Frequently Asked Questions
What changed in Roombas after 2019?
Newer Roombas (i3 and up) use cameras and lidar to map rooms and clean in neat rows, while older models (600 series) bump around randomly.
Do I need a self-emptying dock on my Roomba?
If you have pets or kids who shed a lot, the self-emptying dock lets you go a month without touching it, making it easier to run the vacuum twice a day.
Is mapping necessary for a small apartment?
For a small apartment with minimal furniture, random bumping (like the 600 series) works fine; mapping is only needed if you have multiple rooms and want to clean specific areas.
Which Roomba is best for a house with multiple rooms and a dog?
A mapping model (i3 and up) is recommended so you can set no-go zones around the dog’s water bowl and tell the Roomba to clean only the kitchen after dinner.
Why So Many Roombas? Here’s Which One You Actually Need
Every time I pick my kids up from school, another parent corners me in the parking lot. “My husband wants a Roomba, but there’s like, eight different ones. Which one do we get?” I get it. iRobot has gone wild with the alphabet soup—600, i3, i7, j7, s9, and a mopping one that doesn’t even mopp like a real mop. I own six Roombas right now, and Sparkles has named four of them. (The j7+ is “Uno,” because she thinks it’s the smartest. She’s not wrong.) You don’t need all of them. You need the right one for your house, your mess, and your patience level. Let me break it down so you stop wasting time and money.
What Changed with Roombas?
The big shift happened around 2019. Older Roombas (the 600 series) bump around the room like a drunk uncle at a wedding—random navigation. They find dirt by luck. Newer Roombas (i3 and up) use cameras and lidar to actually see furniture, create a floor plan, and clean in neat rows. That’s the single biggest feature difference. If you have a small apartment with minimal furniture, random bumping works fine. Kids’ rooms with scattered Legos and shoes? You need mapping. Otherwise your Roomba will spend twenty minutes stuck under a chair.
The second change is the self-emptying dock. That’s the big round tower that sucks the dirt out of the Roomba into a bag. You can go a month without touching it. For me, that’s the difference between “I’ll run the vacuum” and “I’ll run the vacuum twice a day because I forgot about it.” If you have pets or kids who shed snack crumbs like a wood chipper, get the self-empty model.
Do You Actually Need Mapping?
Here’s the cold truth: If your house is one open room with a couch and a coffee table, you do not need mapping. A 692 will do fine. But if you have a dining room, a living room, a hallway with a shoe pile, and a bedroom that the cat hides under, you want the mapping model. Why? Because mapping lets you tell the Roomba to clean just the kitchen after dinner, or to avoid the dog’s water bowl area. Without mapping, it goes everywhere, always. With mapping, you can set no-go zones without buying magnetic strips. My wife started using the “clean kitchen only” feature after I installed it. She stopped sweeping. We are still married.
Sparkles once asked me, “Dad, why does Uno know where the bathroom is?” That’s the mapping. It learns your floor plan, then parks itself in the right spot. The cheaper ones don’t learn anything. They just get lost under the sofa.
Quick Comparison of What Matters
Here are the three tiers of Roomba you’ll actually see in stores right now. Everything else is a slight variant of these.
Entry-Level: Roomba 600 Series (e.g., 694, 692)
Pros: Cheap ($200-300), works on most floors, reliable, easy to fix. The dirt bin is small but easy to empty. It’s loud, but you get used to it. It’s the vacuum equivalent of a used Corolla – gets you there, smells a little like last week’s fries, but never leaves you stranded.
Cons: Random navigation. Cannot map. No self-emptying. Falls down stairs if you don’t have the virtual wall barriers. Gets stuck on rug tassels. Battery life is about 90 minutes, which is fine for one floor under 1,000 square feet. If you have a two-story house with thick carpets, you’ll want to watch it like a babysitter.
Who it’s for: First-time robot vacuum buyer, small apartment, one level, mostly hard floors. Single person or couple without kids who drop cereal. If you’re on a budget and just want something that picks up dust bunnies, this works. But honestly, for $100 more, you can jump to the next tier and save your sanity.
Mid-Range: Roomba i3, i5, i7 (with or without self-empty)
Pros: Has mapping (i3 uses a simpler version called Imprint Smart Mapping, i5 and i7 have full mapping). Works with Google and Alexa. The i7+ has the self-emptying bin and remembers multiple floor plans. Battery about 75-90 minutes, but it recharges and resumes if it runs out. Cleans in neat rows. If you’ve got kids, this is where you start seeing real savings on your time.
Cons: The i3 doesn’t have onboard camera – it uses floor tracking sensors, so it can get confused in hallways. The i7 is better. The self-empty dock is loud when it empties. Expect to replace the bag every 2-3 months (maybe $5 per bag). The i3 base model doesn’t come with self-empty, so you have to buy the combo or upgrade. If you buy the i3 without the tower, you’re effectively paying more for mapping than if you got a different brand.
Who it’s for: Families with moderate clutter, pets, and at least two rooms to clean. If you have a dog that sheds golden fur all over the beige rug, get this. The i7+ is the sweet spot for most parents I know. It doesn’t require you to clean the sensors constantly. Sparkles named our i7+ “Sneakers” because it always hides under the couch when she drops a cracker. It gets the cracker anyway.
Premium: Roomba j7+, j9+, s9+
Pros: The j7+ has obstacle avoidance – it can steer around phone chargers, socks, and even pet poop (yes, really). That’s a game‑changer if you have a dog that sometimes misses the grass. The s9+ is the most powerful suction in the Roomba line, with a square shape that gets into corners better. Both have full mapping, voice assistant, and the self‑empty dock. The j9+ adds a mopping feature that’s basically a damp pad dragged behind – not a real mopping, but okay for light sticky spots.
Cons: Expensive. j7+ starts around $600, s9+ $800+. The mopping is barely a damp wipe. If you think you’ll replace a Swiffer, you won’t. The obstacle avoidance isn’t perfect – it sometimes avoids a piece of paper that it should have sucked up. And the cameras on the j7+ make some people nervous, even though iRobot says they don’t upload images unless you opt in.
Who it’s for: People with high‑pile carpet, pets that leave messes, and multiple floors. If you have a toddler who flings yogurt onto the rug and you don’t want to hand‑scrub, the j7+ will at least get the dry crumbs. The s9+ is overkill unless you have wall‑to‑wall shag. I use the s9+ in the basement where my workshop lives – it handles sawdust like a champ. For the main floor, I stick with the i7+.
So Which Roomba Should You Buy?
Here’s my verdict, and I’m not being paid by iRobot.
- If your home is under 1,000 square feet, you have no pets, and you’re on a tight budget: the 692 is fine. But you’ll want to run it every day because random cleaning misses spots. Plan on emptying the bin after every run.
- For 90% of parents reading this, the Roomba i7+ is the answer. It maps, it empties itself, it handles pet hair and kid crumbs. It costs about $450-500 on sale. That’s still a lot, but it will last you five years if you replace the battery and filters. I’ve had mine for three years – zero issues.
- If you have a dog that leaves surprises on the floor, get the j7+. The poop avoidance is not a joke. One of my friends ignored this advice and now his Roomba is called “The Chocolate Machine.” Don’t be that guy.
- The s9+ and j9+ are luxury purchases. If you have $800 burning a hole in your pocket and you want the absolute best suction and corner cleaning, okay. But for the same money, you could buy an i7+ and a dedicated mop robot like the Braava Jet m6. That combo cleans better than any single Roomba.
Bottom line: You don’t need a Roomba for every room. You need one good one that knows the lay of the land. The i7+ is that bot. Buy it, name it something silly, and let it do the work you hate. Sparkles named ours “Sneakers.” Yours can be whatever you want – as long as it’s emptying itself into a bag you don’t touch for a month. Trust me, that’s the feature you’ll appreciate the most after the third week of real life with kids. Now go buy the right one and stop scrolling through Amazon reviews at 11 p.m.