Finally, this new Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner can empty itself.
Using a robotic vacuum to keep your carpets looking their best already feels like living in the future, but there was always the issue of having to empty the small bin after every clean.
Though, iRobot has announced the new Roomba i7+, a robotic vacuum cleaner that can empty itself into a base station.
Read More:
The base station, which is also where the robot docks and charges its battery, includes a vacuum of its own which sucks dust and dirt out of the Roomba and into a more extensive collection bin.
This then fills a regular vacuum cleaner bag, which can hold 30 times more dirt than the Roomba itself - so you can likely go weeks before emptying the base station, even if the Roomba cleans your floors every day.. Thus, even if the Roomba cleans your floors every day,
A second major new feature is how the Roomba i7+ maps your home and can identify each room. These are logged in the companion smartphone app, which then lets you tell the robot exactly which rooms you want cleaning.
For some time now, iRobot's 900 series has included intelligent mapping. The robot logs its movements and the light and shade of its environment to efficiently clean each room. Now, this data is retained after each clean and used to create a map of your home, including the boundaries of each room.
Say the Roomba is docked in the kitchen, but the office carpet needs to be cleaned. Tell the Roomba to clean the office, and it will head down the hallway, enter the office, clean up, and then return to the base station to empty its bin and recharge the battery.
Support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant means you can say: "Alexa / Hey Google, clean the office" and the Roomba will do that. iRobot says the map of your home is uploaded to the cloud, but images taken by the device's low-resolution camera stay on the Roomba itself, appeasing privacy concerns.
iRobot is not the first robotic vacuum cleaner company to offer self-emptying, as Chinese firm Ecovacs introduced this feature way back in 2012. However, it's still good to see the household name of Roomba continuing to innovate with its own product range.
As you might expect, iRobot's new flagship is expensive. The Roomba i7+ is $949 for a package that includes the base station. Alternatively, you can buy the robot on its own (with a regular charging station) for $699 and add the self-emptying base station later for $299.
The base station's bags cost $14.99 for three. Based on one clean per day, they should last you around three months, equating to an annual cost of around $60. However, this will depend a lot on the size of your home, how often the Roomba cleans, and whether you have pets.
The i7+ is available for pre-order now on iRobot.com and will begin shipping on September 12.
