How A Robot Became My Best Friend – Roomba 980

Just over a month ago I was the very fortunate recipient of an irobot Roomba 980. Which for the uninitiated is one of those DIY vacuums that cats ride on. Unless your cat is called Boo and has zero interest…! My first impressions which you can read here were very positive but a month on has it lived up to the hype?

I’ll be honest – whilst I am a very positive person I can often verge on the cynical. I’d love nothing more than a device that genuinely makes my life easier and takes care of some of the housework burden. But the truth is I don’t think such things exist. After all, we have a cat and dog and most regular vacuums can’t cope with that even with my elbow grease. So how on earth could one that runs itself ever stand a chance of dealing with the dirt?

Let me tell you though, the irobot Roomba 980 has swiftly banished any doubts I had in mind. Dare I say it, it’s possibly even better than our main vacuum. Ok, so it’s shape means that it can’t get right into corners BUT it makes up for that by going under the sofas. Oh, and under the bed and coffee table too. Which when you do have pets which molt as much as ours, is invaluable. Feathers and fur balls are now a thing of the past.

What makes this vacuum a real game-changer though has to be the irobot home app. Downloaded on to your phone, connecting to the device via your home internet takes less than 5 minutes and means you can control the Roomba 980 whilst you’re out. Imagine being at work and programming a quick whizz round to have it all clean and tidy before you get home? The only caveat is that ideally the docking station should be easily accessible so the vacuum can return and recharge and certainly in our home all the sockets are tucked away in tricky positions

That said, I love being able to set the Roomba 980 off for a tidy up downstairs since this is the area that suffers the most from pet ownership. It’s also not phased by switching between floor coverings. We have a thick carpet in the living room and a laminate in the hallway. Combined with a vinyl in the kitchen, you would think failure is a given. Yet it tackles all the different floors without skipping a little rotating beat. It navigates chair and table legs but of course you’ll get the most out of your machine if you lift as much as you can off the floors. And do be careful about cables #speakingfromexperience.

Other things to think about is that obviously the capacity for storing dirt isn’t the same size as a normal cleaner. So you need to empty the bin more frequently, ideally after each clean. But keeping on top of the admin is no bad thing. And of course it’s not going to take away the need to vaccum the sofas/windowsills/coffee table (yes, I live in a house where I would vaccum Pete if I could get away with it. Vacuum first, polish second)

Are there any faults worth mentioning? Not particularly. Yes it’s a tad noisy (er, it’s a vacuum right?!) and it does take longer than I would. BUT WHO THE HELL CARES? I HATE cleaning, everything about cleaning. So I’m 100% all for anything that makes my life easier. Just yesterday afternoon I popped it up in our top floor bedroom to clean whilst I went downstairs to lunch prep for the week. I mean multi-tasking is a cinch with this baby. The carpet is now spotless and it did the en-suite too.

I hope I’ve given the correct impression that I’m very smitten, smitten as a kitten, with my new toy. Now, if I could just employ one of those butlers in the buff to take care of the rest I think my life would really be complete.

Disclaimer: irobot very kindly gifted me the Roomba 980 in return for an honest review. As always, I only ever accept product from a brand I love and would genuinely use. 

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