iRobot Roomba 980 review: Do robot vacuums really work?

IT’S a product that promises to save you time and effort, but there is always one burning question people want answered.

Do robot vacuum cleaners actually work? We put one to the test.

WE recently moved into a new home. We would proudly walk people through, showing off the island bench in the kitchen, the kids’ playroom and the spacious bedrooms.

But there was one thing that would stop people in their tracks and it wasn’t my choice of decor — it was the robot vacuum cleaner sitting in the corner of the room.

“Does it work?” was the question asked, always with such optimism.

On face value, the iRobot Roomba is a dream product.

It does the housework for you, navigating its way around an entire level of your home, recharging as needed until the job is done.

It even comes with the iRobot HOME app so you can schedule cleans, or just turn it on while you’re sat at your desk at work.

And it has two virtual walls so you can stop it entering certain rooms, or protect things that need to remain on the floor such as the dog’s food and water bowls.

If you asked my husband, he would say it was perfect. And the first time we trialled the Roomba, I was also impressed.

I stalked it to see just how well it would clean.

When working through my daughter’s room it went around her cot, but not underneath it. It finished the room, but then right at the end returned to the cot to clean that last spot underneath. Amazing and smart, I thought. It would also detect extra dirt and move backwards and forwards over that one spot until clean.

But the real test came when cleaning the entire level of our house. Upstairs we have four large bedrooms and a large landing/entertaining area, all carpeted.

We put the Roomba on at 5.30pm, it got through two rooms and stopped to recharge. It started again at about 7pm, so we had to turn it off because the kids were going to bed (it is very noisy).

We put it on the next day while we were out and it returned to the two rooms it had already cleaned and then turned itself off as the bin was full.

At this point my frustration kicked in, but my husband defended it like it was his first born. “Let it do its thing,” he would say.

Then, on the third day, it retraced its steps again and needed to be recharged twice. It cleaned all the children’s rooms and the landing but still hadn’t finished the master bedroom, so we had to turn it off as, once again, the kids were going to bed.

We let it run a few more times but for some reason it always missed the master bedroom.

The Roomba might seem like a convenient little gadget, but it does need a lot of maintenance. You have to clean the filter every week, the front caster wheel and bin sensor needs to be cleaned every two weeks, the side brush, cliff sensor, localisation camera and floor tracking sensor need to be cleaned once a month, and the extractors every four months.

I gave it a good clean before setting up a final test. We were going out for the day so we used the HOME app.

We set the Roomba to work at 9am. It stopped to recharge twice and finished the job at 2pm. It took five hours to clean five rooms (it finally did the master bedroom).

The floors looked clean as it picked up all the visible, surface-level dirt but the bin was full, and it is not a large bin. The machine itself is compact, obviously, so the bin is very small.

The floor looked clean but I’m not convinced it did a thorough job.

The robot vacuum is convenient. It is hugely satisfying to have your house cleaned when you’re not home, but don’t they say if you want a job done well, just do it yourself?

* The iRobot Roomba 980 costs about $1499.