Best iRobot Roomba e5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:
Widely teased during the last IFA, the iRobot Roomba e5 passed the doors of our laboratory. The latest addition to the iRobot catalog has two rubber rollers to dust surfaces and a more convenient collector to empty to seduce.
Presentation
The Roomba e5 invests in the mid-range segment within the iRobot catalog. Launched at € 499, it does not have a laser rangefinder and other surveillance cameras that would allow it to orient its trajectory. This robot, which could therefore be called “blind”, relies on an army of detectors (dirt and vacuum) to tackle cleaning. Connected by Wi-Fi, the Roomba e5 can be controlled or programmed from a smartphone, or even by voice via a Google Home or an Amazon Echo.
Best iRobot Roomba e5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020
1. iRobot Roomba E5 (5150) Robot Vacuum – Wi-Fi Connected, Works with Alexa. Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard, Self-Charging Robotic Vacuum, Black
2. iRobot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum-Wi-Fi Connectivity, Works with Alexa. Good for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors, Self-Charging
3. iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum- Wi-Fi Connected Mapping, Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors,Black
4. iRobot Roomba i7 (7150) Robot Vacuum- Wi-Fi Connected, Smart Mapping. Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Works With Clean Base
5. iRobot Roomba 891 Robot Vacuum- Wi-Fi Connected, Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors
Convenience of use
A rounded shape, mastoc bumpers, a central button to start cleaning, the Robot Roomba e5 looks like any other Roomba. The ergonomics, tirelessly identical, gives pride to three physical buttons. In addition to the essential central button “Clean” to start cleaning with a single press, there is a key to control the return to the base (home icon) and another to trigger a targeted cleaning (Spot mode).
Relatively thin (9.5 cm thick), the iRobot Roomba e5 is perfectly able to pass under furniture which therefore leaves at least 10 cm of margin.
We find again the two indicator lights which indicate the connection to Wi-Fi and the state of charge of the battery. This last indicator also flashes green when the battery is charged and sufficiently charged, orange when it starts to charge and red when it is flat.
In the absence of a remote control (supplied with the iLife V8s , for example), programming the robot necessarily goes through the application.
Connectivity and application
Since the Roomba 696 test , the configuration and application of the robot has not changed an iota. The connection to the Wi-Fi network is very pleasant. The application supports the user in each process: link with the robot in the Wi-Fi settings of the smartphone, sharing of the password for the home network and the deal is done.
The application is fairly basic. Above all and above all, it enables the robot to be launched remotely or to order cleaning. You can also pause or interrupt a cleaning cycle and consult the history of the robot’s “outputs” (surface, duration, times, etc.). It also authorizes the programming of a cleaning by selecting the day and the hour. And for the features, we did the trick.
Positioning requires, the iRobot Roomba e5 is necessarily less advanced than the 980 , the flagship of iRobot. “Automatic”, “Performances” or “Eco” mode point which respectively propose automatically increasing the suction power on carpets, adapting the power to any type of floor or even minimizing the suction power for optimize battery life; this device is not capable of this.
Lacking a mapping system, it is also unable to provide maps of the rooms it cleans or create virtual beacons, as does the Neato D4 Connected in particular . To overcome this, iRobot provides a physical “wall” to prevent the robot from accessing certain parts.
However, we welcome the Maintenance tab, which is still just as judicious, which provides information on the state of each part of the robot and sends notifications when it is necessary to clean them (robot body, extractors and collector).
Interview
For this new version, iRobot has moved the collector. The latter is no longer housed on the upper part of the robot but in the strapping. It can be easily removed by pressing the button where a basket is drawn.
Once this cassette has been removed, its cover opens when a smaller gray button is pressed (also decorated with the basket icon). iRobot specifies that the collector is washable with water. However, remember to remove the filter before submerging it. And precisely, this filter clips and unclips very easily.
The two fairly large rubber blades are much less sensitive to bristles and hair than the nylon brushes. In fact, they are much simpler to maintain daily.
All these good ideas are further reinforced by the “Maintenance” tab, present in the application, which allows you to have an eye on the state of the different parts of the robot.
Navigation system
The navigation system to which iRobot remains faithful is called iAdapt. It is not a mapping system through which the robot systematically cleans, as is the case with all Neato robot vacuums, including the D4 Connected . This Roomba e5 is therefore blind and relies on a navigation system which could pass for random.
And in reality, it is. This iRobot Roomba e5 has no problem ironing on already cleaned surfaces. Just to clean our test lab, back and forth, it took over 54 minutes. And again … we had to stop the cleaning in progress!
If it is neither strategic nor methodical, this navigation system is sufficient since the Roomba e5 manages to navigate in different rooms while ensuring a very large ground cover. Fortunately, it is autonomous. Besides, he knows how to find his base without fail.
What struck us was the pace at which he walked through the rooms. The Roomba e5 is a bully who slightly slows the pace when approaching walls and furniture. When it approaches an obstacle from the side, the robot rushes into the pile and can even subtly move a light piece of furniture. It can easily be mounted on carpets or raised door legs. The transverse chair legs do not scare him, on the contrary, he even manages to get out of trouble trapped under a table surrounded by chairs. Unlike the Neato D4 Connected, it even goes under the curtains – what the Neato robot sees as obstacles.
The cables do not seem to scare him and as soon as he detects them, he changes course. Quite simply.
Aspiration
According to its manufacturer, the iRobot Roomba e5 benefits from a suction 5 times more powerful ” compared to the AeroVac system of the Roomba 600 series”. This did not prove very convincing at the laboratory, the somewhat random navigation system was not without consequence on the suction performance. In its course, the robot tends to perform certain movements back and forth. If it comes back to surfaces that have already been cleaned, it can also leave certain smudged areas.
On thick carpet, the Roomba e5 collected 53% of the waste left on the ground in 7 min 26 s, after which time it returned to its base automatically. These results are to be compared with those of the Neato D4 Connected which collected 90% of the materials (launched in Eco mode) on this surface.
On fine carpet, Roomba did much better by picking up 92% of the material in 7 min 27 s. The navigation of the device, undoubtedly better optimized on this one, turned out to be conclusive.
On hard ground, the Roomba e5 was really disappointing by sucking up 60% of the materials in 7 min 21 s, after which, the robot returned to its base thinking that it had fulfilled its task.
On this device, suction performance is abused by the random navigation system. Certain areas of the space allocated to carry out our performance measurements have been forgotten by the robot. There is no doubt that by restarting cleaning, this Roomba will manage to recover all of the waste.
Noise
On carpets and hard floors, we recorded respective sound levels of 60 dB (A) and 62 dB (A). This data is in the average of what we observe in our comparison. This is not the kind of robot that you operate when you are in the room, especially since it is programmable.
Autonomy
iRobot provides an autonomy of 1h30. The indicator light turns orange before the end of the battery and the robot beeps. For our part, we evaluated the autonomy at 1h40. This robot vacuum cleaner is very enduring. On the other hand, it takes 3:10 to recharge fully.
CONCLUSION
Like many Roomba before him, the iRobot Roomba e5 is a good robot which will do very well what is asked of it; provided you give him plenty of time. Very intuitive in its use, this device suffers from an increasingly intense competition. At the same price, there are vacuum cleaners that map and offer more features, like the Neato D4 Connected , its main rival. The fact remains that this Roomba, although a bit rough on the edges, benefits from a simplified maintenance to the extreme and excellent autonomy.
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