iRobot Roomba 790

Home > iRobot > Roomba 790
Roomba 790
Operating Time (hours)
Charge Time (hours)
Operating Pattern
Scheduled Cleaning
Infrared Sensor
Dirt Sensor
Hardwood, Tile & Linoleum
Spot Mode
Height Adjustment
HEPA Filter
Multi-Room Navigation
Battery Indicator
Full Bin Indicator
Cliff Sensor
Charging Base
Return to Charging Base
Boundary Markers
Virtual Walls
Remote Control
Additional info
Extended Life Power Management
Comparison: iRobot Roomba 790 vs Neato XV Signature Pro

Write review

Reviews list

Review by ROBERT L.
The 790 is our first robotic vacuum. It does a great job of cleaning our carpet and hardwood floors. However, there are multiple issues with this latest top-of-the-line $700 vacuum.

1. The way the vacuum navigates appears random and is clearly inefficient. I expected better than this. If you are present when it is cleaning, this will annoy you. I could design a better algorithm. This is a huge design failure.

2. The robot has much trouble finding the dock even if it is right near it. This is another huge design failure.

3. The dust bin holds a cup. This makes the vacuum useless for big jobs. It works if you put it on a schedule so that it can do incremental cleaning. iRobot should make a docking bin to solve this problem. I'd pay $200 for a dock that automatically emptied the vaccum and charged the robot.

4. The remote is a joke in 2013. iRobot should add WiFi to the vacuum and allow you to control it from iOS/Android/web.

5. The lighthouses are big and bulky. They require C batteries which are not included.

6. When there is an error, the unit talks but it is difficult to hear and if you miss it, you don't know what happened.

I strongly recommend the Neato Signature Pro over this robotic vacuum. It is much more efficient.
Review by Andrea
This is my first Roomba. I was unsure but decided to buy top of the line knowing I can always return, It is amazing what it does. i have 4 cats and one dog it has picked up all dust balls on my hardwood floors, It goes around the furniture gently which I like. It goes slow not as fast as I had anticipated. When my three rooms were done I know there was no dust on the floor an only had to run a spray shine mop on my hardwood floors. Its wonderful to just sit an let this robot do it all. I have tried numerous vacuums and could not get the satisfaction I wanted not even with the Dyson, believe me this little round disc did it all. It only weighs about 10# or so. The machine also goes back to the base for charging. The machine went on for about one hour which was fine with me on its charge. I would say either model, the 780 or 790 is good. I just went with more bells and whistles on the 790 but I know the 780 would of done just as well. Since my machine is only one month old I will post again if I run into any problems to report.
Review by M. Merlin
This is my 5th roomba in 10 years.
Long story short: Irobot used to provide great value and honest products. Now, they raised the prices a lot (75%) and are playing the inkjet game of expensive replaceable parts (very small expensive filters).

This review is for the 780 which is identical to the 790, except for the lack of RF remote.

The 780 honestly seems similar to my 562 and 580, although tests say it's supposed to pick up dirt better than them. It looks a bit more fancy but actually comes with a smaller dirt bin and filters you cannot self-clean/wash anymore.
It still has weak suction and fails to pick up anything between my kitchen tiles, but it works well on carpet and hardwood floor.
Functionality honestly looks much like my 580 (actually, the remote is not RF, and Irobot cheapened out and removed the extra dirt bin, _while_ raising the price by 50% ($400 to $600). The 790 adds the RF remote back for an extra $100 (and an extra virtual wall), or 75% more, and still does not include the bigger dust bin included with some models like the 562.
But the part that made me the least happy is their very small HEPA filters that are expensive to replace and that you are forced to use. I curse the marketing person who added this "feature" that forces you to give more and more money to irobot after already having paid 50% more for a robot that comes with less than the 580 used to. Paying for those expensive filters might make sense if you need them, but really blows if you're forced to buy them and don't need them.
It probably cleans a bit better, but I'd recommend finding a much cheaper 5xx series or consider a Neato XV-21 which has real suction and room mapping (that one is however louder).
If you get stuck with a 700 series roomba this, I recommend buying filters from china via aliexpress .com ($1.80 a piece in packs of 10, try item 752706220).