It has a particularly nice feature that’s not seen on all robot vacuum cleaners: it empties itself into its dock. The dock has capacity for 30 loads, so if you send your cleaner to do a sweep every day, you’ll only need to empty the bin once a month.
The i7+ will map your home and create virtual landmarks to help it navigate without getting caught on furniture or wires. The sophisticated system also allows you to schedule cleaning for different rooms at different times. This means you can set your Roomba to vacuum the kitchen every day after breakfast, and the living room once you’ve gone to bed.
You can also let it know what to avoid. You can create ‘virtual walls’ to keep it out of a room – so there’s no need to pick up the Lego before vacuuming. Just seal off that room and let the Roomba clean the rest of the house. And if you want to make sure it avoid the dog’s bed or a nest of wires, you can ‘halo’ the item and the Roomba will keep its distance.
The i7+ can run for up to 90 minutes before it has to return to its dock to recharge.
It’s currently available from iRobot for £799 – that’s a discount of £80.
If you’re not set on the Roomba, have a look at our top-rated robot vacuum cleaners for more recommendations.