iRobot Roomba Combo i5 Robot Vacuum & Mop – Clean by Room with Smart Mapping, Works with Alexa, Personalized Cleaning Powered OS, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpet and Hard Floors

This should be the REAL starter Roomba that people buy.
I had two Roomba 692’s which I used to clean my 1100 Sqft split level townhome. And even though they used the older “bounce” style navigation, were still effective cleaners. However, they tended to attack dirt and furniture with equal ferocity. That’s why foam rubber bumpers for Roomba’s are a thing you can actually buy here on Amazon.The 600’s got the job done, it’s just that it wasn’t always pretty.Enter the i3. It’s a master class in refinement. Not only does the i3 smartly navigate the home, but it is much more gentle on your furniture. It deftly figured out how to navigate the maze of table legs underneath my kitchen table, and it no longer attempts to leap over the stabilizing arm of my coffee table, like Bigfoot crushing a row of cars. It also seems to better cope with “low clearance” issues. It seems more cautious when entering tight fits and less likely to get stuck.Even the fit and finish of the I3 is a cut above. The textured plastic on the top looks like a cloth finish and is resistant to finger prints. The dirt bin has been redesigned to be “rinsed” so that it can be more easily cleaned. The i3 has higher suction while actually producing less noise. The rollers are also easier to clean of Pet Hair.The clean report at the end tells you exactly where it cleaned, and it’s smart navigation allows for charge and resume, which is great for larger floorplans, or if you want the robot to simply do two passes for a given job.Since it knows where it’s already cleaned, it finishes it’s jobs in about half the time that the random navigation 600’s do. And of course you don’t get a detailed clean report with the 600’s.The i3 is also compatible with the self emptying clean bin, and when paired with a Braava m6 mop, will automatically tell the mop to begin a cleaning job when it is done vacuuming. These are some great future proofing aspects.However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.The lack of an upward facing camera, might ally some folk’s privacy concerns regarding robot vacuums, but it also prevents the use of “smart mapping” and the ability to label rooms in a house, direct the robot to clean specific rooms, or the use of virtual “keep out zones”. These advanced features are only available on the i7 and S9.The App does allow you to schedule cleanings, even multiple cleanings in a day. It also allows you use the location services on your phone to start a job when you leave the house. The App will keep a history of your last 30 cleanings, so you can review the clean maps from each one to see where your high traffic areas are.The ability to set the robot to clean multiple passes during a job, however, is a “global” setting in the app. It would be nice if this feature could be set for individual scheduled jobs, or “favorites”.As it stands, the i3 is hindered by it’s current position. It is hampered by the 600 series lower price, but users who want more advanced robots typically will pay full boat and get the more feature rich i7 or s9.iRobot should really position the i3 as it’s entry level bot. It offers great cleaning capability, refined navigation, detailed clean reports, compatibility with a self emptying bin and it’s M6 mop. It’s the perfect starting point for iRobot’s product line. Leave the Random Navigation to the cheap knock offs.

The robot vaccum itself is great! It connecta to you wifi and than you can control it at home or when you are out of the house. The mapping is great, it takes 2-3 days than the vaccum knows where to go. It is also very powerful. I had sone robot before but the suction was bad and the floor was still dirty after two hours of cleaning. The price is great! I purchased a used one and I think it was defective already because it worked for 2 weeks only and I had to return it but I am pretty sure the issue was with the unit I got and not the product itself. Looking to buy one again on black friday or bozing day but a new one this time!

Pros:- Cleans almost everywhere and moves in straight rows.- Slows down before hitting a wall or obstacle, most of the times.- Almost never get stuck. Doesn’t need my intervention. Happened once since I’ve got it. (a month and a half)- Works well with Google Assistant.- Deep cleans carpets and rugs. *Perhaps too much.- App is simple enough and works well for what I need (schedules).- I’ll be honest: I’ve owned the i3 for a month and a half now and I haven’t used my “real” vacuum since. My floor are always clean now. I’m lazy and happy.Cons:- *Will be too rough on wool or other delicate fabric carpets/rugs- Hair (long) rolls in around front wheel and rubber brushes bearings. I clean it every other day. (very easy to do)- The Edge-Sweeping Brush with scatter some debris around since it’s going very fast but chances are the i3 will pick them up after so it’s not a big con.Note:-I suggest keeping a cluster-free floor as this thing will eat everything small enough in its way. It has very good suction! In my case, it ate a small cat toy, once. Just remove all small stuff from your floor and let the i3 do its thing. If that’s too much work for you, go for the new Roomba J7.-If you want to be able to clean specifics room and not your entire floor each time, go for the Roomba i7. EDIT: This is not true anymore as the i3 have the mapping feature now and can clean one room at the time if needed. Also, it is possible to create schedules using your rooms in the app.

Having had a Roomba 980 for about 7 years now, I was quite pleased with how quiet the i5 is. The 980 seems louder than it used to be, but the i5 is quiet enough that running downstairs it doesn’t wake me up. The mapping function works quite well, and being able to program specific rooms is a blessing. There are still places in the house where either model can get stuck, so separating the jobs into specific rooms helps overall. Separating also let’s me keep it out of rooms that are being used at specific times of the day – like the kitchen when making breakfast.Getting stuck is one of those things that must be lived with. A sofa that’s just the right height is a trap for Roomba. On one of the main floor sofas I built a wooden frame to go around the legs which prevents it from getting trapped. The i5, unlike the 980, frequently gets stuck on some vintage air vents (about 30cm square) on the main floor. Unfortunately, and also unlike the 980, the robot cannot recover from this. It tells me to move it and press start, but it doesn’t continue. This is probably the worst feature of the unit, and I hope iRobot updates the software at some point to fix it. I’ve taken to putting a large book on the vent and will build something better when I have time.The robot also reboots from time to time, stopping the job. It’s infrequent but annoying. On the positive side, it runs to completion far more often than the 980 does and finds it way home reliably. At 1/3rd the price of the 980 I’m quite happy. A couple of small puck shaped bollards would do the trick.I’ve tried the mopping function on our wood floor in the kitchen and it does a reasonable job. As a vacuum it can do better than vacuuming by hand, but as a mop it is inferior to hand mopping, but it is good enough to make hand mopping be needed less frequently, which is good.It cleans well and doesn’t bump the furniture legs as hard as the 980, so I’m very pleased with it overall. The 980 is now relegated to the easier and cleaner upstairs duties.