iRobot just scrapped and replaced almost its entire range of robot vacuums, but amongst the shiny new fleet there's one model that has caught my eye in particular: the Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo. This bot is designed especially for smaller homes, and as the owner of such a compact dwelling, I am particularly keen to get my hands on one.
The fact I live all on one floor means robot vacuums are, in some ways, a great fit for my home. Apartment living often translates to 'not much space,' and that's certainly the case for me. Many of today's best robot vacuums come with gigantic docks that can do everything from emptying the dust to refilling the water tanks to washing and drying the mop pads. While they certainly make for a very hands-off experience, I lose half of my kitchen every time I test one.
The other option is a charge-only dock. These tend to be nice and petite but require me to take care of all maintenance – including bin emptying. The bins you'll find onboard robot vacuums are necessarily small, so if you have a lot of dust, you'll do that with irritating regularity. If testing one of these coincides with me having a canine visitor, bin emptying becomes a chore; this definitely isn't an ideal option if you're looking for the best robot vacuum for pet hair.
iRobot's solution is to introduce dust compacting into the 205 Combo's onboard bin, which can hold more dust and thus requires less frequent manual intervention. The dock is the basic, charge-only one that's small enough to fit unobtrusively in almost any home, including mine.
Inside the small onboard bin is a paddle that twists left and right to squish any dust and debris that has been sucked up into a smaller space. The paddle then returns to the center of the main inlet, ready for the next influx of dirt.
The 205 Combo is designed to last up to 60 days without emptying, although that will depend on how much dirt and dust you're sucking up, of course.
iRobot says its compacting technology is an 'industry-first'. Another model on the market – the Narwal Freo X Plus – does a similar thing, although I guess it might not use the same mechanism.
Get low
Another notable feature here is that iRobot has removed the navigation puck from the top of the Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo, making it shallow enough to sneak under furniture that might otherwise have been off-limits. Perhaps iRobot decided that people with small homes must also have low furniture; I don't know.
This is particularly interesting because this robovac uses LiDAR for navigation. In fact, the introduction of 'ClearView' LiDAR navigation is one of the best updates to feature in the new Roomba range.
Previously, the brand used an older form of robot vacuum navigation, which was far slower, less reliable, and unable to operate in the dark.
iRobot says the LiDAR technology has simply been shifted into the front of the 205 DustCompactor model to give it a more streamlined silhouette. The thing is, robots that use LiDAR need that raised puck to be able to 'see' a nice wide area around them. All three of the other new Roombas have one.
I asked an iRobot representative about this, who explained that although the 205 would have a narrower field of view, this wouldn't impact navigation accuracy for most people. She reassured me that she was testing two of the new Roomba bots, one with the puck and one without, and they were both behaving the same way.
If that holds true, this could be the perfect robot vacuum for me. We have a Roomba 205 DustCompactor on its way and report back as soon as we've had a chance to put it through its paces.
The Roomba 205 DustCompactor is due to go on sale from 18 March, with a list price of $469 / €449 (around £380 / AU$780).
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