I honestly think this is the best review I've ever seen. Extremely thorough, well paced, and without any fluff. The fact that this is such a long term review is excellent too, instead of being just a few days or a few canned tests.
This gentleman could make a review on paint drying and make it interesting. On my life I was NOT going to sit through this when I saw it was 23 mins long. I did, and I'm glad. I've been an iRobot user since they came out. Your review was very informative. NO filler (THANK YOU!). You have another subscriber.
Best review I've ever seen on any product. This guy has a great voice, he's easily understood, and he researches and reviews his products impeccably. This is a must have reviewer for anyone.
This is an amazing review. I actually told my wife about it, and i think you’ve helped me make an informed decision not to purchase this product and to look elsewhere. I agree that the whole point of getting a robotic vacuum is to take some or all of the burden of vacuuming off yourself. It doesn’t make sense to buy a product that you’re just going to have to baby sit. I’d rather have the product steer clear of any and every household object and manually vacuum those areas later myself than have to delete, robot proof, and remap my house multiple times. I do live in a two story house as well. But most important (in my opinion) to my positive review of your review is the fact that you gave legit facts the whole time. I’m sure you had a lot more opinions on this product that you didn’t point out. Example was when discussing robot proofing your house. You pointed out the iRobot beacons that you could purchase. I came to my own conclusion that they sound like a hassle lol Love it. I wish you had more reviews! My wife and I just recently got a house only a few months ago and we’re definitely looking to expand our ownership of handy household things.
Awesome . Thank you for a detailed explanation of your personal experience with the S9+. This is one of my favorite video reviews for the S9+. Right to the point. Clear and no redundancy sharing your pros and cons. Again, thank you!!! Job well done.
Important quotes for this documentary: Viewing the Roomba S9 from afar, we can see it ravenously devours rugs, trailing a path of distraction in its wake. The fusion core of the device allows it not only vigorously clean surfaces, it means on long interstellar journeys the device can maintain warp speed without tapping into its reserve power cells. The S9 is not so much a life form, but a automoton. This can be beguiling to humanoids, or even some synthetic life forms such as bio-mutants from the planet Gargan 8 Alpha. Caution should be taken in your emotional attachment to this device, as after all, it is not truely sentient. May you live long and prosper. P.S Really great review!
Excellent review. We have had our S9+ for about 9 months now and our thoughts pretty much fall in line with your review. When it works, it works great (which is most of the time), but there have been issues. Not long after we got the robot the extraction fan shattered, which resulted in a new robot being sent out to us. 9 months later and we are now waiting for a second replacement robot due to problems with docking and navigating. The front of the robot has become quite scratched up over time and I suspect that may be part of the problem, with the docking at least. Despite these problems, having a robotic vacuum has been great. Once this one is out of warranty I will most likely start looking at replacement options with a camera/LIDAR.
Let me preface this review by saying, when this robot works, it’s pretty dang good….. however, it doesn’t work for very long. Let me start at the beginning. I purchased this unit after an extensive few months of research. I could have bought any robot I wanted, but I settled on this robot based on all the reviews. I purchased it in Oct of 2020 and by January 2021, it was throwing errors and would not clean anything. Support was great, I called them up, I told them the issues, they sent me a new unit. The replacement unit seemed to work well for about ten months of being used maybe once a week. Around the beginning of December 2021 I was watching the unit clean my bedroom when all of the sudden it stopped and the red error light came on. No problem I thought, I’ll just put it back on the base since it was pretty much done in that room anyway. I put it on the base, but I could not clear the error. I removed the battery, did a factory reset, but the unit was stuck in an endless boot up loop with a spinning white light. I’ve not had the replacement unit for a year so I create a support ticket to see if they could help me out. After a long delay (despite the policy of responding within a day) I got a response about a week later with some troubleshooting tips. With it not being my first rodeo with these sorts of things, I had already tried to clear the error myself looking through numerous posts. Ultimately, I was asked to send my receipt, a video of myself pushing the clean button, and my address and phone number. After I did this, the ticket was escalated and I was told that there was nothing that could be done. The unit was out of warranty (the replacement unit was less than a year old) and they could not fix it nor replace it. So essentially, I have an $1100 dollar paper weight. Like everyone else who does their research, I had seen the negative reviews about the reliability of this unit. I decided to take the chance and assume that these negative reviews were the exception. After my experience with the robot, searching through all the Reddit posts and support forums, I’ve come to the realization that this robot is simply not reliable enough for the money people are paying for it. I buy high end tools all the time and when I pay upwards of $1000 for a tool, I expect to that tool to last a long time. This is not such a tool. In my estimation and my experience with it, I believe the fault lies in some sort of programming flaw. The hardware itself is amazing, very well made, but all the hiccups that I’ve noticed with this thing seem to revolve around what appears to be some sort of half baked OS. I could be complete wrong about that, but I’ve been in IT for twenty years so I’ve seen similar issues with computers. Overall it has just been an extremely disappointing experience with this robot and at the end, the customer service response just kinda solidified the idea for me that iRobot knows this device is unreliable. They are damaging their reputation in the industry and I think they will eventually realize this mistake when people chose other robots over their’s for increased reliability. Had I know this was going to be such an unreliable robot, I would have sacrificed features and power for reliability. Would have saved myself money too. Save yourself the headache I’ve had, look at other units, I would not recommend this unit to anyone.
@@ivettecontreras5943 I actually ended up getting on Twitter and one day an iRobot ad popped up on my stream and I posted my experience. Shortly there after, to their credit, the woman associated with the Twitter account managed to send me a new unit. I noticed the operating system was completely different and I’ve not had any trouble yet, but I don’t think I’ll buy another iRobot with the way they left me hanging as they did.
Great review. I have four year old that leaves toys everywhere. It sounds like the s9+ would do the same thing as my current two 980s - which is basically to enter a room, find a toy, and then hump it repeatedly until it the motor jams or it can’t move anymore. I refer to them as the toy humpers. I don’t want to hear, “Please move Roomba to a new location,” ever again, which is what sounds like would happen with the s9+.
Thanks for the great review. We also have a Roomba s9+. The first one was terrible, sent it back and got a new one. Still not happy with it... Lots of problems with connecting, starting, not happy with it`s cleaning either. Would definitely NOT buy it again :( Thanks for the suggestion, will definitely look into that.
THANKS for the great review. This was an honest and wonderful review. I bought one about a year ago and while I agree with most of what he said, I haven't experienced breakdowns or broken parts. I'm also the type of guy who prefers to look around and decide if I want a room or zone vacuumed then just as Alexa to tell the iRobot to do it. I also have experienced some minor issues with a moving between two maps and that is because one of my maps is an upstairs map and the home base is downstairs. One cute feature is you can give it a name: Having watched the Netflix show The Crown I always thought the character Uncle Dickie was a hilarious name so I named my iRobot "Dickie Do" and my Alexa affectionately knows and refers to him as "Dickie Do" (side note: my Ring Door Bell is known as "Dickie Ding") . Would I buy it again? Yes ... but I would see what else is out there first.
I wanted to make fun when I first clicked on this vid, but this is exactly how reviews should be done. Love that the final judgement was if the product met the criteria. 👍🏻
I liked your review but was red-flagged when you said what you would buy ecovax instead of the s9plus, because it has the features the s9plus doesn't, and gave a link to it. You didn't give a disclaimer that you weren't paid by ecovax yet you gave a link to them so you would get credit for people buying them. Why give a link to a vacuum you 'would buy' without giving any pros or cons because you never used it? And in one of your closing statements, you said (not exact words), while this does clean my house well, I wouldn't buy it again because..... Well whats the point of a robot vacuum? A lot of them can't even accomplish successfully cleaning a house, so your sentence right there is making me go to for roomba rather than one you decide to promote without any review. So while I seem to be complaining about your review, I still found it useful. I just hope others can avoid being manipulated into buying a vacuum you subtly "recommend" without reviewing. Just saying...
I have to admit, this is one of the best reviews I have seen in my life. Very well spoken, professional, detailed and on point. Thank you for the review!
You're like Ron Swanson's technologically-tolerant cousin. I appreciate the well thought out review. Looks like I won't be getting the s9+ as it seems to suffer from the same issues my Neato D7 does. I'll look into that Ecovacs vacuum you mentioned.
I'm going to get the Roborock S7. I did look into the Ecovacs vacuum mentioned here but it sounds to me like the Roborock S7 is a more complete and better thought out product
@@etcetera662 The Roborock S7 suction of 2500Pa seems awfully low compared to the 3000Pa of the DEEBOT T9. I'm in the market myself have carpet, tile and hardwood floors with a long hair cat. I'm still researching which robot to get. No clue at the moment lol
Yeah, though Vacuum Wars mentioned that despite the low suction power, it performed the best over any other Roborock vacuum at cleaning which is likely due to the redesigned brush and brush housing. I've got a dog and my biggest concern is whether it's non-D-shape will prevent it from cleaning close to walls and furniture. But it seems like there no perfect vacuum out there yet and compromises will need to be made. For me, the number one priority was getting as close to true autonomy as possible while still getting an acceptable clean.
I watched this review in Feb 2021 when I was looking for a robot vacuum - I decided to buy the s9+ because of the double roller and high suction. After 11 months I’m very happy with the device; yes, the software mapping issue mentioned in the review occurred for me more than once but I felt this was a bug that appeared due to user action (specifically, interrupting or aborting a vacuuming job before a proper data exchange was made between vacuum and cloud). In any event, it hasn’t done this for 6 months, perhaps because of a recent software update, and I have always kept multiple rooms mapped. I have no problem with the robot getting stuck. I don’t leave items on the floor and I only need to make sure a used medical mask or sofa cover isn’t an issue for the robot when I leave the house. Yes, once or twice it got stuck and gave up - one time it knocked off a loose cable protector cover and chewed the Ethernet line inside beyond use. However, that destruction could have been accomplished by any robot - and I doubt LiDAR and AI would mitigate such a situation. I also feel I don’t need to service the s9 or its base often. If I run it 3 times to 5 times a week maybe I check the rollers and vacuum the filter once a week- but if I don’t it just collects more hair around the end of the rollers. I do like how the s9 can be placed in any mapped room and knows where it is and I don’t have to worry about it. This in my first vacuum robot and I do have it connected to Alexa and home assistant - it’s great to tell Alexa to send the vacuum to the kitchen or the zone I call the ‘hair place’ (daughters’ hair drying area). I’ve been thinking of getting the brava jet m6 mopper but I enjoy tag-teaming with the s9 as the mop.
@@rachelsessentials True, but it was a difficult read and it was an honest, but good, suggestion. But you can go ahead and skip over comments that you don't like. 😂
Your review is spot to my experience. Had ours for about one year now. Love it except for some of the exact things you discussed. Your pros and cons are well noted. I wish there was a better map editing feature to repair a bad or inaccurate map. Deleting and remapping takes a long time in my house. I find it is very effective with out dogs hair. The bin is a great feature and I’m not sure how I would use one of these if I had to manually empty that bin each run. Thanks for this comprehensive review. Everything you said mirrored my experience. I usually flip my dining room chairs over and place them on the table when I do that room. Less getting stuck that way and I’ve had the machine actually tip chairs over before. Not a good thing if delicate things are nearby. So if I manually move chairs....not really hassle free is it.
Indeed. A manual map editor would be great. Perhaps if you have a trouble spot you can mark it as a clean zone and send the robot to clean it. I believe it updates maps as it cleans so you could force it to remap that small area. I believe that would work. As you know from my review, I just let it whack into my dining chairs. It usually can get in and out without getting stuck, but your experience will depend on your chairs I suppose. As an aside I've noticed lately that it has gotten a lot more cautious about hitting things. I'm betting a software update has changed its behavior around obstacles.
@@isitgoodreviews4095 I will tell you that I got rid of my Shark robotvac with automatic empty. Mostly, it would not clean the lint off of my area rugs at all. One weekend, I cleaned the whole house with it 5 or 6 times and my area rugs still were covered with lint because it would zoom past the high-traffic rug areas and spent seemingly forever under end tables and wrapping itself in my cords and cables. I started lifting it up and putting it exactly where I wanted and then the lint would still be there and I picked up and did it again and eventually, I started picking up the lint by hand walking around with it. Then, I took out my Liftaway and it cleaned the rugs in 15 seconds and I had spent all day long focused on robot vacuuming trying to get the area rugs clean and I felt like I was a babysitter. That isn't when I got rid of it though. I got rid of it when it spread kitty litter all over my house. Oh, it was vacuuming it up, but then it seemed to carry it and dispense it elsewhere. That was so stressful that I said, "Back to the drawing board" and I still watch robot vacuum videos but mine was a nightmare.
I saw this after I ordered my s9. I had trepidation. I absolutely love this thing... I even got the mop. I will say it was rough at first, seemed to always get stuck in easy places and now... I brutes over the carpet edges! It seems to have learned. Same with the mop, at first it seemed unsure and wouldn't even cross tiny room transition pieces. Now, it goes everywhere. Caveat: I have very open spaces, finished floors and low area carpets.
Well, I was all set to get the s9, but now I’m going to look at the Ecovacs robot. Thank you for a well thought out and informative review. Subscribed!
The T8 AIVI looks great on the face of things. It makes great maps, and cleans very nicely. I love the lidar and how it sees everything so well. However, it fails with the software. Maps change, the room dividing is almost impossible to do, and if you do manage it, it will suddenly remove your no go zones, and room division changes you made. The auto emptying part was terrible. I could almost never manage to empty the bin, it would be clogged with dog hair. The answer seemed to be smaller runs, so less was in the bin. That helped for sure. Then it started saying the bin was full and I'd get a red light, and I should check to make sure I removed the pieces that needed to be removed for the auto emptying part. I had when I first got it. It was correctly setup. But it would do the auto empty, and only run for a second instead of the full 20 seconds or so. It was bad enough at cleaning the bin out with the full 20 seconds, but when it stopped even trying to clean it out and was shutting off after a split second or so - I returned it. I took it apart cleaning it and looking for clogs somewhere, but there was nothing visible wrong. Very disappointing.
This is by far the best reviewer on You Tube, I bumped into this page by accident as I'm completely not interested in these products but he had me watching the whole review to the very end as if watching 'Forrest Gump' for the first time. Well done.
*Thank you very much.* This is a real review and best possible. Honest, clear, realistic and very well done. In short: *This review is clearly helpful.* ..and professionally done. Good advice too. *WHAT A PRO Radio Announcer and overtones speaker!..*
I want to point out to viewers that this review is now one year old on a vacuum that is already 1.5 years old. That's a 2.5 year old machine and improvements have been made. If you are watching this review to make a decision on what machine to get, keep this in mind. Roomba has made significant improvements on this model since the reviewer purchased his.
We own this robot. Have had nearly the same experience and feel the same way. We had to replace the original one. We have had to send the second one back in for repair and now I'm working with customer service to fix it again. It does a great job cleaning...when it works. But it almost always gives us trouble. Posted 4/22/22 for reference. Robot is 100% up to date on it's firmware.
Great review I also have the s9+. I can't remember exactly when I got it, but probably close to a year ago. "Baxter" is my fourth Roomba. I have never regretted buying a Roomba, and although I agree with all your points, especially the cost of replacement brushes, I think it is good. I have a small house with wood and tile floors, four cats and two dogs, and a busy life. Baxter vacuums in the morning before I get up, so the floors are barefoot-ready by the time I get up. I run him every day. He will occasionally get stuck on a bathmat, but overall, he does a great job. However, now I'm curious about the other one you recommended, so I'll check that out. I really want a mopping robot. I had an iRobot mopping robot years ago that did almost too good a job and started taking the finish off the hardwood, but it did an amazing job on the tile.
That was a fantastic review! You've covered every question I had plus ones I hadn't even considered. Now I know more about what to look for in a robotic vacuum. Thank you so much for taking the time to make and share this review!
At first I was thinking to myself that I wish you were showing examples of the things that you were talking about. Like the software, the robot doing a specific thing you are mentioning;.. And I still wish this, it would be a nice insight. However, as the video continues.. this is by far in my opinion the BEST review video I've ever seen period. You are extremely informative, and you bring light to all the stuff EVERyone cares about. I wanted to make sure you knew this because I appreciate how thorough the details were that you provided. Thank you so much.
My RoombaI3 is the 3rd member in my family. I also have a Braava Jet M6 and two Roomba 600 series. All named appropriately Eve, Moe, Wall-E and Wall-E 2.0. Sadly Wall-E is currently retired until I can find a local business to service him. Most places just want me to throw him away. He still works but after 5 years he is need of some TLC. Wall-E 2.0 takes care of the upstairs and does a great job most times. He gets stuck more than I like. Eve and Moe work down stairs on hardwood floors. They do great, mostly. We are still learning about each other. When they complete their jobs I am happy and content. I enjoy seeing clean floors. Especially when I have messy fur-babies.
I felt like I sat in a favorite teacher's classroom as they explained a topic we both love and understand, and if I didn't understand parts of it, it was soon explained easily to me so that I did understand. I already knew almost all of this information, and only skipped a few seconds of certain explanations, but listened to the rest simply because of the way it was presented. By the way, I believe the robot *can* operate in the dark IF it is allowed to start its' job in a lit location, to "lock in" its' initial orientation. A lamp/bright night light on a WiFi timer outlet should be sufficient for this and can shut off after the robot begins the first scheduled job in the dark. The optical floor sensor should be sufficient to help it maintain its' location in dark rooms, as I've witnessed on my i3 and i7. If it throws an error, the homing lamp by the clean base may need to remain on for the duration of the job. People seem to have mixed success with this online, but in theory it should work in darkness too, provided the above is complied with. Almost only 2K subscribers? Guess I'm one of the lucky few, and I hope it doesn't stay that way for long. Great video.
Great review. I've had the s9 for about a year and a half. And my experience mirrors yours. It vacuums well, albeit loudly. But it also bangs against every wall and piece of furniture in the house as if it's still trying to blindly create a map. It is also very good at eating cords, going so far as to pull things off tables or shelves. So, we have adapted, trying to keep all s9 edibles off the floor. Fortunately or unfortunately, the s9 started making rattle sounds and then lost suction. It ate its own vacuum fan. And it's out of the warranty period and iRobot doesn't sell the fan module. So much for servicability. The module is just that, a module. As easy to replace as a wheel unit, but iRobot won't sell the part. They did offer $100 store credit if I send the bot back to them and buy a new bot from them.
This reviewer is excellent! No hype, just well thought out comments. Relevant technical information is clearly relayed , making it easy to understand. Thank you for making choosing the best robot vacuum so much easier, top marks for the reviewer.
I had no idea how much the on going costs are, sounds like it would cost $100-200 per year to operate. The high 5 year total cost of ownership, ongoing maintenance, and relatively poor reliability, just doesn't make this appealing at all vs a traditional manual vacuum. A mid tier traditional vacuum of reasonable quality is less than $200, will have very low on-going costs, and are very reliable when used correctly. This vacuum trades off your time performing manual vacuuming, with your time troubleshooting and doing repairs, at a much higher cost. I'm sure there will be robotic vacuums that are cost effective and relatively maintenance free, but it doesn't seem we're close to there yet.
Thank you for your review. I bought the Deebot T8 AIVI instead of the Roomba s9+ based on your recommendation. While I'm still learning its finer points, it has mapped and vacuumed surprisingly well.
Two thumbs-up. 👍😎👍 Damn avoidance limitations .. I have a large dog who "so far" hasn't pooped but also our house has USB cords / headphone jacks everywhere and in particular a rug that I love with 3-in fringe and a runner with 1-in fringe. I guess I'm waiting for the S10+ or the j7+ and m6 combo. This is why you listen to people with first hand experience with these devices.
Those in the market for a robot vacuum can check out the Roborock S7 which has excellent combined vacuum and mopping functions. It is also compatible with an auto emptying station which would be launched soon.
The T8 AIVI is my favorite robot at the moment, and I have owned an S9, but it is NOT hassle free. Not even a little. The app is VERY buggy. The Roborock S6 MaxV is better in terms of being hassle free, but there is no auto-empty docking station, nor can there be (the design does not allow it). I'm not saying you shouldn't get one once you set out to replace your S9, but you should know what you're getting into.
@@RisingTheClan No. It just has too many problems. I wish it were otherwise, but I have problems with the app, with the auto-empty bin, with the robot's navigation algorithms...it's just too annoying. I am probably going to replace it with the new Neabot Q11, if that lives up to its promise. As is, my Neabot NoMo is a lot more hassle free than the Deebot. The only issue is that it doesn't have google/alexa commands beyond "start" and "stop."
You finally answered my question about carpet fringe. My I7 does fine at 10X suction. I wondered about the S9 and 40X the suction. So since my rugs are fringe on the end, I feel the S9 is not for me. Thanks. I am going to take a look at the J series.
The most accurate review from all youtube. I have an i7 Roomba, despite it's a powerful automate vacuum you still need to clean your home in a longer time frame now. The only thing it does well is spare you from cleaning your home more frequently.
Great review on the S9+. I have one and the jury is still out on whether I am keeping it, still in my return window. Great suction, ok mapping and poor battery life on low/med pile carpet. I would love to see your review of some of the other robot vacuum options. Your real world take on this vac is much more useful to me than seeing if a particular robot competes better or worse than another picking up cereal and jelly beans.
Just dumped our Roomba for Deebots N8 Pro+. Just too many software glitches with the Roomba, plus after a couple months it no longer recognizes the clean base so it stops emptying the tank when returning to recharge. Hopefully Deebots will do better.
This is a great review but I bought this robot, for my office, which is fully carpet surface! I have 2 Ecovacs robots, Ozmo 920 at home and N8 pro + in the office. will tell you one thing, this N8 which is newer version after T8 has a lot of issues. It does get stuck on cables even with 3d obstacle avoidance ON, it's battery capacity is low, and sometimes it doesn't get back to the power station, simply shuts down in the middle of the room. I run it 6 days a week in the office, and 2 times out of 6 it is not getting back. + it has reached its limit, it doesn't go further, not covering all territory. the interface of Ozmo is way much better then iRobot. will see how it goes in the long run
I bought one two years ago it has not worked consistently even for three days in a row! It has been hell! I talk to customer service and they get it working for me and then it quits working again almost immediately! I hate hate hate hate it! Total waste of money!
Half way trough i notices that his fingers did not move. I was wondering that it was fake limbs. Had to watch another video from him to see it was not. Great review by the way! Keep up the good work. It was helpful for me.
Excellent review in content and style. I own a Narwal mop. It's best feature is that has a vacuum mode WITHOUT A ROLLER. For super-shedding dogs this is a must. Do you know if the S9+ or Ozmo can pick hair from hardwood floors without the rollers in place?
Outstanding review on Roomba S-9 plus that I have ever come across so far! I have using mine, brand new Roomba S9 Plus, just for about three-ish weeks, but I can relate to all pros and cons that you touched on in the review. I was extremely happy with its works, especially with its seemingly low-maintenance demand. However, I have been on the brink thinking whether I should return the machine since there is one ongoing issues that has frustrated me almost to a great deal. The machine currently keeps stopping in the middle of its job and asking to have its brushes and/or debris extractor to be cleaned. Nevertheless, every after I checking out and cleaning the brushes, it will soon halt its jobs and send out the same error message again. Today, I just replaced all of the brushes with the new ones following a suggestion from the customer service . The problem still remains. I am wondering you have any other suggestion that I should try before the 30-day return deadline. I got it with a good deal and don't want to give up on it too soon :)
I have seen that error before, but not to the extent you describe. When you check the brushes and debris extractor, is there indeed debris stuck in there? If so, it's probably not a problem with the robot. I would bet that after a few runs the issue will resolve itself. If there isn't debris stuck in there, then the robot is likely faulty and you should ask customer service to replace it. If they will not, then you should return it. I wouldn't let that deadline get too close, pad it by a week or so to avoid warranty denial.
One item that robotic vacuum designers seem to gloss over is total run time. They say that since the vacuum returns to its charger independently, it doesn't matter. I totally disagree! I have a Roborock vacuum that completes cleaning my first floor in approximately 110 minutes, then returns to its base. I bought a Roomba last year -- that I subsequently returned -- and it took over 6 HOURS to complete cleaning the same area! It would run for 35 minutes (I have mostly carpeting), recharge, run another 35 minutes, recharge again, ad nauseum. Since I have large, long-haired dogs, I had it scheduled to run every day. And since I am retired, I'm home most days; the never-ending cycle was both inconvenient and annoying! There is absolutely no reason why Roomba continues to use undersized batteries for their products!
Great review! But wish it didn’t have the changeable dirt bag! Easier to stick a vacuum tube in the tower to suck out the dirt or have a removable dust catcher! Thank you, you saved me a lot of money, I’ll keep my money in my wallet!
1.75x speed works well for this video. Questions and concerns: 1. The Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barrier (DMVWB), aka lighthouses, like the ones you have shown @ 6:48, are compatible with the S9 and/or other modern Roombas? Those, I believe are the older models, but perhaps they still work. 2. Once the map is created, can the app's "keep out" zones effectively replace the DMVWBs? 3. 16:42 - Needs light to vacuum? This is a egregious oversight, especially when it does not have a forward camera. 4. 17:18 - Repeated software issues is a MAJOR hassle; I agree. They're like the repeated bane of modern "smart" technology. How many times have you had to update the software/app for seemingly no reason other than to update it? 5. 18:28 - Proves that the Roomba J7, with the front camera, is the better choice if you don't need the more-powerful suction and wider cleaning swath. 6. 20:50 - Perfect answer. IMHO, iRobot is a company that got lucky. They developed a bump-n-go toy with no intelligence, but it was an automatic vacuum. People are generally super lazy, so they became popular. Now they continue to develop high-priced, seemingly mediocre products. The more things change, the more they stay the same, apparently.
I've owned mine for about 14 months and have had to replace the vacuum 2 times. Warranty is reduced on replacement and well, now this replacement is acting up. First one just stopped running, second one was on flat vinyl floor and kept saying drop off detected. Now for the third one, keeps telling me lid is open when it's closed and to empty the bin when the bin is already empty. Wish I had not traded up my i7+ it didn't pick up as well but never had problems in the 2 years I had it.
Great review. No nonsense and straight to the point. I'm just interested in knowing why you would get the Ecovacs Deebot when the reviews are not so great. My search continues. I have a Irobot 675 and while I am happy with it I'm just not happy at how it's so erractic.
Found this video a few weeks ago. What an excellent, informative review. I'm definitely a subscriber and I truly hope you keep it up as these videos are excellent. All round one of the best reviews I've seen. Like another commenter, I watched at increased speed.
I bought one from amazon and bought a 4 year warranty. It lasted 3 years and they gave me the money to replace it. I have loved it. 3 years is probably a good life span for a vacuum especially a robot. I always went around and picked up anything that could hurt it and just let it pick up hidden dirt for me. I hope the new one does as well as the old one, There are a lot of negative reviews. I have had irobots since they came out with them and they always seem to last a couple years and then their life is just over but regular vacuums are the same. They die with me too despite taking them into repair shops. Would I buy it again? Well I was about to until I read the bad reviews. Now I'm still in the process of deciding. To top it off I am going to have to chat with amazon as the warranty isn't offered with it. Amazon said make sure you buy amazon shipped and amazon sold and I didn't know that either so watch that.
If you are looking to buy a Roomba I would highly recommend you stay away from the S9 and stick with the I7+ or even the J7+. I own 1 I7 and 2 I7+ Roombas and they are by far the most reliable of the Roomba’s I own. I also currently own 1 S9+ though have had 4 others over the years and they have all been a constant source of problems and become unusable. In each case their Tech support personnel have all been helpful but none have been able to ascertain what had gone wrong with the Roomba.
The problem I see with the review channels is that in the end (when they get more subscribers) they all are chasing for free products and manufacturers are giving them free products in multiple quantities for "fair" review. No one can take a product from a manufacturer and say anything bad about it. It's in the contract almost all the time. I can only think of one channel that has built itself on honest reviews and refuse to take sponsor (As of yet)- Project Farm.
Warning: Long, rambling reply incoming... This is something I considered before starting my review channel. Can an honest reviewer compete in the review game? I think Yes I can, and here's why... Being an independent product reviewer is tough for just the reason you stated; as a small reviewer you may have to rely on the goodwill of manufacturers to provide you with products. I certainly wouldn't have bought a thousand dollar robot vacuum for review. Now-a-days however, with Patreon or other fan-driven income models, independent reviewers may be able to afford to buy their own products for review, and not be beholden to anyone. This, of course, relies on large audiences with charitable intentions however. Or, if you're a very well established reviewer, you can rely on other income streams like advertising. Buying your own products however means that you will never get your review out before the product arrives on the market, or even at the same time as the launch. Being first drives the audience to your videos, and so you would need to make peace with the fact that you will forever be a smaller player in the review game (if you wait for retail launch to begin your review process). If I could get legitimate free products for review I absolutely would review them. Right now I have an offer to review a home security camera, but I'm leery of it because it may be a scam. Regarding giving a product a bad review; in my mind it's in my best interest to review the product fairly so as not to lose audience confidence. Dishonest reviews are not only undesirable simply because they're dishonest, but they can kill a reviewers career, and ultimately without an audience all those free products won't net me any income. Also, reviewing a product poorly might gain one a larger audience if the audience believes your review is more honest and accurate than the competition's reviews. In the case of some reviewers, poor reviews can prove to be their most popular reviews. Take Unbox Therapy for instance, while they aren't strictly a review site (they do unboxing and first impression videos) they did notice that iPhones are easy to bend, and so they made a video about it. It went viral and was carried by major news outlets. It was sensational for sure, iPhone is a big product, so it was self-serving honesty, but it could also be argued that it took integrity for them to release the video and risk ruining their relationship with Apple (if they have one). As an honest reviewer one would have two options when facing a bad product for review; give it a bad review, or not review it. Either way would preserve your integrity, but choosing to review the product and divulge its flaws would better serve the audience, and therefore yourself. Ultimately, in the review game it's self-serving to call out the flaws of the product. (At least that's my opinion.) Luckily it's also the most ethical choice as well, so not really a difficult choice at all. TL;DR - Honesty is the best Policy. edit: spelling is hard
@@isitgoodreviews4095 I agree with you 100%. I like your review and I wish it stays true and honest like that. I cannot see myself trusting outlets that get free products for review. It is no different than people who write fake reviews on Amazon, and you know how much we hate those. You are right that it may be beneficial for a channel to give honest reviews even if it is a negative one, but it certainly is not beneficial to the product sponsor. In many cases they forbid you to say anything negative. I also know of a channel where the manufacturer's attorney even put this in a contract for the youtube channel producer that every time he reviews their product, he has to wear slacks in videos and cannot be wearing shorts. I trust your video of Roomba with one vacuum cleaner over the video of a certain channel who features the guy rolling on the floor with 20+ robotic vacuum cleaner. Anyway, I am subscribed to your channel and will wait for more videos.
Excellent review. I have just returned an Ecovacs 950. I only managed to use it five times, and did not get to use the shampoo. It cleaned well. but would not connect to my phone. I was sad to see it go.
i dont know how i found this video and i dont need one of these robots, but you explaining in that way is very interesting, i realy enjoyed the review.
When you close the lid tap the close lid slightly to the right. It will realine the sensors. This tells me that the lid shift overtime...I've only my new one since March after a 3 month wait on a warranty replacement...the first one worked for 3 weeks before having programming errors
Good video! But will no brand produce a robot vacuum cleaner with all the functions? hhaha the function of mopping the floor was missing! and it could also have the function of recharging its base, its tank, with water, or even if possible, some other perfumed liquid, right? OR IS THIS ROBOT VACUUM CLEANER ALREADY EXISTING with all those functions I mentioned above? if the answer is yes, what is the name of it?
Have been debating back and forth over this vacuum or the Shark IQ at over half the price. I think this video helped me make my final decision. Thanks!!!
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](/img/n.gif)
This guy can guide me on my first intergalactic flight
My thought exactly.
You are so lame. This guy couldn't guide you to a decent barber.
Great answer 🤣😂
Guys! Can’t you see he is an A.I. !?
He can guide into a bad purchase on the moon maybe lol
I honestly think this is the best review I've ever seen. Extremely thorough, well paced, and without any fluff.
The fact that this is such a long term review is excellent too, instead of being just a few days or a few canned tests.
I agree. The best review, all the other feels like ads now in comparison. He saved my money.
Exactly! Agree
Agreed
This man can explain anything to me at anytime. His review was a pleasure to listen to.
You are too easily led by con artists.
Very well done Sir! When i first started to listen to him i thought " wow, so serious" but then, sentence after sentence i was wow... thats nice! 😉😜
What an intelligent, well-reasoned, clearly spoken, detailed review - and I watched at 1.5 speed. Thank you, Mr IIGR.
Omg thank you I did not know we could speed stuff up. 1.5 was exactly what this needed.
This gentleman could make a review on paint drying and make it interesting.
On my life I was NOT going to sit through this when I saw it was 23 mins long. I did, and I'm glad. I've been an iRobot user since they came out. Your review was very informative. NO filler (THANK YOU!). You have another subscriber.
Best review I've ever seen on any product. This guy has a great voice, he's easily understood, and he researches and reviews his products impeccably. This is a must have reviewer for anyone.
This is the best and most thorough review of anything I've ever heard. This man could probably make me understand top-level math.
Thank you¡
I agree 100%. For $1,000 we should have a vacuum that you shouldn't have to be babysitting anymore.
Best review I have EVER seen. Unfortunately, now I don’t want to buy a new robot vacuum without a positive review from this channel.
He reminds me of my college professor, who taught so well I made several A's in his class. Excellent review darling.
I was set to buy the Roomba s9+ before I watched this review. Now, I've changed my mind. Thanks!
I'm glad I helped you!
Don't be a tool. This dude runs a TH-cam channel. Don't listen to TH-camrs.
@@Slick1020 but listen to youtube commenters like me instead!
This is an amazing review.
I actually told my wife about it, and i think you’ve helped me make an informed decision not to purchase this product and to look elsewhere.
I agree that the whole point of getting a robotic vacuum is to take some or all of the burden of vacuuming off yourself. It doesn’t make sense to buy a product that you’re just going to have to baby sit. I’d rather have the product steer clear of any and every household object and manually vacuum those areas later myself than have to delete, robot proof, and remap my house multiple times. I do live in a two story house as well.
But most important (in my opinion) to my positive review of your review is the fact that you gave legit facts the whole time. I’m sure you had a lot more opinions on this product that you didn’t point out. Example was when discussing robot proofing your house. You pointed out the iRobot beacons that you could purchase. I came to my own conclusion that they sound like a hassle lol
Love it. I wish you had more reviews! My wife and I just recently got a house only a few months ago and we’re definitely looking to expand our ownership of handy household things.
Awesome . Thank you for a detailed explanation of your personal experience with the S9+. This is one of my favorite video reviews for the S9+. Right to the point. Clear and no redundancy sharing your pros and cons. Again, thank you!!! Job well done.
Thank you so much!
Great speaking voice. You really threw a knuckleball at the end. I never thought you were going to regret getting it.
This is very promising. I am definitely coming back to this channel. Well done.
Important quotes for this documentary:
Viewing the Roomba S9 from afar, we can see it ravenously devours rugs, trailing a path of distraction in its wake.
The fusion core of the device allows it not only vigorously clean surfaces, it means on long interstellar journeys the device can maintain warp speed without tapping into its reserve power cells.
The S9 is not so much a life form, but a automoton. This can be beguiling to humanoids, or even some synthetic life forms such as bio-mutants from the planet Gargan 8 Alpha. Caution should be taken in your emotional attachment to this device, as after all, it is not truely sentient.
May you live long and prosper.
P.S Really great review!
Excellent review. We have had our S9+ for about 9 months now and our thoughts pretty much fall in line with your review. When it works, it works great (which is most of the time), but there have been issues. Not long after we got the robot the extraction fan shattered, which resulted in a new robot being sent out to us. 9 months later and we are now waiting for a second replacement robot due to problems with docking and navigating. The front of the robot has become quite scratched up over time and I suspect that may be part of the problem, with the docking at least. Despite these problems, having a robotic vacuum has been great. Once this one is out of warranty I will most likely start looking at replacement options with a camera/LIDAR.
I was fully set on getting a S9+. Thank you for a balanced review - I feel informed without any opinions being pushed on me!
I'm very glad I could help you!
Price
Excellent and thorough review, which gives a comprehensive preview of owning one of these. Well done.
Agreed
Let me preface this review by saying, when this robot works, it’s pretty dang good….. however, it doesn’t work for very long. Let me start at the beginning. I purchased this unit after an extensive few months of research. I could have bought any robot I wanted, but I settled on this robot based on all the reviews. I purchased it in Oct of 2020 and by January 2021, it was throwing errors and would not clean anything. Support was great, I called them up, I told them the issues, they sent me a new unit. The replacement unit seemed to work well for about ten months of being used maybe once a week. Around the beginning of December 2021 I was watching the unit clean my bedroom when all of the sudden it stopped and the red error light came on. No problem I thought, I’ll just put it back on the base since it was pretty much done in that room anyway. I put it on the base, but I could not clear the error. I removed the battery, did a factory reset, but the unit was stuck in an endless boot up loop with a spinning white light. I’ve not had the replacement unit for a year so I create a support ticket to see if they could help me out. After a long delay (despite the policy of responding within a day) I got a response about a week later with some troubleshooting tips. With it not being my first rodeo with these sorts of things, I had already tried to clear the error myself looking through numerous posts. Ultimately, I was asked to send my receipt, a video of myself pushing the clean button, and my address and phone number. After I did this, the ticket was escalated and I was told that there was nothing that could be done. The unit was out of warranty (the replacement unit was less than a year old) and they could not fix it nor replace it. So essentially, I have an $1100 dollar paper weight.
Like everyone else who does their research, I had seen the negative reviews about the reliability of this unit. I decided to take the chance and assume that these negative reviews were the exception. After my experience with the robot, searching through all the Reddit posts and support forums, I’ve come to the realization that this robot is simply not reliable enough for the money people are paying for it. I buy high end tools all the time and when I pay upwards of $1000 for a tool, I expect to that tool to last a long time. This is not such a tool. In my estimation and my experience with it, I believe the fault lies in some sort of programming flaw. The hardware itself is amazing, very well made, but all the hiccups that I’ve noticed with this thing seem to revolve around what appears to be some sort of half baked OS. I could be complete wrong about that, but I’ve been in IT for twenty years so I’ve seen similar issues with computers. Overall it has just been an extremely disappointing experience with this robot and at the end, the customer service response just kinda solidified the idea for me that iRobot knows this device is unreliable. They are damaging their reputation in the industry and I think they will eventually realize this mistake when people chose other robots over their’s for increased reliability. Had I know this was going to be such an unreliable robot, I would have sacrificed features and power for reliability. Would have saved myself money too.
Save yourself the headache I’ve had, look at other units, I would not recommend this unit to anyone.
Thanks for your comments and detailed perspective, you are a good person helping others by describing your experience
@@ivettecontreras5943 I actually ended up getting on Twitter and one day an iRobot ad popped up on my stream and I posted my experience. Shortly there after, to their credit, the woman associated with the Twitter account managed to send me a new unit. I noticed the operating system was completely different and I’ve not had any trouble yet, but I don’t think I’ll buy another iRobot with the way they left me hanging as they did.
Great review. I have four year old that leaves toys everywhere. It sounds like the s9+ would do the same thing as my current two 980s - which is basically to enter a room, find a toy, and then hump it repeatedly until it the motor jams or it can’t move anymore. I refer to them as the toy humpers. I don’t want to hear, “Please move Roomba to a new location,” ever again, which is what sounds like would happen with the s9+.
This is by far the best, most thorough and thoughtful review I've ever seen. Thank you so very much!
You're very welcome!
this man can explain the universe.
Thanks for the great review. We also have a Roomba s9+. The first one was terrible, sent it back and got a new one. Still not happy with it... Lots of problems with connecting, starting, not happy with it`s cleaning either. Would definitely NOT buy it again :( Thanks for the suggestion, will definitely look into that.
THANKS for the great review. This was an honest and wonderful review. I bought one about a year ago and while I agree with most of what he said, I haven't experienced breakdowns or broken parts. I'm also the type of guy who prefers to look around and decide if I want a room or zone vacuumed then just as Alexa to tell the iRobot to do it. I also have experienced some minor issues with a moving between two maps and that is because one of my maps is an upstairs map and the home base is downstairs. One cute feature is you can give it a name: Having watched the Netflix show The Crown I always thought the character Uncle Dickie was a hilarious name so I named my iRobot "Dickie Do" and my Alexa affectionately knows and refers to him as "Dickie Do" (side note: my Ring Door Bell is known as "Dickie Ding") . Would I buy it again? Yes ... but I would see what else is out there first.
They should've paid this guy for this video. Free robot vacuum upgrades for life.
I wanted to make fun when I first clicked on this vid, but this is exactly how reviews should be done. Love that the final judgement was if the product met the criteria. 👍🏻
I liked your review but was red-flagged when you said what you would buy ecovax instead of the s9plus, because it has the features the s9plus doesn't, and gave a link to it. You didn't give a disclaimer that you weren't paid by ecovax yet you gave a link to them so you would get credit for people buying them. Why give a link to a vacuum you 'would buy' without giving any pros or cons because you never used it?
And in one of your closing statements, you said (not exact words), while this does clean my house well, I wouldn't buy it again because.....
Well whats the point of a robot vacuum? A lot of them can't even accomplish successfully cleaning a house, so your sentence right there is making me go to for roomba rather than one you decide to promote without any review. So while I seem to be complaining about your review, I still found it useful. I just hope others can avoid being manipulated into buying a vacuum you subtly "recommend" without reviewing.
Just saying...
I have to admit, this is one of the best reviews I have seen in my life. Very well spoken, professional, detailed and on point. Thank you for the review!
You're like Ron Swanson's technologically-tolerant cousin. I appreciate the well thought out review. Looks like I won't be getting the s9+ as it seems to suffer from the same issues my Neato D7 does. I'll look into that Ecovacs vacuum you mentioned.
What did you decide on?
I'm going to get the Roborock S7. I did look into the Ecovacs vacuum mentioned here but it sounds to me like the Roborock S7 is a more complete and better thought out product
@@etcetera662 The Roborock S7 suction of 2500Pa seems awfully low compared to the 3000Pa of the DEEBOT T9. I'm in the market myself have carpet, tile and hardwood floors with a long hair cat. I'm still researching which robot to get. No clue at the moment lol
Yeah, though Vacuum Wars mentioned that despite the low suction power, it performed the best over any other Roborock vacuum at cleaning which is likely due to the redesigned brush and brush housing. I've got a dog and my biggest concern is whether it's non-D-shape will prevent it from cleaning close to walls and furniture. But it seems like there no perfect vacuum out there yet and compromises will need to be made. For me, the number one priority was getting as close to true autonomy as possible while still getting an acceptable clean.
@@etcetera662 Same here, what about the Shark Ai that came out recently?
I watched this review in Feb 2021 when I was looking for a robot vacuum - I decided to buy the s9+ because of the double roller and high suction. After 11 months I’m very happy with the device; yes, the software mapping issue mentioned in the review occurred for me more than once but I felt this was a bug that appeared due to user action (specifically, interrupting or aborting a vacuuming job before a proper data exchange was made between vacuum and cloud). In any event, it hasn’t done this for 6 months, perhaps because of a recent software update, and I have always kept multiple rooms mapped. I have no problem with the robot getting stuck. I don’t leave items on the floor and I only need to make sure a used medical mask or sofa cover isn’t an issue for the robot when I leave the house. Yes, once or twice it got stuck and gave up - one time it knocked off a loose cable protector cover and chewed the Ethernet line inside beyond use. However, that destruction could have been accomplished by any robot - and I doubt LiDAR and AI would mitigate such a situation. I also feel I don’t need to service the s9 or its base often. If I run it 3 times to 5 times a week maybe I check the rollers and vacuum the filter once a week- but if I don’t it just collects more hair around the end of the rollers. I do like how the s9 can be placed in any mapped room and knows where it is and I don’t have to worry about it. This in my first vacuum robot and I do have it connected to Alexa and home assistant - it’s great to tell Alexa to send the vacuum to the kitchen or the zone I call the ‘hair place’ (daughters’ hair drying area). I’ve been thinking of getting the brava jet m6 mopper but I enjoy tag-teaming with the s9 as the mop.
It's okay to use paragraphs.
@@CinHalCedHerChanceit's ok to skip over comments that you don't like
@@rachelsessentials True, but it was a difficult read and it was an honest, but good, suggestion.
But you can go ahead and skip over comments that you don't like. 😂
Your review is spot to my experience. Had ours for about one year now. Love it except for some of the exact things you discussed. Your pros and cons are well noted. I wish there was a better map editing feature to repair a bad or inaccurate map. Deleting and remapping takes a long time in my house. I find it is very effective with out dogs hair. The bin is a great feature and I’m not sure how I would use one of these if I had to manually empty that bin each run. Thanks for this comprehensive review. Everything you said mirrored my experience. I usually flip my dining room chairs over and place them on the table when I do that room. Less getting stuck that way and I’ve had the machine actually tip chairs over before. Not a good thing if delicate things are nearby. So if I manually move chairs....not really hassle free is it.
Indeed. A manual map editor would be great. Perhaps if you have a trouble spot you can mark it as a clean zone and send the robot to clean it. I believe it updates maps as it cleans so you could force it to remap that small area. I believe that would work. As you know from my review, I just let it whack into my dining chairs. It usually can get in and out without getting stuck, but your experience will depend on your chairs I suppose. As an aside I've noticed lately that it has gotten a lot more cautious about hitting things. I'm betting a software update has changed its behavior around obstacles.
@@isitgoodreviews4095 I will tell you that I got rid of my Shark robotvac with automatic empty. Mostly, it would not clean the lint off of my area rugs at all. One weekend, I cleaned the whole house with it 5 or 6 times and my area rugs still were covered with lint because it would zoom past the high-traffic rug areas and spent seemingly forever under end tables and wrapping itself in my cords and cables. I started lifting it up and putting it exactly where I wanted and then the lint would still be there and I picked up and did it again and eventually, I started picking up the lint by hand walking around with it. Then, I took out my Liftaway and it cleaned the rugs in 15 seconds and I had spent all day long focused on robot vacuuming trying to get the area rugs clean and I felt like I was a babysitter. That isn't when I got rid of it though. I got rid of it when it spread kitty litter all over my house. Oh, it was vacuuming it up, but then it seemed to carry it and dispense it elsewhere. That was so stressful that I said, "Back to the drawing board" and I still watch robot vacuum videos but mine was a nightmare.
I saw this after I ordered my s9. I had trepidation. I absolutely love this thing... I even got the mop.
I will say it was rough at first, seemed to always get stuck in easy places and now... I brutes over the carpet edges! It seems to have learned. Same with the mop, at first it seemed unsure and wouldn't even cross tiny room transition pieces. Now, it goes everywhere.
Caveat: I have very open spaces, finished floors and low area carpets.
Finally a reviewer that does not give anxiety. Useful! Thanks
I love this channels aesthetic, very relaxing and I like the music. Don’t change anything and just keep making videos
Well, I was all set to get the s9, but now I’m going to look at the Ecovacs robot. Thank you for a well thought out and informative review. Subscribed!
Happy to help!
What did you end up getting?
@@shanew7361 Had to wait, leaning to the S9 still, had to wait! I’ll update once I get one.
@@pauladavies9809 I've been eyeballing the Roborock S7 plus, I actually just ordered it lol
The T8 AIVI looks great on the face of things. It makes great maps, and cleans very nicely. I love the lidar and how it sees everything so well. However, it fails with the software. Maps change, the room dividing is almost impossible to do, and if you do manage it, it will suddenly remove your no go zones, and room division changes you made. The auto emptying part was terrible. I could almost never manage to empty the bin, it would be clogged with dog hair. The answer seemed to be smaller runs, so less was in the bin. That helped for sure. Then it started saying the bin was full and I'd get a red light, and I should check to make sure I removed the pieces that needed to be removed for the auto emptying part. I had when I first got it. It was correctly setup. But it would do the auto empty, and only run for a second instead of the full 20 seconds or so. It was bad enough at cleaning the bin out with the full 20 seconds, but when it stopped even trying to clean it out and was shutting off after a split second or so - I returned it. I took it apart cleaning it and looking for clogs somewhere, but there was nothing visible wrong. Very disappointing.
Good I read about your Ecovax Osmo T8 AIVI, I was about to look it.
This is a great review! I only wish that I had seen it before buying a Roomba S9+. I predict you will be a TH-cam star with reviews like this.
This is by far the best reviewer on You Tube, I bumped into this page by accident as I'm completely not interested in these products but he had me watching the whole review to the very end as if watching 'Forrest Gump' for the first time. Well done.
*Thank you very much.* This is a real review and best possible. Honest, clear, realistic and very well done. In short: *This review is clearly helpful.* ..and professionally done. Good advice too. *WHAT A PRO Radio Announcer and overtones speaker!..*
Hold on this is the guy that read audible books feels like I’m watching a commercial tutorial from I robot . I like this he should have more subs
I want to point out to viewers that this review is now one year old on a vacuum that is already 1.5 years old. That's a 2.5 year old machine and improvements have been made. If you are watching this review to make a decision on what machine to get, keep this in mind. Roomba has made significant improvements on this model since the reviewer purchased his.
Thank you for posting this. Much appreciated.
We own this robot. Have had nearly the same experience and feel the same way. We had to replace the original one. We have had to send the second one back in for repair and now I'm working with customer service to fix it again. It does a great job cleaning...when it works. But it almost always gives us trouble. Posted 4/22/22 for reference. Robot is 100% up to date on it's firmware.
Great review I also have the s9+. I can't remember exactly when I got it, but probably close to a year ago. "Baxter" is my fourth Roomba. I have never regretted buying a Roomba, and although I agree with all your points, especially the cost of replacement brushes, I think it is good. I have a small house with wood and tile floors, four cats and two dogs, and a busy life. Baxter vacuums in the morning before I get up, so the floors are barefoot-ready by the time I get up. I run him every day. He will occasionally get stuck on a bathmat, but overall, he does a great job. However, now I'm curious about the other one you recommended, so I'll check that out. I really want a mopping robot. I had an iRobot mopping robot years ago that did almost too good a job and started taking the finish off the hardwood, but it did an amazing job on the tile.
That was a fantastic review! You've covered every question I had plus ones I hadn't even considered. Now I know more about what to look for in a robotic vacuum. Thank you so much for taking the time to make and share this review!
At first I was thinking to myself that I wish you were showing examples of the things that you were talking about. Like the software, the robot doing a specific thing you are mentioning;.. And I still wish this, it would be a nice insight. However, as the video continues.. this is by far in my opinion the BEST review video I've ever seen period. You are extremely informative, and you bring light to all the stuff EVERyone cares about. I wanted to make sure you knew this because I appreciate how thorough the details were that you provided. Thank you so much.
This review took enough for me to subscribe to your videos. Thank you so much!!
My RoombaI3 is the 3rd member in my family. I also have a Braava Jet M6 and two Roomba 600 series. All named appropriately Eve, Moe, Wall-E and Wall-E 2.0. Sadly Wall-E is currently retired until I can find a local business to service him. Most places just want me to throw him away. He still works but after 5 years he is need of some TLC. Wall-E 2.0 takes care of the upstairs and does a great job most times. He gets stuck more than I like. Eve and Moe work down stairs on hardwood floors. They do great, mostly. We are still learning about each other. When they complete their jobs I am happy and content. I enjoy seeing clean floors. Especially when I have messy fur-babies.
I felt like I sat in a favorite teacher's classroom as they explained a topic we both love and understand, and if I didn't understand parts of it, it was soon explained easily to me so that I did understand. I already knew almost all of this information, and only skipped a few seconds of certain explanations, but listened to the rest simply because of the way it was presented.
By the way, I believe the robot *can* operate in the dark IF it is allowed to start its' job in a lit location, to "lock in" its' initial orientation. A lamp/bright night light on a WiFi timer outlet should be sufficient for this and can shut off after the robot begins the first scheduled job in the dark. The optical floor sensor should be sufficient to help it maintain its' location in dark rooms, as I've witnessed on my i3 and i7. If it throws an error, the homing lamp by the clean base may need to remain on for the duration of the job. People seem to have mixed success with this online, but in theory it should work in darkness too, provided the above is complied with.
Almost only 2K subscribers? Guess I'm one of the lucky few, and I hope it doesn't stay that way for long. Great video.
Great review.
I've had the s9 for about a year and a half. And my experience mirrors yours.
It vacuums well, albeit loudly.
But it also bangs against every wall and piece of furniture in the house as if it's still trying to blindly create a map.
It is also very good at eating cords, going so far as to pull things off tables or shelves.
So, we have adapted, trying to keep all s9 edibles off the floor.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the s9 started making rattle sounds and then lost suction. It ate its own vacuum fan. And it's out of the warranty period and iRobot doesn't sell the fan module. So much for servicability. The module is just that, a module. As easy to replace as a wheel unit, but iRobot won't sell the part.
They did offer $100 store credit if I send the bot back to them and buy a new bot from them.
This reviewer is excellent! No hype, just well thought out comments. Relevant technical information is clearly relayed , making it easy to understand. Thank you for making choosing the best robot vacuum so much easier, top marks for the reviewer.
I had no idea how much the on going costs are, sounds like it would cost $100-200 per year to operate. The high 5 year total cost of ownership, ongoing maintenance, and relatively poor reliability, just doesn't make this appealing at all vs a traditional manual vacuum. A mid tier traditional vacuum of reasonable quality is less than $200, will have very low on-going costs, and are very reliable when used correctly. This vacuum trades off your time performing manual vacuuming, with your time troubleshooting and doing repairs, at a much higher cost. I'm sure there will be robotic vacuums that are cost effective and relatively maintenance free, but it doesn't seem we're close to there yet.
God Dmn, you sound like a pro speaker, clear and calm...a pleasure to follow your reviews!
I Robot should hire you!! Best review i ever heard. Mid way through the video i just ended up buying the I Robot.
Thank you for your review. I bought the Deebot T8 AIVI instead of the Roomba s9+ based on your recommendation. While I'm still learning its finer points, it has mapped and vacuumed surprisingly well.
I hope you enjoy it!
After 6 months with the T8... what do you think of it now?
yeah what about now ? I'm thinking of buying one in the upcoming days
@@user-lq4wk5ub1k Good question I'd like to know too.
Two thumbs-up. 👍😎👍 Damn avoidance limitations .. I have a large dog who "so far" hasn't pooped but also our house has USB cords / headphone jacks everywhere and in particular a rug that I love with 3-in fringe and a runner with 1-in fringe.
I guess I'm waiting for the S10+ or the j7+ and m6 combo. This is why you listen to people with first hand experience with these devices.
Those in the market for a robot vacuum can check out the Roborock S7 which has excellent combined vacuum and mopping functions. It is also compatible with an auto emptying station which would be launched soon.
The T8 AIVI is my favorite robot at the moment, and I have owned an S9, but it is NOT hassle free. Not even a little. The app is VERY buggy. The Roborock S6 MaxV is better in terms of being hassle free, but there is no auto-empty docking station, nor can there be (the design does not allow it). I'm not saying you shouldn't get one once you set out to replace your S9, but you should know what you're getting into.
Do you still recommend the T8 AIVI as the best robot today?
@@RisingTheClan No. It just has too many problems. I wish it were otherwise, but I have problems with the app, with the auto-empty bin, with the robot's navigation algorithms...it's just too annoying. I am probably going to replace it with the new Neabot Q11, if that lives up to its promise. As is, my Neabot NoMo is a lot more hassle free than the Deebot. The only issue is that it doesn't have google/alexa commands beyond "start" and "stop."
Then again, if you have a lot of patience for small annoying issues, then it's a great robot.
@@MrRoombato Thank you for the insight, Mr. Roombato!
@@RisingTheClan You're welcome.
You finally answered my question about carpet fringe. My I7 does fine at 10X suction. I wondered about the S9 and 40X the suction. So since my rugs are fringe on the end, I feel the S9 is not for me. Thanks. I am going to take a look at the J series.
Thank you. I have been looking for a replacement for my old Roomba. The S9+ is now off my list.
The most accurate review from all youtube. I have an i7 Roomba, despite it's a powerful automate vacuum you still need to clean your home in a longer time frame now. The only thing it does well is spare you from cleaning your home more frequently.
Thank you ! The best ever review of anything I’ve seen published. I echo all of the other positive comments
You now have me as a subscriber
Great review on the S9+. I have one and the jury is still out on whether I am keeping it, still in my return window. Great suction, ok mapping and poor battery life on low/med pile carpet. I would love to see your review of some of the other robot vacuum options. Your real world take on this vac is much more useful to me than seeing if a particular robot competes better or worse than another picking up cereal and jelly beans.
Just dumped our Roomba for Deebots N8 Pro+. Just too many software glitches with the Roomba, plus after a couple months it no longer recognizes the clean base so it stops emptying the tank when returning to recharge. Hopefully Deebots will do better.
Can't say I care much about vacuums, but something about this man fascinates me.
This is a great review but I bought this robot, for my office, which is fully carpet surface!
I have 2 Ecovacs robots, Ozmo 920 at home and N8 pro + in the office.
will tell you one thing, this N8 which is newer version after T8 has a lot of issues.
It does get stuck on cables even with 3d obstacle avoidance ON, it's battery capacity is low, and sometimes it doesn't get back to the power station, simply shuts down in the middle of the room. I run it 6 days a week in the office, and 2 times out of 6 it is not getting back.
+ it has reached its limit, it doesn't go further, not covering all territory.
the interface of Ozmo is way much better then iRobot. will see how it goes in the long run
I bought one two years ago it has not worked consistently even for three days in a row! It has been hell! I talk to customer service and they get it working for me and then it quits working again almost immediately! I hate hate hate hate it! Total waste of money!
Great review! Very organized and professionally done.
Glad you liked it!
Half way trough i notices that his fingers did not move. I was wondering that it was fake limbs. Had to watch another video from him to see it was not. Great review by the way! Keep up the good work. It was helpful for me.
One of the best views I've ever seen! Very thorough and honest.
Excellent review in content and style. I own a Narwal mop. It's best feature is that has a vacuum mode WITHOUT A ROLLER. For super-shedding dogs this is a must. Do you know if the S9+ or Ozmo can pick hair from hardwood floors without the rollers in place?
Just wow. Extremely constructive. Unlike the i9, this is a real "flagship" review from a very intelligent individual! Thank you.
Thank you very much!
What a killer review, we were considering this model to upgrade from our Eufy vac but value no intervention. Will look at the ecovac osmo.
Outstanding review on Roomba S-9 plus that I have ever come across so far! I have using mine, brand new Roomba S9 Plus, just for about three-ish weeks, but I can relate to all pros and cons that you touched on in the review. I was extremely happy with its works, especially with its seemingly low-maintenance demand. However, I have been on the brink thinking whether I should return the machine since there is one ongoing issues that has frustrated me almost to a great deal. The machine currently keeps stopping in the middle of its job and asking to have its brushes and/or debris extractor to be cleaned. Nevertheless, every after I checking out and cleaning the brushes, it will soon halt its jobs and send out the same error message again. Today, I just replaced all of the brushes with the new ones following a suggestion from the customer service . The problem still remains. I am wondering you have any other suggestion that I should try before the 30-day return deadline. I got it with a good deal and don't want to give up on it too soon :)
I gave up - my experience is the same
I have seen that error before, but not to the extent you describe. When you check the brushes and debris extractor, is there indeed debris stuck in there? If so, it's probably not a problem with the robot. I would bet that after a few runs the issue will resolve itself. If there isn't debris stuck in there, then the robot is likely faulty and you should ask customer service to replace it. If they will not, then you should return it. I wouldn't let that deadline get too close, pad it by a week or so to avoid warranty denial.
i would return it. Mine is still on warranty but I cannot get them to replace it.
Great and thorough review. These things are not cheap! As an aside, the Reviewer reminds me of my college psychology professor 😂❤
Would love an update now that the software's been heavily updated.
Good review! Must say though: Never knew Nick Offerman had a brother!!
I appreciate your simple criteria based review style. It helped me understand and decide if I go for this vacuum cleaner or not. 👍
One item that robotic vacuum designers seem to gloss over is total run time. They say that since the vacuum returns to its charger independently, it doesn't matter. I totally disagree! I have a Roborock vacuum that completes cleaning my first floor in approximately 110 minutes, then returns to its base. I bought a Roomba last year -- that I subsequently returned -- and it took over 6 HOURS to complete cleaning the same area! It would run for 35 minutes (I have mostly carpeting), recharge, run another 35 minutes, recharge again, ad nauseum. Since I have large, long-haired dogs, I had it scheduled to run every day. And since I am retired, I'm home most days; the never-ending cycle was both inconvenient and annoying! There is absolutely no reason why Roomba continues to use undersized batteries for their products!
That’s an amazing review! You should do a review on the Braava m6!!!
Great review! But wish it didn’t have the changeable dirt bag! Easier to stick a vacuum tube in the tower to suck out the dirt or have a removable dust catcher! Thank you, you saved me a lot of money, I’ll keep my money in my wallet!
1.75x speed works well for this video. Questions and concerns:
1. The Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barrier (DMVWB), aka lighthouses, like the ones you have shown @ 6:48, are compatible with the S9 and/or other modern Roombas? Those, I believe are the older models, but perhaps they still work.
2. Once the map is created, can the app's "keep out" zones effectively replace the DMVWBs?
3. 16:42 - Needs light to vacuum? This is a egregious oversight, especially when it does not have a forward camera.
4. 17:18 - Repeated software issues is a MAJOR hassle; I agree. They're like the repeated bane of modern "smart" technology. How many times have you had to update the software/app for seemingly no reason other than to update it?
5. 18:28 - Proves that the Roomba J7, with the front camera, is the better choice if you don't need the more-powerful suction and wider cleaning swath.
6. 20:50 - Perfect answer. IMHO, iRobot is a company that got lucky. They developed a bump-n-go toy with no intelligence, but it was an automatic vacuum. People are generally super lazy, so they became popular. Now they continue to develop high-priced, seemingly mediocre products. The more things change, the more they stay the same, apparently.
I've owned mine for about 14 months and have had to replace the vacuum 2 times. Warranty is reduced on replacement and well, now this replacement is acting up. First one just stopped running, second one was on flat vinyl floor and kept saying drop off detected. Now for the third one, keeps telling me lid is open when it's closed and to empty the bin when the bin is already empty. Wish I had not traded up my i7+ it didn't pick up as well but never had problems in the 2 years I had it.
Great review. No nonsense and straight to the point. I'm just interested in knowing why you would get the Ecovacs Deebot when the reviews are not so great. My search continues. I have a Irobot 675 and while I am happy with it I'm just not happy at how it's so erractic.
Found this video a few weeks ago. What an excellent, informative review. I'm definitely a subscriber and I truly hope you keep it up as these videos are excellent. All round one of the best reviews I've seen. Like another commenter, I watched at increased speed.
I bought one from amazon and bought a 4 year warranty. It lasted 3 years and they gave me the money to replace it. I have loved it. 3 years is probably a good life span for a vacuum especially a robot. I always went around and picked up anything that could hurt it and just let it pick up hidden dirt for me. I hope the new one does as well as the old one, There are a lot of negative reviews. I have had irobots since they came out with them and they always seem to last a couple years and then their life is just over but regular vacuums are the same. They die with me too despite taking them into repair shops. Would I buy it again? Well I was about to until I read the bad reviews. Now I'm still in the process of deciding. To top it off I am going to have to chat with amazon as the warranty isn't offered with it. Amazon said make sure you buy amazon shipped and amazon sold and I didn't know that either so watch that.
If you are looking to buy a Roomba I would highly recommend you stay away from the S9 and stick with the I7+ or even the J7+. I own 1 I7 and 2 I7+ Roombas and they are by far the most reliable of the Roomba’s I own. I also currently own 1 S9+ though have had 4 others over the years and they have all been a constant source of problems and become unusable. In each case their Tech support personnel have all been helpful but none have been able to ascertain what had gone wrong with the Roomba.
The problem I see with the review channels is that in the end (when they get more subscribers) they all are chasing for free products and manufacturers are giving them free products in multiple quantities for "fair" review. No one can take a product from a manufacturer and say anything bad about it. It's in the contract almost all the time.
I can only think of one channel that has built itself on honest reviews and refuse to take sponsor (As of yet)- Project Farm.
Warning: Long, rambling reply incoming...
This is something I considered before starting my review channel. Can an honest reviewer compete in the review game? I think Yes I can, and here's why...
Being an independent product reviewer is tough for just the reason you stated; as a small reviewer you may have to rely on the goodwill of manufacturers to provide you with products. I certainly wouldn't have bought a thousand dollar robot vacuum for review.
Now-a-days however, with Patreon or other fan-driven income models, independent reviewers may be able to afford to buy their own products for review, and not be beholden to anyone. This, of course, relies on large audiences with charitable intentions however. Or, if you're a very well established reviewer, you can rely on other income streams like advertising. Buying your own products however means that you will never get your review out before the product arrives on the market, or even at the same time as the launch. Being first drives the audience to your videos, and so you would need to make peace with the fact that you will forever be a smaller player in the review game (if you wait for retail launch to begin your review process).
If I could get legitimate free products for review I absolutely would review them. Right now I have an offer to review a home security camera, but I'm leery of it because it may be a scam.
Regarding giving a product a bad review; in my mind it's in my best interest to review the product fairly so as not to lose audience confidence. Dishonest reviews are not only undesirable simply because they're dishonest, but they can kill a reviewers career, and ultimately without an audience all those free products won't net me any income.
Also, reviewing a product poorly might gain one a larger audience if the audience believes your review is more honest and accurate than the competition's reviews. In the case of some reviewers, poor reviews can prove to be their most popular reviews. Take Unbox Therapy for instance, while they aren't strictly a review site (they do unboxing and first impression videos) they did notice that iPhones are easy to bend, and so they made a video about it. It went viral and was carried by major news outlets. It was sensational for sure, iPhone is a big product, so it was self-serving honesty, but it could also be argued that it took integrity for them to release the video and risk ruining their relationship with Apple (if they have one).
As an honest reviewer one would have two options when facing a bad product for review; give it a bad review, or not review it. Either way would preserve your integrity, but choosing to review the product and divulge its flaws would better serve the audience, and therefore yourself.
Ultimately, in the review game it's self-serving to call out the flaws of the product. (At least that's my opinion.) Luckily it's also the most ethical choice as well, so not really a difficult choice at all.
TL;DR - Honesty is the best Policy.
edit: spelling is hard
@@isitgoodreviews4095 I agree with you 100%. I like your review and I wish it stays true and honest like that. I cannot see myself trusting outlets that get free products for review. It is no different than people who write fake reviews on Amazon, and you know how much we hate those.
You are right that it may be beneficial for a channel to give honest reviews even if it is a negative one, but it certainly is not beneficial to the product sponsor. In many cases they forbid you to say anything negative. I also know of a channel where the manufacturer's attorney even put this in a contract for the youtube channel producer that every time he reviews their product, he has to wear slacks in videos and cannot be wearing shorts.
I trust your video of Roomba with one vacuum cleaner over the video of a certain channel who features the guy rolling on the floor with 20+ robotic vacuum cleaner.
Anyway, I am subscribed to your channel and will wait for more videos.
@@kirktitgen6395 Thanks very much! I hope to provide fair and honest reviews based on experience, and I hope you enjoy them!
Love the way his one eye is half closed and one eyebrow raised up.
Excellent review. I have just returned an Ecovacs 950. I only managed to use it five times, and did not get to use the shampoo. It cleaned well. but would not connect to my phone. I was sad to see it go.
Ponytail never lies. Good discussion; gonna check out the t8 :)
i dont know how i found this video and i dont need one of these robots, but you explaining in that way is very interesting, i realy enjoyed the review.
Best and most informative review I’ve watched on robo vacs. Thank you !
Best review presentation. Very informative. I love your voice modulation.
When you close the lid tap the close lid slightly to the right. It will realine the sensors. This tells me that the lid shift overtime...I've only my new one since March after a 3 month wait on a warranty replacement...the first one worked for 3 weeks before having programming errors
He should narrate "guided mindful meditation" vids, I think I could fall asleep to his voice. 😴🧘
Good video! But will no brand produce a robot vacuum cleaner with all the functions? hhaha the function of mopping the floor was missing! and it could also have the function of recharging its base, its tank, with water, or even if possible, some other perfumed liquid, right? OR IS THIS ROBOT VACUUM CLEANER ALREADY EXISTING with all those functions I mentioned above? if the answer is yes, what is the name of it?
Have been debating back and forth over this vacuum or the Shark IQ at over half the price. I think this video helped me make my final decision. Thanks!!!
Glad I could help!
You should make a review of the T8 AIVI!
I agree
Excellent review one of the best. You are doing a great job.
Thank you for sharing such a thorough and honest review! This was EXTREMELY helpful!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!