iRobot Roomba S9+ Review”
Roomba S9+ Review
The iRobot Roomba S9+ Robot Vacuum is an advanced and powerful vacuum cleaner. It can clean your carpets really well by getting rid of dirt and pet hair deep inside. It has a special system that lifts and loosens the debris for a thorough cleaning. The vacuum also has a feature that automatically empties itself for up to 60 days, so you don’t have to worry about emptying it often.
It’s a smart vacuum that learns the layout of your home and makes smart maps to efficiently clean. It can even clean the corners and edges based on its unique shape. The vacuum has a special operating system that gives you personalized cleaning suggestions based on your habits. You can control it using your voice or an app on your phone. It can also work with a robot mop for a complete cleaning experience. Overall, the iRobot Roomba s9+ is designed to give you a customized and powerful cleaning experience.
Lets dig in to what I found during my personal review.
Cleaning performance and suction power are excellent
The cleaning performance was excellent. The S9 has a dual-brush system and it cleaned the carpet well. I never had complaints about it on the carpet. Sometimes it left a tiny bit of debris in corners on both hardwood and carpet, but not a deal breaker.
Setup and mapping experience could be improved
I found the setup process of the Roomba S9 to be a bit involved. Through the app, you’re required to do an initial “mapping run” so that the robot can learn the layout of your house. Initially, I was fine with it, but it did take a while on my floor plan (around 2-3 hours). During this mapping run, the robot takes pictures of your house (mostly the ceiling) to use camera-based navigation, allowing it to clean specific rooms on command.
Note that during the mapping run, if the robot didn’t finish the mapping for some reason, you have to start over, which can be frustrating. Comparatively, other robots like the Roborock S7 map your place as they clean without requiring specific mapping runs, which seems more convenient.
Overall, while I wish the mapping was automatic, this is technically a once-and-done operation so it shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Things to Know: run during the day or with lights on
The S9 needs some level of light for its camera-based vSLAM navigation. The camera system “captures over 230,400 data points per second” and doesn’t have night vision of any sort. This is generally not a problem because I don’t want the vacuum to run in the middle of the night. During the day, with ambient lighting coming in from windows, I had no issues with its navigation abilities. In the evenings, I simply got in the habit of turning on a light or two during its vacuuming session if it seemed dark.
Mods: I added bump strips
This robot does tend to bump into things as part of its basic navigation. I may be paranoid, but to preclude my dark chairs from showing any wear-and-tear, I put these sticky-back foam strips on the front and sides to provide an extra level of padding. Now the device is extra soft for those bumps.
Difference between Roomba S9 vs S9+
What’s the difference between the S9 and S9+ naming? The ‘+’ in the name simply indicates that the robot comes with a docking station. Generally speaking, it’s a great benefit to your personal time if a robot vacuum has the ability to dock and offload its bin.
Image: iRobot
Summary
- Cleaning performance: of the areas it hits, it generally picked up anything I threw at it
- Dock emptying works well to reduce the amount of time I needed to empty the S9's internal bin
- Navigation could be more polished
- Setup includes mapping runs that may be time-consuming
- Needs decent lighting to operate