Mac Os X Apps For Irobot Roomba 690
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Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens, Xbox One. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Roomba ThinkingCleaner. Dec 01, 2018 In this video, I demonstrate the iRobot Roomba 690 that I purchased on Black Friday 2018 for $220 at Lowe’s. I’ve been using it daily for a week, and my floors have never been cleaner!! IRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum-Wi-Fi Connectivity, Works with Alexa, Good for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors, Self-Charging 4.1 out of 5 stars 7,093 14 offers from $135.60. Sorry if the app is unclear but this app isn't intended to use with the Roomba 900 Series but with the Roomba 500/600 series + a Thinking Cleaner device (purchased separately) which adds wifi support to a Roomba. Since this device isn't from iRobot the protocol used to talk with the Roomba is very different from the one used in the 900. Buy: iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum with Wi-Fi Connectivity from Amazon: $249 Original price $374.99. $100 iTunes Gift Card For $85 – Digital Email Delivery. The list of things you can buy with an iTunes card is many, because the cards can be used for apps and in-app purchases.
Buy It Now
| Amazon UK | £496.97 |
Pros
- Relatively affordable.
- Controllable via phone app.
- Compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.
- Powerful suction.
Cons
- Navigation issues with dark flooring and docking in testing.
Bottom Line
iRobot's Roomba 690 vacuum offers lots of functionality for the price, including control via smartphone and support for voice commands through popular smart home devices.
When you think of robot vacuums, chances are you think of iRobot's Roomba line. And while the company's high-end models are impressive, the entry-level Roomba 690 ($374.99) offers a lot of value for about half the price. Not only does it feature Wi-Fi connectivity and app control, it supports voice commands via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as well. The $220 Eufy RoboVac 11 can't be beat on price, and remains our Editors' Choice for affordable robot vacuums. But if you're looking to take the next step up, the Roomba 690 is a great choice.
Design
Circular in shape, the Roomba 690 has a black-and-silver body that measures 13.0 inches wide and 3.7 inches tall. That's just about the same size as the Bissell SmartClean 1974, which is just a little shorter at 3.4 inches. The RoboVac 11 is the shortest of the bunch, at 3.0 inches. The 690 should be able to clean under most furniture, though it might have trouble with very low-profile couches and cabinets. At 7.4 pounds, the vacuum is a bit hefty for its size—the SmartClean and RoboVac 11 are both lighter at 5.5 and 5.8 pounds, respectively—but you don't have to lift it much.
On top of the vacuum, you'll find a large silver Clean button that starts, pauses, and ends each session. Below that you'll find a home icon that sends the robot back to its dock. Above it is a spot cleaning icon, and above that a backlit panel shows you errors, Wi-Fi connectivity, and battery status.
A removable dustbin is located in the back of the bot, while the front houses the RCON sensor (room confinement) and bumper. Underneath, you'll find cliff sensors, charging contacts, a front roller, two main wheels, two roller brushes, and a side brush.
The Roomba 690 comes with a charging dock and a dual-mode virtual wall beacon (pictured). The virtual wall runs on two AA batteries, included in the box. Compared with the big block you get with the Bobsweep Pet Hair Plus, the Roomba's virtual wall is smaller and much more intuitive to use. It's a slim, squarish tower with a switch in the back that lets you toggle between two modes. If you slide it up, it emits a 10-foot digital barrier to keep the vacuum out of rooms and spaces you don't want it to enter. If you slide it down, it creates a circular 'halo' barrier with a four-foot diameter. This is handy for pet owners, as you can place it near food and water bowls to keep the Roomba from knocking them over as it cleans.
Setup and App
Getting the Roomba 690 ready is a piece of a cake. Once you've plugged in the dock, all you have to do is flip over the vacuum and pull out the yellow plastic tab sticking out from the battery. Then just stick the robot on the dock and let it charge until the battery is full—about three hours.
When that's done, download the iRobot app from the Apple App Store or Google Play and follow the on-screen prompts to create an account and pair the robot over Wi-Fi (it only supports the 2.4GHz band).
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The app itself is streamlined and intuitive. There's only one button on the main screen: Clean. Pressing it will activate the Roomba, and you can do it even if you're not on the same Wi-Fi network (so you can turn it on when you're at work, for instance). In the top right corner, you can keep an eye on battery life. At the bottom of the screen, there are three other menus: Lifetime Performance Log, Weekly Schedule, and More.
Lifetime Performance Log is exactly what it sounds like—a record of all your Roomba's cleanings. You can see stats like the number of jobs, total duration, and how many times it turned on its Dirt Detect feature. You can also look at the individual stats for each job. The Weekly Schedule tab is pretty self-explanatory and simple. You just select the days and time you want the Roomba to clean. The More tab is where you can find the Locate Roomba button. When pressed, the Roomba will play a little ditty to help you find it. It's also where you'll find care instructions, FAQs, videos, manuals, and settings.
Alexa, Start My Roomba
All you have to do is select the Connected Home menu in the app and the device of your choice to find simple instructions to enable voice control. I have an Amazon Echo Dot at home, so I tested the 690 using Alexa voice commands.
The process is simple. All you have to do is open the Amazon Alexa app, go to the Skills menu, select iRobot Home, and hit the Enable button. Once you've done that you can start or stop a clean, tell the Roomba to go back to its dock, ask for status updates, and ask the vacuum where it is, all through your Alexa device.
In practice, the voice commands are simple to use and for the most part work well. I only experienced snags if I tried to issue commands out of order. For instance, if I first asked the Roomba to dock and then asked it to stop, Alexa would tell me that the bot wasn't running—even as I watched it navigate around my furniture trying to find the dock. That's a normal and fairly common quirk of using Alexa to manage smart home gadgets, it just takes some getting used to.
Performance
I tested the 690 over a week at my apartment. Suction is quite powerful. After a 70-minute cleaning session, I was pleased to find the dustbin brimming to capacity. But while it sucked up a lot of dirt, dust, and hair, it had some trouble navigating around my living room rug. Sometimes it had difficulty getting on top of the rug, which was surprising since it's a relatively low pile. But to the vacuum's credit, if it was having trouble it sometimes turned around and reversed onto the rug instead.
However, I frequently received push notifications saying the Roomba was stuck by a cliff, when it was sitting safely on or near my flat rug. That might be because of my rug's Georgia O'Keefe-inspired geometric patterns and black border. Robotic vacuums with infrared sensors commonly come with warnings that they might not work as well on dark flooring. According to iRobot, the 690's cliff sensors can sometimes confuse dark colors as an edge or stair. There's unfortunately not much you can do, other than move it to another location. I experienced the same issue while testing the Bissell SmartClean 1974 and the Bobsweep PetHair Plus.
While vacuums like the Eufy RoboVac 11 can safely trawl near or over cables without eating them up, that's not the case with the Roomba. When I wasn't looking, it sucked up two of the charging cords under my desk. This was the first time a robot vacuum managed to get into that area, so I hadn't thought to clear it beforehand. Thankfully, removing the cables was easy—though I didn't get a push notification from the robot telling me what happened.
In addition to eating up some of my cords (none of which were damaged), the vacuum has a tendency to push objects around. Some stray shoes and the occasional shopping bag ended up in different rooms because the Roomba brought them along for a ride. You can use the virtual wall to cordon off any problem areas, but you'll still want to make sure the floor is relatively clear.
Battery life is decent. On a full charge, the Roomba 690 lasted about 70 minutes. That was enough to clean my living room, kitchen, hallway, and part of my bedroom. It's much better than the 45 minutes you get with the Dyson 360 Eye on maximum power.
As for docking, the 690 isn't the greatest at finding its way back. I tried telling it to dock three ways: with Alexa, with the button on the robot itself, and with the app. Each time, it wandered off in the exact opposite direction of the docking station. If I picked it up and placed it near the station, it managed to reorient itself and docked successfully. But without my guiding hand, the bot ended up going around in circles and bumping into walls looking for home.
That brings me to another small disappointment: the lack of app-based steering controls. I would've appreciated the ability to tell the Roomba where to go from my phone, as picking it up and placing it where it needs to go is a tad cumbersome.
Lastly, the Roomba 690 is noisy, though that's pretty much the case with just about every robot vacuum on the market. You won't want to take any phone calls while the bot is cleaning, but it's no louder than a traditional standing vacuum.
Conclusions
If you want a Wi-Fi-connected vacuum you can control with your phone, the iRobot Roomba 690 is the best deal at less than $400. It has good suction power, an easy-to-use app, and voice control via Amazon or Google. Pricier models like the Roomba 890, 960, and 980 offer the same voice control and app options, but stronger navigation skills and carpeting cleaning, among other features. If app and voice control isn't high on your list of priorities, it's hard to beat the Eufy RoboVac 11. It's $155 less than the Roomba 690, handles dark flooring well, and is the quietest vacuum we've tested.
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Buy It Now
| Amazon UK | £429.75 |
Pros
- Good navigation capabilities.
- Handles different floor types well.
- Relatively quiet.
- Works with smartphone app and voice control via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
- Shows map of cleaned areas.
Cons
- Occasionally gets stuck under low furniture.
- Can't steer using phone app.
Bottom Line
The iRobot Roomba 960 isn't cheap, but thanks to a mix of premium features and performance, it's the best high-end robot vacuum for the price.
Roomba is practically synonymous with robot vacuums, but what many people don't know is that there isn't just one definitive model. The line spans from the $375 Roomba 690 to the $900 Roomba 980. The $700 Roomba 960, the subject of this review, falls somewhere in the middle, though obviously its price puts its closer to the high end. It shares many of the same features with the top-of-the-line 980—like a camera for navigation, a smartphone app with detailed cleaning reports and maps, and Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control—but comes with only one virtual wall and has a slightly less powerful motor. That makes it a stronger value in our eyes, and our Editors' Choice for high-end robot vacuums.
Roomba 960 vs. Roomba 980
The only visual difference between the Roomba 960 and 980 is color. The body of the 960 is a lighter gray, but everything else is the same. They both measure 13.8 inches in diameter and stand 3.6 inches tall. Controls are in the same spots, with a large Clean button flanked by Home and Spot Cleaning buttons. Indicator lights are located above the buttons, while a camera for navigation sits at the top center. Underneath, you'll also find the same components: two roller brushes, a side brush, cliff sensors, and a front wheel. The removable dustbin is located in the back.
Where the two bots differ is in weight. The 8.5-pound 960 is a smidge lighter than the 8.7-pound 980. That's because it has a different motor—the same as the one in the older Roomba 880. Another difference is battery. While we found the 980 can zoom around for up to 90 minutes, the 960 peters out after about 70. The 980 also comes with two virtual walls, while the 960 includes only one.
The Roomba 960 has Wi-Fi connectivity (on the 2.4GHz band only). Like other recent Roombas, you control the 960 using the iRobot Home app, which you can find in the Apple App Store and Google Play. It walks you through setup process and connecting to Wi-Fi, which is identical across all models. You can read more about that, as well as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility, in my review of the Roomba 690.
One of the main differences between the 690 and the 960 is that the 960 has a Cleaning Preferences menu, which lets you customize the number of times it cleans a single room. Also, in the Lifetime Performance menu, you can view more detailed stats about each session, including total area cleaned. And it supports iRobot's Clean Map feature, which lets you see a map of where the robot has vacuumed. You still can't steer the Roomba using the app, however.
Performance
Most robot vacuums opt for random cleaning patterns, which can be frustrating to watch as they ignore obvious dust bunnies in favor of cleaning the same spot over and over again. That's true of the 690, but the 960 is much more methodical in its approach.
I tested the Roomba 960 at my apartment and was impressed by how deftly it maneuvered around furniture and obstacles. Thanks to the camera, it didn't bang into table legs or bookshelves, and often, I would see it pause momentarily as it calculated where to move next. While the Bobsweep Bobi Pet knocked over one of my dining room chairs and the Roomba 690 pushed a shopping bag across my hallway, the 960 left things as they were. So while you should still clear the floors of cables and liquids prior to cleaning, you don't have to bend over backwards decluttering.
The 960 is also better than average at moving across different floor types. My living room rug features a black border and dark geometric shapes, and has tripped up many other vacuums in testing, including the Roomba 690. So I was pleased to see this wasn't an issue for the 960. It was able to reliably get on and off the rug with no trouble. The same held true for the transition between wood and tile from my hallway to my kitchen.
That's not to say it's perfect, however. While it was able to work its way underneath my TV stand, it got stuck under there and wasn't able to find its way back out. You can ward off problem areas like this with the included virtual wall, which lets you cordon off certain spaces.
One issue with methodical cleaners like the 960 is they often only pass over an area once. But you can set it to make two passes in a room, which I found picked up any stray debris it may have missed the first time. So while the 960 doesn't have quite the same suction power as the 980, it still does an excellent, thorough job of cleaning your floors. The 980's biggest cleaning draw is its Carpet Boost feature, which lets you turn up the suction on rugs and carpeting.
As for noise, the 960 is surprisingly quiet. You'll definitely notice it if you're in the same room, but it's much quieter than your traditional stick vacuum. So far, only the Eufy RoboVac 11 has been quieter in testing.
At about 70-75 minutes, battery life isn't the longest we've encountered, but it's fine for smaller homes, especially apartments. Because of its methodical approach to cleaning, the 960 was able to do two runs through my living room, hallway, kitchen, and bedroom in about 45 minutes. It also didn't have any trouble automatically docking. Once I told Alexa to send the robot back, it made a beeline straight for the docking station.
Conclusions
While it certainly isn't cheap, compared with the $1,000 Dyson 360 Eye and the $900 Roomba 980, the Roomba 960 is a good deal. For $700, you get a lot of advanced features, like a camera for better navigation, Wi-Fi, voice assistant compatibility, and iRobot's Clean Map visualizations.
If you're torn between the Roomba 960 and 980, it boils down to two factors: Your floors and the size of your home. Unless you have a large, heavily carpeted home, then the 980's Carpet Boost, extra virtual wall beacon, and longer battery life aren't quite enough to justify shelling out an extra $200. That's why the 960 beats out the 980 as our Editors' Choice for high-end robot vacuums.
If $700 for the 960 is just too much, however, there are more affordable Roombas out there. The aforementioned Roomba 690 is under $400, and you still get a powerful clean, app control, and voice command capability. The 890 is slightly more expensive at $500, and has the same features as the 690 along with a more powerful motor. Neither supports Clean Map reports, but that's more of a perk than a necessity.
And if you don't care about Wi-Fi or any advanced features outside of simply cleaning, you should also take a look at the Eufy RoboVac 11. It'll get you a thorough, whisper-quiet clean for a fraction of the price, though that's about all it does.
iRobot Roomba 960 Specs
| Dimensions | 3.6 by 13.8 by 13.8 inches |
| Battery Life (Tested) | 70 minutes |
| Mop/Vacuum Hybrid | No |
| Scheduling | Yes |
| Virtual Walls | Yes |
| Remote Control | No |
| Phone Control | Yes |