Robot vacuums · iRobot
Owners keep the S9 for the floors: it does a thorough job on everyday dirt and pet hair, and most are happy with it even while comparing newer machines that dodge obstacles better.
Once it is running, it cleans well. Owners who have since bought other robots still describe the S9 as doing a strong job on their floors and say they are happy keeping it in service, often assigned to a single room.
Hair wraps around it. The clear complaint is that pet hair and long hair tangle in the brushes and need to be cut free by hand, and homes with several shedding dogs raise it most.
Pick up to three. You get a page with just those, side by side, on the subjects owners raised.
What still pleases people after the first months is the cleaning itself. Owners with wood floors and thick rugs say it picks up what they expect it to, and several who moved on to a Roborock or a newer Roomba kept the S9 rather than sell it, usually as a bedroom machine. Suction power is a divided theme: more owners are satisfied than not, but a few say the medium setting no longer ramps up on carpet the way it once did, and carpet performance draws the same mix of satisfied and unconvinced accounts.
The adjustment is the floor itself. Obstacle avoidance splits owners: some find it fine for their layout, others say that with dogs or children it is not practical to keep the floor clear, and that newer camera-equipped robots handle cords, socks and pet mess far better. Owners with heavy shedders learn to check the brushes regularly. The app divides people too, with more frustrated than pleased: settings such as high suction on a favourite job not saving, room names caching wrongly when renamed, and general quirks that owners describe as a nuisance rather than a dealbreaker. Battery life is likewise mixed, leaning negative, with some owners finding runs cut short.
The vacuum side holds up. Owners who are years in still report it cleaning well, and the common fixes are routine: cutting hair out of the brushes and pulling it free when it stalls. The weak points that show up over time are software and navigation rather than motors. One owner describes maps going strange around six months in, cleaning runs stretching to many hours for a small space, and the robot getting stuck, which pushed them to a competitor. Another, rehabbing an older S9+, found the app full of quirks and a suction-on-carpet behaviour that used to work and no longer does.
Long-term accounts are thin. Most of what owners say about durability comes from people comparing the S9 against a machine they bought later, not from owners tracking it year by year, and the hair tangling theme arrives as a tally without detailed accounts behind it. Take the reliability picture as a few consistent reports, not a broad record.
Nothing with a clear majority yet. Owners who raised these subjects were split, or too few to judge.
Nothing has a clear majority against it yet. Counted from the owners who raised each subject, not from everyone. A subject is judged once at least 4 owners raise it.
The same owner, asked again at each point. Fills in as owners answer.
More in robot vacuums: Neato D7, Neato D8, Ecovacs X1.
Counted from public accounts by people who said they own it, and summarised by Still Kicks in its own words. Not a manufacturer claim, a lab test or an estimate.
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