Pros
- Cleans deeper than you suspect it would
- Definitely cuts down on how often you feel the need to do a full vacuuming
- Quickly learns its environment
Cons
- Tad on the heavy side (8.4 lbs) for physically weaker owners
- Price tag
- Can bang into furniture a bit harder than you might like
Best For: Busy people with pets and those who may be handicapped or disabled.
Suggested Retail Price: $499.99
The Roomba 770 follows the familiar shape of the product line, being a roundish device without very much visible to the naked eye as it tools around vacuuming up pet hair, dust and so on. The physical button controls on the top are also not new, but the number you have to deal with have dropped from five to four, and in general they seem to be easier to read and communicate with thanks to better lights than previous versions had. Through a series of different lights you know when the Roomba needs you to empty its dustbin or when it thinks its found a particularly dirty spot so you don’t think it’s gone crazy just running over the same place over and over again.
Maintaining the Roomba 770 is a breeze with the easy to remove dustbin and beaters. Flip it over, hit the bright yellow tabs, and you know you’re taking out something you’re supposed to. Removing a brush on a traditional vacuum can be a pain, and quite often involves a screwdriver, but with the Roomba it’s all snaps and shaped parts that make it nearly impossible to mess up.
The 700 series is the first Roombas to feature HEPA filters, included with the device is a remote control. It’s easy to dismiss the remote at first, but the more you think about it, the more sense it makes.
If there is any failing on the hardware side of things, it’s the invisible walls. The Roomba 770 comes with two little plastic towers that run on two C batteries each and tell the robot where you don’t want it to go. More often than not they worked, but every so often I’d see him scooting past one of them, leaving his domain in the living room for the kitchen.
Second failing? Depending on the height of your carpet, the Roomba can sometimes push the dock around when it’s trying to return home for charging. The dock has to be against something that isn’t especially slick, and the shorter the carpet the better for it to dock successfully.
As you really don’t interact with the software, this is a bit more arbitrary to assess. There are times where the device seems insanely smart, and other times where you go, “Why did you do that?” For instance, banging into the corner of a table and then repeatedly banging into it as it tries to assess the dimensions of said piece of furniture. Considering the number of sensors the Roomba 770 has you would think it might figure this out a bit sooner, but there it sits, bouncing against the furniture repeatedly.
Conclusion
The Roomba 770 isn’t going to eliminate your need for a more powerful, traditional vacuum, but it is is certainly going to cut down on how often you have to run it. There is something oddly satisfying to coming coming home and seeing the tracks in your carpeting that tell you the Roomba was out on patrol for dirt and you didn’t have to lift a finger to do it. The price is prohibitive for those that have never tried one before, but once you have, you really don’t want to go back to life without it.
Four out of five stars for the Roomba 770. (One star lost for price, dock movement and randomness of invisible walls)
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