iRobot's Roomba 694 is back on sale for $179

If you're looking for a budget-friendly robot vacuum to get for yourself or for mom for Mother's Day, iRobot's Roomba 694 is a great option. It's our current favorite affordable robo-vac, and now you can pick it up for even less than its normal rate of $274. Amazon has the machine for $179, which is $95 off and a return to its record-low price.

Buy Roomba 694 at Amazon - $179

Chances are you've heard of iRobot before even if you have never owned a robot vacuum because the brand is, arguably, the most well known in that space. With that recognition comes high price tags, but the Roomba 694 is a solid machine made better by this discount. It has a three-button design and app connectivity, giving you a few ways to control it, and it cleans both hard and carpeted surfaces well. It'll putter around your home, sucking up dirt, debris and even pet hair as it moves from room to room, and it'll automatically return to its charging base when it's finished.

In addition to starting cleaning jobs from the iRobot app, you can also set cleaning schedules, which make the robot even more autonomous. The Roomba 694 is also compatible with Alexa and the Google Assistant, so you can use voice commands to control it as well.

iRobot estimates the Roomba 694 will run for about 90 minutes before it needs a recharge, but we found that it often ran for less time before returning home. That means that those with larger homes may have to wait longer for clean floors as the machine will have to charge up before it completes a job, but otherwise, there aren't many downsides to this robo-vac. It's an especially good pick for novices since iRobot's mobile app is quite easy to use and the machine does the cleaning basics well.

A couple of other iRobot machines are also on sale right now, and they're best for those that want to splurge on an advanced robot vacuum. Both the Roomba j7+ and the Roomba s9+ are $200 off right now, bringing them down to $599 and $799, respectively. The former is one of the company's newest devices with a pet poop detection feature (yes, you read that right), while the latter is the highest-end machine you can get from iRobot. Both also come with clean bases, so the robots will empty their dustbins into the base after every cleaning job.

Buy Roomba j7+ at Amazon - $599Buy Roomba s9+ at Amazon - $799

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