iRobot Roomba Vac Essential robot vacuum (Q0120) - Black

TL;DR Entry-level robot vacuum from iRobot that vastly improves on suction and cleaning paths. Tested runtimes are 60 minutes between charges. Does not save the floor plan to do selective cleaning of areas and cannot tell it where to stay out of. Controllable using the iRobot App. The iRobot Essential robot vacuum is iRobot’s way of making its way back into the homes of many, considering the robot vac market has grown considerably since the introduction of the 600 series. At its price point, the Essential brings the basics up front and center: strong suction stamina and methodical cleaning. I’ve owned two 600 series vacuums and I loved them very much; press the clean button and let the vacuum do its thing. I remember how the 600 would ping pong along my carpet and hard floors and, eventually, decide to make its way back to the docking station for a charge. Running the Essential, I can already tell this vacuum means business when it comes to suction. Cleaning about 500 sq ft of floor, the Essential was able to pick up pet dander, dust and dirt from wherever it can reach. It was very strong sounding and the resulting bin full of dirt was quite impressive. If using the iRobot app, you’ll be able to change the suction power (low,medium,high). Depending on how large your cleaning area is, the Essential will return back to its base, recharge and continue cleaning. This will be more frequent if using the high power setting. What really impressed me more is that the navigational software of the Essential is much smarter this go-around; it will methodically create itself a cleaning path much similar to the higher end iRobot models. What it means is a more efficient cleaning and better cleaning times. Transitions from hard floor to carpet depends on how high your hard floor/rug transition is. As far as design, this iteration of the Roomba is a more slimmer, lower profile body that is able to make its way under areas that prior models (and even other manufacturers) dare to try. The bin is ample for a day or two of running before emptying, and the side brush is now a magnet connection as opposed to the older screw-in design. Nice. It has a single soft bristle brush roller underneath as opposed to the standard two-roller design. I wonder if this design actually aids in suction due to the smaller area where air suction is focused. It definitely works great. From the feel-of-the-feet against my hard floors, I can already tell that there are no little crumbs sticking to the bottom of my feet. One huge observation while running the Essential is its ability to get to tighter areas where I wouldn’t normally expect a robot vac to go. And this is based on experiences with prior Roombas (600s, J series, I series). And I found this to be a blessing and a curse. More curse than blessing, actually. The Essential manages to get stuck constantly in areas that it can barely clear. I’m talking about things like getting under the couch, underneath the coffee table and even between the dishwasher and the floor! And since I can’t tell where it cannot go, I have to make accommodations in areas to prevent it from happening. And as a long time Roomba owner, this really sucks that I can’t tell it where to NOT go. The J and I series have this feature, and it’s definitely a must, especially if you have problematic areas where the Roomba will fail. After a few runs, it has managed to gouge itself across the top, probably trying to escape from getting stuck. So what do I think about the Essential? I think this Roomba is definitely well suited for simple living areas. What does that mean? Basically any area, small or large, where the Roomba can’t get into too much trouble. And that’s a tricky proposition. I can honestly say that with all the good that this provides, I wish it allowed for block-out zones in the iRobot app. And it might be enough to shy away from. But if you feel like your living area is not complicated with nice high clearance furniture, then the Essential will shine bright in your home, keeping your floors clean.

The Roomba Essential vac is perhaps one of the most simplistic robot vacuums I’ve used. It does not map, it does not mop, it does not self-empty. You put it in a room and push the clean button on top of it or you use the app to select ‘Clean’, and it roams around the room and does its thing. There is little to no assembly required to get the Essential going. It has a small footprint and can fit just about anywhere. To be honest, I didn’t mind the basic minimalist design of the Essential, but the fact that it does not map was a bummer to me. You can’t keep it from leaving a room, for instance, unless you close the door or barricade the doorway. I guess you have to step up in cost to get that function. The big question is, how does the Roomba Vac Essential work in action? I tried it in three different rooms, and then followed it up with one of my other vacuums to see how well it did. Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the Essential’s suction power. My daughter’s room has a litter box in it, sitting on a very low-pile rug. Our cat has a tendency to kick litter out onto the rug, and every few days we have to vacuum it. I put the Essential in the room, closed the door, and let it do its thing. 15 minutes later it was done. The rug still had lots of kitty litter on it. Hmmm… I stepped up the settings in the Roomba app, selecting the highest level of suction. Hit clean again, and then sat there for 15 minutes while it went around the room again. After it was finished and docked, I surveyed the rug again. I couldn’t tell a difference. The Essential did not have the power to get those small little crumbs of kitty litter picked up. For the heck of it, I opened up the app for the other name brand robot vacuum I have upstairs, and using the map, had it come in and clean the room. On normal suction power, it cleaned the rug perfectly. No tidbits of kitty litter remaining. The Roomba Vac Essential just didn’t have the same suction power as the other vacuum. I also tested the Roomba Vac Essential in a couple of other rooms that had less mess in them, and did a decent job in both. The conclusion I came away with is that the Essential is a good, simple vacuum that will work well to touch up floors that already relatively clean and just have dust on them. If you need it to pick up crumbs on the floor, or handle some messes like spilled flour/sugar, you might come away disappointed.

Not meant for large spaces. Gets lost and dies under our beds every time.

I am a robo vacuum believer... I have 2 dogs and a kid and wife who have really bad allergies. So since buying and using robo vacuums this has reduced allergy attacks. I have bought several of these vacuums recently and really like them. I have had a j7 for about 1 year so this Robo Essential (j0) has high expectations from me. Setup... Setup was super simple. I already have a Roomba some just added another device and I was all set. I let it do its run and it mapped about 75% of my bedroom correctly. It took about 3 runs to really map it out completely. This version does not have obstacle avoidance so it uses the bumper to change directions. Which I really like from my j7. This j0 got stuck in between my toilet and tub twice so I had to create barrier to prevent it from happening again. It won't let me avoid an area so just note that. Operation was super quiet. Which is really nice. The j7 is much louder. The brushes on this is the big difference. Roomba change it to a finer brush with a rubber sweep in-between the brushes. This did not have the option to do a double sweep like the j7. But you can control the suction. Factory is set at medium. I put it at high. The noise is not that much louder. Also you should empty this out frequently or else it will foul your HEPA filter and reduce the life of it. I normally just use my big vacuum with a brush to clean it and I am done. For the convenience and all the features and benefits in would recommend this product.

The i-Robot Roomba essential is a budget friendly well designed smart robot vacuum. It is slim and will go under cabinets with no problem. It comes with a small changing base that can be placed almost anywhere without disrupting your home decor. This vacuum comes with 1 spinning brush large enough to get around baseboard edges. It is very simple to setup by downloading the I-Robot app and following the instructions. The app is easy to use. It has pretty much one cleaning function to press to get the vacuum started. You can set up schedule cleaning, custom area cleaning and view the history. I found it weird that there's no map layer in the app. However, you can see a map layer in the history. I'm not sure if that is because this vacuum is a budget one or the app needs an update. I also find it weird that you can create custom cleaning but you don't have an option to select which area you want the robot to clean. Even if you change the custom area name the robot will clean the entire house. I don't see the point of having a custom cleaning setting when the only cleaning option is the entire house. Hopefully that gets fixed with an update. The vacuum robot does a good job cleaning. The brushes are large enough to get around the edges of the baseboards and corners. I really like that. The only downside is it only has one brush. It does a really good job on the carpet. The battery life is also pretty good. It cleans my entire house in a single run without a recharge. My other robots usually go back to recharge before cleaning my entire house. The charging is very small which make it discreet compare to larger self cleaning vacuums. That being said the base is just a charging base the vacuum has to be cleaned manually which is very simple. It also has sensors that will prevent it from rolling down stairs. . Overall this is a smart robot vacuum that would do the job well and will not break the bank. It can be controlled with the app or with a voice assistant. It does a good job cleaning with good suction power and does great job cleaning around edges. It's slim design makes it easy to go under cabinets and sofas. In the box you get the robot vacuum, the charging base, power adapter, cleaning brush, spare filter and manuals.

Great choice for a basic robotic vacuum. Simple assembly!

Basic model but reasonably priced & does a good job.

Having been a Roomba user from a few generations past in many ways they have vastly improved many things upon the old design. While these redesigns left me impressed, sadly the core feature of smart vacuuming was lost this time around. Firstly, the good. All of the complaints of previous generations are improved. This model is much lighter than before without sacraficing pick up power. A lighter weight device is always good just in case you need to move it around, which happened quite a lot, but more on that later. The dustbin is larger and easier to empty. Instead of having to empty the bin every cleaning job, I am now able to run several jobs before having the notification pop up to empty the bin. I am now able to choose between low, medium, and high suction power with even the strongest setting running much quieter than my old unit. While it sometimes takes a few attempts to maneuver over tricker gaps, it no longer snags the edges of rugs or loops on end when transitioning from hard floors to carpet. No longer does the Roomba plow into walls or obstacles like a little battle bot. It's lighter more sensitive edge taps obstacles lighter than before, thus avoiding any scuffs. Unfortunately, my unit couldn't find his way back to homebase after a job well done. Several times it decided to make is home under our large sectional, other times it was in front of the closet door. And sometimes he just wandered aimlessly for over 20 minutes trying to find home. I tried moving the base to different areas as well as different rooms but to no avail. Maybe my Roomba's memory was set to "Goldfish", because after every job I had to stop it, pick it up, and return it to sleep like a child that doesn't want to go to bed. While I really like the improvements, my unit just can't be trusted to return to base, needing constant monitoring towards the end of a job thus negating the very reason to have an automated cleaning device in the first place.

The iRobot Roomba Vac Essential Robot Vacuum (Q0120) in black is a robotic vacuum priced at the lower to mid entry point that does an okay job with no frills. While I gave it 4 stars, I think that 3.5 is more like it. I requested this type of vacuum with my office in mind. I am a one woman-CPA that has heavier usage of their office during tax season, that we just ended, thankfully, with round one on April 15th. I am also the person that must clean the office and clearly, I would prefer something that is automated and do this chore without me actively involved, if possible. The whole package contains the unit itself, a power cord that connects the base to your electric wall outlet, which is a good length, the simple charging base, one edge-sweeping brush, that must be put into the base, and a replacement filter. Just to note, you can go on their website to buy OEM replacement accessories in various bundle configurations. So, this newer iRobot Roomba. like I said, is a lower-priced, entry into the robotic vacuum market and the buyer needs to temper their expectations on what the vacuum can achieve. While there are models that do mop and release their debris into the docking station, this model does not mop nor discharge the debris, which might be preferrable if one has carpet and hard type floors that require both vacuuming, as well as mopping. As you will see in the pictures that I uploaded to the website, the carpeting in my office has the pile-type of indoor-outdoor carpet, very low to the ground and easy to negotiate by the wheels of the robotic vacuum. This robotic vacuum has a very simple docking station with no frills. There is a Velcro band that you cand fold the electric cord up within to keep it out of the way of the unit when it is in actively vacuuming. What did I have to do to get started? First plug in the docking station and then line up the metal contact on the unit to "wake" it up. There will be a sound produced letting you know that was achieved and then it will start going. I have an android smartphone and there is an iRobot Home app in both the Google Play store and Apple. The download, installation, and connection to my device was very easy and took only a few minutes to do. This app requires that you use a 2.4 vs. 5.0 GHz network. There is a 1-year limited warranty and the warranty states that if you cannot verify your delivery date it starts within 2 weeks from the date of purchase. So, what are my impressions on its performance? This robotic vacuum does bump into furniture and chair legs that are in the room and does not sense those items and automatically navigate around them like the higher-priced robotic vacuums do, I have one of those, too. In my case, there was no damage to either the furniture or the unit because it does not ram into it, but gently bounces away from whatever it touches. The next thing that I notice is its quality of vacuuming. My office carpet was dirty, and I do have a small dog that comes to work with me that while they do not shed, does have some hairs on the carpet. Thank goodness it made many passes over the floor because it took a while to get up the dirt. One thing that you must realize is that you an adjust the strength of the suction through the app-the factory setting is mid and I raised it to the highest for my purposes. Now that I have this robotic vacuum, I can vacuum more frequently and not have as much to dirt to pick up on a regular basis. The last thing that I wanted to mention was that there is a wedge incline that transitions the height of my floors from front to back of office. The device was trying to climb up the edge but could not quite make it up by itself. I am going to work on that feature because it would be helpful if it could do that on its own. However, it did not go off the exposed end of the wedge, like a stair would be and it did travel over the edge to return itself at the docking station that was situated on the lower-level floor. I was impressed with the length of the charge so that it can vacuum for quite a while. You can use the app to map out jobs for the specific areas that you want done at a time. Overall, I would recommend this device having full knowledge on what its good, bad, and not that ugly are. Ultimately, you do get what you pay for.