Roomba 690 Review

iRobot has been a leader in robot vacuum technology ever since they introduced their first home robot in September of 2002. Even though they now share the market with other manufacturers, they continue to lead the way with innovative technology and features that make their products stand out.

The Roomba 690 is no exception. This “entry level” home robot has just about everything a person could want in a robotic vacuuming system, and can compete in some areas with even top of the line models

What’s Good About It

The Roomba 690 has a lot of features that Roomba owners have come to expect from the iRobot line. To make sure we cover as much as we can, we will start with the unit itself.

Robot

The design is attractive. Circular in shape, the Roomba 690 has a sleek, black outer ring and a silver top. It also has a handle for easy carrying. The outside perimeter is made of durable walls, which allows the unit to bump against obstacles (walls, furniture, pets) without damaging the unit.

The interface and buttons are very user friendly. There is a large, silver button on the top that has “Clean” on it, and yes, it does exactly what you think. Press this button to start, pause, and end a cleaning session. Below the Clean button is an icon of a house; press this, and it sends the Roomba 690 back to its dock.

The top of the unit also has a backlit panel that displays your Wi-Fi connectivity, the battery status of the unit, and any error codes that may occur. This can come in handy if your unit happens to stop in the middle of a cycle, and you can’t see any obvious obstructions. There is a removable dustbin in the back of the robot. The front of the unit has the RCON (room containment) sensor and a bumper.

Maneuverability and Cleaning

The round shape of the Roomba 690 allows it maximum maneuverability, as it is able to rotate/turn 360 degrees. This is great when it comes to being able to turn around and head in another direction. However, it does make it a little less effective in corners.

The Roomba 690 also has a lower profile than other robot vacuums, which allows it to get under more spaces. This, of course, also allows it to get stuck under more spaces. But iRobot has added a feature that allows you to press a button to find out where your Roomba is (see “HOME App” Section).

Brush System

Underneath the robot is the vacuum system itself. The Roomba 690 has dual multi-surface brushes that work together to give your floors a more thorough cleaning. The first brush loosens then lifts the debris from your carpet and hard floors, while the second brush sends the debris into the suction channel. This “one-two” approach lessens the occurrences of debris being left behind after the robot makes a cleaning pass.

The dual brush system also allows for more hair removal than many other units. Because the first brush can dig down, it will pull up longer hair and pet fur and the second one sends them on their way. This lessens the chance of long hair getting wrapped around other moving parts of the unit.

Note: This doesn’t mean that you can ignore the required maintenance. Even if you do not see anything outright, you should perform the suggested maintenance steps at the recommended intervals to ensure that your unit runs at its maximum potential.

So, just how does the unit know how and where to find the dirt? By using patented sensors that provide the Roomba 690 with special Dirt Detect technology.

Dirt Detect

Simply put, the special sensors detect when there is an especially dirty area, and they instruct the robot to make several passes over it to get the area thoroughly clean. After the cleaning session is complete, you can check the app (more on that in a minute) for how many Dirt Detect events the robot encountered.

This actually becomes a pretty good way to also check to see how effectively your Roomba 690 is cleaning. If used regularly and properly, you should see the number of Dirt Detect events decrease (unless of course you have a toddler tragedy or pet catastrophe).

One downside to this is that your Roomba 690 may fill up faster, causing you to have to empty it more often. But isn’t that what you got the robot vacuum for in the first place? Emptying the dustbin is easy enough; press a button, pull the bin out, and empty it. You can clean the filter at the point as well. Really, this should take all of two minutes at the most.

Cleaning Tests

Reports from users give us a picture as to as to how effective the Dirt Detect feature is, as well as how the Roomba 690 performs with various types of spills, such as rice, kitty litter and sugar. Results were, for the most part, quite positive.

For example, the Roomba 690 performed best on hardwood floors, picking up anywhere from 95-100% of the debris. Some users also reported that slightly larger items like rice and oat cereal were not picked up immediately, but rather thrown to the side by the brushes. However, the Roomba did make repeated passes and cleaned up that same debris.

On low pile carpet, sugar was once again a problem for the Roomba 690, as it vacuumed up roughly 75% of the debris. It did much better on the other types, removing 100% of the rice and 98% of the kitty litter. On high pile carpet, it only got 66% of the sugar, but 99% of the rice and kitty litter.

According to these results, it appears that the robot does have some difficulty picking up smaller, finer debris like sugar. This could be due to the brushes not being able to sense the smaller particles to truly dig them out of deeper pile carpets.

HOME App

As mentioned, the Roomba 690 is compatible with the iRobot HOME App, which is both iOS and Android supported. As long as you are connected to Wi-Fi, you can take advantage of the user friendly app to monitor your Roomba 690 in many ways.

On the main screen of the app, there is a single button: Clean. That is pretty self-explanatory. You can also monitor battery life from the app, so if you are in another part of the house from your Roomba, you will know when it is getting ready to head back to its dock. This takes the guesswork out of how much longer it will be running, which could allow you to complete other cleaning.

There are three additional menus: Weekly Schedule, Lifetime Performance Log, and More. The Weekly Schedule is where you schedule the days and times of your cleanings. The Lifetime Performance Log area is where you will find stats like the number of Dirt Detect events it encountered, as well as how long it ran, number of jobs it completed, etc.

The “More” menu has the Locate Roomba button. This little button can save you a lot of time. Ever had your robot vacuum seemingly disappear into thin air? You stop what you are doing, look all over the house for it, and finally find it wedged under a chair or a bed. With the Roomba 690, you press the Locate Roomba button, and the Roomba plays a tune, essentially letting you know “I’m in here!”

In addition to scheduling your Roomba 690 through the app, you can also pair it to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It is a simple set up that will enable you to instruct your Roomba 690 using voice controls. Some of the commands you can give are to ask for a status update, start or stop a clean, or tell the Roomba to go back to its dock.

Needs Improvement

While there is an awful lot to recommend the Roomba 690, it is not without its flaws.

Navigation

One of the biggest complaints about the Roomba 690 is that it does not have the “smart mapping” feature that higher end models have. With those, the Roomba essentially uses its sensors to “sketch” a room, which eventually enables it to clean it more efficiently.

This model relies on the good ol’ “bump and correct” method, which it will do every time it is in a room. While this is not necessarily a deal breaker, if you have used a Roomba with the smart mapping feature, this may come as a disappointment. It does, however, utilize the Dirt Detect technology to help it clean effectively, so it is still a slight improvement over older models.

The sensors apparently also have a problem picking up on certain obstacles, like power cords. This is not unusual for robot vacuums, and it just takes a little bit of planning on your part to ensure cords are either wrapped up or completely out of the way of the robot.

But users also report that the Roomba 690 gets hung up on edges of throw rugs very easily. Having to constantly rescue your robot from the corner of a rug could get very frustrating. Instead of detecting other obstacles like clothes or cloth bags, it has been known to pick them up and drag them along.

This seems like a simple fix: keep the areas picked up so the Roomba can work freely. However, pet owners will agree that not being able to sense unusual objects can result in viral videos of pet mishaps being spread far and wide across a house. Nobody wants to have to clean up a mess on that kind of a scale, and it in fact negates the very reasons for buying a robot vacuum to being with.

Another major complaint about this model is that it has trouble with dark woods and carpets. The sensors cannot seem to tell the difference between a darker patch of flooring and a “cliff.” This results in the error code of being near an edge, when in fact the unit might very well be sitting safely in the middle of the living room floor.

There are also some things that the HOME App could improve upon. For one, there are no app based steering controls for the Roomba 690. It would be nice to be able to tell your robot which room to go clean, or which to avoid. But you have to go to the higher end models to find that ability.

In addition, users found that the voice commands needed to be spoken in a precise order, or else the robot did not know what to do. For example, asking it to stop after asking it to dock. Both Alexa and Google Assistant have these issues with other smart home gadgets, so it will just take some practice on your part to get the commands down properly.

The Roomba 690 sometimes has a difficult time finding its way back to the dock as well. This could be due to too many obstacles, or it could be a bug in the software. Regardless, it does not help if you have a button to tell your robot to “go home” if it can’t find its home.

As to the Wi-Fi, it is important to note that the connectivity of the app and the unit itself is through Wi-Fi, and not through a cellular network. The features on the app will only work if both are connected to Wi-Fi. It does not need to be the same Wi-Fi, so you could give your Roomba 690 directions if you were connected to your work’s Wi-Fi. This is just something to keep in mind when trying to program your bot.

There were also complaints that the Roomba 690 is very noisy, but it is a vacuum, so what do people really expect? Yes, it does not have the whisper technology of higher end models, but it is really not much noisier than a regular vacuum. If you have tasks that require quieter surroundings, you can schedule your robot accordingly.

It is quite apparent that some of the complaints can be attributed to user error (or fussiness), while others are legitimate issues with the Roomba 690. As always, be realistic about what you want your robot vacuum to do, and buy accordingly.

To Sum Up

If you’re looking for your first Roomba, or you want something with some of the higher end features without the headaches of more advanced technology, this is the unit for you.

Pros

• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Dirt Detect Technology
• Cliff Detect Sensors
• Performs well when vacuuming long hair
• Improved cleaning performance
• Voice control options for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

Cons

• Sensors confuse dark flooring or carpeting as an edge and will stop
• Does not map the rooms.
• Issues with not detecting power cords
• Has trouble with finer debris like sugar
• Gets stuck under furniture

FAQ

• Q: How much does the unit weigh?
• A: The Roomba 690 weighs 7.8 pounds.

• Q: What are the dimensions?
• A: The Roomba 690 is 13 inches in diameter and has a height of 3.7 inches.

• Q: What is the battery type?
• A: Lithium Ion

• Q: Will I need to charge it before its first use, or can I use it right out of the box?
• A: iRobot recommends that the battery be charged for up to 3 hours before its initial run.

• Q: How long will the battery last?
• A: Battery life is 60-90 minutes depending on what type of floors it is working on. Longer battery life occurs when it is on hard floors.

• Q: How long does it take to recharge?
• A: It takes two to three hours for the Roomba 690 to fully charge.

• Q: How long will it take for the Roomba 690 to clean a room?
• A: It depends on the size of the room and the amount of dirt. One user reported that it took the robot one hour to clean a roughly 300 square foot, heavily soiled room.

• Q: Is the bin in the robot dishwasher safe?
• A: No, it needs to be hand rinsed, using warm water. Before rinsing, the filter must be removed. Allow the bin to dry completely before reinstalling the filter and returning the bin to the robot unit.

• Q: Does the Roomba 690 come with a warranty?
• A: It comes with a standard iRobot limited warranty. The warranty begins the day the unit is purchased and is good for one year.

• Q: Do they stand by their warranty?
• A: iRobot is proud of its products, and with an accurate and proper warranty claim, they are more than willing to repair or replace your unit.

• Q: How long will the Roomba 690 last?
• A: This is impossible to predict, as degree of usage is different for everyone. If you follow the company’s guidelines for care, especially when it comes to maintaining and replacing filters and other parts, you should be able to enjoy your Roomba 690 for at least a few years.