when they happen-so you can effortlessly keep your floors clean.
Just say to Google Assistant or Alexa voice assistant, “Tell Roomba to clean under the kitchen table” and consider it done.
After each cleaning, the i7+ empties itself into Disposal bags that hold up to 60 days of debris so you can forget about vacuuming for months.
Personalized cleaning recommendations and seasonal suggestions help keep floors clean year-round, and 10x the Power-Lifting suction* paired with self-emptying convenience help make life a whole lot easier. *(compared to the Roomba 600 series cleaning system)
| Style | Roomba i7+ |
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20 reviews for iRobot Roomba i7+ (7550) Robot Vacuum Black
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Cerin –
First impressions, it looks very slick. It comes out of the box almost ready to go. I just had to plug in the docking station. The Android app installed on my phone and connected to the robot via my wifi flawlessly. Then I kicked off a cleaning routine…and it complained about it’s bumper being stuck. The help docs told me to tap the bumper to unstick, which I did several times, but this did nothing. So I tried putting it back in its dock, and that somehow fixed the problem, and it completed its cleaning routine.
Then a few days later, I tried running another cleaning routine. It completed it and then went back to its dock. However, before docking, it starting to spin around. It did about a dozen revolutions before it stopped, turned its status light red, and again reported “bumper stuck, tap bumper to unstick”. Again, it’s bumper was not stuck, but I tried tapped it “to dislodge debris”, and again, that did nothing. Unfortunately, putting it manually back in its dock did not fix it. As soon as it undocks, it complains about its bumper being stuck. As the bumper moves freely (I can even hear the little click of the contact switches activating), I assume it’s probably a defect in one of the switches.
I’ve contacted iRobot, but so far I haven’t heard back from them, making this $1000 robot a glorified paperweight. I’ve heard the horror stories about their robots breaking down after a few months, but I didn’t think it would happen after a couple days. It’s especially frustrating, because when it works, it works quite well. That should be IRobot’s new motto…
Edit 2019-5-21: After working with their customer service, and proving the defect with some photos taken with my camera, they provided a replacement unit that worked perfectly out of the box. It’s ironic that of all the sophisticated technology in it, I’d get one with a bad bumper switch, which is arguably the simplest component. Their customer service ended up being very helpful and were able to resolve the issue.
Pam K –
After a hiccup on my first delivery (the WiFi wasn’t functional – but they quickly replaced my unit) I’ve had a chance to run it through its paces. It’s great to just ask Alexa to send it on it’s way and forget it. Reginald marches through the house returning to the base to empty and then carrying on his way. With my Siberian husky shedding I can always have clean floors. Most of my floors are wood with a few area rugs. The unit handles it all with no issues. Having the vacuum empty itself saves me from having interrupted cycles while it waits for me to empty it. The unit fits under almost all the furniture I have which saves a lot of hassle.
I am pleasantly surprised at how quiet the machine is. While it’s emptying it’s no louder than a standard vacuum but it’s such a brief timespan that it’s hardly worth mentioning. The other thing that’s noteworthy is that my dog’s hair does not clog the rollers or the ports. My normal vacuum is supposedly a ‘pet’ vacuum but it always ends up with Nikki’s hair clogging everything, so that is a huge bonus for me. Plus Reginald picks all the hair out of the nap of the rugs. He has to return to base to recharge each time but I have the cycle set to double clean the entire area for now, so it’s not a big deal. All things considered, this was an excellent purchase.
Isaiah Turner –
I have owned half a dozen roombas over the years and not all are great. The S9+ was a terrible flop and never worked even after exchanging three units. However, this robot works very well. The mapping is accurate and the cord detection works perfectly. It empties itself and has no trouble on my small door thresholds.
Wayne Everett –
Purchased this 2 days ago.
Boy am I impressed! I have 2 dogs that shed a lot< I have lamented flooring. This Iroobot i7 cleaned it like a po!
The floors just sparkled when it was finished.
My room areas are about 960 square ft… took it about a hour to do the job.
This machine will detect the dirtiest areas and keep cleaning till clean.
When the dust bin is full it returns to the base and empty then resumes where it left off. If the battery is low it will return to its base charge then resume its duties where it left off. Just a amazing machine .
Highly recomend this Iroobot.
J. Robinson –
Only had it about a week, and expected the usual problems I’ve experienced with robot vacs over the years. IE: Tangled in cords, running out of battery, getting stuck in random spots, mapping is impossible to figure out. After 1 week of daily use, must say this thing does NOT have any of those issues. It works great. WHAT!? It sends you pictures of obstacles it encountered after it’s finished. Love it!! This is the robot vac we’ve been waiting for. Hope it’s durable and holds up over time, we’ll see. Time to buy stock in Irobot.
dlinds –
My partner recently purchased (and ended up returning) a Roomba S9+ with the dirt disposal tower as a gift for me. We purchased the Roomba i7+ with the dirt disposal tower to see if it was teething issues in iRobot’s first D-shaped robot. We’re both in IT and have our house kitted out with smart tech including two Neato Botvac Connected robotic vacuums that we were looking to replace (not having to empty the bin every few days was a big draw). Our house downstairs is tile with low pile area rugs in various rooms. Upstairs is tightly woven Berber carpet with tile in the bathrooms. Before we purchased the Neatos about 3 years ago we tested the Dyson robotic vacuum (terrible navigation, small bin, and what looks like a rhino point at the front that would damage our cabinets) and the Samsung Powerbot that had great suction and navigation but the limitation that a black line in our dining room area rug would trigger it’s drop sensor essentially making it useless in our house as it could only clean a few rooms. The Neatos have okay suction and the bonus of the ability to work in the dark as we run the downstairs one early in the morning before sunrise. But the Neatos don’t seem to have a full bun sensor, it just triggers every few runs even if it’s nearly empty (sometimes at the start of the run so it won’t vacuum). They also can get lost if they need manual assistance as the map isn’t persistent over runs (new map each time) and they are incredibly sensitive if not placed down in the exact position and orientation they were found. After 3 years of being nearly there in the world of automatic floor cleaning we were originally tempted by the sleek design and features of the S9. Spoiler it was a disappointment and the i7+ has so far proved itself to be the superior robotic vacuum. I’d recommend checking out my review of the S9+ for full details.
So what does the i7+ do well? Not having to empty the bin every few runs, navigation, being fairly gentle, and future software updates. It’s clearly a polished robot, it works in even dimly lit conditions (make sure to map with training runs in both bright daylight and with dim lighting). It was an adjustment as our Neatos run in complete darkness but we now just set our smart lights to come on at 5am so the robot can vacuum certain sections of the house downstairs before we wake up. It’s a worthwhile change as now the vacuum runs everyday, we have a goldendoodle (non-shedding breed of dog) so our house isn’t terribly dirty but it’s nice to have spotless floors with zero effort on our part. Persistent mapping is another great feature (maps that are saved on the device). If one room is messy I can ask Alexa to tell our i7+ to clean a specific room. Additionally it’s nice to have the office cleaned before I wake up for the day while holding off on the master bedroom until later in the day. Suction is on par if not better than the Neatos and the brush rollers being rubber are the superior design for pet hair and agitating carpet. iRobot has also announced what they call Keep Out Zones which are barriers you can draw on the map to keep the robot out of those areas. At the time of this review they haven’t pushed that update to everyone. I did call to ask them for it (a few times) but I received the same response that they found a bug and would be delaying the rollout with no ETA. I wouldn’t buy the vacuum based on receiving that feature, I’ve heard other companies say things like this before and not deliver. In the meantime iRobot does have what they call virtual walls and one comes with the robot. They can be a bit expensive if you decide to buy multiple of them but they do exist if you have a problem area that can trip the robot up.
What are the drawbacks? Not being able to work in complete darkness. Again it’s a quibble if you have smart lights, if you don’t this could be a dealbreaker. Battery life also seems to be shorter that the Neatos cleaning the same area. Our Neatos could do a entire floor on one charge, the Roomba i7+ is just shy of that so when running the entire floor it will take about 3 hours including the charge time. Our solution was to run different rooms at different times of the day depending on usage (schedules must start a minimum of 3 hours apart). Additionally we had an odd issue with the i7+ upstairs where before sunrise but with lights on it would get confused and show a localization error (it had both the downstairs and upstairs fully mapped) when sending it to a specific room. My partner had the suggestion of deleting the downstairs map since we were going to keep it upstairs and voila it never occurred again. I’d recommend if you’ll be using this on only one floor that you only map that floor to avoid the localization error in dim lighting conditions.
What’s different between the i7+ and the S9+ aside from shape and price? The i7+ has better navigation in our home, is gentler, and is able to vacuum low pile carpet that causes the S9+ brush rollers to disengage. Some of these items may be resolved in future software updates for the S9+ but truly I feel that to fully solve all the problems we experienced with the S9+ they’ll need a hardware design revision. We’ll be keeping the i7+ if it continues working as flawlessly as it has been for the past week making multiple runs without any intervention on our part.
As a caveat whatever robot vacuum cleaner you end up buying you really need to put it through it’s paces in this price range. What works/doesn’t work in our home may not be the same as your experience. A robotic vacuum with a dirt disposal bin doesn’t improve your life if you have to manually intervene to get it to complete a run every time. At that point buy a robot with better navigation even if it doesn’t have the clean base. Make sure though you buy from Amazon directly or another store with a great return policy.
AEK –
I bought the original Roomba when it came out in late 2002. Since then, I’ve had a few upgraded versions, with the last being a 980 that I bought, literally, a week before they came out with the “name your rooms” mapping feature and self-emptying bin option. I was pretty bummed, but the 980 was definitely the best of my previous Roombas. I liked being able to see where it went on a cleaning run, but it seemed to miss a lot of areas for no apparent reason.
I decided I had to wait a few years to upgrade to a self-emptying model, and I guess I’m glad I did. The j7+ Homebase fits under one of my mud room cubbies (the previous self-emptying bin was too tall to live there), and though it’s still mapping my house (so I haven’t been able to name rooms yet), I can tell this will be a game-changer. It’s SO much quieter than the 980. My wood floors and area rugs looked transformed after just one pass through the kitchen, and it just naturally wants to cover more territory than the 980, which would frequently quit and declared the job done after only half (or less) of my main floor. It looks like j7+ wants to do the whole floor unless he gets stuck under the buffet in my dining room (which happens all the time to both Roombas unless I barricade the area). The j7+ hasn’t sent me a photo of any obstacles yet, but he’s performed well on tassels and the high-pile water-absorbing rugs I have by my doors for my dog. My dog doesn’t shed, and I haven’t seen what the j7+ picked up yet because, happily, I don’t have to touch anything (so far). But like I said, it’s doing well on all my rugs despite what another reviewer said about its inferior suction.
I’ll update more as I get to use more features, but so far, I’m thrilled with this Roomba.
bar123 –
Smeared poop all over the floor. Total false advertising. Why market something if it doesn’t work?
Update: fine robot but does not avoid cords/poop lol as well as you would hope.
bernerman –
We have two Bernese and two cats. The hair, dirt, and other effluvia are not to be believed. Our downstairs is a mix of carpet and hard floor, approximately 2200 s.f. This is our third Roomba and is far and away the best. Our 770 was a workhorse which had an unfortunate ESD reaction to a wheel replacement. The 980 which we bought about 18 months ago was great but began to show signs of age pretty quickly (it is now on much smaller upstairs carpet duty.)
This thing is a MONSTER. First of all, it’s much quieter than the other two. It cleans much more quickly and thoroughly, without banging repeatedly into the skirting boards the way the 770 used to. The roller and brush design is smart and means less hair wrapped in a Gordian knot around the rollers the way the 770 and the 980 used to. And the automatic emptying feature works like a charm, although it does sound like the deck of an aircraft carrier for about 45 seconds while it empties. It’s covered almost 22,000 s.f. in two weeks of use. Once a week with the Dyson on the area rugs just for good measure and our floors are clean!
The only slight downside is that the bin sensors are a bit touchy. Twice now, I’ve been told to clean them – but the good news is that the bin (except for the air filter) is dishwasher safe.
I know it’s pricey. But if you have multiple hairy pets, this thing is the shiznit.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2021- it’s still going strong! According to the app, this little devil is about to go over 1,000,000 ft.² cleaned which is pretty amazing. It’s had a couple of issues to be sure – the contact points require pretty regular cleaning and every now and again it decides to get stuck under a piece of furniture (low trestle tables are a favorite) but otherwise I can’t complain. I’m just about to purchase an S9 and move this little guy upstairs for a well-deserved retirement. One recommendation I have is to invest in a can of electronic contact cleaner. This is better than any other substance I found for cleaning the contact points on the robot and on the base.
Christopher L. Chastain –
This robot does everything that my roomba i7+ did but better. The built in detection of obstacles and avoidance is top notch. I’m really glad I gave this roomba a chance because they got everything right this time. It takes pictures of things it avoided and has you review so you can teach it what to do on the next encounter. It has yet to fail at doing its job and returning for charging. My i7 would regularly get stuck and just give up. I would have to hunt it down with a dead battery the next morning. This robot avoids the pitfalls and doesn’t get into trouble. If it’s your 1st, lucky you. You will never know the headaches of the older models. If you are considering an upgrade, do it. This is a solid robot.
Jianyu Chen –
Have a place with mostly carpet, I have to vacuum a lot. I used to have a Neato Connected, while it was a life-saver, emptying the dust bin multiple times in a single run means I can only run it when I was home, and it was quite dirty to empty the dust bin (dust bunny everywhere!).
The Roomba i7+ was a godsend to a lazy bum like me: it empties itself! Now I run it every other day even when I am at work. Coming home to a clean carpet is very nice, plus my wife likes the round shape better than the blocky front of Neato Connected.
Other things I noticed that are better than Neato: the main rubber brush does not tangle hairs while the Neato main brush has hair wrapped around it especially to the side, making it a nightmare to clean; Roomba resume cleaning after recharging is smarter than Neato; and Roomba bums into chairs and obstacles a lot less than Neato.
Overall, I am very happy with the i7+, Roomba could make the software a bit better like offer virtual lines so I don’t need to purchase extra Virtual Wall Barriers, but meanwhile I sectioned off the 3 areas where my wife does yoga as different rooms, so I could simply tell the vacuum not to go to that “room” where she puts all her gears.
Amy Dru –
I have been using the iRobot Roomba i7 for about a month. It is SO expensive, and I have been actively looking for things that it does “wrong” or that I don’t like. Needless to say, I have failed because it is AWESOME.
I had a Roomba about 5 years ago in a previous house. It worked fine, but I’m not sure it was worth the money then. This new version is fantastic. If you are already a Roomba lover, here are the things that are different about this Roomba than previous versions:
1. It is much quieter, and the noise it makes is not a high pitch that worries our dog.
2. The automatic dirt disposal base makes cleaning Roomba a weekly/monthly job instead of an everyday job. We have been using it about a month, and I would say we run it every other day. We have not had to empty the bin yet.
3. Though I thought the app feature was kind of dumb at first, I have really grown to love it. The map is super cool, so even if you are gone while Roomba is running, you can still see what she cleaned. The app will also update you when she docks, empties, or gets stuck. You can use the app to start/stop her.
4. The false wall that is included with this Roomba is a small rectangular piece that functions by itself. This is so much smaller and easier to manage that the old, chunky false walls.
5. This Roomba can clean a lot longer on a full battery charge. Mine will run for about an hour and half on a full charge and that is enough time to go over the first floor of my house (about 3500 sf) one time, completely.
If you have never had a Roomba before and you’re on the fence, here is why it is the most phenomenal time-saver you can buy:
1. Unlike a housekeeper, Roomba is in your home ever day and can vacuum daily, or twice daily if you have a messy-eating toddler like me!
2. This is the best version of Roomba (see list above) and means you spend even less time dealing with vacuuming because you will only have to worry about emptying the base every week or so.
3. Roomba is fairly quiet compared to other vacuums and I can run it while my kids are sleeping without waking them up.
4. Roomba can go under anything that is about 3-4 inches off the ground, which typically means she can get under the edge of kitchen/bathroom cabinets towards the toekick. She will even go up under furniture that has fabric skirts hanging down to “hide” the underneath.
5. Roomba can clean any type of flooring. In my home, we have tile, hardwood, and low and high pile rugs. Roomba does it all with seamless transition. There is one transition in my home from hardwood to tile that I was worried about, but she goes right over without issue.
6. If Roomba is running upstairs, she has a sensor that will keep her from tumbling down the stairs.
7. Roomba has a sensor for shadows so she will slow down when she sees a shadow in anticipation for running into something. When Roomba hits something, she is completely padded so she won’t leave any marks.
Seriously, just buy it if you can spring for it!
The one advice I can offer is: If you have a dog who sheds or a wife/daughter with long hair, you will occasionally have to help Roomba empty into the bin. Big wads/piles of hair can clog the port between Roomba and the base and keep Roomba from emptying. When I do have to help her, it is easy enough and I don’t find it gross so no biggie.
AllTheThings –
First Roomba for me. I have hardwood floors, many area rugs, and two cats. I love that it can go all the way under the bed and other low furniture and suck up tumble weeds of pet hair. After the first week, I was annoyed to find that the bag in the clean base already needed changing…until I looked inside and found basically an entire extra cat crammed—packed tight—in the bag. Fair enough, Roomba. Here’s your new bag. (Also, I should clean more…)
– sharp/high threshold moldings between some rooms which occasionally takes Roomba an extra try to get over, but it always does.
– an area rug with with very high/loose pile. Assumed this would be a Roomba killer, but not so. Struggles a bit there, but always manages to figure it out on its own
– multiple floors: I carry it to the top of the steps, push clean, and that’s it. It quickly identified that it was in new territory and spit out a new, separate SmartMap.
– gets along reasonably well with Alexa. If you have an Echo and a bunch of smart stuff, then you know already that the interface between various third party products and Alexa can be a bit glitchy at times. This is no different, but overall better than I expected. Plus, those are all software issues, which seem to be getting worked out little by little and getting better with updates. The hardware is solid, so it will only get better.
– Expensive bags: Yes. True. But you just dropped a grand on a self-emptying robot vacuum; if cost were really your primary concern, whining about the bags kinda misses the point. IT EMPTIES ITSELF—you can be lazy or cheap, but not usually both. Just buy the bags already.
Look, there’s no getting around it: this thing is crazy expensive. There are many solid, less expensive competitors from iRobot and others. Nobody NEEDS a Roomba of any kind, let alone a self-emptying one that costs a mortgage payment. But it is astonishingly good, both at cleaning and the mapping / app tech.
I’m totally happy with it; worth it.
Michael H. –
Buyer beware: I was told by iRobot customer support that the smartphone app is what triggers the “start” of a scheduled cleaning, and that if the smartphone is not connected to a WiFi (not cellular) network at the time of the schedule start, the Roomba robot will not start automatically cleaning according to what the user programmed. I was told this doesn’t have to be the same (ie home) WiFi network, but in fact could be any wifi network, such as place of work, or public wifi. While none of this makes sense to me, nor do I view this as a good design, this is what I was told. I am disappointed to find out that one of the best features of Roomba, ie unattended scheduled cleanings, doesn’t work unless the user and his or her smartphone is connect to Wifi at the scheduled time. This makes the price tag a bit too high for my taste if any of this is true. If this is not true, then iRobot needs to train it’s customer support staff better.
tylerschuett –
We unboxed it.
We instantly fell in love with it.
We named it “Lil Boop” because it boops things while it runs to learn the space.
The packaging was nice. The setup was a breeze. The app was easy to use. So we turned it on and watched it find its way through our carpeted living area. It diligently booped its way from one side of the room to the other, magically booping around and under the furniture. Wonderful.
Then it reached the open doggo play area. We have 2 golden retrievers.
Sadly, it started leaving large clumps of fur all over the carpet and wasn’t able to pick it up. We felt bad for little boop. We tried to perform open robot surgery on Little Boop to see why it seized up on the doggo hair, and it had doggo hair all tangled in the rollers after its inaugural run across our floors.
We knew it didn’t look good for Little Boop. Sadly we had to send it back to Amazon Heaven.
Sad Little Boop.
Patrick and Taryn –
This Roomba is well worth the money. We have used a Roomba off and on for over ten years. Before the i7 series I can admit I pretty much liked it for the novelty of the product more than the functionality of it. When I was a bachelor in a small apartment, its haphazard bouncing around was more than adequate. When we had a bigger condo and toddlers running around the older roomba’s were ineffective. Now that we have two kids almost pre-teen and two huskies – we needed some more help. In comes the i7.
We recently put in dark wood floors and while we love the look – everything shows. A crumb can be viewed from across the house and our huskies are white and black so any dropped hair is easily visible. We do sweep and mop regularly to collect the bulk of the stuff in the usual places (such as crumbs in the kitchen or dining room) but there is nothing quite like waking up to a clean floor. We got the i7 because of the mapping features, but it is so much more.
Pros:
– Mapping – We will start with why we bought this. The i7 Roomba does not simply bounce around like those before it. This roomba has a sensor that will detect if its about to collide with an object and then slows down to slightly bump the object and begins to map where the object is in a room. After two runs (for us) the Roomba had fully mapped the first floor (about 1000sq ft). Once mapped we can place room dividers, name the rooms, and even mark out “no go” zones to keep it away from either the dog’s water bowl or some cables we don’t want it to go near. This feature works exceptionally well.
– The sensor – as mentioned above we have kids and dogs. This means that no matter how much we pick up the floor, one of the creatures in this house is going to come behind us and put any number of things out in the middle of the floor where it doesn’t belong. The i7 Roomba can identify when it is approaching an object and will slow down to give it a gentle nudge. More often than not in our house its a sleeping husky. One of them politely moves for the Roomba to do its job. The other one simply lays there stubbornly and we end up with a husky sized outline of clean/not clean. It is actually as humorous as it sounds.
– The cleaning “bristles” – I was pretty sure that having wood floors would mean we could never have a Roomba again. We actually waited more than a year before we even tried looking. The newer generation has a rubber roller it uses to move dirt to the middle of its path and then collect as it goes over. This system is great and ensures the floor doesn’t get damaged.
– The cleaning base – If you are looking at this i7+ it should come with a cleaning station. This is essentially the power dock with a dust bag in it for collection. Having Huskies, this thing is a must. If for some reason we are lazy and don’t do a quick sweep before sending the Roomba on its way or if there was an area the kids inevitably “forgot” to do as part of their chores – the roomba will detect that it is full, return to its base, drop off its bin, and return to the place that it left off. If the battery is low, it will take a break, send your app a push message that it needs to juice up for a minute and will resume when its ready.
Cons:
– Noise – To be fair – its a vacuum. I am not really sure what some people expect here. I typically turn it on while I am doing the dishes or when we go to bed. It doesn’t keep us up, but it would probably be a bit annoying to watch a tv show in the same room as it.
– Can get stuck – Its a robot and it does what it can. It is 1000% better than previous versions but we do have a rocking chair that it occasionally catches itself on. By occasionally I mean maybe 3-4 times since we bought it and we have used it nightly.
– Clean Base Noise – This is more of a warning than a con, so just be aware. When the Roomba is emptying the dust bin you have one vacuum cleaning another vacuum. There is a very loud suction noise for about 15 seconds and then its done. Imagine like a car wash vacuum starting up and that is the noise. Unavoidable and not a defect by any means but surprising if you aren’t expecting it.
The last part is the i7 over the newer s9 series. When we purchased the i7 the s9 had already been out for some time. I had set out to get the latest and greatest, but the product reviews pretty much everywhere for the s9 were spotty. Everything from them getting stuck/lost, to not holding a battery, to needing taken apart during customer service calls. Those items might be fixed by now (Sept 2020), they can do firmware updates to the machines. We picked the i7 because we knew it would work straight out of the box and it was cheaper due to the release of the s9. There were also no real compelling features to the s9 upgrade over the i7 aside from the fact it can get into a 90 degree angle with ease, but so can the i7 using its side brush. At the end of the day – I recommend the i7 over the s9, but that could change down the road.
pfk93 –
The following is a summary of my experience with my new iRobot I7+
I bought this vacuum to replace my Neato Connected which was very good at cleaning but left a lot as far as reliability; in less than 5 years I had to have it repaired 3 times at a cost of almost $400. This for a relatively expensive robot. When the battery failed ($70.00) and the robot started not knowing where it was I decided enough is enough.
When I got the iRobot I followed installation instructions which were pretty straight forward, updated the software (again very easy), and then waited for it to fully charge. I then sent it out to clean my whole house (about 2200 sq ft). It ran for about a hour and then went back to base to recharge. I started up after charging and ran for another 10 minutes when it stopped with error message saying problem with dust bin on robot (not dustbin in base). One of nice things is that error message is displayed in iPhone app which also has a “Learn more” button which brings you to a little tutorial on how to resolve the problem. Followed instructions and cleaned the dust bin in the robot. Kind of a nice feature. Turned it back on and 5 minutes later same message. Did this several times and was about to just send it back but decided to give YouTube a try. Entered message text and got to video showing same stuff as Learn More but also said to take out the two brushes and clear anything there. Sure enough, there was a paper clip there which was stopping the brushes. Cleared the paper clip and it’s been fine. Fault was with Learn More. With what appears to be a very user friendly function, I expected that anything there would tell me about ALL sources and resolutions regarding the problem so this was just an incomplete implementation of the facility.
Sent the iRobot to to clean my whole house a 3-4 times and it was still not able to put together a full view of the house so that I could use the map to tell it t clean just one area. After looking around a while a found an option in the iPhone app that says “Just go out an map the house without doing any actual cleaning” which allows the whole house to be mapped on one charge. Once that was completed I was able to see my house map and label rooms, adjust walls, etc. Once I had my house mapped I was able to: 1) name rooms 2) adjust walls between open rooms 3) create “cleaning areas” consisting of one or more rooms. Really a nice feature worth the upgrade from I3 to I7.
Just sent the robot out to clean just my bedroom and it started fine, went directly to bedroom, cleaned whole room, and then returned to base and emptied it’s dust bin — just as expected.
Oher things to watch out for:
1) Robot picked up small piece of paper (1.5″x2″) and sucked it into it’s bin. But when it went to base to be emptied the paper blocked the opening in robot which allows debris to be drawn into base. Robot threw another message and I was able to see the problem. Removed paper and all OK.
2) Regarding self-emptying…works good but VERY VERY load for 15-30 seconds while debris from robot into base is being processed. Would not recommend running this during the night; the noise will surely wake you up.
3) Dust bin in robot is very small compared to my previous Neato vacuum. If you do not get the I7+ with self-emptying base, depending on size of your house, you may have to empty bin multiple times. Of course, my Neato died a couple months ago so there was some accumulated dust and debris picked up in this first cleaning.
That’s it for day one and two. Once past the “problems” the I7+ does a good job cleaning, is pretty quiet while running, and has some nice features in the iPhone app. Assuming I run into no further problems I’d recommend get the i7+ (no s much the I7 due to size of dust bin).
Day 2-7; no problems and my house is staying a lot cleaner than depending on me to sweep and dust.
Couple months later … Had some problems with robot that were addressed via conversations with support team over three days — who very very nice. After factory reset and full mapping run problems went away. One suggestion … I was having t he robot clean the while house (2200 sq ft) in one pass which required a few stops for recharging. The result was that it sometimes did not make it back to charger or forgot where it left off. My solution was to have it clean 1/4 of the house each day for 4 days. Since doing that I’ve had no problems.
P. Heller –
Nice improvement over the Roomba 980 used since 2017. Quieter, does a better job, self emptying feature was a Big selling point since I have two hairy dogs and had to chase the old model around because the bin kept filling up, which meant I couldn’t run it at night or while I was away. Only one quirk observed so far: did several test runs and it avoided the entryway even though it was quite dirty with debris from the dogs. Finally realized what was going on: the J7 thought the birch tree leaves that the dogs tracked in were poop and was studiously avoiding the area. I swept the leaves out and the next time it ran it happily cleaned that area. favorite features: quieter, avoids wires, self emptying.
Ann Brady –
I have a Great Pyrenees, two small mutts, and two cats. To say that I have a pet hair problem would be a huge understatement. I have resisted getting a robot vacuum in the past because one of my little guys is 15 and occasionally has accidents. The J7 gives a guarantee that it will avoid poop and if it doesn’t, iRobot will replace the entire unit. So I took a chance. It took two mapping runs for Fred (yes, you can name your bot) to figure out my house’s layout. Now I can schedule it to clean the whole house, or any combination of rooms I want. I can do a daily clean which just does one pass, a room size clean which uses the size of the room to determine whether to make one or two passes, or a deep clean that does everything twice. For me, the daily clean is all I need. I have hardwood floors and it does a great job of getting up the gigantic amount of hair my G.P. sheds every day. I’ve seen several complaints about how loud the unit is when emptying the bin, and it is about 65 dB, but it only lasts a few seconds, so for me, it’s not a problem. I’ve also seen complaints about the battery life,but my house is fairly small (1350 Sq ft), all one level, and it has no problem cleaning the whole house on one charge. The dogs just ignore it and step out of the way when it comes near them. The cats get a little more freaked out,but they just go to a different room. I do recommend that you take the time to do a couple of mapping runs at first because it significantly reduces the time to clean and does a much better job of cleaning when you do. Take up anything that is movable like pet beds, cords and such for the mapping runs. The maps will be a lot better. Also do remember to clean the hair out of the brushes and wheels regularly.
Beccy –
I have to say – I am impressed. I owned the 980 and was so disappointed. Although it had a semi mapping feature – it always got lost, and it never finished any scheduled job completely. The bin filled up, and I’d never be around to empty it in time. Or it would get stuck on a corner of an area rug or under furniture, and the battery would die before I’d get to it. The i7 is magical in comparison. It is SO much quieter (not quiet, but quieter), the mapping functionality is great, and it seems to solve problems for itself (getting unstuck, dealing with uneven terrain) really well. I am IN LOVE with the automatic bin emptying feature and the ability to schedule individual rooms. Those 2 features are major game changers. I have it clean the rooms with the most traffic daily, and other rooms as needed. It never gets lost or stuck, and it cleans far superior to the 980. As I’m writing this, I have my old 980 running in a very wide open room, and it still managed to get stuck. My i7 has yet to get stuck in a dozen cleanings so far. This was an upgrade really worth having!