IRobot scraped straight and replaced almost all of its Robot Vacuum, but among the shiny new fleet there is a model that has especially caught my eye: Roomba 205 Dustcompactor Combo. This bot is specially designed for smaller homes, and as the owner of such a compact residence, I am especially eager to get my hands on one.
The fact that I all live on one floor means that robot vacuum is in some ways a good fit for my home. Apartment that lives often translates to ‘not a lot of space’ and that is certainly the case for me. Many of today’s best robot wacuum comes with giant docks that can do anything from emptying the dust to replenishing water tanks to washing and drying the mop pads. While they definitely create a very hands-off experience, I lose half of my kitchen every time I test one.
The second option is a dock dock. These tend to be lovely and petite, but require me to take care of all maintenance – including container -emptying. The trash cans you find aboard robotic wakuum are necessarily small, so if you have a lot of dust, do it with annoying regularity. If testing of one of these coincides with the fact that I have a dog visit, bin -emptying becomes a task; This is definitely not an ideal option if you are looking for the best robot vacuum for pet hair.
IRobot’s solution is to introduce dust compression in the 205 combination box, which may contain more dust and thus require less frequent manual intervention. The dock is the basic, only charge that is small enough to fit discreetly in almost any home, including mine.
Inside the small onboard trash is a paddle that twists left and right to adhere to any dust and dirt that has been sucked up in a smaller room. The paddle then returns to the center of the main inlet, ready for the next influx of dirt.
Combo 205 is designed to last up to 60 days without emptying, even if it will depend on how much dirt and dust you suck, of course.
IRobot says its compressive technology is an ‘industry-first’. Another model on the market – Narwal Freo X Plus – does a similar thing, although I assume it may not use the same mechanism.
Stay low
Another notable feature here is that iRobot has removed the navigation puck from the top of the Roomba 205 Dustcompactor Combo, making it low enough to sneak under furniture that might otherwise have been out of bounds. Maybe iRobot decided that people with small homes should also have low furniture; I don’t know.
This is especially interesting because this Robovac uses Lidar for navigation. In fact, the introduction of ‘ClearView’ Lidar Navigation is one of the best updates to appear in the new Roomba series.
Previously, the brand used an older form of robotic vacuum navigation, which was far slower, less reliable and unable to operate in the dark.
IRobot says the Lidar technology has simply been moved to the front of the 205 Dustcompactor model to give it a more streamlined silhouette. The thing is, robots that use Lidar need raising puck to ‘see’ a nice wide area around them. All three of the other new Roombas have one.
I asked an iRobot representative about this explaining that although 205 would have a narrower field of view, this would not affect the navigation accuracy for most people. She assured me that she tested two of the new Roomba bots, one with the puck and one without, and they both behaved in the same way.
If it applies, this may be the perfect robot vacuum for me. We have a Roomba 205 Dustcompactor on the way and report back as soon as we have a chance to set it through its pace.
Roomba 205 DustCompactor will be sold from March 18 with a list price of $ 469 / € 449 (approx. £ 380 / AU $ 780).
