It’s no secret that robovacuums are taking over the world–or at least diligently humming about our homes picking up after us. However, there are too many junk models out there that spend more time getting stuck under furniture than actually making your home look like you vacuumed it yourself. What’s a busy parent or young professional to do?

This is where iRobot comes in. Despite putting out relatively simple-minded Roombas on the lower end, they’ve got some real winners for people willing to open their wallets. If you’re willing to spend $600 on a robotic vacuum, you’re going to expect it to clean and clean well. Fortunately, Roomba delivers and does so “bigly” with the iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum. It’s the second-highest Roomba in the Roomba totem pole after the Roomba 980 and offers most of the functionality for a few hundred less. Is it worth it? Yeah. In fact, we think it’s the best value in the entire Roomba line. Our full review is below, and you can buy it here.

Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum

We’ll be brief: you want the iRobot Roomba 960 because it’s an automatic vacuum that actually does a good job cleaning while rarely getting stuck. It slots in right behind the Roomba 980 in the quest for Roomba supremacy and sits right ahead of the Roomba 890, which is more the middle child in the series. The Roomba 690 and 614 are more or less toys in comparison; they clean, but they aren’t very smart. The 614, bless its heart, can’t be connected to a smart phone at all.

At any rate, the 960 includes Wi-Fi and smart phone compatibility and can also take orders from a voice-activated system (think Alexa or Google Assistant). It’s battery powered and highly programmable. It lasts 75 minutes on a charge and takes 3 hours to recharge at home base. It needs 3.6 inches or more to clean beneath furniture and has a 14 inch cleaning radius. It weighs a svelte 8.6 pounds on our scale.

Opening up the box, you’ll hopefully find the Roomba itself unless something went terribly wrong. Alongside it, you should see the home base station (which the Roomba will return to whenever it needs a charge or whenever it’s done cleaning), a virtual wall barrier to keep it away from certain parts of your home (e.g., the toys your children refuse to clean up), an extra filter and side brush, and your instruction manual and crummy one year warranty (a pet peeve of ours with the robotic vacuum industry).

Wi-Fi and smart phone setup of the Roomba 960 app: How do you do it?

Wi-Fi and smart phone setup are easy even if you aren’t a tech lover. Keep in mind that you don’t actually need it to run the Roomba; it just makes it more convenient to use by giving you information regarding battery charge and helping you set cleaning schedules and receive notifications. To set it up, download the iRobot app to your Android or Apple phone and install it. You sync the Roomba and WiFi by sending the Roomba to its docking station (or plugging it in manually) and turning everything on; the syncing will happen automatically. Remember you’ll need 2.4GHz Wi-Fi instead of 5GHz. Something interesting to note is that the app for the 960 shows more information than that provided in cheaper Roombas.

How well does the Roomba 960 clean carpets, hardwood floors, and homes with pets?

In a word: very well. Technically, that’s two words, but we wanted to emphasize how good of a job it did. As with all robotic vacuums, you’re not going to clean medium- to high-pile carpets with it (save that for a Soft Carpet), but anything involving bare floors (hardwood, tile, concrete, laminate, or vinyl) or low-pile carpeting and rugs is fair game. It picks up an astonishing amount of pet hair. However, we were most impressed with the 960’s brain.

It doesn’t just have sensors–it has cameras! It can see where it’s going, can move from room to room, and doesn’t repeat areas nearly as much. It simply “searches” more logically when cleaning than the cheaper Roombas. iRobot clearly programmed more sensible routes into it, as it moves about in a more orderly and (to our eyes, at least) efficient way. Additionally, a perk of the 960 (and 980) is the “recharge and resume” feature we described above. Simply put, when your 960 detects a low battery charge, it’ll return to home base like every other Roomba. However, unlike the cheaper ones, once it’s done charging, it’ll get back out there and finish the job. We love it.

We noted it earlier but it bears repeating: if you have dogs or cats that shed, you’re going to find a lot of hair, dander, dust, and other things furry friends produce. Many people find themselves emptying the dust bin on a daily basis if they have the 960 programmed to clean while at work, especially in homes with pets.

To keep the 960 running at its best, you’ll want to spend five minutes a week cleaning it out; the instructions for doing so are laid out clearly in the manual. It isn’t difficult or messy, and it’ll help you get several years out of it after warranty coverage is through.

How does the Roomba 960 compare to the Roomba 980?

Compared to the Roomba 980, the Roomba 960 puts up one heck of a fight. They’re almost matched in every respect except for a few navigational and functionality features. Specifically, the 960 has much better battery life at 120 minutes of runtime compared to 75. That said, both are capable of returning to home base to charge themselves when running low in a cleaning session; once charged, both get back to work. So while the 980 will last longer on a charge, in the end, as long as you don’t experience a power outage during a cleaning session, both will get the job done without your help.

Why buy the Roomba 960?

In conclusion, we said at the start of this review that the 960 offered the best value in the Roomba line, and we hope we’ve explained why. It’s not at the top of the robotic heap, but it offers nearly all of the features of the 980 while costing hundreds less. If you don’t need the extra 45 minutes of battery life or a few extra goodies packed into the 980, take the extra two hundred dollars you save by buying the 960 and treat yourself to one heck of a night on the town. Or, you know, mutual funds. The point is you get your money’s worth with the 960 if you’re looking for a vacuum to clean your home so you don’t have to. We’d just like to see a warranty longer than one year to help us sleep better at night.

You can buy the Roomba 960 here on Amazon. Alternatively, you can buy the Roomba 980 here if you really want the extra bells and whistles of the King Roomba.

Canadians can buy the Roomba 960 here or spend a bit more for the Roomba 980 here.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.