iRobot Roomba 690 Review: What is it like to own one?

In this new age of modern technology, when AI is taking the world by storm and seemingly everything can easily be automated (including driving a car), it does not seem unreasonable to imagine that you can have a little robot minion around the corner in your house to help you with tedious daily chores. Imagine being exhausted after a long day and walking into your home to find that it has been cleaned magically and spotlessly. How satisfying would this be?

While a few years ago this would have been pure fantasy, now such technology does exist. In fact, it is currently on sale in the market. Among the robot vacuum cleaners out there, most will probably think of the Roomba product line from iRobot as the most memorable icon of this type of cleaning machine.

Among the range of Roomba products that iRobot offers, the adorable iRobot Roomba 690 robot vacuum remains a favorite, simply because it offers quality and value that is on par with premium products while costing only half the price.

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How does it work?



The Roomba 690 is a compact and circular machine with a body adorned in black and silver. It is small enough to clean underneath most furniture. (Obviously, the machine will have trouble cleaning below furniture with gaps lower than itself.)

According to the iRobot Roomba 690 manual, on top and in the middle of the circular machine is a large multifunctional silver button that allows you to manually control when the machine starts and ends each of its cleaning sessions. It can also be paused if necessary. Additionally, you will find a screen showing you the current status of the machine’s Wi-Fi network connection and battery, as well as possible errors.

On the other side of the machine, you will find a button that commands it to immediately return to its dock. Of course, with it being a cleaning machine, it comes with its own removable dustbin, which can be found on its back. The front is reserved for the room confinement (RCON) sensor. Additional accessories with which it comes are a pair of wheels for mobility, a pair of roller brushes and a side brush for cleaning, cliff sensors to prevent it from falling, and a contact point for charging when it returns to the dock.

Getting everything ready...

Once you get your hands on a Roomba 690, getting it ready to clean your living space is a breeze. With a plugged-in dock, flip the machine over and unseal the yellow tab on the machine’s battery. Then leave it on the dock for about three hours to let it reach its full charge.

After that’s done, it’s time to put the Roomba to work. You can activate the machine manually with the aforementioned button, but the Roomba type of cleaning machine is typically better-known for using the accompanying iRobot app, which should be very simple and intuitive to download, install, and use. The app also has a weekly schedule and a report for each cleaning session should you need it.

The amazing parts don’t stop there. Through a few configurations, you can control your Roomba at home with voice commands remotely from anywhere, even while you’re away or at work. Navigate through the app to the Connected Home menu, where you can find concise instructions to allow for voice commands. For this Roomba 690 review, I connected my own Roomba to the Amazon Alexa app.

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The voice control is really simple. You just need to open Amazon Alexa, navigate to Skills and iRobot Home, and press Enable. Now you have a cleaning robot minion that obeys your every verbal command, from telling it to start cleaning to telling it to return to its dock to asking it to give you status updates, all through your phone device. Just don’t give the poor machine weird commands and you’ll be fine. Welcome to the modern sci-fi world and enjoy the convenient life of a smart home.



Ready? Let’s start cleaning!

When I got my Roomba 690, I decided to give it a test run to see how it worked. I let it roam freely on the first floor, which mostly has an open plan. When the machine was turned on, it wandered at its own pace through a mix of house rugs, hardwood floors, and doormats as it navigated through my living room, dining room, bathroom, and kitchen.

It was fun to watch it work its way through the furniture in the rooms; its cute, circular body danced easily in and out of the furniture and never got stuck, even between the legs of the table and chairs. To comment on its brilliance further, while it was cleaning in the kitchen, it encountered the two bowls for my dogs, sitting on top of a mat. It worked gently enough to avoid spilling the water inside the bowls which still cleaning the mat spotlessly.

After letting the machine clean my first floor for 60 minutes, I was satisfied with the result; the dustbin was filled to the brim with dust, dirt, and hair. However, it seemed as though the machine had some trouble with heavier, sugar-like dust stuck in the thick carpet. This might have been because stronger suction power is required to suck up this kind of dust. The Roomba did not have this power, though its suction level is quite powerful.

During the test run, I was bombarded with notifications that my Roomba was about to fall off a cliff even though it was on the first floor. I went to check on the problem and found that the Roomba was resting next to a black rug on the floor. I have heard from some iRobot Roomba 690 reviews that the cliff sensor of the Roomba 690 might confuse dark colors for stairs or the edge of a cliff. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this problem except move the Roomba manually to another place to unstick it. So, if you have black rugs in your house and want to purchase an iRobot Roomba 690, do be aware.

While I have not experienced this myself, I have heard from other users that the machine occasionally has a tendency to push and misplace objects around the house. Sometimes you can find your shoes ending up in the kitchen because the Roomba brought them with it into the kitchen while cleaning. To avoid this issue, you can use the beacon-like accessory that comes with the Roomba to create a virtual wall around the places you don’t want the Roomba to touch.



After the machine was done cleaning, I tried to test its ability to find its way back to its dock. Unfortunately, the machine was very poor in terms of its sense of direction. After I told the machine to dock, it went in circles hopelessly, bumping into the walls and trying to look for its home before going in the opposite direction of the dock’s location. After watching the machine struggling for a while, I had to intervene and carry it back to the dock myself. I tested it again by placing it near the dock. Only at this time did the machine locate the dock immediately and pull itself into its home station.

I really wish that I could steer the machine and tell it where to go from my phone rather than having to manually relocate it.

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Conclusion

The iRobot Roomba 690 is the best choice if you are looking to realize the sci-fi fantasy of an auto-vacuum you can monitor through your phone. It comes with decent suction power and a simple app that is compatible with voice control apps like Amazon or Google Assistant. Additionally, it is available at a more affordable price than other options.