Amazon keeps some Black Friday deals going until early December and the iRobot Roomba 105 is still at its lowest price ever which makes robot vacuums affordable: This model is now on sale for $149 on Amazon instead of the usual $299 which is the same price as a basic stick vacuum without any smart features. Robot vacuums do the work for you, so you don’t have to push a vacuum around your house several times a week and you can use that time for anything else while your floors stay clean.
LiDAR Mapping
The ClearView LiDAR sensor spins around the room while the Roomba moves, sending out laser beams and measuring how long it takes for each beam to bounce back from walls, furniture, and other things in the way. The robot uses this information to make an exact map of your home’s layout which it keeps and uses during every cleaning session. The mapping process goes quickly at first but the Roomba gets better at knowing your space over time as it runs into new obstacles or sees that the furniture has been moved.
The navigation system makes sure that the cleaning paths are efficient and cover your floors in neat, parallel rows, like how you would mow a lawn. This methodical approach makes sure that everything is covered while cutting down on unnecessary passes over areas that have already been cleaned. This extends battery life and speeds up the completion of tasks. Specialized sensors keep the Roomba from falling down stairs or off ledges by finding stairs and drops.
The three-stage cleaning system uses a brush that works on multiple surfaces, an edge-sweeping brush, and a suction channel to pick up dirt from different types of floors. iRobot says that this model has 70 times more power-lifting suction than their older 600 series robots and it creates enough airflow to pull dirt out of carpet fibers and cracks in hardwood floors. The edge-sweeping brush goes beyond the robot’s round body and into corners and along baseboards, where dust collects and circular vacuum paths usually miss.
You can control the Roomba Home app from your phone and you can start cleaning sessions from anywhere, set up automatic runs based on your daily routine, and make sure the robot stays away from pet bowls or other delicate areas. You can change the suction power and set the number of cleaning passes for each room. This lets you change the intensity based on how much dirt and traffic there is in different areas.
Spot cleaning mode cleans a small area over and over for up to five minutes which is helpful when you’ve spilled something or see a really dirty spot that needs extra attention. Voice control integration works with Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant and it lets you start or stop cleaning sessions with your voice when your hands are full or you’re in another room. There are physical buttons on the robot itself that let you start cleaning quickly without having to open the app or look for your phone.
At $149, robot vacuums go from being a luxury item to a useful investment that costs the same as stick vacuums that you have to use your time and energy to operate. The 50% off sale makes advanced LiDAR navigation and smart mapping features available at a price that was only available with basic random-pattern cleaning in earlier models.
