Finally, a robot vacuum that won't take over your room - it's petite, chic, and irresistible
This is the epitome of mini but mighty - and it's cute too
If traditional robot vacuums have always seemed to space-consuming and clunky, this small and stylish model is the one for you. It reaches tight spots, cleans and mops well, but the small battery life needs frequent charging.
-
+
Amazing for quick, standard and deep cleans and mops too
-
+
Quick and easy to control from the app
-
+
Small footprint gets into nooks with ease, tackling forgotten or hard-to-reach areas
-
-
Setting up can take longer than you expect
-
-
Small size means frequent recharging is necessary
-
-
The app is required to get the most out of the Roomba and can be glitchy
Why you can trust Woman & Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
A miniature robot vacuum is one of those ideas that’s so obvious, you wonder why it’s taken this long to arrive. Nimble, compact, and available in a pleasing range of colours, the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop marks a milestone in the world of robot vacuums. It’s a reminder that when it comes to the best robot vacuum, bigger isn’t always better.
One of the most common complaints about robot vacuums is their footprint. Between the dock and the machine itself, they have a habit of dominating a room rather than blending in. Until now, there’s been little appetite to challenge that bulk. However, the arrival of iRobot’s scaled-down model suggests a rethink is finally underway.
This nippy little cleaner, affectionately named Gill by our tester, Liz, made light work of her home. But can something so small really replace a traditional vacuum, or is it better suited as a supporting act? And could it be one of our new additions to the list of useful home gadgets that earns its keep?
iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum and Mop review
RRP | £379.99 |
Dimensions | (cm): 24.5 (L) x 24.5 (W) x 9.2 (H) |
Weight | 2kgs (robot) 2.3 kgs (dock) |
Colours | Black, white, pink, green |
App functions | Yes |
Mopping function | Yes |
Bin type | Bagged |
Floor coverage | Covers up to 130 m² |
How we test
This robot vacuum was part of our tester network programme of testing. Here's a little bit about Liz, our expert tester:
Liz is somewhat of a gadget fiend, so the opportunity to test out a robot vacuum for the first time sent her into a rather over-excited state. She’s owned numerous vacuums over the years – from a Miele cylinder to a Henry Hoover and upright machines from Vax and Shark. Currently, she owns a dead Dyson stick vacuum, a Shark stick vacuum she uses daily and a corded, heavier Shark that she hauls out for deeper cleans.
Who would the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop suit?
The iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop has one glaringly obvious appeal: it's compact size. If you have a small home or don't like the idea of your gadgets being out on display, this is the perfect robot vacuum to have, especially when you account for the chic colour options too.
The small initial footprint becomes an even more useful feature when you're thinking about cleaning your home in general. The small footprint makes this a nimble vacuum for squeezing into tight spots.
Robot vacuums like this are also really brilliant if you want a hand cleaning around the home. Liz adds, "if like me, you live in a small, cluttered semi rather than a sprawling minimalist mansion, then it’s perfect for getting in all the tight spots as well as awkward hard-to-reach areas, such as under beds. This made it really useful for deeper cleans of rooms in my house, I could be dusting or making the bed while the Roomba Mini vacuumed."
Unboxing the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop
Whilst the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop is compact, robot vacuums often come with a fair bit of kit, so we were keen to see what would come with this little gadget.
Liz was impressed with the compact, but practical box, pointing out "the packaging design is beautiful, which reflects the unit. On opening, a thank-you card is followed my a "meet mini" sheet which is part of the set-up process." It's a really considered and thoughtful way to start off the set-up experience, which can be a little overwhelming, especially when we're looking at gadgets like this.
The iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop comes with accessories: the edge-sweeping brush (which Liz cautions is small enough to accidentally throw away), 30 disposable multi-surface fresh citrus mopping pads, and a mopping plate. It would be brilliant to see these pads swapped out for re-usable alternatives, especially as these are more like wipes rather than a good mop. However, they're a brilliant feature that are definitely nice to have rather than miss.
The station comes pre-fitted with a dustbag, which holds up to 75 days of dirt. Liz noted that there aren't any spares in the box, but she thought 75 days feels like a reasonable amount of time for them to cover, although she thinks she'll be emptying hers sooner.
What is the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop like to use?
Liz followed the steps for setting up the Roomba Mini, which she found were "mostly intuitive and straightforward," but she added that you'll probably "underestimate how long it will take." If you've never had a robot vacuum before, it's good to know that these little machines need to map out your home before they can get to work. The time that takes is entirely dependent on the size of your house.
The set-up and mapping process needs you to have an app, which is downloadable using a QR code. You have to create an account and describe your household, and name the machine. Liz found out her home, with her two children and a house is a "high-activity" one. She named her vacuum Gill, after her mum who was always vacuuming. From the app, you can merge and divide spaces, select specific areas for cleaning, and choose the cleaning level, which spans spot, standard, and deep clean. You can also be more hands-off if you want the Roomba to do its work without interference.
The Roomba suggests waiting for a full charge before you start waiting, but Liz was impatient to get started, so set hers running. This meant that the mini needed to recharge halfway through mapping, leaving her with "everything piled on beds in two rooms and twiddling my thumbs while it returned to the docking station. Once charging was complete and it had mapped out the rooms upstairs I wanted to take advantage of things being out of the way to do a deep clean, only to be thwarted again by the need to recharge." It's a lesson she learnt quickly and integrated into her cleaning: this is small, so will need to take a "little and often" approach rather than a deep clean."
The main takeaway from living with a mini robot vacuum is that this is less about replacing your routine and more about upgrading it. Liz found the Roomba Mini slotted into her days in a helpful and easy routine. “I adore the Roomba Mini for lending a helping hand in my house,” she told me. She still does a quick once-over with her cordless in the morning, but now leans on the Roomba to “complement” that clean, ticking off the floors while she gets on with everything else.
That said, a little light-touch prep goes a long way. Like most robot vacuums, it prefers a relatively clear run, Liz quickly got into the habit of checking for rogue charger cables before setting it off. In return, it changed her cleaning rhythm entirely. “It’s starting to change how I clean,” she said, noting she now runs it downstairs before bed to keep things ticking over. She was also impressed at the knock-on effect this low-maintenance, background cleaning has: deep cleans, once easy to put off, have become far more frequent in Liz's home because the time and energy-consuming starting point has already been handled. Her upright vacuum is now, more often than not found “standing in the corner, redundant” on the days when she would have been doing a quick runaround before work.
In terms of performance, this little machine punches well above its size. Liz tested it in her kitchen, which is the ultimate stress test, and found it handled everything from flour and sugar to granola, breadcrumbs and cat kibble “with ease.” Pet hair was no problem either, though long human hair did occasionally tangle in the brush (a quick fix, thankfully: she could remove and clean it in seconds).
It also coped admirably with real homes: gliding between rugs, tiles and thresholds without fuss, and navigating around table legs, skirting boards and even wandering feet. It’s not flawless and Liz found that it would occasionally try to clamber onto something it shouldn’t, but it’s self-aware enough to correct itself or call for help with a flurry of alerts.
The mop function is, in many ways, the sleeper hit. Liz admitted it tackled a job she’d been neglecting: “Although just a textured floor wipe, it collects a surprising amount of dirt.” It’s also impressively quiet in this mode, near-silent, in fact, so she could run it while working without distraction.
More broadly, that’s the theme here: it saves effort rather than time. “It’s fantastic for when I’m tired, overworked or simply would rather be doing something more fun,” she said.
Cleaning and maintaining the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop
The beauty of robot vacuums is just how much they automate. The base station charges the vacuum, whilst emptying it, tidily into a bag. Some people, especially those with allergies, love a closed system like this. Others might prefer not to have the ongoing cost of dust bags, although iRobot suggests that the bag should last a full 75 days.
Most of the maintenance comes down to “occasional nudges rather than chores.” The Roomba Mini is good at flagging when something’s amiss (a dirty sensor, a blocked roller), which takes a lot of the guesswork out. That said, Liz did run into a real-life hiccup that’s worth knowing about: after lending it to a neighbour, she noticed it wasn’t emptying properly despite no alert. A quick investigation revealed a cotton bud causing a blockage, easily fixed, but a reminder not to rely on automation blindly.
Should you buy the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop?
So, should you buy the iRobot Roomba Mini Robot Vacuum & Mop? If Liz is anything to go by, the answer is a yes. “I fell in love with almost everything about the Roomba Mini,” she said, praising everything from its looks to its day-to-day functionality. It’s not without its quirks: the battery can drain faster than you’d like (even off the dock), and it occasionally gets confused and heads home mid-clean. “This can be frustrating if you haven’t realised it’s glitched and assume it’s finished,” she noted. But crucially, these are the kind of niggles you learn to work around. Liz now staggers her cleans over a few days rather than tackling the whole house in one go, “once you get into this habit, it’s an easy change to make.”
What’s telling is that it hasn’t replaced her cordless vacuum. “I’m not about to give up my cordless,” she said, pointing out that it’s still quicker for a fast, fuss-free once-over (and doesn’t require a cable check beforehand). Instead, the Roomba Mini earns its place by taking on the heavier lifting. “Making light work of my deep cleans has given me precious time back to get on with other things,” she explained, adding that, as a busy working single parent of two teenagers, that time is “invaluable.” And really, that’s the crux of it: if you want something that meaningfully lightens your load rather than replaces your routine entirely, this is a very easy yes.
