Well, it pains me to admit this, but I hate my new Roomba. I’ve been such a big supporter of iRobot and their robotic vacuum lineup for more than 15 years now, but let’s be real here: this model sucks. I wouldn’t have bought it had it not been for the fact that I’ve loved all my previous Roombas, with my 530S lasting more than 10 years. However each one since has lasted less and less time with more and more issues, but this new i1 takes the cake.
First off, let’s talk about the battery issue. I don’t think the battery itself is any worse than previous models, however a design change on the Roomba itself has resulted in the battery life being nuetered. What happened? Well, they introduced WiFi to the Roomba, and implemented it poorly. At least that’s my assumption, without reviewing the code or hardware. But it’s the only thing that makes sense, every other Roomba I have owned has had no issues being left unplugged or off the charger for long periods of time assuming it already had a reasonable charge. This even allowed me to share one dock between two Roombas for several years, with one of them sitting for days at a time without charging, yet they were always ready to go when needed.
Now if you leave the Roomba i1 off the dock overnight, even if the battery was full at the start, it will be dead by morning. Isn’t that rediculous? As someone who has owned several Roombas and has many years experience using them I can tell you they often get lost under couches, beds or just stuck in a corner and you don’t notice until later that it didn’t make it back to the dock. This has never been an issue before, you could just pick them up and drop them somewhere else and once you hit start it would clean for a considerable amount of time. Now I have to be meticulous about making sure it got back to the dock or it will be dead when I go to use it next. This is not an acceptible compromise for the little added benefit of adding WiFi.
But it gets worse! They’ve redesigned the whole suction system and their new design is extremely prone to clogging. And not even clogging on large amounts of debris, I’m talking small amounts of hair get stuck in the “neck” between the beaters and the vacuum bin. Either it doesnt’ have enough suction or this neck is just too narrow and prone to clogging. In any case, almost every time I use the vacuum it lasts about 5 minutes before shutting off and telling me the dustbin is full. You then clean it out, start it up, and get about 5 more minutes before it gives up again. At that point I just go for the Dyson and start cleaning on my own because this thing is useless.
My next robot vacuum at this point is most likely to be Roborock. Sorry iRobot, you had the lead for so many years but you squandered it.
A seasoned Senior Solutions Architect with 20 years of experience in technology design and implementation. Renowned for innovative solutions and strategic insights, he excels in driving complex projects to success. Outside work, he is a passionate fisherman and fish keeper, specializing in planted tanks.