The Best Robot Vacuum for Pet Hair (Especially if You Have Multiple Pets!)

You’re busy juggling life, because let’s face it… #Adulting. Life’s tough, and when you have pets it can really add to the chaos – especially cleaning up after all that fur shedding. You’re here reading this because you’ve been considering a robot vacuum, but you also understand that they can be kind of pricey and you want to buy the robot vacuum that’s best for pet hair while also getting the best bang for your buck.

We’re a multi-pet home (no seriously… 4 cats + 2 high shedding dogs), so I think we’re pretty qualified to tell you what robot vacuum has stood the test of time, while doing a decent job of keeping our hardwood floors from looking absolutely disgusting. We’ve tried a few different robot vacuums, but I can safely say that Roomba (specifically this model) really is the way to go.

 

Why a Roomba? – Isn’t it kind of “trendy”?

I had a lot of the same feelings about iRobot’s Roomba. When it comes to robot vacuums, it’s usually the first one people think of. Is it just smart marketing, or are Roomba’s actually worth the money? I admit that I brushed it off as great marketing for a long time and we chose less expensive options that frankly ended up being a huge waste of money because they never worked the same, were missing features we’ve come to love from our iRobot Roomba i7+ (7550) Robot Vacuum, or they broke within 6 months of moderate use.

Maybe there’s something to be said for their marketing, but also maybe there’s a really good reason that you’ve heard about the iRobot Roomba – they make solid robot vacuums worthy of their price tag. It’s all about finding the model that will suit your needs best.

 

Why you’ll love it

If you’re anything like us, you have multiple pets and a lot of floor to clean. You don’t have time to vacuum every day, but you just saw a ball of fur roll across your hardwood floors like something out of a western showdown. It’s you or the dust bunnies… and there’s not space in this room for the both of ya. You understand that this isn’t going to be a cheap purchase, but you want something that’s actually going to pick up the pet hair (not push it around), crumbs of food, bits of dirt dragged in from your dogs playing outside, and the dust that plagues your floors.

Let’s talk about the features you need, plus the ones that you’ll just think are fun to have (especially if you’re a geek like us who enjoys convenience)…

 

✅ It Sucks Up Pet Hair Like a Dream

You’re going to be amazed by how different your floors look after just one pass. You might have forgotten what your floors looked like without that sprinkling of fur (or pet glitter as we lovingly refer to it in our home). I want you to imagine coming home from work to clean living room floors. Kick off your dirty shoes… because you’ll have the best robot vacuum to tackle the job of cleaning up any debris it finds.

 

✅ It Literally Detects Dirt

Speaking of cleaning up any debris it finds… the iRobot Roomba i7+ (7550) Robot Vacuum has Dirt Detect – a special feature that allows the vacuum to make a judgement call based on just how dirty the space is that it’s cleaning.

Within the app, you can control whether your Roomba does one cleaning pass, two passes, or choose “Automatic”, in which the unit will decide for you and will clean until it’s absolutely sure that the job is done.

Fun Story… We have a rug by our back door that’s meant to absorb any water on our dog’s paws when they come in, or to catch the sand and other grit so they don’t track it into the house. I made the mistake of picking up the rug one night… not thinking about how much crap was going to come flying out of it. That’s when I decided to put Randi Roomba to the test.

 
In this video (which is a little loud because it’s cleaning up gravel), you see our Roomba cleaning up a huge mess. Our cleaning base is right on the edge of one of our mapped out spaces, which is why you don’t see the Roomba going under the couch, as that’s technically part of where I set the division between our living room and dining room space. Randi Roomba makes a pass, and then a judgement call to go over it a second pass because of the dirt detection. It literally sees the dirt it needs to clean up!

 

✅ Cleans Until It’s Clean

Unlike other robot vacuums, this Roomba model won’t stop until it’s done exactly what you’ve asked it to do – even if you’re cleaning over 1,000 square feet of floor that required multiple passes (Don’t judge me… I’ve got 6 pets and we had to put it to the test!). It will go back to its station, recharge itself, and go right back to cleaning – however long that takes.

 

✅ It Empties Itself

Not only is this particular Roomba model a hard worker… it’s beyond convenient. Arguably the best feature of this model is it’s cleaning base. No more emptying out your robot vacuum between cleanings or hoping the dust bin is big enough to handle the job, because this model is super smart and knows when it’s time to go back to base where a strong vacuum will clean it out and store the dirt contents within a bag hidden inside of the base.

How often you need to replace the bag inside will depend on a lot of different factors – how often you use your Roomba between “normal” cleanings, how many pets you have, how dirty your floors get. I find that with 4 cats and 2 dogs, we replace our bag every 3 months or so. A very small price to pay when you think about the number of times we run our Roomba every month without having to empty it ourselves.

 

✅ Cleaning Only Where You Need It

You have company coming over, but you don’t have time to do a quick pass over the sitting room before they get here… but you also don’t want your Roomba wasting time cleaning rooms you won’t even have company in. No problem! This Roomba model can map out entire rooms, which allows you to pick and choose which room(s) you want it to clean. You can even set a schedule from within the app so that rooms you know are regularly in need of more upkeep will be vacuumed when you want them to be.

 

✅ Super Smart Navigation

This is a personal favorite feature because we previously had a robot vacuum that we often joked about being really stupid. We always went in search of “Barry Bissell” to see if he made it home at the end of the night. Sometimes he’d get lost, stuck, or just confused to the point that he’d spin in circles. Thankfully, “Randi Roomba” is a lot smarter, and you’ll be able to pick up your own affectionately named Roomba and put it down somewhere else within a mapped area and it won’t skip a beat – it has better spacial reasoning and navigation skills than I do, and I’m a little jealous.

 

✅ Wi-Fi Connectivity + “Hands Free”

You may not have ever even thought about your robot vacuum having Wi-fi. To be fair, it’s kind of #ExtraAF. But if you’re going to spend the money, you may as well get all the bells and whistles available to you. It’s the 21st century after all, and didn’t Looney Tunes make you want a house of the future? Now you can have it! Your new iRobot Roomba i7+ has Wi-fi and works with Alexa or Google Home Assistant. Imagine being able to shout out “Roomba, Clean my kitchen” and it springing into action as if by magic.

Fun Fact: You can use this model with a Litter Robot using the IFTTT app. You can set up a rule so that when your cats use the Litter Robot, the Roomba is sent to clean around it – eliminating absolutely any possibility of litter on your floor. Ahhhh… Sweet Harmony.

 

✅ Start Your Robot Vacuum from Anywhere

Are you pooping in the bathroom at Target when you realized you need to run your vacuum while you’re out? Don’t judge me Susan. You’ll be able to use the app on your phone from pretty much anywhere. With a tap of the screen, your Roomba will be on its way – cleaning all of your rooms, or ones you select. Again, it’s super extra, but also wildly convenient.

 

Things You Might Not Like

It’s unreasonable to think that this product will please everyone. I think you’re really just trying to make the best decision for you and your needs. Just as there are lots of pros, there are a few cons as well that you should take note of.

 

⚠️ The Cleaning base is Loud

It’s maybe a small price to pay for not having to empty the dust bin yourself, or the fact that you can go literal months without emptying the Cleaning Base… but it is kind of loud. The base works by sucking the contents out of the Roomba’s dust bin. It’s high powered, because it’s designed to do a heck of a good job. Therefor, it’s loud.

If you’ve got kids, you might not want to run the Roomba during their nap time, unless their bedroom is away from the unit base. The same can be said for running your Roomba during your sleepy time (which is what we do). Our bedroom is upstairs and far away from the base, so we don’t hear it.

 

⚠️ It’s Kind of Expensive

I won’t pretend to know your financial situation, but the fact is… the iRobot Roomba i7+ is a little on the pricey side when you compare it to other robot vacuums. Is it worth it? Absolutely. You’ll enjoy the extra features and especially the cleaning base – which is a big reason for it’s price (it’s about $200 less expensive without the self-cleaning base).

 

⚠️ Nose Boops Turn it On

If you have curious pets, you might find your Roomba on in the middle of the day. On more than one occasion, our dog Alfred has gotten curious and booped the Clean button with his nose, and our cats get interested if they see me interact with it. Okay, so maybe this isn’t really a “con” so much as it’s a slight inconvenience. It’s really easy to just open up your app and tell your Roomba to stop and go back to home base (and remember, it’s really smart… so it’ll go right back where it belongs).

 

⚠️ Sucks Up Things it Maybe Shouldn’t

If you’ve been wondering about how powerful this robot vacuum is, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s so powerful that it can pick up things it maybe shouldn’t – including small cat toys. We’ve had those little catnip mice get stuck in the wheels a couple of times because the motor is so strong. There’s a lot of “pro” in that… but it’s still something for you to be aware of before making your purchase.

 

Is it worth it?

Assuming you are looking for the best robot vacuum for a house that has multiple pets (and a lot of pet hair), I’d say it’s worth the money. We’ve tried others ranging from less expensive to moderately priced, and they were no match for this particular model Roomba. You’ll be surprised at just how clean it can get your floor. I personally thought for the longest time that robot vacuums existed to just cut down on a little work time – I never imagined that it could eliminate work for me completely.

 

Are you considering a robot vaccum?

Comment below if you have questions about the iRobot Roomba i7+ with Cleaning Base – I’m happy to answer them so that you can make the best choice for your family!