iRobot Roomba i4+ EVO (4552) Robot Vacuum with Automatic Dirt Disposal - Empties Itself for up to 60 Days, Wi-Fi Connected Mapping, Compatible with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets

I bought this Roomba i4+ because Amazon was having a sale and I was curious if it would freak out my dog. When it arrived, I set it up according to the very simple instructions contained in a booklet included in the box. The instructions may have been a bit too simple, though, because they neglected to explain - for example - that Roomba cant connect to 5Ghz wifi networks. They wait to let the mobile app tell you that after the robot has failed to connect to wifi three or four times and you finally click on the (tiny) Help Me icon at the bottom of the screen. Anyway I finally got it set up, but for $400 it was not nearly as smooth a process as it should be. Once everything was finally working, I pushed the button in the app to make the little robot go clean my apartment. It rolled off the charging deck with a cute little chirp, looked around for a moment, and then made a beeline directly for my fireplace. The fireplace is closed off by a cover, but the floor around it is lower than the floor in the rest of the room. The Roomba app assured me that this would not be a problem, because Roomba can handle slight elevation changes like that. Well, maybe some Roombas can handle it, but my little guy could not. It threw itself into the fireplace and immediately got stuck there, whirring around in noisy little circles for approximately fifteen minutes until it finally gave up and sent a notification to my app that it needed help. I picked it up and repositioned it away from the fireplace. It thanked me with another happy little chirp and whirled around it what I took to be a little dance of joy at its newfound freedom. Then it turned and threw itself directly back into the fireplace. It did this six more times. Finally, I wised up and put a bunch of heavy objects around the fireplace so it would not be able to get back in there (despite several of its best efforts). The Roomba then decided to clean under my coffee table. Finally, it was working as intended! But then I got a notification that, with less than a quarter of the room vacuumed, my Roomba was done. It was returning to its charging station. Only instead of returning to its charging station, it repeatedly slammed itself into a wall approximately six feet away from its charging station. I assumed it would eventually figure out it was in the wrong place, and I let it do its thing while I went into another room. When I came back an hour later, it was powered down in more or less the same place, apparently having died in the middle of an effort to climb up the wall itself. I put it back on flat ground, turned it back on (the battery wasnt dead after all - not even close, actually), and watched as it tried again. It did a 180, went to the exact opposite side of the room, did a few circles, and then finally seemed to figure out where it was. It then, at long last, returned to its charging station, having successfully cleaned perhaps 25% of my small living room. It was all kind of funny to watch, and Ill probably use it again just for laughs. But as a cleaning product it is definitely not worth $400. Oh, and also - the dog didnt show any interest in it at all.

So, we bought one of these for our main floor. Had it for a few weeks, and loved it. Created a map on the first cycle, and all was good. So we bought another one for the second floor. This one was on the spectrum I think... Ran it probably 7 times, and it would not create a map. Then it started running in circles, going up and down the same area, just acting weird. Tried contacting support, useless. I put in the ticket almost two weeks ago and still havent heard back. We ended up sending it back to Amazon, and got a new unit. This one is doing much better but still had some issues. On the first couple runs, it cleaned our whole house but for some reason only created half a map. Then when it would clean, it wouldnt go any further even though the map ended right in our hallway. It would stop in the middle of the hallway and go back. Deleted the map, then had it to another everywhere run. This finally worked. So, I would recommend it but but only because the first example we bought did such a great job. Hopefully both of these dont need much support, because Im not sure support is even available given my experience... Update 11/25/2022: The 2nd floor unit has been doing pretty good. Both of our i4s have issues periodically. Sometimes they just decide they will not finish the whole floor and report back they did, or get caught on something stupid like an electric piano stand. Or, occasionally the map wont load. Overall though, they do a very good job of keeping the floors clean. (Upgrading to a 4 star rating) Most errors can be cleared by simply rebooting them. We also bought a refurbished i7 for our finished basement which is mostly carpet. The i7 is a much smarter robot, and hasnt got caught or had any problems yet. Its much more efficient at cleaning too. If you can afford the i7, it will be less hassle but the i4s generally get the job done.

There’s so much I love about this thing…my apartment has never been cleaner! But, it constantly is getting stuck on a rug, a cat toy, or under my couch. Also, if it decides it doesn’t want to communicate with your wifi is just doesn’t do anything and fails to start. I have to manually reboot it more than I care to, considering it’s supposed to be automated. It also often leaves debris behind if it’s not just right. Also, the battery drains quick, so it’s best to work in areas rather than the whole space, otherwise it has to return and charge for a couple hours before it continues. I recommend this one as the bare minimum Roomba, don’t get anything less than this unless you basically want to do as much work as you would manually vacuuming.

Suction is alright and moves around okay. Super details below if you wna keep going. I think it is cool for daily, but I would definitely say you still gotta do your floors depending on the level of traffic. I use this daily but will also sweep daily. The mapping is alright but the vacuum constantly is stuck even when all stuff out the way. I have remapped several times. It does get annoying that I cannot have this run while I am at work, I have to be present in order to utilize.

I have two dogs and wood floors. I use it everyday to clean up the dog hair

This is my first robot vacuum and I was surprised that, for as long as robot vacuums have been around, the lack of suction on this vacuum, we’ll, sucks. There are several little pieces of leaves or grass that are still there after this vacuum goes over and over and over. Also, it didn’t really occur to me how antiquated it is to use vacuum bags again. I think we’ve moved on from the vacuum bag era. to offer a container that can be emptied once full seems like a better value to me. I would not recommend buying this vacuum.

My robot is under 2 years old and doesn’t complete its “jobs” anymore or complete new maps. Robot is very loud and does not suction as good as I would hope. The bag gets full nearly every other cycle. Product description says it can last up to 60 days, but I can’t keep mine past 2. I’m upset I spent so much money for so little life

I got it on sale for $200 for that price its worth to keep it. for the full price i prefer the higher model

Having a breed that sheds daily, this product has been a lifesaver. I no longer have to worry about vacuuming three times a day, knowing that the roomba will take care of it highly recommend, if you have pets.

Overall this is an excellent product. I can set it do work while Im away from home. Its quieter than my stand up vacuum and can get to hard to reach places like under my fireplace bench. It does have mapping just not the smart mapping that all the other reviews said it as missing. You have the option to join beta testing through the app so who knows maybe itll be added one day. Pros: Self-emptying and charging picks-up pet hair and dirt motivates me to clean where is robot cant go (like my stairs) scheduled cleanings easily done through the app teamwork-I can focus on other areas of my house to clean while to robot is working Cons: Culture of waste created by the company to make profit. The replaceable parts are purposely not meant to last. I can already see that the brushes will need to be replaced in 6 months or less. (Ive had this robot for about a week) Dust bags are disposable not reusable for the i4 Considering all the replacement part youll have to buy over the life time of the product the price point is too high.