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Roomba is known for manufacturing the most advanced robotic vacuums on the market.
The Roomba 880 and the Roomba 980 are two of their best-selling models – because of the many great features that they offer.
But lots of people get confused trying to decide between them.
In this WhichBotWins? head-to-head comparison, we’ll take a look at the meaningful differences between these two excellent robot vacuums, to help you determine which one is right for you.
Roomba 880
Price: $$$
Warranty: one year
Dimensions: 13.9 x 13.9 x 3.6 inches
Weight: 8.4 pounds
Wireless Control: yes
Navigation: lighthouse/lasers
Scheduling Options: yes
Auto Recharge: yes
Resume after recharge: no
Hepa filter: yes
Corner brush: no
Side Brush: no
Roomba 980
Price: $$$$
Warranty: 1 year
Dimensions: 13.9 x 13.9 x 3.6 inches
Weight: 12 pounds
Wireless Control: yes
Navigation: multi-room/lasers/sensors
Scheduling Options: yes
Battery Time: 2 hours
Auto Recharge: yes
Resume after recharge: yes
Hepa filter: yes
Corner brush: yes
Side Brush: yes
Roomba 880
The Roomba 880 offers many great features including scheduled cleanings, automatic self charging, tangle free extractors, as well as multi-room navigation to clean up to 3 rooms.
The Roomba 880 also comes with an extended life battery, 2 virtual lighthouses, a home base, a remote control, and an extra HEPA filter.
Overall, when compared to other robotic vacuums, the 880 earns average or higher than average ratings. Most owners report that the 880 works very well on bare floors and can handle shorter-pile carpet fairly well.
The 880 also performs well with pet hair and being able to reach under furniture and in other hard to reach areas.
It comes with an easy to use remote control that makes things that much easier.
While there are many positive aspects of the 880, one of the most reported downfalls of the machine is that it is fairly loud.
It also misses some areas of the floor, at times.
Bottom-line, if you are looking for a robotic vacuum that is durable and reliable and can clean multiple rooms with mostly hard surface floors, then the 880 is a good choice.
Roomba 980
There are many similarities between the Roomba 880 and the Roomba 980, but there are a few key differences.
For example, the Roomba 980 has a newer, better iAdapt 2.0 navigation system, which is superior to the navigation system of the 880.
The Roomba 980 will first do a sweep of your floor with its lasers to map the layout of each room including obstacles and immovable objects. The 980 will then use the map to systematically clean each room.
In addition, the user interface of the 980 is sleeker and more flexible. The onboard interface features just 3 buttons.
The first button is the clean button, which is used to start and stop cleaning sessions. In order to begin the cleaning session you simply press the button and it goes.
The second button is the home button. You press the home button when you want the robot vacuum to go back to its docking station.
The spot mode is the third button. It is used when you want to clean a specific area of your home. This can be used if you have an area in your home that is particularly dirty and you want the bot to focus on that area in order to get it cleaned.When you press the spot button, the bot will focus on that area and not the entire room.
The spot mode button is unique to the 980.
On the 980, features that are controlled by buttons on the body of the 880 are controlled using the iRobot home app, which is available on iOS and Android. These selections include scheduling, carpet boost (which will boost vacuum power when a rug is detected), number of cleaning passes and edge cleaning options.
The Differences
Cleaning Ability
The Roomba 880 and the Roomba 980 both use the AeroForce 3 stage cleaning system. They both also have HEPA style filters, which make them great for those who suffer from allergies.
One biggest difference in cleaning ability is that the Roomba 980 comes with carpet boost, which boosts the power when on carpet. This feature gives the 980 the edge in cleaning ability.
The other main difference that impacts cleaning ability is the different navigation systems each model uses (keep reading).
Navigation
The Roomba 880 uses an older version of iRobot’s iAdapt nav system, which uses both optical and acoustic sensors to avoid big objects like furniture and falling down stairs.
On the other hand, the Roomba 980 uses the latest, more precise, iAdapt 2.0 system that includes visual localization and the intelligent iAdapt camera, which can detect in-room obstacles and edges with more precision, making the 980’s cleaning more thorough and more efficient.
Automation & Scheduling
The Roomba 880 is self charging and can clean up to 3 rooms at a time. It also offers automatic scheduling and has tangle free debris extractors.
The Roomba 980 offers all of those features, but can also clean an entire house level at one time. It can also be operated and programmed using the smartphone iRobot app.
Maintenance
The maintenance for both of the Roombas is basically the same. You’ll need to disassemble the bottom plate to clean the extractors and brushes.
The Winner
Both the Roomba 880 and the Roomba 980 are great choices if you want a higher level robotic vacuum to take care of cleaning a multi-room house.
The main question you need to consider is whether or not you want to spend almost $200 more for the ability to clean higher-pile rugs and shag, superior and more thorough cleaning, and for the remote app.
If you do have the budget, then we recommend buying the 980. You won’t regret it.
