I have criticized on more than one occasion in this blog the exorbitant prices of some smartphones, which not only far exceed 1,000 euros, and even 2,000 as the latest Samsung Galaxy Fold. And all this when there are much cheaper options on the market, with similar features, from brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei, One Plus and now also from another Chinese such as Realme. But today I am not going to talk about smartphones, but about another device that is getting smarter and smarter and that we should all have at home to make life easier for us. After having tried it for a couple of months, I can even say that for a device like this, like the iRobot Roomba i7 +, I would be willing to pay the 1,000 euros it is worth.
I can handle it from wherever I want, with my smartphone, and I can even tell it by voice to vacuum in the places I want thanks to the fact that it is able to create a smart plan of your house, including obstacles where it cannot pass. And if you do not want it to go through a certain place, you can place a laser device that simulates an obstacle so that it does not go that way, for example.
And cleaning, vacuuming, which is its essential function, it does it fabulously, I attest to it (I leave you some photos throughout the article). And when it finishes doing so, it automatically and intelligently goes, without colliding with anything, to stand on its base. Of course, place the base in a place that has enough space, about 45 centimeters, to the sides and in the front, since otherwise it gets stuck and is unable to be placed on its base. I admit that I have set him some trap than another, and even placed in a narrow place to see how he acts, but in all of them he has come out with a more than remarkable score.
But we are going to count some functionalities to show its capabilities and benefits, such as stopping the vacuuming throughout the house by hand. Once the application is configured on the mobile, available for both Android and IOS, it performs an intelligent mapping with the Imprint function and is capable of learning the plans of a house, so that it can differentiate the kitchen from the living room, giving users have full control from the mobile device over which rooms to clean and when. This function, that of creating the smart map, is completed when the vacuum cleaner performs between two and five cleaning jobs on the same floor. You can also opt for a ‘recognition tour’, which disconnects the cleaning head and the vacuum cleaner motor to save battery life.
After the Imprint smart map is generated, you receive a notification that you can begin customizing the map by joining, dividing, or labeling rooms. With the smart map, the Roomba i7 + can be programmed to clean specific rooms on specific days or times, or simply have the robot clean the entire floor of the house. Roomba i7 + empties its tank automatically and recharges when needed to continue cleaning until the job is completed. The built-in bag holds up to 30 tanks filled with dirt and dust.
You can also control the Roomba i7 + through your voice, but for this you have to link the iRobot Home application on the smartphone with the Amazon Alexa or Google Home enabled devices that the user has at home. I linked the robot vacuum cleaner to Google Home and Amazon Echo Show, paying attention to a few simple steps that the application itself indicates on the mobile.
Using iRobot’s patented iAdapt 3.0 navigation with vSLAM technology with visual localization, the Roomba i7 + navigates the house simply and efficiently, keeping track of where it has been and where it still needs to clean. The two multi-surface rubber brushes and their suction power 10 times greater than the previous version of the robot, trap embedded dirt, debris and pet hair from wherever it hides.
Another patented technology unique to Roomba robot vacuum cleaners, Dirt Detect, allows it to recognize particularly dirty areas on the floor, causing the robot to clean that particular spot more thoroughly. Dirt Detect events appear in the report Clean Map, in the iRobot HOME App, once the job is completed.
iRobot also includes for just a few days, within its software, a new resource called “Keep Out Zones” or “Exclusion Zones”, which allows you to designate areas of the home where you do not want the robot to go, such as pet bowls , some messier room or other areas where the smart vacuum cleaner may have a hard time navigating, vacuuming or scrubbing. And works. I have checked it with the bowls of my Chihuahua Lucas. Every time the robot went to the kitchen to clean, it would push the feeders until it threw out what was contained in them. Now, with this function, Lucas has the feeders always in place even if the Roomba i7 + has passed by.
Roomba i7 + also includes a Clean Base automatic emptying station, which doubles as its charging station, a dual-mode virtual wall, an extra filter, an extra emptying bag, and an extra side brush. Enough for 1,000 euros? You just need to scrub, although there are also robots that do it, but more expensive of course.
