iRobot Roomba e5 vs iRobot Roomba S9

Hello! Thank you for your review. At the time of our response, issue relating to recent update have been resolved. If issues persist, please place your robot on the base and perform a robot reboot. We appreciate your patience, and hope you continue to enjoy the cleaning ability of your robot! - Sincerely, iRobot Customer Care

I’m currently trial running several auto-empty vacs for our upstairs which has our 4 bedrooms and all carpet. Currently a few weeks into the Roomba S9+ with empty bin and let me just say… while it does a good job picking up on our low rise carpet, the app and technology feels about 5 years behind the Roborock tech and app. If anyone cares about specifics feel free to ask but I’m constantly surprised how poor the app and tech work. Ghost rooms, connection failures, inaccurate post run results… considering how long iRobot has been in the game I’m just really surprised it’s this far behind

I had a Samsung Powerbot originally and the Roomba definitely out suctions the Powerbot. I live on a ranch so we get a lost of dust in the house I can tell the Roomba is picking up quite a bit of the dust and debris on the floors. I have it on a schedule to run everyday and the bin is full everyday (again aside from the hair/fur issue).

Even though the area was completely clear. The problem is due to the lower clearance from the upgraded suction unit, the edge brush get's deformed and smacks the bumper and screws up the sensors. One could probably modify the brush, but I didn't want to deal with it. iRobot says the s9 has 4x the suction of other Roombas, I don't doubt this

It's important to make sure you keep the bumper clean. While the e5's light-touch bumper technology helps it to identify when it's approaching an object, the area around the sensor gets dirty quickly, which keeps it from working properly. After only two cleaning sessions, I noticed the vacuum was bumping into furniture and walls because the bumper was dusty. To prevent this from happening, make sure to wipe it with a wet cloth before each cleaning session

I was worried that the new D shape would make it a little more cumbersome for fitting around chairs and table legs. But if you look at it, the Roomba ...

I have gotten a new charging base,(and now the green light stays lit on the base) placed a new battery, cleaed the contact's

**Roomba S9+:** More powerful but didn’t feel worth it for the price. Didn’t have a lidar. 1099$.

Not only is it a Roomba, but it might be the cheapest option overall. Not on sale it's $850, which is right inline with everything, and even cheaper than several. Specifically, cheaper than Samsung's new AI robot, and even cheaper than the Roborock with self emptying.

For the price it is a HUGE waste of money. Do your self a favor and buy a cheaper one. Hopefully the quality hasn't gone down on them.

The self emptying is key. I only have to replace the bag every 3 months instead of dumping the vacuumed junk into the garbage.

If I try to mechanically / physically raise the spring contacts, I risk breaking them and making it all the worse. Those should be able and EASY to replace, without needing to disassemble the whole vacuum.

I would characterize Emily as moderately loud - it'd be annoying to do a phone call or watch a movie while she's running, but having a conversation in the same room is no problem, and my cat doesn't seem overly bothered by her. She does get louder on hard floors than on carpet. Overall, if you're expecting a smart robot that will strategically clean your entire home and then go back to its base in a logical fashion, this is NOT the robot you want. Emily supports one scheduled start on each day of the week, so she's actually doubling as my alarm clock, which is a fun bonus

I don’t recall the error code but it was common with many S9+ that were released around Christmas 2020 but whatever it was, when that error struck, your Roomba was dead. You’d expect better from a $1K machine. Whatever the case, in the 2 days it worked, it was ridiculously loud compared to the s7, was the rudest little bugger ever (pushing chairs out of the way, knocking things over), and it did a half-ass job cleaning things.

The Roomba is race car, driven by an idiot. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the design of the machine itself. But the programmers need to be slapped in the face. Or somewhere lower down, preferably

The Roomba 960 does that just fine, as does the RoboRock S6 Pure (which I also got after returning this). So IMO there is no legitimate excuse for this fundamentally flawed mechanical design of the Roomba S9.