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iRobot Roomba 650 vs iRobot Roomba 980

Product Comparison: iRobot Roomba 650 vs iRobot Roomba 980

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iRobot Roomba 650 Automatic Robotic Vacuum

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iRobot Roomba 980 Navigation with Visual Localization

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General Specifications

Brand

iRobot

Model

Roomba 650

Roomba 980

Origin

China

About the Product

Roomba 650 does the vacuuming for you. The robot utilizes AeroVac Technology, maximizing air flow through its cleaning head to pull hair and debris off the brushes and into the bin evenly. Perfect for homes with pets or without, Roomba cleans deep to pick up dirt, hair, fur, and other debris. The newly designed larger bin requires emptying less often and the innovative composition of the robot’s longer-lasting brushes allows it to handle fibers such as hair more effectively, making maintenance quicker and easier than ever. Roomba can easily be scheduled to clean whenever you want—up to seven times per week. The included Virtual Wall confines the robot to specific rooms and areas and Roomba automatically returns to its Home Base to dock and recharge between cycles. All you have to do is press “Clean” and let the robot do the work.

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

750 sq.ft

2000 sq.ft

Run Time

150 min.

120 min.

Multi Surface

Yes

Filters

Extra AeroVac™ Filter

HEPA

What customers say about "Key Specs"

iRobot Roomba 650 Automatic Robotic Vacuum

I ordered this Roomba for the geek factor (who doesn't want a robot vacuum?) but also the fact that it will vacuum more regularly than I do now. I was amazed after the first few days of having it. My home smelled clean.
The portable barrier keeps it from going down the wide, single step into our music room. I just place it down there and let it do its thing, then put it back up to do the rest of the house. I'm going to buy another one to keep the Roomba away from the pets' water bowl.
Has no problem moving from carpeted to non-carpeted areas (about half an inch) and vice versa, and unto rugs, bath rugs etc.
With a dog and this running daily, I clean the bin and the filter every day. It takes at most 2 minutes to do and this will ensure you have roomba running at top performance.
It's quiet on carpet but moderately noisy on wooden/hard flooring. No biggy, it's vacuuming my house for me, I can deal.

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

13.4 in.

13.8 in.

Depth

13.4 in.

13.8 in.

Weight

7 lbs.

8.7 lbs.

Controls

Connectivity Technology

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 2.4GHz

Remote Control

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 650 Automatic Robotic Vacuum

When it's done cleaning a room or low on battery, it returns to its charging station all on its own.
I was excited to know this model is supported by "Thinking Cleaner", a replacement faceplate for Roomba that allows you to control it from your phone over the internet or allow roomba to tie into your existing home automation system, like Vera or SmartThings.
May not have all the bells and whistles of he latest app driven models, but really...is that worth $600 extra dollars? This guy cleans without having to babysit. Just what I was hoping for!
I can't wait for some of the 980's features to become standard. I like the floor mapping and the wifi connection features.
Does not immediately return to charging station upon pressing the "dock" button, but wanders off and then eventually returns 10 minutes later

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

Automatic multi-room cleaning, Spot cleaning

Circular pattern, Straight line

Adjustable Suction Power

Programming Clean-Ups

Shedulded for daily clean-ups

Clean and shedule from anything

Cliff Sensor

Yes

Dust Bin Capacity

33.8 oz.

20 oz.

Full Bin Indicator

Yes

Mop

Wet And Dry Usage

Protective Bumpers

Yes

Extras

Certified Refurbished product, Conveniently schedule up to 7x per week, Dirt Detect technology

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

Dust Bin Capacity
Full Bin Indicator

What customers say about "Features"

iRobot Roomba 650 Automatic Robotic Vacuum

You can set it to vacuum while you're out of the house and come home to a clean floor.
The timer function works well (it starts when it's supposed to)
You can also gently nudge it's front bumper and it will redirect. 3. Pick up all the large stuff (leaves, paper scraps, twist ties) , just like you would a regular vacuum, because it won't pick it up.
Make sure you replace the removable dust bin firmly (you'll hear a small click), otherwise it might fall off the first time the Roomba goes over a heating vent.
Difficult to clean the brush, especially when long-haired persons live in the house. Also, emptying the dust compartment and cleaning the filter frees quite a lot of dust into the air, which I should not have.

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

18 watts

48 watts

Battery Capacity

3000 mAh

3300 mAh

Battery Charge Time

180 min.