Thinking about buying a Roomba i7+ robot vacuum but wondering if it’s really worth all that money? I get it – those things aren’t cheap! Here’s my iRobot Roomba i7+ review. Read this then decide for yourself.
It’s been a little over a month since we added a new addition to our family. She’s not cute and cuddly, but she is sleek and efficient.
She’s Greta.
This post is brought to you by iRobot. While this was a sponsored opportunity, all content and opinions expressed here are my own.
Greta is our iRobot® Roomba® i7+ if you missed the first post about her.
We’ve spent the last month getting to know each other better and figuring out exactly how we can benefit each other.
Who am I kidding? She benefits zilch from me. I’m 100% the user in this relationship.
I know a robot vacuum is an investment and a lot of questions arise with spending that much money on a vacuum. I had quite a few questions myself when I got this bad girl. I’m going to answer both questions I had and questions I got from you guys, friends and family. I’ve also included tips for using your Roomba® and overall thoughts as well.
iRobot® Roomba® FAQ
For reference, my Roomba® is the i7+ WiFi connected robot vacuum with automatic dirt disposal. Yes, friends – no emptying the canister.
Q: Does the vacuum work on tile? Carpet? Wood floors?
Yes, yes, and yes. It even leaves carpet lines!
I know – I was really surprised the suction was that powerful to leave carpet lines.
Tile and wood floors are no problem either. I didn’t know how well it might work on tile since grout lines are often recessed a bit lower than tile. However, I had a powder spill in the bathroom the other day and opted to let Greta clean it up to see how she did.
She sucked up every bit of the powder and cleaned the rest of the floor as well.
Q: Will a Roomba® go over rugs?
Yes, it easily transitions from my wood floors to rugs and from my carpeted areas to rugs. I do suggest removing scatter rugs, such as bath mats, from the areas you’ll be cleaning though. Since those are so lightweight, the Roomba tends to move those around.
Q: What about rugs and/or carpets?
This model does rugs and carpets well too. My daughter has the rug you see below in her room.
It’s a heavy duty rug with lots of varying textures from the pattern on the rug. It gives it a good surface cleaning. Because she is a kid and this rug can hold a lot of dirt, I do still try to give this rug a go over with my old vacuum once a month or so for a deep cleaning.
Q: How well does it clean up dog hair?
Extremely well. It vacuumed up dog hair I didn’t even know was there. We have a lab and while it spends most of its time outside, she does come in occasionally and sit on her bed downstairs. She’s always downstairs and the Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal for the robot vacuum is upstairs. Because of this, when Greta is cleaning downstairs and her canister gets full, I often just dump it out myself instead of taking her back upstairs to let her empty herself. When I did this the first time, I was absolutely baffled to see how much dog hair she had picked up. I had no idea there was so much down there.
Q: What about stairs? How do you keep it from falling off stairs?
The Roomba® i7+ can actually sense drop offs such as stairs and therefore will avoid them.
If you’re still nervous about the Roomba® being so close to stairs, just place the Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barrier (comes with the Roomba) along the stairs and it will create a virtual wall that the Roomba® won’t go near.
Q: Is there any place you don’t use it?
I don’t let it go in my daughter’s playroom. It’s not a huge space anyway and there’s just a whole lotta stuff in there. You parents know what I’m talking about.
There’s no door to close between her playroom and her bedroom though, so I just place the Virtual Wall Barrier here to create an invisible barrier that Greta won’t go past.
There are two modes for the Virtual Wall Barrier – Virtual Wall and Halo Mode. I use Virtual Wall most often as it creates a straight line that Greta won’t cross. The halo mode creates a circular barrier that’s perfect for pet bowls.
Q: Can it go over threshold dividers?
Yep. We have threshold floor moldings in multiple places in our house and the Roomba® i7+ easily goes right over them.
Q: How does it work with a smartphone?
When you download the iRobot® app to your phone, you’ll be guided through the process of setting up your iRobot® Roomba® and floor plans. It’s super simple.
Once you get everything set up, you’ll be able to just open the app from anywhere, hit clean and your Roomba® will do their thing!
Q: Can you set up multiple levels or floor plans in the app?
Yes – it can map and store up to 10 floor plans.
I have both my upstairs and downstairs mapped in the app. After your floor plan is mapped out, you can choose to clean certain rooms instead of the whole house if you’d like. This is called Imprint™ Smart Mapping.
Q: Why did you name her Greta?
The last housekeeper my Pap had was Greta. She came once a week and was a sweet soul. That one day a week she came would be the only day we didn’t eat out for lunch – Greta would cook for us. And if it wasn’t for her, those gallons and gallons of grapes my dad sent over would have went to waste instead of becoming the tasty jelly we made it into with Greta’s guidance. That’s another story though…
Tips for Using the iRobot® Roomba® i7+
A few things I’ve learned while setting up and using my iRobot® Roomba® i7+:
Do training runs to map out your home faster.
When you first start creating your maps, use the “training run” feature to map it out faster. The Roomba® won’t clean during the training run, but instead just maps your floor plan.
Do the first run when you are home.
When I did the training run and the first cleaning run, I made sure I was at home. Occasionally, I would peek in on Greta and see how she was doing. This way, I was able to pick up any smalls I missed and just keep an eye on her.
Once you get your space mapped out and you’re fully comfortable with your iRobot® Roomba®, then you can create a cleaning schedule on the app for her to clean automatically where and when you want her to.
Remove “smalls” from areas you are cleaning.
Before sending Greta to do her thing, I go around the house and pick up any clutter that might be on the floors and also any small furniture items like ottomans, small side tables, etc. This just allows her to do a better job cleaning since she won’t have as much to work around.
Also, I will often set her up to just clean one room at a time, like the kitchen. Before I send her to clean, I’ll move the kitchen chairs into another room just so she can get a really good cleaning in, rather than having to clean around the chairs. After she’s done in the kitchen, I’ll move her into the dining room and the dining room chairs into the kitchen. She can go under chairs and does go under these if left out, but this just helps to get the whole area more clean.
She’ll get smarter the more she works.
On the first few cleaning runs, you may notice your Roomba® missing some spots. I had this issue and it really bugged me at first. However, after a couple more runs, I noticed that she wasn’t missing those spots she had initially.
Overall Thoughts
The Roomba® has made cleaning so much easier for us. As I said when I first got this little gem, I rarely got my floors swept before and when I did have spare time to do it, I really didn’t want to be spending it sweeping. I don’t have to pick anymore because Greta does it for me.
It is annoying taking her back and forth between the upstairs and downstairs, but it’s still a lot less time spent doing that than actually vacuuming myself.
I think one of my favorite aspects of having Greta is that after dinner each night, we just wipe all the counters off, letting any crumbs go into the floor, then I send Greta into vacuum and I go off to cuddle with the Circus – if she’ll let me. I wake up to clean floors the next morning.
Also, when I’m doing a whole house deep cleaning, Greta can be vacuuming while I’m scrubbing the bathtub or doing something else. It saves me so much time and energy. By the time, I’m done with the other cleaning tasks, she’s done vacuuming.
Do you have a Roomba®? What do you love about it?
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You will also have to pull up the blade guard when you first go to cut. Push your triggers and begin pushing the saw gently through your wood. Once you get your blade into your wood, you can release the blade guard and place that hand on the handle of your saw. If you are cutting something that is easily moveable, you may need to put that hand on the board to hold it steady, HOWEVER, keep your hands and fingers clear from the blade.
You have to push that red trigger first and then the yellow one.
After clamping, nail the pieces together. Do not remove the clamps yet. We waited a few hours before removing the clamps to ensure the glue dried properly.
