One of the top questions I’m always asked is how long a Roomba will take to clean their home. Let’s go model by model to see just how long does a Roomba take to clean your home or bedroom.
It is important to be careful while buying a robot vacuum cleaner since some models, especially the cheapest, are incapable of cleaning carpets, not even the low pile carpets.
The more expensive models could work on low pile carpets but fail to work on the thick carpets. However, any robot that’s going for a few hundred dollars with powerful engines and more suction power would work well on all carpets.
Cleaning Time Factors
The time a Roomba takes to clean depends on several factors, such as:
- Roomba model – eg., newer models have Recharge and Resume, as well as smart mapping memory
- Roomba battery – different battery capacities and power usage
- Home size and total cleanable square footage
- Home layout
- Flooring types – carpet, hardwood, tiles
- Amount of furniture, sizes, and placement
As you can see, there’re a number of factors, so these will be general guidelines that I’ll be giving.
For example, the older Romba models 600 to 800 would take roughly five hours to clean 1500 square feet. If you have more furniture or carpet, it’ll take the Roomba a longer time.
How Long Each Roomba Model Takes to Clean
Roomba 614
The 614 can clean about 500 sq ft of cleanable space with carpet, hardwood, and tiles within its 90 minutes battery limit. The robot will try to find its charging dock as the battery gets low, and you can send it back through scheduled cleaning or manually if it did not clean thoroughly.
Roomba 670
With a runtime of 90 minutes, the 670 can clean about 500 sq ft of cleanable space. However, this Roomba doesn’t have the recharge and resume capability. So when the battery runs low, it will dock in its charging station and charge for 2 hours.
Roomba 671
With a random cleaning pattern, the Roomba 671 cleans about 500 sq ft of cleanable space that includes carpet and hardwood with its 90 minutes of battery runtime. The Roomba will try to find its charging dock as the battery runs low and charge for 2 hours awaiting cleaning instructions.
Roomba 675
Similarly, the 675 has a battery runtime of 90 minutes, capable of cleaning about 500 sq ft before the battery runs low. If it doesn’t manage to clean everything fully, the Roomba will dock in its charging station upon battery depletion and charge for about 2-3 hours. When done, it’ll be waiting for you to either manually start it up again or use the Home app through WiFi.
Roomba 690
The Roomba 690 will take up to 90 minutes to clean about 500 square feet of a toddler, infant, and dog infested house. It’ll make several passes over each area that triggered the Roomba’s Dirt Detect feature. At the end of a cleaning cycle or when the battery is running low, the robot automatically returns to the Home Base charging station to recharge.
Roomba E5 (5150)
If your cleanable house area is about 1500 square feet, the Roomba E5 probably won’t last long enough to vacuum your entire home on one charge. The battery powers the vacuum for about 90 minutes, which is about how long it takes to clean approximately 600 square feet. When the Roomba is done with its job or low on battery, it automatically returns to the charging port while sending you a notification of its movement.
Roomba 805
With a full charge on the 805, a cleaning cycle of about 300 sq ft with a mix of carpet and hardwood will last for approximately one hour. As the battery gets low, it will try to find its charging dock, and after the 2 hours charging time, you can manually start the robot to resume cleaning.
Roomba 890
The 890 has a 90-minute battery life, which will clean about 500 sq ft in ideal conditions; that is, the battery is fully charged, and it is cleaning a smooth surface such as tiles or wooden flooring. The runtime is reduced with carpets because more energy is needed for vacuuming and moving.
Roomba 960
The Roomba 960 runs for about 70-75 minutes on a full charge. If there’s still cleaning to be done when the battery is running low, it will return to its dock to recharge, and then continue until the cleaning is finished. Depending on how dirty the floor is, it can take approximately 1.5 hours or a total of 3.5 hours to clean 600 sq ft of cleanable open space inclusive of charging time.
Roomba 980
The robot’s runtime is 50 to 80 minutes, depending on settings, 600 to 900 sqft. It will automatically recharge for 90 minutes and recharge to 75% battery capacity. At that point, it’ll return to cleaning for about 35 to 60 minutes, which is about 450 to 700 sqft. This means that the bot will take approximately four hours to clean 1500 sq ft, including recharge time.
Roomba 985
With the “recharge and resume” feature, the Roomba 985 robot vacuum cleans continuously for up to 120 minutes then recharges and resumes cleaning until the job is done. Each charge will cover a cleanable space of around 1000 sq ft.
Roomba i7 and i7+
With identical cleaning capabilities, the Roomba i7 and i7+ will take a total of 4 hours to clean a 1500 sqft house. That’s broken down to 2.5 hours actual cleaning time, and 1.5 hours for recharging.
This model only has a 75 minute run time, but it’s able to recharge and resume cleaning, so there’s no need for you to manually start it. You can leave it alone, except for when emptying the dustbin. If you have the i7 plus, it comes with the Clean Base Unit and it’ll self-empty.
Roomba s9 and s9+
The s9 series Roomba has 120 minutes of runtime that will clean about 330 square feet before it returns to the charging base. The bot gets back to the charging station when the battery runs out, and when ready to start cleaning again.
Like the i7 series, the s9 remembers the last spot cleaned and will resume from there thanks to its smart navigation and mapping tech. If you get the s9+, the Roomba will self-empty into the included Clean Base Unit accessory.
Roomba Clean Time Final Thoughts
The general range of a normal Roomba cleaning cycle is between one to two hours in an ideal situation – fully charged and simple floors like tile and hardwood.
Remember, these are general time guides and will depend on your own home setup. The runtime will be reduced when you have a lot of carpeted floors. Models with the “recharge and resume” feature can multiply the runtime since the bot starts cleaning at the exact point it stopped automatically.
Check out these other articles on Roomba robot vacuums:
