iRobot Roomba 104 Review: Smart Mapping on a Budget

The iRobot Roomba 104 brings LiDAR mapping, room zoning, and strong suction to a budget robot vacuum, ideal for small homes and pet owners.

Price: $124.39

Rating: 4.1/5

Pros

Accurate LiDAR smart mapping
Strong suction for the price
Reliable room based cleaning
Polished, easy to use app
Good performance on pet hair
Solid overall build quality

Cons

No self emptying dock
Bin fills quickly with pets
Brush needs regular hair cleaning

If you’ve been holding off on a robot vacuum because “real” mapping bots seemed too expensive, the iRobot Roomba 104 is the first one we’ve tested that genuinely feels like a modern, LiDAR‑guided Roomba at a budget price. It’s not perfect, and it doesn’t magically replace a deep-clean upright. But for around $125, it delivers structured, room‑by‑room cleaning, proper obstacle handling, and app control that used to live on models two or three price tiers up. --- ## A LiDAR Roomba That Actually Knows Your Floorplan Most budget robot vacuums still wander like a tipsy Roomba 600-series: bump, turn, guess, repeat. The 104 doesn’t. It uses a LiDAR turret to scan your rooms, then drives in straight, overlapping rows the way a human would mow a lawn. In our lab’s 900 sq ft test apartment (mix of hardwood, low‑pile carpet, and tile), the Roomba 104 produced a map on its first full run in about 37 minutes. On subsequent runs, it consistently cleaned the same space in 31–35 minutes, with cov

View on Amazon