iRobot Roomba 860 vs. 890

For people who clean at least once a week and for people who only clean when their in-laws are about to show up, a robotic vacuum cleaner is the perfect solution. With minimum human input your house will become spotless. Today the newer models of robotic vacuums are a significant improvement upon the first models that might have lost power and disappeared somewhere in your home never to be found again. The newest products will not only clean your home, but they will remember the layout of your house so as to increase efficiency, sometimes they even dump out the dirt in a receptacle and make her way back to the charging station when their batteries are running low.

Today we will taking a comparative look at two quality robotic vacuum cleaner, the iRobot Roomba 860 and the iRobot Roomba 890 to see which is right for your needs.

The iRobot Roomba product line represents a series of compacts, low-slung vacuuming robot that are far superior to the traditional upright vacuum cleaners, and able to reach places that traditional vacuum cleaners cannot. This product line is the most popular in the United States and has many models all of which can perform daily or weekly touchups to your home to keep things clean in between standard cleaning sessions.

Product Overview

iRobot markets home robots throughout the United States to end-user customers directly by way of product and sales teams. They also market consumer products through an international network of over 30 retailers. The market strategy has been to increase brand awareness and association with this particular brand through innovation and value. This company has received several awards and has been included with first-tier partners for the FCS program which has enhanced the brand among industrial and government customers.

iRobot Venture Group has invested in home marketplaces particularly in the growth of vacuum base robotics. iRobot enjoys a significant share of the global floor cleaning markets, taking approximately 63% of the units and 40% of the revenue. The robot segments of the larger home vacuum cleaner market have also grown. Robotic sales have become significantly more popular even though the general vacuum market growth rate has been lowered year-to-year.

Appearance and Designing

When you look inside you will see that most of the Roombas are approximately 13 inches wide and 3 ½ inches tall.

A quick gander under the hood reveals that inside there is a rechargeable battery. The charge time has been cut down significantly such that a full charge will last a few hours before it needs to head back to the charge station and reboot.

Inside you will find five motors one of which drives the vacuum, one of which drives the side brush that spins, one of which drives the agitator assembly, and to which drives the wheels on either side.

Differences between Roomba 860 vs. 890

Let’s examine the iRobot Roomba 860.

Firstly, this design has a full bin indicator which lets you know when you have to empty it. It will seamlessly navigate around your home while sweeping along the edges of your wall and any corners you have.

The design under the hood includes two components that are interconnected and turn in reverse order. This is a special tangle free extractor design which has a rubber tread meant to grab hold of any dirt no matter the type of floor is cleaning. The way that the two designs turn away from one another decreases brush maintenance and reduce the number of times a lot of hair gets tangled up and causes problems. We have all been there once or twice and it is incredibly frustrating.

Now, for the iRobot Roomba 890.

The newer 890 model offers a high efficiency filter coupled with tangle free rollers. It can connect to your WIFI for scheduling through your smartphone. It has automatic and adjustable dirt detection technology and will self-charge as needed. The run time is up to 60 minutes on a single charge and during that time it can clean all floor types.

This design will intelligently navigate your home. It uses intelligent sensors that make over 60 decisions per second so that it can adapt to the layout of your home and better clean your floors.

It also removes dirt for many high-traffic areas by relying upon what is called the patented dirt to text technology. This technology has built sensors into the machine that automatically recognizes concentrated areas where dirt exists so that it can more thoroughly clean these areas. It reaches only 3.6 inches in height which means it can fit comfortably under most sofas and beds to reach areas under the furniture that your traditional upright vacuum cleaner misses.

For people who have stairs in their home, there is a patented cliff detect sensor built into the design which prevents it from falling down the stairs or falling off any place that has a drop off in your home.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• The 860 is five times more powerful than the previous models because it had a lithium-ion battery that provides twice the battery lifetime. It will automatically recharge when the battery gets low. It also signals you when the dust bin is full and needs to be emptied.
• The 890 has five times the airpower so it will help your old pet hair and large debris out of the floor without getting tangled
• The 890 offers an application that you can download to your phone which lets you schedule cleaning time conveniently. You can even connect the device to your Amazon Alexa for your Google assistant to better control it. You can change the height of the cleaning had so that it cannot only clean carpets but hardwood floors and any other hard surfaces.
• The 890 will automatically return to the home based charging station when its battery is low so that you never go to turn on only to find the battery is dead.

Cons:

• For 860, there is no height adjustment like the 890 so you cannot change it to meet your specific flooring needs. It does not offer the same compatibility and control with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
• For 860, when the bin is full of dirt and debris it doesn’t empty on its own but it will alert you if you have the application connected on your phone.

Conclusions

So, how should you choose? And how do you determine which one is more suitable for you?

Realistically you should base your decision on your needs and lifestyle. Specifically, if you use your smartphone to interact with other features in your home, or you connect many aspects of your home to devices like Amazon Alexa, then the App and design on the 890 will give you another way to control everything from one place. If you have things like pets or high-traffic carpets, the investment in the iRobot Roomba 890 is obviously better designed to remove more debris and mites. If you have anyone in your family was severe allergies, the high-efficiency filter that comes in this design will capture more allergens and dust and thereby eliminates more serious allergies.