New models will come out with new features and options and eventually there will be a clear winner. In truth, there have been several bissell crosswave cordless tests done on each of these vacuums. With a powerful motor and rotating brushes, the Dyson will vacuum floors and carpets.
Even if you relocated the vacuum and charging station prior to the next cleaning cycle, there wouldn’t be many issues in navigation. The Roomba 980 has a top mount video camera that allows it to map the cleaning area with a visual map. The iAdapt 2.0 technology stores this map rendering in the irobot vacuum cleaner robot’s memory to allow it to clean more efficiently. It will note furniture location, obstacles and drops, ledges and stairs and remember their location for the next cleaning cycle. Compact, powerful cleaning with Ball™ technology to easily navigate under furniture and around obstacles.
Surfaces included wooden, carpeted and tiled floors, all with plenty of obstacles so that we could closely observe how the robot navigated through rooms and see what it did and didn’t clean up. This allowed us to understand the pros and cons of the machine and judge whether its advanced technology is really worth the hefty price tag. If you’re concerned that this vacuum might stranded during cleaning, worry not. Instead of conventional wheels, the 360 Eye™ rolls merrily along on two continuous rubber tank tracks that ensure easy maneuverability and maximum traction on different floor types.
If there is a small obstacle in the path, such as a sock, the wheels will go over it with relative ease. The Roomba 980 uses the iHome mobile shark cordless app on any Android or iOS device. The app is a free download and is not essential for using the vacuum; however, it is a lot easier.
If the space doesn’t allow, such as the length of galley kitchen for instance, it will switch to what looks like a more logical zig-zag pattern. The eye sits proud of the top to give it a 360-degree view of its environment, but it cannot see things that are shorter than the robot’s body. There are certainly Dyson fans out there who will buy a Heurist no matter what. If you cannot abide vacuuming, and only want to do it every couple of weeks to grab any spots a robot might have missed, then perhaps this vacuum is for you.
“The robots had to do something that Roomba never had to do before — listen and be able to execute a very precise cleaning mission,” Mr. Angle said. I was especially impressed with the Roomba’s ability to squeeze into areas where I normally wouldn’t vacuum, like inside the coat closet and underneath my bed. I concluded that assigning specific rooms to the robots was the sweet spot for people like me who work from home. So the next time I stepped out to take my dogs for a walk or went to the grocery store, I instructed the Roomba to vacuum the bedroom and the Braava Jet to mop the kitchen.
There’s a solid product guide built into the app that runs through the features, which bit does what, maintenance and troubleshooting. There is also an option to have Dyson come round to your house and install it for you. The dock is a simple white stand with chrome strips on to which the robot drives to charge. Two black and white checkered squares help the robot see the dock and come back to it when it needs a top up, which it will do mid-clean if its doing more than one room. Excess cable can be stored in the power adapter, keeping it from getting sucked up by the robot. At the Institute we have often been impressed by the power of Dyson vacuums.
I will assume you have rabbits or chinchillas and are not keeping your horses in the house. The Roomba will pick up chips and straw as long as the pieces aren’t too oversized. The collection bins are pretty easy to remove and empty, although the Dyson bin does take a bit to get unlocked. The Roomba relies on acoustic and bottom sensors to locate objects, so if you move things around it may collide with them until it remaps the area. The map is highly accurate though, and as long as no new objects are introduced to the area, you will see fewer and fewer collisions with each cycle. By updating every second, the robot has fewer collisions with objects and furniture.