No one enjoys vacuuming – even the best cordless vacuums with their promises of convenience and ease-of-use still take up too much room and too much time for some of us. This may explain why robot vacuums have become a popular choice in recent years, and one brand has fueled this increase – iRobot.
Its range of Roomba cleaners was one of the first to hit the mainstream, and it still offers some of the best robot vacuums around. Although none of the models are particularly cheap, each time the company releases a new flagship, the vacuums in its older series drop in price – that's why we’re going to be looking at whether the iRobot Roomba 670 is still worth buying.
We’d expect to see the Roomba 670 on sale, as well as other robot vacuum deals, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019. For more options, read more in our best robot vacuums page.
The Bottom Line: The Roomba 670 is a mid-range iRobot vacuum, that offers many of the same features you’d find in more expensive models including Wi-Fi, iRobot’s Dirt Detect technology, and support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The latter means you can control the vacuum using voice controls. The sacrifice you make for its lower price is that it’s missing the more powerful suction and advanced smart-mapping features of the flagship models.
Pros: The Roomba 670 has all the key features of more expensive models for a lower price. It cleans, recharges itself, can be controlled by the iRobot Home app or a smart speaker, and measures a similar size.
Cons: It can handle pet hair and debris but lacks the more advanced filters of pricier models when it comes to removing allergens. It is also missing the more advanced navigation, and you have fewer options when scheduling.
The iRobot Roomba 670: everything you need to know
Above the $330 iRobot Roomba 670, in terms of price and features, are the i7 and 9 Series lines. Beneath it sits cheaper models in the 6 Series range, namely the 605 and 606.
Design: The Roomba 670 measures 34 cm in diameter and is 9.2cm tall, meaning it can fit beneath most beds, sofas and other furniture.
Features: iRobot’s Roomba 670 comes with the firm’s three-stage cleaning system and dual multi-surface brushed designed to lift debris between carpets and hard floors automatically. Its Dirt Detect sensors make sure the Roomba works harder on particularly stubborn areas of dirt and stains as well as high-traffic zones of your home. Elsewhere, it has an Edge-Sweeping Brush to tackle corners and skirting boards.
Connections: By connecting to your Wi-Fi network, the Roomba 670 can then be controlled by any device running the iRobot Home app connected to the same network. The same applies to any smart speaker running Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. From this app, you can control or schedule cleaning, see the vacuum’s history and monitor how well it’s cleaning your home.
Battery life: iRobot claims the Roomba 670 will run for up to 90 minutes, but this is very much dependent on the floors it’s cleaning, how dirty they are, if the Roomba 670 needs to navigate around multiple obstacles and more. When we’ve tested other Roombas in the range, they’ve never made it past the 45-minute mark, so 90 minutes is ambitious but not impossible. At least when the battery starts running low, the Roomba 670 will return to its charging point and recharge.
Conclusion: The promise of robot vacuums is leaving the house in the morning and returning to a fully vacuumed house. The reality is somewhat different. Between variable battery life and mapping sensors that range wildly in ability, you may come home and find only one room finished or the vacuum stuck in a corner somewhere, as we’ve experienced. There are many robotic vacuum makes and models offering very similar features for similar prices but iRobot has long been a leader in this market, so if you are keen on giving a robot vacuum a whirl, or already own one and want to upgrade, the Roomba range generally is a great place to start and the 670 offers many positives.
TechRadar is scouring every retailer and rounding up all the top deals over the Black Friday period, and we’ve put all the best Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals in easy-to-navigate articles to help you find the bargains you’re looking for.
