Unless you’ve been avoiding the TV and Internet for the last several years, you’ve probably heard of robotic vacuum cleaners. They’ve grown in popularity as of late, and prices have come down as a result. While they don’t offer the power or longevity of dedicated uprights and canisters, they do offer the advantage of hands-free and programmable cleaning of hardwood floors and low-pile carpets for a few hundred dollars. We’ve taken a break from reviewing canisters and uprights to take a look at some of the current offerings in robovacs. The other day we reviewed the Deebot N79 and Roomba 690. Today we’ll take a look at the iRobot Roomba 614 Robot Vacuum. iRobot slots it right behind the 690 and stripped its Wi-Fi and remote control powers as a result. Is it still worth getting? Absolutely. Our review is below, and you can buy it here.

Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the iRobot Roomba 614 Robot Vacuum

The Roomba 614 Robot Vacuum is the cheapest member of the Roomba line, and correspondingly has fewer features than the Roomba 690, Roomba 890, Roomba 960, and Roomba 980. The key stats for the 614 include one-button operation with no programming required, a 3 hour charge time for the Lithium-ion battery, and a 60 minute runtime. It needs at least 3.6 inches of clearance to clean beneath furniture and bedding and it has a 13 inch cleaning radius while weighing 11.5 pounds.

Inside the box, you get the Roomba 614 and pre-installed battery, a home base charging station, an extra filter, your owner’s manual and guide, and the 1 year manufacturer’s warranty and a stern warning not to use 3rd party replacement parts to avoid voiding the warranty. That comes with all iRobot devices, so they weren’t just trying to scold you for buying the 614 instead of a more expensive Roomba, at least.

What’s the difference between the Roomba 614 and 690?

The main differences between the 614 and 690 are in extended functionality. The 690, like the rest of the higher-end Roombas, is programmable; you can set when it cleans on a daily or weekly schedule. It’s also Wi-Fi and smart phone compatible; you can connect it to your Apple or Android phone and get status updates on how your Roomba is cleaning, if it’s gotten stuck somewhere, how charged the battery is, and other geeky info.

You don’t get any of that with the 614; it’s basically a normal vacuum cleaner except that it moves around your house cleaning on its own and then returns to its base to charge itself when it’s done cleaning. When you think about it, that’s still amazing technology, regardless of whether you can boss it around from your phone or not. You never have to push it or guide it; it has its cleaning patterns built in and will simply follow them until a room is done or it’s almost out of battery (at which point, as noted, it’ll go back to home base to charge).

How well does the Roomba 614 clean carpets and hardwood floors?

Of course, simplicity isn’t an advantage if it doesn’t come with functionality. Fortunately, the 614 is very functional. Compared to older Roombas, it’s much smarter, and compared to the current Roombas, it’s at least as intelligent as the 690 when it comes to navigation. It cleans bare floors with aplomb–hardwood floors, tile, laminate, vinyl, and concrete–but it’s also comfortable on low-pile carpets and rugs. Previous Roombas sometimes treated thicker rugs like walls and simply went around them instead of cleaning them; this isn’t the case with the 614 (or any of the other current Roombas). If you want to clean medium-pile or high-pile carpets or rugs, you’ll want to skip robotic vacuums in general and get a canister with an electric brush head like the Miele Compact C2 Electro+. However, that costs significantly more money.

If you don’t like to vacuum, if you have pets that shed, or if you simply don’t feel like you have time to keep up with your home’s upkeep, the 614 is a cheap way of lightening the load. It won’t pick up your dirty socks and dishes for you, but as long as you don’t have a lot of clothing-related junk on the ground, it’ll do a fine job of moseying around, cleaning everythng, filling its dust bin, and returning to home base to charge itself when done. All you have to do–literally–is push the big green button at the top to get it going.

How often does the Roomba 614 get stuck, fall, or tip over?

In terms of navigational abilities, the 614 is at least as smart as the 690, as noted above, and perhaps a bit smarter. Unlike previous Roombas, it rarely gets stuck beneath furniture and it almost never falls off stairs. Its movement patterns seem a bit more logical than those of the 690, even though both will ultimately clean your house thoroughly if given enough time. To put it simply, as long as you don’t have lots of clothes, shoelaces, socks, underwear, and other random objects lying around the ground, your Roomba will be able to find its way around your home and make it back to home base every time.

How do pets react to the Roomba 614?

Keep in mind that your pets may have different reactions to it; most get used to it within a few days and ignore it. Some cats will take a liking to it and start sitting on it while it rides around. Others will be scared and keep their distance. None of this affects its cleaning power; it’s just something to be aware of.

Why buy the Roomba 614?

The Roomba 614 is an affordable entry to robotic vacuums for middle-class families, young professionals, and otherwise thrifty individuals who want good cleaning but don’t want to spend a car payment’s worth of money on it. It’ll clean just as well as the Roomba 690 while costing a little less; the main difference between the two machines is that the 690 can be controlled by your smart phone, while no such option exists for the 614. If you don’t need smart phone functionality, however, or don’t want to deal with the potential headaches that entails, save yourself some money and get the 614. Our main gripe is the one year warranty, which seems to be standard across the robovac field. Aside from that, it’s a wonderful little machine.

You can buy the Roomba 614 here on Amazon. If you want a Roomba you can control with your smart phone, buy the Roomba 690 here. You can also buy the Deebot N79 here for similar functionality.

Canadians can buy the Roomba 614 here, the Roomba 690 here, or the Deebot N79 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.