iRobot Roomba i4+ EVO (4552) Robot Vacuum with Automatic Dirt Disposal - Empties Itself for up to 60 Days, Wi-Fi Connected Mapping, Compatible with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets

The i4+ vacuums so much better than my previous Roombas (and alternatives). It runs in logical patterns (compared to the random directions others often do), covers ground better and more efficiently, and picks up more dirt/hair/stuff than any other robo-vac that ive owned. Thats the good side. The bad side is that it doesnt always run and cant be managed. Ive had 2 other Roombas that worked great with the iRobot app, but this one does not. I can setup the vacuum, add a schedule, and then it disappears from the app. It may or may not run according to the schedule, it may run more than the schedule or it may not run at all. The app will never reconnect to the vacuum after initial setup, at least not completely. It partially connects because I can (sometimes) reboot it from the app. But it doesnt maintain a history of runs, wont on-demand, cant change the schedule, etc. Ive tried 3 different wifi networks, 3 different phones, etc, nothing works reliably. This vacuum is impossible to manage & control. Im hoping Roomba support will be helpful on this and if so will adjust review accordingly, but for now, this vacuum mostly requires manually starting it.

Works great, but is very loud when emptying the dust bin. Is very thorough when cleaning.

Absolutely nothing special about this things vacuuming ability. I bought this vacuum for our upstairs, roughly 700 sq ft. It takes the Roomba over an hour to do its job and it does an okay job at best, really it needs to do 2 passes 3 times a week to get the pet hair (from 1 cat), which now puts it at over 2 hours to do its job. Spectacularly unimpressive. It gets stuck in odd locations it didnt have a problem with 3 days prior and you have to go save it. After a whopping 2 months, the vacuum broke. I should have bought the warranty but it wouldnt change this review, it would just make it an easier pill to swallow having bought the wrong product, but my takeaway of I should have bought a Dyson would still stand. I understand things break and the replacement parts arent very expensive but I wouldnt have bought any product with these kinds of issues. This product definitely does NOT need vacuum bags. Unneeded design add-on to help drive up the price. A bin the customers could have dumped would have been just as easy to include in the design. I ordered some pocket zippers and hot glued them onto the back of a few bags I cut a slit in, and now I have reusable bags. Works Great! 10 out of 10 on a product idea. 3 out of 10 on product execution. Overall it doesnt vacuum very well, its slow, its noisy, it takes more maintenance than youd expect from a vacuum, especially a vacuum with a higher price tag. Cool idea, still a long way to go before this is a good product.