As much as iRobot’s dainty little robo-housekeeping Roombas are fantastic at keeping your floors clear of most dust and debris, there’s one thing they don’t handle particularly well, pet mess. Specifically the solid kind. Now, this may seem like a bit of an oxymoron considering the fact that these bots are built to clean, but when it comes to pet poop they, unfortunately, end up making more of a mess.
See, Roombas don’t do particularly well with solid mess to begin with. Errant underwear and particularly chunky food scraps tend to just clog their brushes. With pet mess, at best you’ll have to clean out your machine’s bristles yourself. At worst, it could spread the mess over your would-be clean floors.
Fortunately, iRobot’s latest line of robovacs, the j7 and j7+, are kitted out with AI capable of detecting and avoiding pet mess.
Cleaner Roomba, cleaner house
iRobot did extensive testing to ensure that its new Roombas could spot obstacles (like cables, loose clothing, and the occasional pet land-mine), and it’s pretty pleased with the results. Now, when your new Roomba spots a potential obstruction, it will send a photo to you via its companion app asking if it should avoid the object. You can then also tell it how to handle similar events in future.
iRobot has also improved on its Genius 3.0 software, which is the brains behind all of the robovac’s activity. In addition to existing features like designated “clean zones”, areas to stay out of, and cleaning schedules, these updates bring on board a few new functions.
For example, geofencing. This lets you set up a digital boundary with your Roomba. If your phone leaves the boundary, your vacuum will start cleaning. When you enter it again, it will make itself scarce for your comfort. And if you’re fine with your bot doing its business while you’re in the room but think it could do it a little more quietly, you can use the Quiet Drive mode to make it a little more discreet.
The j7 and j7+ go on sale in the US and Canada via iRobot’s website today, at $649 (around R9,200) and $849 (around R12,000) respectively. Roombas are traditionally hard to come by here in South Africa, but we’ll let you know if and when they become available.
