Roomba E5 Review: Pros & Cons and Verdict

A step up from the Roomba 600 series, comes in the form of the Roomba e5. Situated in the middle of iRobot’s robot vacuum prices, the e5 comes at an average Amazon price of about $200 and a Bed Bath and Beyond price of $350, without a virtual wall barrier device.

The iRobot corporation has been in business since the year 1990, it started out with 3 MIT members that specialized in designing military defense robots. They have since then added a peaceful aspect to their innovative technologies by making automated vacuum cleaners and robot mops, this course might have been followed to please their wives.

The e5 is a housewife’s best friend, saving her from the painful exercise of cleaning up after the children and risking her newly manicured nails. Being in a fast-paced world we all could use assistance, but we need to be able to trust what we choose to assist us.

The biggest reason for all our trust issues towards robots are all the movies based on robots creating trust issues. This is where the human reviews come into the picture, helping other humans from a human point of view. With that said, let us get into finding the squeaky clean and missed spots of this device.

Advantages and Disadvantages

First, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Roomba E5 model. While it has a lot of strong aspects, it also comes with a few shortcomings too.

These are the advantages and disadvantages of the Roomba E5. Now, let’s dive deeper and thoroughly discuss Roomba E5’s full capabilities.

Design and Features

Nothing about this robot vacuum makes it unique in any way, this is not something you want to show off to your other robot vacuum owning friends. It roams around the house cleaning up the messes you leave behind, that is it. The robot is round in shape and has a diameter 13.3 inches and a height of 3.6 inches allowing it to get under low rising furniture.

The shape also makes it easy to be confused with a waffle maker. Almost the entire machine is made of hard plastic, having a gloss finish on the top and a matte look underneath. Even though it is made of plastic it still feels sturdy and strong.

Starting with the design and features from the front, the vacuum is equipped with a bumper to protect the chairs legs from getting scratched when the vacuum crashes into it.

On the top of the vacuum you will find three buttons that are marked with easy to understand icons. It has a big round silver button in the center with the word “CLEAN” written on it, when the button is pressed the vacuum will start doing its job. When the button with the house shaped icon (left of the silver button) is pressed the vacuum will make its way to the charging dock.

The button with the target like icon (right of the silver button) will let the e5 start shooting lasers at the cat, is what could have been incorrectly concluded, had you not read this review. The button basically tells the vacuum to intensely clean a specific area by spiraling around, in a circle that is 3 feet in diameter, and then spiral back to where it started.

In the spot clean mode, the vacuum boosts its suction power to provide the best cleaning possible where you need it. 

There is an array of indicator lights that show how much battery power there is remaining, a Wi-Fi connection light, and a vacuum performance indicator light.

It also has a handle that allows for easy lifting upstairs, because the e5 is unable to climb up stairs, as would be expected from any other home cleaning device bought at this price.

The handle also serves as a reminder for a person to appreciate how they do not have to tug around a conventional vacuum cleaner, and how they never have to waste time watching infomercials to find the promoted item at the right time to phone in and get it at a discounted price.

In the back it has a 17-ounce dustbin, this fills up really quickly if you have animals living in the house. The e5 also starts to slack in performance the heavier the load gets, which then as a result burns through the battery power. It has a dustbin release button next to the dustbin itself, allowing you to still enjoy cleaning out all the filth left on the floor, the dustbin can be washed just by rinsing it under the faucet.

Finally, we head on to the bottom where all the moving bits can be found. The first thing that might have caught your eye from the top is the plastic whiskers, there are three of them and they make up the edge sweeping brush which has been specially designed at a 27-degree angle to sweep debris away from edges and corners that most robot vacuums  are not able to reach.

The other dominant features are the multi-surface rubber brush rolls, as stated in the name they clean over multiple surfaces such as carpets and hard floors. The rubber brushes are detachable for those moments of maintenance.

All one needs to do to get all the tangled hair out of the gears is to remove the guard that keeps the rollers in place. The difficulty comes when having to reattach the rollers to the vacuum, because it requires you to realign them.

The vacuum has sensors along the front edge to prevent it from throwing itself down the stairs, as the kids claimed it to do when they try to use it as a hoverboard. It has an omnidirectional wheel that can steer the robot in any direction which is great for every house in any Dr. Seuss book.

The only accessory that comes with it is the charging dock. For anyone owning an Apple device, you can breathe a sigh of relief. The robot vacuum can find its way to the dock using its built-in RCON (room Confinement) sensor which communicates with the sensor built into the charging dock. Once it has steered its way onto the charging dock it will replenish its battery using the two charging contacts found on either side of the omnidirectional wheel.

This robot vacuum has a removable HEPA (High-efficiency particulate air) filter which works well in homes with pets and a lot of dust. The filter can capture most of the dust mites, pollen, and animal allergens that plague most homes.

These filters are suggested by iRobot to be replaced every two to three months. You can buy these filters on Amazon in a pack of three for $30 or on the iRobot website at around the same price.

The vacuum cleaner has been programmed to sense high-traffic areas, and to know when it is shedding season for animals and when pollen count is high. During these occasions, the e5 puts more effort in its cleaning work. It is also able to detect what type of surface it is cleaning and adjusts its suction power accordingly.

It also has a battery that lasts for up to 90 minutes depending on the types of surfaces it needs to clean, after it gets tired of cleaning up your mess it heads back for a charging session that can last just over an hour and forty minutes.

The Roomba e5 moves aimlessly around the house because it does not possess a high-tech smart path program. The relatively long run time of the e5 allows it to do a decent clean, it also moves easily over different surfaces without getting stuck to any carpets.

It is a basic robot vacuum cleaner as it does not come with any form of steering controls, which can pose a problem for homes with many furniture items resting on the floor and large rooms. To try to get more control of where the vacuum carries out its duties you can use the virtual wall device for an extra cost.

Set Up Process

The Roomba e5 has no initial assembly or any other assembly for that matter, it is one of those plug and play devices.

To enjoy a painless experience when setting the vacuum up you will want to download the app. It is not required , and the vacuum works without an internet connection, but if you really do not want to get up from your office chair, drive home, unlock your door, and press the big silver button to let the vacuum do its job; then take the suggestion to heart.

It is not difficult, just download the iRobot Home app, open an account, choose the model of the vacuum you have, and finally connect the Wi-Fi network to the selected vacuum. Simple, and way faster than having to click the “drive” button on your self-driving car when you are at the office.

After you have done that procedure you will need to do a bit of multi-tasking. You need to press both the home and spot clean buttons on the vacuum, at the same time. You will have to keep them pressed in until instructions pop up on your mobile device’s screen. These instructions will guide you through the process of connecting your Roomba to your Wi-Fi network.

Once all that is done, you can have your e5 clean your house while you are busy elsewhere. The app is simple to use and, just like the vacuum cleaner itself, it has a big “CLEAN” button right in the center of the screen. The e5 also works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant giving you control over it using voice commands.

With the app you are able to set it to clean in times that best suit your schedule. The vacuum cleaner can have multiple cleaning schedules, so you do not always have to open the app and press the button. In the case that you might want to have a more thorough clean, you can simply wait for the notification that lets you know when the vacuum cleaner has done its scheduled clean to appear on your mobile device.

It will give you the option to either keep cleaning or head back to the charging dock. You will not have to guess how much battery life is left as the app indicates that for you as well.

You can also view the e5’s cleaning history on the app which is a handy thing to have when you need to know if any parts need to be replaced, which will be discussed at a later stage. The e5 does not have the greatest geographical programming, so the app can help you find the misguided machine as well. The app proudly will give you the statistics of the cleaning jobs the vacuum has done as well as show high dirt areas.

If you get lost using the app the iRobot team has kindly provided a help section on the app. In the help section you will find maintenance guides and cleaning instructions, this brings us to the hard work section.

Maintenance

Unfortunately, we still need to practice being patient as we wait for the time when we can trust robots with our credit information and allow them to buy their own replacement parts. Until then we need to do this time-consuming part by ourselves.

Nothing lasts forever, this is especially true with the Roomba e5. Compared to the Roomba 960, the e5 seems to be more sensitive and needy. It has many parts that need to be replaced, suggestively, within a year of use. The rubber roller brushes eventually do wear out and need to be replaced in order to maintain high cleaning efficiency.

The omnidirectional wheel and the edge sweeping brush also need to be replaced around the same time as the rollers. Most of the replacement items are easy to detach from the body of the vacuum. The iRobot company has also made replacement kits available on their website for about $65. 

The battery can also last for a few hundred charges before needing a replacement. Replacing the battery is not as daunting as one might think. All that needs to be done is dismantling the edge sweeping brush and five other screws that hold the bottom cover in place, and then unclip the battery from its compartment.

After that is done put the new battery in and do the process again, but in reverse. You can also choose to ignore this step, because by the time the e5 gives up you will have saved enough money, that would be spent on housekeeping rates, to get a new one.

To remove the accumulated dirt from the vacuum’s dustbin all that you are required to do is detach it from the vacuum and empty it into a bigger dustbin. As mentioned earlier you can wash out the dustbin, but you must remember to remove the HEPA filter beforehand, since the filter is not waterproof.

Some might say that all the maintenance work is difficult, but others might not mind the hard labor, this leads us to the next part of this article.

Who is This For?

Sometimes buying something for extra features is not always a cost-effective activity. Needing something to just do a job, like vacuuming, is where the Roomba e5 fits in. It is one of the fairly priced vacuums and it does what it is expected to do.  The filtration system helps families that have shedding pets and members that suffer from pet allergies.

If you have a modest floor plan of about 1000 square feet, then this vacuum can do you good. It is somewhat easy maintenance works well for those that have little spare time available to fix and clean a vacuum. The app comes in handy for those that live by structure and routine.

Some of the frailer folk would appreciate this as time goes by and they are limited to what they can do. It might also give them a heart attack when they see what appears to be a robot racoon sniffing at the ground.

Conclusion

The lack of sense of direction can cause quite the irritation. A liking to the size of the dustbin will depend on the amount of dirt and animal hair that the vacuum has to pick up, and as a result needing someone to empty the dustbin out.

It has a few extra features, the spot clean for example, that cheaper models do not have. Unlike the cheaper models it does do a thorough clean. The voice command does come in handy with homes that are already connected with virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google assistant.

The vacuum also serves as a great gift when you are not sure about what to get for a person. It also might not be a great gift, because it might send a harsh message to the recipient about the cleanliness of their home.

The Roomba e5 comes in the mid-range of the robot vacuum cleaning world. Nothing about this vacuum makes it an amazing buy. It is a savvy item for the thrifty shopper that somehow can make anything work.