This has been my first experience with a roomba, and it is a determined little cleaner! I have friends who have had them for years, but I never paid much attention. This 860 cleans better, and in more unreachable places than I ever could! Seriously folks, if you are researching and thinking about it, go ahead and pull the trigger. You probably won't read another review like mine, so stay tuned. We pulled up all of our carpet a couple of years ago (thanks to our sweet puppies), which revealed some 1950's style hardwood floors. They still have varnish on them, but they also have some dark spots and melted carpet pad which we tried to scrape up. I have a bad back, and my husband has bad knees, so we basically don't do floors. I'm serious, we don't do them. About once every 3 months my husband runs a vacuum over them at break-neck speed, which does very little for the cause.
When I got the 860 I charged it overnight, and I actually swept a little. I even moved a little furniture. When I first started it, like everyone else, I followed it around watching it clean. It went back to it's charger after 10 minutes because the bin was full! For the next couple of weeks I became an expert at cleaning the filter and emptying the bin. You couldn't see the dust on the floors, but it's almost like it was pulling it out of the tiny cracks between the hardwoods, and it really had a field day under the beds! It goes and cleans in places that I hadn't even thought about, and I find myself standing there and thinking "well, that's a good idea"! It is so powerful, and once it gets your floors in decent condition it will go for 2 hours, easy, because of the lithium ion battery. That is one of the best features about the 860...the only other Irobot that has it is the 980. I did so much research that I feel like I know my robot vacuums inside and out!
I have long hair, and I shed a lot. I found myself wondering where all that long hair was. When I followed the instructions and unscrewed the little side brush there was a big ball of hair under it. Then I took the little roller bars out and it was all wound up inside on both ends. This is not a fault because it's so much nicer to clean out a few balls of hair instead of having it tangled up in brushes or even worse, floating around your feet. Irobot has made it easy to clean the thing out, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Okay, at this point I realize I sound like a commercial for Irobot, so let me assure you that I WISH I was one of those people who got their products for free, but I paid full price for mine.
The 860 is so powerful that I get nervous when it is around power cords. I found out it's designed to back up when it gets on them, but it still made me nervous. I have bunch of extension cords and all kinds of things hooked up around my bed, so my solution was to block the roomba off with a 4 ft long by 2 inch wide axe handle. Well, it seriously climbed right over that axe handle with such determination that I stood in awe as I also freaked out. This thing is amazing, and maybe a little bit scary, lol.
If you are wavering between the 860 and 880, I would go with the 860 because of the lithium battery. It's stronger and will last a lot longer. It doesn't have a memory like the other roomba batteries (like I said, I've done my research). I ended up having to return my 860 because it started making a clicking noise that I couldn't fix by cleaning it. Also, the lights on the machine and charger weren't working the way they should. I'm telling you this so you will know what to look for, but even with the clicking and lights, it still was a crazy cleaning machine. I loved it! The 880 went on sale and I really thought I needed the remote. It turns out that the remote only works if you point it right at the machine, so I have barely used it. The lighthouses are nice I suppose, but I found that I rarely even needed the virtual wall that came with the 860. More than likely I will return the 880 and go back to the 860 with the lithium ion battery. Although the 880 is running fine this first week, it will only go for an hour whereas the 860 was topping out at more than 2. I hope this helps you make your decision. Whether or not to get one at all is a no brainer. It's the best thing I've ever had.
Bottom line, my floors have never been this clean. Today I'm going to celebrate by mopping!
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This Item  iRobot Roomba 860 Vacuum Cleaning Robot |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $193.63 | -49% $359.99 List: $699.99 | $277.88 | -20% $199.99 List: $249.99 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it May 20 - 23 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 |
| Customer Ratings | |||||
| Suction power | |||||
| Battery life | |||||
| For cleaning up hair | |||||
| For deep cleaning | |||||
| Sold By | — | Amazon.com | Roborock Technology Co. Ltd | Ironhill Tech (SN Recorded) | Amazon.com |
| surface suggestion | Hard Floor | Carpets,Floors | Hard Floor, Carpet, Wood, Tile | Hard Floor | Carpet |
| batteries included | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| battery average life | — | — | 180 minutes | — | 120 minutes |
| compatible devices | Amazon Echo | Amazon Echo | Amazon Echo, Google Home, Smartphones | — | Amazon Echo |
| weight | 8 pounds | 4990 grams | 7 kilograms | 5800 grams | — |
Reviews with images
Almost perfect!
4.5 stars. I love my Roomba. I want to be clear about that. It's SUCH an improvement over having to vacuum, especially the hardwoods (dark hardwood, 2 light furred dogs!). That said, I have a few concerns that keep me from giving it 5 stars overall.First, the dogs' hair tends to clog the machine, even though I empty it religiously each time it runs. Their small hair gets caught in the wheels and in some of the workings of the vacuum part. So you have to be vigilant if you have pets. You can usually tell, though, since the cup will be empty after it's run.My second concern is the filter. After a month, it's totally gunked up. I do wash it weekly, but I now need to replace it. I'm going to order a batch of these. We live downtown, so we have a lot of dirt and dust, not to mention the double dog fur. Changing filters is simple, but you need to keep a regular eye out and replace them.Lastly, the vacuum sometimes gets stuck on our chrome chairs (see photo). Not a huge deal, although I wish there were a way to adjust what the machine tries to climb over. Usually, it goes around the bottoms of the chairs, but for some reason, sometimes it will try to climb over the bottoms from time to time and then it gets stuck. If I'm not home, the machine stops. Not a huge deal, since I just pick it up (it has a convenient handle) and move it. But for the money, I'd love to see a redesign to accommodate furniture like ours.All in all a great machine and well worth the money!
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