The Roomba s9 Review: Roomba’s Most Advanced Vacuum!

Last Updated on October 4th, 2019 by Natalia Bickell

Keeping your floor clean is a challenge, especially if you have pets or children running rampant throughout your home. Fortunately, there are robot vacuums out there that can help you get those floors clean without much effort on your part. One such robot vacuum is the Roomba s9, which might be Roomba’s most advanced smart vacuum to date.

Departing from their standard circle-shaped devices, the Roomba s9 sports a D-shape. This helps the vacuum get into corners and edges that other round devices can’t. The s9 also includes a smartphone app which gives users high-end features like customizable maps and cleaning history. Users can even tell the s9 to clean a specific room using voice controls.

No matter where in your home the s9 ventures, it has a variety of sensors that keep it on its course. With two brush rolls and suction that adjusts based on the flooring, the s9 will get keep floors looking good. With a high capacity dirt bin and auto-resume technology, this robot vacuum will clean until the job is finished.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice on the Roomba s9 is its shiny copper center residing on top of the robot. This is in contrast to the metallic and black finish covering the rest of the device. But the copper center is more than just a fancy accent. It is actually the lid which gives you access to the dust bin. A motion light ring circles the lid so that you always know its current status.

The s9 comes in a D-shape, which is not the shape Roomba robot vacuums typically come in. Due to its shape, the s9 can get into corners and edges, giving your home an even better clean. A bumper protects the straight edge of the s9, protecting it and your furniture as it navigates through your home.

Checking in at 3.5 inches, the s9 is taller than some of the other slimmer Roombas on the market, which means it might have a more difficult time cleaning under furniture. On top of the robot vacuum, you’ll discover Dock, Start, and Spot-Clean buttons, which you give onboard control from the device itself.

Cleaning Out the Corners

Incorporated into the s9 robot vacuum is iRobot’s proprietary system for cleaning corners called PerfectEdge. With a single spinning brush located on the corner of the vacuum and intelligent sensors, PerfectEdge gets into those areas that other robots cannot reach.

Positioned at a 27-degree angle, Roomba placed the brush at just the right spot for cleaning hard to reach spaces. Most robot vacuums have a three-blade brush which is used to clean edges and corners. The s9, on the other hand, uses a brush that has five propellers which help pull dirt and debris from wall edges and corners.

Smart Controls

While the s9 does not have its own infrared remote, you’ll still get an incredible interactive experience and functionality with the iRobot smartphone app. This app is available through both iOS and Android and provides plenty of features. Users can create a cleaning schedule, tell the s9 how many times it should clean a specific area, create maintenance alerts, and view event history.

After the s9 has made a few laps through your home, it will develop an interactive map which you can view through the app on your smart device. Then, you can access the map and split, combine, and label rooms in your home. You can also create an option to have your s9 clean certain rooms at certain times.

Additionally, you can control the s9 through your Google Home or Amazon Alexa. While voice controls aren’t new for Roomba vacuums, the commands available on the s9 now exceed dock, start, and stop. You can tell your s9 to vacuum any room in your home by simply telling it which room to clean.

Variable Brush Rolls

To thoroughly clean both the carpets and hardwood floors in your home, the s9 comes with two brush rolls. These brushes consist of flexible rubber which helps to ensure that they are coming in close contact with the floor while cleaning. With their extra-wide design, the brush rolls are able to clean much more of your floor each time is passes.

Recharge and Resume

Residing with the s9 is a lithium-ion battery which powers the vacuum. This battery offers a two-hour runtime with powerful suction. When the s9 begins to run low on juice, it automatically heads back to its dock to charge up. It rests there until the battery is completely charged.

If you want to know the charging status of the s9 while it’s on the dock, just tap the LED ring. Once the s9 finishes charging, it will head back out and pick up right where it left off.

Imprint Smart Mapping

Imprint Smart Mapping is how your Roomba s9 learns the layout of your home. It’s also how it is able to adapt automatically to its environment, whether its vacuuming hardwood floors or carpet. With Imprint Smart Mapping, the s9 creates the map of your home which you can then customize through the smartphone app.

A vSLAM optical sensor is included with the Roomba s9 to assist with drawing maps of your home. This sensor can gather more than 200,000 points of data every second.

Once the map is created, you can send your s9 out on a training run to test out its route. While on its test run, the s9 will only move on its course. It won’t use its brush rolls or suction to clean the floors.

Variable Suction

Like virtually every other feature on the Roomba s9, the suction has smart functionality. Sensors detect dirt and tell the s9 when its vacuuming certain areas like carpeting. When it does, the s9 automatically increases its suction power until the area is thoroughly cleaned. The floor plate on the robot vacuum even automatically adjusts to put the suction inlet as near to the floor as it can.

Through the smartphone app, you can tell the s9 to perform a custom clean, a quiet clean, or a detailed clean. Detailed cleaning creates additional power so the s9 can clean up tough messes. Quiet clean is the ideal setting for daily vacuuming. Custom clean is the perfect choice for getting small areas clean.

One other cool feature with the Roomba s9 is its ability to communicate with the Braava Jet Mop if you happen to have one. With its Imprint Link capabilities, the s9 and Braava Jet Mop link to one another. When the s9 finished up its vacuuming cycle, it tells the Jet Mop, which will start mopping your home.

Navigation

While other robot vacuums may not follow a set pattern or might bump into your furniture on a regular basis, the s9 will not. This is primarily due to the fact that the s9 boasts a 3D sensor which helps it move throughout your home with ease.

The 3D sensor sends out light patterns as it vacuums, which tells the s9 when an object is in the way. It makes these types of determinations at a rate of 25 per second. Additionally, the s9 has cliff sensors, which alert the robot when it comes close to an edge or overhang. This prevents it from falling down stairs and causing damage.

Dustbin

Emptying out the 13-ounce dustbin is simple and easy. All you need to do is lift up the copper lid and pull out the bin. There is a release hatch which opens from the bottom, which helps to keep your hands from getting dirty.

Pull out the high-efficiency filter by opening up the top of the bin. If the bin is exceptionally dirty, you can rinse it out with water. Be sure to dry it thoroughly before inserting it back into the s9.

Lastly, there is an option to avoid using the dustbin altogether. The s9+ comes with a feature that auto empties the contents of the s9 into a bag so that you don’t have to.

Roomba s9 vs. s9+

There are many great robot vacuums on the market today, however, none of them have the feature available on the iRobot Roomba s9+. This feature enables the robot vacuum to empty its own dustbin.

Let’s break it down:

Roomba’s robot vacuums know how to recharge on their own. They head back to their charging dock until they’re ready to resume their cleaning cycle. However, most Roomba’s do not have the ability to empty their own dustbins.

Instead, with these smart vacuums, you have to empty the dustbin manually. However, with the s9+, the entire process is automated.

The bag which the s9+ deposits its contents into will hold up to 30 dustbins worth of dirt and debris. That means you could potentially go more than a month before you need to empty out the bag, which means less manual work for you.

This is the main difference between the s9 and the s9+. So if you really like what you’ve read about the s9, take things up a notch and get a robot vacuum that empties itself so you don’ thave to.

Specifications

Here’s a quick rundown of the specifications for the iRobot Roomba s9 smart robot vacuum:

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages you’ll experience with the iRobot Roomba s9 robot vacuum:

Pros

• Offers a wide cleaning path for more efficient cleaning
• Long battery life for continuous cleaning
• Recharge & Resume lets the vacuum charge and picks up where it left off
• Powerful suction is strong enough to clean all flooring types throughout your home
• HEPA filters protect from allergens and pet hair
• Flexible rubber rush improves surface contact as it cleans
• Imprint Link technology allows the s9 to communicate with the Braava Jet robot mop
• Corner brush pulls debris and dirt out of corners and edges
• Navigation and mapping technology creates a truly autonomous robot vacuum
• Smartphone application available on iOS and Android operating systems
• Automatic dirt disposal available with the s9+

Cons

• Expensive, but features make it worth the cost
• A shorter design would help the vacuum have an easier time cleaning under furniture
• Dustbin doesn’t hold as much dirt as other smart vacuums

Plenty of Features in a Small Package

The Roomba s9 gives users a lot of technology is a small space. This exciting technology includes sensors that can prevent the robot from bumping into walls or furniture, a long-running battery, and the ability to resume cleaning where it left off after charging up.

Don’t forget about the variable suction capabilities that tell the s9 when it’s on hard flooring and when it’s on the carpet so it adjusts automatically. Plus, the D-shape of the robot gives it access to corners that previous Roomba’s didn’t have.

This amazing robot vacuum also has a brush that specializes in cleaning out the edges and corners of your home, plus a customizable map so you can tell it where to go. Did we mention you can do so just by the sound of your voice?

The Roomba s9 is an intuitive and amazing piece of technology that you’re sure to enjoy. While the price is a little steep and the dustbin could be bigger, you’re getting cutting edge technology that more than offsets these few drawbacks.

If you’re looking or the best of the best in smart home technology, look no further than the Roomba s9.

Further read:

• Roomba i7 vs Roomba s9: A Battle of iRobot’s Best
• Roomba s9 vs Roomba e5: Which is Best?
• Roomba s9 vs Botvac D7