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iRobot Roomba 880 vs iRobot Roomba 980

Product Comparison: iRobot Roomba 880 vs iRobot Roomba 980

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iRobot Roomba 880 Robot Vacuum

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iRobot Roomba 980 Navigation with Visual Localization

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General Specifications

Brand

iRobot

Model

Roomba 880

Roomba 980

Origin

China

About the Product

Experience a deeper, multi-room clean every day with the Roomba 880 Vacuuming Robot. Featuring the revolutionary AeroForce Cleaning System, Roomba 880 delivers up to 5x the air power and requires less maintenance. Guided, room to room cleaning allows Roomba to tackle more of your home in one job.

The Roomba® 980 robot vacuum gives you cleaner floors, throughout your entire home, all at the push of a button. Roomba 980 seamlessly navigates an entire level of your home, keeping track of its location and recharging as needed until the job is done. The AeroForce® Cleaning System with Power Boost automatically increases power on carpets where it's needed most. And with the iRobot HOME App, you can clean and schedule on the go.

Key Specs

Cleaning Path Width

7 in.

Cleaning Area Per Charge

1290 sq.ft

2000 sq.ft

Run Time

180 min.

120 min.

Multi Surface

Yes

Filters

HEPA

What customers say about "Key Specs"

iRobot Roomba 880 Robot Vacuum

Very easy to empty the bin and clean the filter - takes about 2 minutes, maximum. Good idea to clean the HEPA filter with a handheld vacuum like the Dyson models, to prolong filter life
Decent battery life. Probably about 3.5 hours on our machine. We can now clean the whole apartment in less than 2 hours - no need to recharge.
The carpet cleaning was amazing, and she even cleaned up all the horrible things that have been lurking under my bed for years! I must advise cleaning out the bin multiple times during her first clean of your rugs since there will be a LOT. This little girl can clean!
Also, the battery life of the Roomba seems to be three or four times greater than the Neatos, which often had to recharge during the job. The Roomba can do a 1,000 square foot carpeted area without recharge and do it really well.
Yet another great feature of this product includes its very long battery life. You can let your iRobot vacuum all day long while you are at work and also all night long, maybe having to charge it for a short period of time only once.

iRobot Roomba 980 Navigation with Visual Localization

Surprisingly good run time for both battery and dust bin.
Does a pretty good job on carpet. Running twice a week keeps the carpet clean. I'd suspect it wouldn't be as clean considering our pets if we ran it less often. Running a regular vacuum on the carpet doesn't pick up much after the bot runs.
It did go back to the base when battery went low in a middle of a second test run (it didn't get much charging time after I got it out of the box).
Overall decent navigation that never once got stuck and always made it back to the charging base.
Pretty good suction power. Good run times of around an hour and half with carpet boost on auto.
Only runs about 90min for us (with ½ high, thick carpet and ½ tile flooring).
Need to pick up chairs if the spacing between legs is too narrow to let the robot squeeze in.
No option to change the speed of the vacuum. How hard could it be to add 3 speed options? Slow, medium, fast.

Size & Weight

Material

Plastic

Color

Black

Height

3.6 in.

Width

13.9 in.

13.8 in.

Depth

13.9 in.

13.8 in.

Weight

8.4 lbs.

8.7 lbs.

Controls

Connectivity Technology

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 2.4GHz

Remote Control

Yes

Voice Assistant Built-in

Yes

App-Controlled

Yes

Room-By-Room Navigation

Yes

Auto Docking And Recharging

Yes

What customers say about "Controls"

iRobot Roomba 880 Robot Vacuum

The "virtual walls" are great at keeping it out of the music room, away from the cat box and containing it in the area I want it to clean. The remote control and "spot" setting work great if there is one small area which needs vacuuming.
I really appreciate how easily the iRobot is to work - the controls are easy to follow and the dirt is easy to empty.
I do feel buying a unit with a remote control is a good idea. It helps you get her back in control when she wants to get into an area where you don't want her.
Plus, this one comes with a remote control, so you don't have to corral Roomba in order for it to abide by your will.
It has a remote control that you can use to start a cleaning cycle, spot clean an area and then make it return to its base charging unit.

iRobot Roomba 980 Navigation with Visual Localization

The mobile app works very well and provides messages when needed on progress of cleaning and trouble alerts.
A virtual map is provided in the mobile app showing the floor space cleaned, which is kind of cool and helps to see where it is cleaning or having difficulty getting around.
Intuitive and useful app with quite a few useful features.
Having the roomba be controlled by the app and Alexa is amazing. This model is incredibly smart and it does an amazing job compared to the Dyson we have. I
The app was the most annoying part of setting Roomba up; it did not like my Wi-Fi at first. You can use the robot without it, but I do not see a way of manually program the robot.

Features

Automatic Cleaning Patterns

Spot cleaning, Edge pattern, Circular pattern, Z-shape pattern

Circular pattern, Straight line

Adjustable Suction Power

Programming Clean-Ups

Clean and shedule from anything

Cliff Sensor

Yes

Dust Bin Capacity

18.6 oz.

20 oz.

Full Bin Indicator

Yes

Mop

Wet And Dry Usage

Protective Bumpers

Yes

Extras

5x the air power, 3-Stage Cleaning System, iAdapt Responsive Navigation, Advanced Dirt Detect Technology, Cleans all floor types

iRobot HOME App lets you clean and schedule conveniently, The robot automatically returns to the Home Base, 3-stage cleaning system with Carpet Boost, Tangle-free brushes, Voice control capability

Full Bin Indicator
Dust Bin Capacity

What customers say about "Features"

iRobot Roomba 880 Robot Vacuum

Massively reduces the dust load in a home, far more than human vacuuming can reasonably do. Be aware that the first few times in a carpeted room, you may need to empty the bin every 15 mins or so. It really is that good at picking up dust. Be prepared to babysit the robot constantly at first!
One BIG feature of the new 800 series is the ribbed extractors instead of conventional brush rollers that are supposed to greatly reduce how often you clean hair from them.
Of course I have to empty the dustbin (when the light tells me to - definitely not every day), and occasionally I find Roomba, like a lost child, under my couch caught on my daughter's dress-up Elsa wig, but this is nothing. I'm really thrilled with my Roomba.
PS months later - this product is still working for pet hair, hardly a blip... runs over cords, under furniture, around dog toys.
These devices are not good for cleaning brand new carpet. The pilling will fill the bin within seconds. You'll need to manually vacuum these for months first. The bin is small, and could be easier to detach. Capacity isn't really a problem in my case.

iRobot Roomba 980 Navigation with Visual Localization

Very verbose error reporting if it's stuck, has a full dust bin, but you have to open the app or be in the same room as the bot to know this.
Does a very good job on the hardware and with the corning cleaning turned on, does a pretty decent job along the edges of walls.
Cleans in spots you don't normally get to, such as under the bed and in the wee spots of closets.
Love the scheduling feature and how easy it is to change from week to week depending on our always shifting schedules.
It performs a logical cleaning pattern (not random) that covers all of the floor, cleaning sections of each room and then moving on to the next section. It acts quite "intelligent," sometimes stopping to look around and "think" before proceeding.
It looks like all carpet with dark colors trick it into thinking it's jumping off a cliff. We ended up replacing some rugs to get around this.One of our rugs had a thick black line in the trim and roomba wouldn't cross it for anything.
No brush option that actually picks up dog hair from carpets.

Power

Voltage

14.4 V

Wattage

33 watts

48 watts

Battery Capacity

3000 mAh

3300 mAh

Battery Charge Time

180 min.