Customer Ratings & Reviews

Had a different brand mopping robot vacuum for four years.., had problems with the battery with it and was ready for a new one. This amazing self emptying mopping vacuum is working great in my home

Should have bought this long ago. It's so easy to always have clean floors!

Built well seems to be working as expected right after the mapping was completed. Using the app inset it for daily cleaning runs for about 30min every day

 This has to be the worst Roomba I have ever owned. It is consistently malfunctioning, not completing jobs, getting stuck on a literal piece of hair in the floor… I could go on for hours about how absolutely awful this device is. I have reset it multiple times, ran the mapping feature more times than I can count, and manually reset and reset through the app dozens of times. It consistently loses connection with Wi-Fi (the only device on my network to do so) and honestly, I’m just tired of dealing with it. Will probably submit this through geek squad for warranty replacement and go with another another brand. Save yourself the headache.

I absolutely love this vacuum. I went in attempting to get brushes for my older Samsung, and ended up leaving with a new vacuum because it was on promotion for $650. These vacuums have come so far in terms of their abilities, and this one is absolutely fantastic. It does absolutely everything! It will save you the daily vacuuming of dog hair and will not disappoint!

Great vacuum! Disappointed that they would not ship from California to Florida where we live, had to ship myself.

This is the worst item I ever purchased from bestbuy, barely 10% of jobs completed always some issue or the other. Vacuum only, not even once has this piece of crap been able to complete vacuuming and mopping! Tried to vacuum and mop last night, worked for 35 seconds then I got an error message “pump issue”

Works great. I would highly recommend this product. The app is easy to use.

Great product is very easy to install and very easy to use

Love the rooms, it’s a huge weight off my wife’s shoulders. Her only complaint is that the mapping could be better.

I like convenience and anything that makes my life simple and robot vacuums fit into that category for me. I have owned a number of various cleaning robots some that sweep and one or two that mop. I was really excited to get my hands on the Roomba J7 combo it is advertised as being smart and after using it for some time I can say that it certainly seems to live up to that claim. :::Initial Impressions::: The J7 came in a huge box and it included an assortment of items. You will find the following items inside the base itself, the robot vacuum/mop, two samples of cleaning solution, two mopping pads, an extra filter and a spin brush. I was taken back on just how big the base was and upon opening it you’ll find vacuum bags similar to those of the original floor vacuums I will explain more on this later. I found the vacuum to be hefty and it does have some weight to it so it doesn’t feel cheap like some vacuums I have used in the past. You can wrap the cord to either the left or right side of the base so that there isn’t a huge mess of wire laying around that is pretty much standard with every device on the market but there is more storage and the power cord can definitely be tucked further into the base I appreciated that. I am very impressed with just that and I hadn’t even powered on the device. :::General Thoughts::: Setup was so effortless and I truly appreciated how little time it took to plug in the device, download the iRobot app from the Google Play store and create an account. It took me less than five minutes to setup the smartphone application is straight forward it found my robot immediately and I love that this runs on the 5ghz band of Wi-Fi. This is the first robot that I own that had that as an option. I decided to name my Robot Robert, after that I immediately added the Alexa integration by linking the iRobot skill in Alexa and that took less than 30 seconds and worked on the first try. :::Smartphone app::: The app will suggest you setup a map of the location you will use it and for optimal results let it do that on the first run prior to cleaning so that way it can work in an efficient manner. After you can review the map and breakdown each location and label the rooms in your home for example you can label the location of the kitchen and add boundary markers that are used to divide each room like an entrance or exit. This really impressed me because this can be used via voice command or through the application and you can have your robot clean all locations or a specific room. I have used two competing brands of smart robots and the J7 makes them both seem primitive in comparison. So, you have map customization, cleaning options such as only sweep, or mop or both at the same time. You also have the ability to set how much water is used while mopping, and how many passes you would like for sweeping to be done. :::Cleaning::: The J7 works well on laminate, hardwood and carpet. I have a throw carpet in my bathroom and it wasn’t found in a tangled mess. I am unsure on how large the debris cup is on the vacuum but it really isn’t something you see because of the self-emptying feature and that is a nice feature to have not having to manually empty the vacuum after each or every few cleanings. The J7 uses a vacuum feature that sucks the debris into a vacuum bag and it is advertised to last about 60 days by iRobots standards by your usage may vary depending on how often you use it. An extra bag is included and I really appreciated that I have yet to look at the prices for the replacement parts but I am fine with having to purchase those periodically if it means not having to sweep or mop myself yes, I am aware of how lazy it may make me sound but I am totally alright with that because it is what the device is designed to do. I was baffled initially by the placement of the mopping pad because I couldn’t figure out how the floor would be cleaned for the life of me until I saw Robert in action. It works like a convertible hardtop where there is an arm that comes down to the floor to mop. I have never seen a robot mop do that before my mind was blown. So far, this vacuum is checking off all the boxes. :::Smart features::: Smart features are something that nearly every product on the market advertises but I assure you that once again no other device I used has the ability to learn as it cleans. How so you wonder? There is a pretty good camera that records what the robot perceives to be an “obstacle” at the end of each cleaning you can give feedback and select whether or not it was an obstacle and if it was only temporary. You also have the feature to instruct your robot to completely avoid that area or obstacle if you designate it to be so. My dog bowls are designate off limits so it doesn’t go too close to it. The ability for your robot to learn after each cleaning is amazing in itself and makes the product a better device for all who decide to use this product. I do not know of any other cleaning device that does this. This feature may seem invasive to some and is optional but I find it to be really useful and contribute to the database whenever possible. A perfect example of this is if there were a bag of golf clubs or something precious in a specific area of the house. You can tell iRobot if that place should be avoided altogether or if it is just temporary. :::Pros & Con’s::: Pros: - Smart learning capabilities - Very easy to setup - Intuitive and easy to use - Alexa compatible (not sure if google or other platforms are compatible) - You can setup a cleaning schedule - Self-emptying Cons: - Loud (not too big of a deal considering all that it does right) :::Closing thoughts::: Overall, this is truly a fantastic product and I just can’t stop praising it. I have to admit that after using this one time I put away my previous cleaning robot away in the basement and don’t have any intentions of ever using it again. It has the ability to become more efficient as time goes on and that is worth the investment in the J7 itself. Sure, this won’t mop super dirt floors but it will help maintain your floors and sweeping I don’t really do that anymore thanks to the J7. It is worth noting that this device isn’t infallible because you do need to take precaution especially if you have children that specific items shouldn’t be laying around because items can and will get caught in the cleaning brushes underneath. I had a robot brake on me in the past because of that. :::TL;DR::: iRobot really has something special here and it is nearly a perfect product that requires very little maintenance. It is truly smart and can continue to get better each time it cleans. If this sounds good to you don’t even bother looking at other products this is “the one to get”.

Its a nice little bot does great as a sweeper vacuum and so so at mopping but all in all i love it it mapped the house and i don't see any dog hair pups anymore lol also less dust also i love it!!!!! It climbs over nice size threshholds with no problem and easy to take care of.

I'll start by saying we have two 100 pound labs who shed a lot and in no way can this Roomba Combo j7 keep up with their hair on carpets but it is great for keeping hair off and mopping hardwood floors. We have a 10'x7' area rug where our pups like to lay so I thought I would try the Roomba Combo j7 on it. Well half way through the the rug I got a red light and command to empty the bin. I in no way expected the Roomba to take on such a big task but thought I would try. Regular cleaning with a regular vacuum will still be needed several times a week on our rugs. Now for the good news. The Roomba works awesome on hardwood floors. Setup was super easy for the Roomba Combo j7. I plugged in the base, attached the mop pad and charged the Roomba until completely charged. We have a large area downstairs so I didn't want it to run out of juice on it's first mapping run. I also added the included package of floor cleaner to the removable dustbin and added water to fill . Now the mopping function was ready to go. On first use your Roomba Combo j7 will map out your floorplan so it knows where to go in future uses. I choose to have it give the floors a vacuum as it mapped out the bottom floor. You can also just give it a mapping run to save battery life. The first run took just under an hour and I was amazed at the map it created. I had lifted chairs and anything on the floor out of the way so it could reach everywhere on the floor. The next day I ran it one more time and it completed a perfect map of house. It shows where carpet or area rugs are and even showed where the floor moldings are that separate our rooms. By the way, the Roomba had no problem climbing over 1/2 inch transition molding between rooms or climbing up on area rugs that sit high above the hardwood floors. We also have a sunken living room so after the main level was done and since the Roomba is smart enough not to go over the edge, I placed the unit on the lower level and it continued to create a map for that area too. On the first try of vacuuming and mopping our floors came out amazing. It sucked up any loose pet hair and dirt and the mop flipped down from it's resting place and trailed the Roomba mopping the floor with just the right amount of cleaning solution. I touched the floor after the Roomba made a mop run and the floor was barely moist but was sparkling clean. When the Roomba sensed it was about to go onto an area rug the mop flipped back up into position and just the vacuuming feature took over on the rug. It is so SMART!!! You can also change preferences on each job like just run the vacuum with no mop, how much cleaning solution to use, and how many passes you want the Roomba Combo j7 to take while running in each room. By the way this is all controlled by using the the IRobot app which is very user friendly. You can program the vacuum to do only certain rooms on certain days. The rooms can be separated and named on the map so you can use the app or voice commands on Alexa or Google Assistant to start, pause or end cleaning jobs. The sound level while the Roomba Combo j7 is doing it's thing is a little less then that of a normal vacuum. I thought it would be quieter. So if you're watching TV during the vacuuming you may need to turn it up a bit but if you are working from home and need silence make sure to not run the Roomba during that time. It is that loud to where it could be annoying to talk over. The best part, unless there is some malfunction, is that after completing the job the Roomba Combo j7 goes to it's home base, empties the dust collection bag and goes to sleep to recharge it's batteries on it's own. You just need to change the collection bag when it get's full. This is an awesome vacuum/ mop combo to keep your floors clean daily without having to do any of the work.

Ok, so I’m exaggerating when I say that the IRobot is smarter than me. But it is far smarter than your average robot vacuum, and it’s a lot more interested in cleaning and mopping than I am. My stars above represent how well the robot fulfills the promise of what it says it can do. Whether you want to pay this much for a robot mop vacuum is a more personal equation. There are several things about this robot that are pretty brilliant: 1) Navigation and guidance is amazing. The mapping feature and ability for this little black monster to know your house after a few learning sessions is truly impressive. One of the most amazing things to watch is the robot accessing its knowledge of the layout and avoiding areas or only visiting certain spaces. The user, once the robot has mapped the space, can create “rooms” and dividers, tell it there are “no clean” zones, or direct it to certain places where extra cleaning might be necessary. I’ve tested this, asking the robot to just do the kitchen, or just do the living room, and it flawlessly follows the map and delineates invisible boundaries. A different model robot I’ve used absolutely cannot do this, and in order to keep it’s mind on a single room and clean it efficiently, I have to block off hallways and open spaces. Also, because the mapping is so good, I don’t have to do as much preparation for the robot to succeed. With the earlier mentioned robot, I would clear a space as much as possible so it wouldn’t get super confused about chairs or obstacles and could move in its relatively dumb, straight-line, one-way turn pattern without getting confused. That is not needed. While you’ll still want to pick up the dog bowls and shoes laying around to get the best clean, you could also know that even if left out, the robot will see them, go around, and do its thing without losing its mind. That’s pretty cool. Also, you can enable it to learn from your home and take pictures of obstacles or things it doesn’t understand while doing its work. Then, it asks for feedback in the app so that it can learn more. That’s pretty amazing. It’s a little spooky, I’ll say, allowing the robot to do this, and I worry slightly how secure pictures of my home are on the IRobot cloud. That said, these are not very useful pictures since they are usually of table legs or electric cords, so I’m more at ease now that I see the limitations of its viewing area. 2) Ability to get into smalls spaces and really offer strong coverage for your overall area is excellent 3) Mopping and vacuuming at the same time are truly possible; the tank that sucks in debris is separate from the water tank, so the little unit can run around sucking up junk and mopping in a fell swoop. This means that it takes less time to get a good clean. 4) It’s truly self-contained and rarely runs into problems. In testing this robot, I’ve had one time that it needed some assistance—and this was at the end of its cleaning cycle. This thing actually could be trusted to run on its own, even in complicated environments, with relatively little worry that it will get stuck and beep for hours before doing much cleaning. 5) It’s fast. The unit can travel quickly and still be efficient, and it has good enough eyesight to slowdown when it sees a mess or knows it hasn’t been through an area before. 6) The app is easy to use and offers straightforward options. It does not seem to be buggy or to lose track of information or lose connection with the base station. 7) Auto-empty of the bin works and prevents stoppages. Because the unit can attend to its own emptying, it doesn’t fill up and then get stuck, turning itself off or beeping until the human comes to empty it. Instead, if it’s full, the robot should return to the base, empty itself, and then go on. 8) Large mopping pad gives good coverage in fewer passes. Because the robot’s pad is basically its entire arc, it knows very clearly what it has mopped and doesn’t leave gaps. 9) Clearly can actually realize when it’s running onto carpet and lift the mopping pad. It will continue to vacuum, but stop mopping. (*for some reason I find it extremely endearing when the robot lifts the pad up and down with its little arms). 10) Vacuum unit has two twin silicone style textured rollers. For my house, these are far superior than a flimsy brush head. The rollers work together and spin in opposite direction, and are easy to clean. After a session or before, it is simple to the flip the bot over and remove the rollers, taking out the extra hair that has looped itself around the axles. It’s also easy to clean the main wheel and sensor areas, and you can adjust other elements. 11) The wheels are rubbery and chunky. To be sure, one of them managed to get a bunch of gunk in it when we first let the robot start mapping our space, and I had to clean it out, which was annoying, but that’s really my fall. The treads, however, are that deep. This gives the robot good traction and it easily navigates over vents, different flooring dividers, and uneven surfaces. So, I think that’s a pretty good summary of the awesome parts of this creature. There are a few less great elements or uncertainties. 1) Price tag. Would I buy this at full price? Honestly…that seems a bit too much of a pill. I have to admit I was provided this robot to test it. Here’s what I can say: comparing it to a 300-400 unit that supposedly does the same things, it is easy to see WHY this unit is 3x as expensive. It is definitely 3x as smart. I also have the confidence, even after a short period, that this unit, if used regularly and set up on a schedule will truly be able to help with the everyday maintenance in a way that is useful and self-sustaining. The cheaper robot cannot do this—it has far too many errors to really use it alone; it sometimes goes crazy and dumps mopping fluid excessively; and it cannot be told to stop through its app. So, in comparison, if you’re *going* to buy a robot, I’d say buy one that actually does the job the best. The other one is helpful, but actually I think less value for money than the expensive robot. 2) There are some hidden costs. As with any mopper, there is special mopping fluid recommended. You can get this at most stores, and it’s a prominent brand, so it’s not too bad, and the same price as with any robot or other power mop. It’s more money than if you’re mopping by hand and using the store brand concentrate, but not excessive. The more unique cost are the bag units in the auto-bin. When the robot empties itself in the wall unit, the debris is collected in special bags and stored until full. But when full, you have to replace it with a brand new bag. These are about 3/$20 (from IRobot). I don’t know yet how long these bags will last. They seem small, and my dogs shed a lot. I also don’t really like this wastefulness, and would prefer a bagless system. There is a little filter on the robot too, and this should be replaced yearly. So another small cost. 3) It’s fairly noisy. I don’t think too many people would be able to use this while they sleep if they are anywhere near it. It’s especially loud at the docking station, when a jet engine seems to turn on to empty the bin. 4) I will still need to vacuum area rugs and stairs with a more powerful vacuum: I have dogs that shed a metric ton, every day of the year. The robot is immensely helpful with cleaning hard surfaces and removing the fur and other debris. It struggled to truly clean the dog hair off the rugs. Perhaps, over time, if properly maintaining a schedule, it will be able to keep up. But if things are furry, it simply is overmatched. I have to get out the big vac and suck up the fur regularly. However, I am primarily using this for hard surfaces as pretty much all of my surfaces are hard with just a few area rugs. I really don’t know how well this works on regular carpets. That said, this was my experience with the other robot mop/vac I’ve tried. The IRobot does a better job than the previous model—so for folks without pets, or without fur monsters I should say—the challenge may be reachable. Last word: This is a really amazing machine. Its brains are probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen in a smart home appliance. Can it clean as well as it navigates? Well, probably not, actually. But it really can work on its own and maintain a clean that you don’t have to worry about. For some, that may be well worth the price. For others, you may want to wait for a sale. But I don’t think—right now—you’ll get this kind of technology in a cheaper unit. It might seem like the cheaper ones are the same, but in my experience, there’s a reason this is more expensive. Whether that cost is justified is up to you.

I recently had wrist surgery and had difficulty vacuuming. I’ve always wanted an excuse to buy this and decided to go for it. Best decision of my life. I have a dog who sheds like crazy, and this vacuum keeps my floors very clean with minimal effort from me.

We already have a much older Roomba in a different floor in the house and also used a different brand. The advancement in how this works is really impressive. Initial setup was straightforward. Except for putting the moping cloth on the vacuum, everything else came ready. It even came with dirt bag already installed in the charging base and a spare bag as well. Onboarding takes a few minutes. Already had the iRobot app installed because of the other vacuum. It detected the new vacuum and connected without any fuss. After finding a good spot for the charging base with a good outlet, it war ready to go, or I would rather say, ready to learn. Note that the base draws a good amount of power when emptying the trash from the vacuum into the base, and it tripped one circuit that was already loaded, so moved it elsewhere and it's been working fine. Like a new pet, it has to be trained first. The first time or two it runs, it will start mapping the floor and rooms. It will first bump into everything with gusto, and left some visible paint marks around the vacuum from the times it went smashing the baseboards. The second time it was much gentler, and the house map started to take shape in the app. After a few cleaning jobs, the map is more or less complete, and the phone app will eventually ask to start organizing the map into rooms. This takes a bit of effort as it might not be immediately intuitive, and in our case it got every room division incorrectly. Once the rooms are divided, it will prompt to name the rooms, from a long list of pre-assigned names, or it can be customized. It will then move to the next training level and start taking pictures of what it think are obstacles. The vacuum has a front camera that has a narrow view of the floor level. It doesn't see much beyond a the height of shoes. With that the app will ask if the vacuum found a new obstacle, and if it's permanent, or temporary. If permanent, it will start adding exclusion zones to the map. Some of the examples are cables and power strips it finds on the floor. Temporary obstacles can be shopping bags or socks or shoes left on the floor. It's smart enough to not go over cables, which was an annoying problem with other vacuums we used before. Currently, once I lifted chairs off a dining table, and asked it to vacuum that room, it noticed the lack of chairs and asked if I wanted to add a new section within the room named dining table. So now I can tell it to clean around the dining table (and not necessarily all the room). It integrates very well with Alexa and Google Home. I don't use Google Home that much anymore so I don't have much feedback here besides that it does integrate with it. With Alexa it has a rich integration. I can tell it which of the two Roomba vacuums to use and which room. I can ask it to either vacuum or vacuum and mop. There is no integration with Apple HomeKit, and I don't think any robot vacuum works wit it yet, but it supports Siri shortcuts. The difference is that the former should work from a HomePod but the later only works when talking to the phone. From the app, one can customize the order on which rooms are cleaned with the option to save the routine as a favorite to reuse later. If using the vacuum on different places (or different floors), it can be done because the app can switch between multiple maps. Moping: On the back of the vacuum there is a plate where the mop attaches and the vacuum lowers the mop under or lifts it as necessary. It uses Bona brand floor cleaning liquid that's held on the same dustbin within the vacuum. It does not use too much liquid so the floor dries up very quickly. The vacuum comes with two sample concentrate that has to be mixed with water. However the Bona floor cleaner available at stores is already pre-mixed so just pour it into the receptacle. To fill the tank, remove the dustbin from the rear of the vacuum (Not on the base) and lift a rubber seal to fill it. I use a funnel to make things easier to me. I should note that the tank does not even last for a full cleaning of our main floor that is mostly hardwood floor with some area rugs (It knows not to apply floor cleaning to rugs). Vacuuming: It picked everything and went under cabinets without a problem. We have teenagers in the house so there is a good amount of hair to be cleaned on the floor. I was impressed that the main brushes did not get clogged with hair. In fact there was nothing else to clean from the rollers. However the first two times it ran it collected considerable amount of hair on one of its main legs and on the spinning brush it has on the front. Cleaning the vacuum: The base does a great job of emptying the dustbin from the vacuum. As I mentioned, it's very powerful (And also very loud). Only takes a few seconds to complete though. The brushes are very easy to clean and as I said their design does not collect much hair at all. There is also a caster wheel to be cleaned but it pulls right out. Then the front-side brush will generally get some hair, and I had to unscrew it to pick all the hair from it. But things should be easier if using the vacuum consistently. The first time it will pick up a lot of dirt that the handheld vacuum missed (mostly under cabinets, sofas, etc.). What I did not like: The liquid tank is too small in my opinion. It should be able to handle table and chair legs better. To make it worse, the tank level sensor is very inaccurate: With 1/3 tank full, it will indicate empty and won't mop. It seems to stumble on legs and chairs more than necessary. Overall I'm very impressed. Very well designed. Note that have to give it about a week to train it to each space. The base works well at emptying the dirt from the vacuum and moping works as expected however the liquid tank is way too small in my opinion. I don't want to have to fill it every day. The phone app is very well designed. iRobot has been making improvements for years, and I'm impressed how much smarter it got since our older vacuum. Integration with Alexa is very good. Except the Alexa skill keeps asking which robot to use when it should know, but these are things that iRobot can improve over time.

I can’t really rate it right now because of the fact I haven’t had it long enough. Just say I do like it. It was a gift to myself it’s just some things I need to figure out. Thank you.

Love it. We have a few and the j series works great

When I agreed to test this product, I was clearly in the “I will believe it when I see it with my own eyes” category. Everyone knows that Roombas vacuum, but how in the world could a Roomba both vacuum and mop? How would it deal with both vacuum-only areas and not get the rugs wet? Our house, which is replete with both kinds of surfaces, would be a good test. We have hardwood floors with small and large rugs and fully carpeted rooms. I received the j7+ for testing on a Thursday and had it out of the box and completely set up within minutes. The fact we were already using another (vacuum only) Roomba helped. This model was added to the already installed iRobot phone app using the Wi-Fi set up. One additional task that was necessary prepare this model up was filling a tank in the Roomba with the included packet of cleaning concentrate. Two packets were furnished: one for hardwood and another for other hard surfaces like stone, tile laminate, and vinyl. You pour the entire contents of the package into the tank and top it off with water until the tank is completely full. How is the mopping accomplished? There is a semi-circular appendage or arm that is extended from the Roomba that has a carpet like pad attached to it on the underside that mops hard surfaces as the arms extend it to touch and be moved by the Roomba along the surface to be cleaned. I am attaching a photograph of a mopping pad I attached to the arm. Since we already had a Roomba, I was hoping the new unit would simply be able to use the map already created by the other unit. But the j7+ both vacuums and mops, so it must create its own map of the carpeted and non-carpeted areas to properly accomplish both tasks. Not having a model that mopped before, I was also pleased to see that you can program the Roomba to mop and vacuum, or to just vacuum. This is a great feature as I will explain later. We initially set the unit up for a mopping and vacuuming run each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so the initial run would take place the next day while my wife and I were out of the house. I got home before she did, and was so impressed with the results, I texted her pictures of the newly mopped hardwood floors. They were gorgeous! I am including the shots in this review. I found no moist or wet areas on the rugs, and the hardwood areas looked fantastic. The Roomba was back in its cradle and the app reported it was ready for its next job. Then I noticed a button on the software to empty the bin. We had not seen that button on our older Roomba, which required manually removing and emptying the bin. One press, and the powerful vacuum on the back of the home unit operated for a few seconds to completely clean out the bin. I did not have to physically touch the Roomba or the base unit to empty the bin! In case you are wondering how this emptying feat is accomplished, when the Roomba pulls up on the base for charging, the bottom of the unit rides up on an indention positioned under the right rear of the base, where the base vacuum unit accesses the contents of the dust bin. The vacuum draws the dust from under the Roomba and into a disposable dust bag in the base assembly. One disposable bag is already installed, and replacement spare is included with the new unit. I would expect the bags to last through many weeks of use. There are consumables to consider with this model: the clearing concentrate, the dust bin bag, the mop surface (you get two with the unit), the sweeper (one is already attached, a spare comes in the box) and the dust filter (one already installed, another in the box). The sweeper and dust filter are common to other Roombas and last for many months, and both are easily replaceable which you will know if you have used a Roomba before. As with other Roombas, the battery will also have to be replaced after one to two years of use. I would suspect that the mop pads will last for many weeks. They appear to be cleanable after several uses with a light brushing with soap and water. The concentrate for mopping is a different story. I estimate that ½ the contents of the tank were used in the initial mopping. We are going to use the vacuum and mop job more sparingly than the vacuum only job. But I must add that we were so pleased with the results of the mopping job, we are already ordering some additional packets. And the j7+ is a triple threat: robotic vacuuming, robotic mopping, and robotic emptying of the dust bin. It did all those well and without supervision. Our other Roomba is still working after nearly three years of vacuuming jobs three times a week. Are the Roombas perfect? Of course not. Use them with common sense. The 7j+ will send photographs of obstacles it encounters to help the user program around the obstacle in future uses. The 7j+ completed its initial cleaning and mopping job in less than two hours without reporting any obstacles at all. It missed vacuuming in one room, but I noticed by looking at the history recorded on the app that I stopped the original mapping run before it was complete. I will chalk that mishap up to human error rather than robotic mishap. Still, I envision that, at least occasionally, this Roomba will find a way to get stuck and run out of power. I will come home and manually place it back on its base for charging. I can live with that happening occasionally in exchange for the great job that the Roomba does in doing maintenance vacuuming and now maintenance mopping as well. You will still need a conventional vacuum and mop for bigger messes than this diminutive robot was designed to handle. Remember that. But time is money, and Roombas save so much time and effort that their cost, for this household, makes them a great investment. And, yes, Roombas can now mop and leave our hardwood floors shiny and presentable. I have seen the results, and they exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend this product.

This is my third robot vac but the first from iRobot. I had always heard great things about the Roomba range and wanted to see if it was as good as the chatter indicated. Unboxing is fairly painless and all the different packing compartments are clearly marked. There was a written tip to remove the robot separately from the dock but that part seemed switched so I was lifting out the entire dock and robot, which could have been messy. I ignored the instruction and just grabbed the robot out which made more sense, then the dock, and all was well again. There are a few packing bits to remove from the robot but the dock is ready to plug in and things were all set within a few minutes. The quick-start guide suggested you could get going immediately and while that was true, the Roomba only had about half the charge it needed so in my case, it might have been better to charge it up and then start. Once the Roomba was on the dock, I started to work through the Roomba app and get it set up. This part was particularly good! I have quite a few Internet-connected devices around the house and often, they are painful to add to our wireless network. The Roomba however was a champ, getting things done quickly and right first time! Within a minute or two, it was getting new firmware and that was done and out the way quickly and ready for the first task. As recommended, I sent the Roomba out just to map the downstairs and save battery by not vacuuming on this first run. It took quite some time and needed to recharge about halfway through but got a good baseline for a map of where it would be vacuuming and mopping. Additionally, the maps show where carpet or rug has been detected. Once you have a map, you can go in and set boundaries, tighten up what it thought was a room and then name the spaces. I liked that I could customize some room names (our den has a more functional name) and setting boundary lines for rooms in our open plan was accurate too. Our previous robot vac’s app did not allow custom names and setting lines for boundaries was tedious and often impossible to get right. The next day, it was time to test out the cleaning functions. I thought the Roomba would vacuum first and then mop but it does the two simultaneously. The Roomba comes with 2 microfiber mopping pads and two starter sachets of Bona floor cleaner, one for hardwood floors and one for other hard surfaces. We have fake wood floors so the second sachet was better for our situation but great that you get one of each. I will need to get a refill bottle which are easy to find online and then you just top up from there, with no need to dilute. The included sachets are concentrated so you would top them off with water. I sent the Roomba to just clean the kitchen and it scooted off its dock and got to work. Once it had got the lay of the land, the mop deployed from on top and settled underneath, to do its work as the sweeper at the front got any dust or debris ahead of it. The deployment of the mop is genius – it keeps a potentially wet mop above the Roomba while it navigates across carpets and rugs. The previous robot vac had mopping capability as well but the mop was fixed and it refused to cross carpet with its wet mop. While great in protecting carpet, it made it useless for us as the dock is situated across the house, in a carpeted room. The logic of that robot just made it spin around by its dock when in mop mode because it could not handle carpet at all. The Roomba on the other hand, is able to go where the hard surface is and then deploy the mop. If it comes across any carpet or rugs, it will shift the mop back up and over to the back of the robot vac and deploy once safe again – very smart! So far, I am only having it mop on demand but if you fill up the tank each day and keep the supplied mop pads clean, you can have it vacuum and mop all the time. The Roomba is smart enough to know if the mop is attached or you have enough cleaning liquid on board and will just vacuum if not. I asked me wife what she thought of the finished results on the kitchen, as she will sometimes mop the floors by hand. She was very impressed and liked what the Roomba had done. This is praise indeed as the last robot vac was not very good – it just seemed to drag a wet mop around and smear water. The Roomba maybe does a better job because it is using the same cleaning liquid my wife uses to clean? She noticed that in some high traffic areas, footprints and water marks were still visible but said she had to work those areas hard by hand to clean and did not expect the robot vac to be matching that. Maybe something for the next generation to focus on? Once cleaning is complete, the Roomba will head back to the dock to unload its dustbin. The dock comes with a dust bag in place and a second is neatly stored next to that one, for when it is time to swap. The transfer of dust from Roomba to dock is loud but fast and seems to get the dust bin cleared out well. The Roomba ships with the spare bag in the dock, a spare HEPA filter, spare front brush and a spare roller brush. The app will keep track of life on these parts so you will get plenty of warning after the original set of parts is used before you need to order more. The app is very good and easily lets you set up custom jobs, review the last cleaning run and keep you updated on the health of the Roomba. Currently, while it learns our home, it notifies me after each run and sends me photos of items it does not recognize, to ask how to deal with it in future. Things like cat bowls, my slippers and wires are the main offenders and I have been able to set some of the wires as no-go areas easily, as well as a table with a slim, round stand that the robot vacuums like to clamber over and scrape the paint off. My wife hates this so the Roomba agreed and set it as a no-go area which should prevent any issues in the future. I should point out, the Roomba has a front-facing camera, with bright LED light nearby, so it can illuminate and identify objects which it then compares to a database that iRobot must be assembling of general household objects. I only saw the photos when they were shown at the end of a run and there doesn’t seem to be any other way to access them or the camera, so privacy issues should be at a minimum. So almost all my review has been complimentary – what don’t I like? Not much but one thing I miss is the live-map the last robot vac had. You could pull up the app and see where in the house the robot had got to, as well as the path it took so far – basically observing it in real time, against a map of the house. While you can see the map in the Roomba app, it does not show you where the Roomba is on it. It does identify the name of the space though, so you can at least see what room it is working on. On the other hand, if the Roomba is getting stuck on less or even zero objects, it shouldn’t be as important to see exactly where it is. Our previous vac had a LIDAR sensor on top whereas this Roomba relies more on its camera, so that probably makes a bit of a difference. Without the sensor, the Roomba can fit under more furniture, so it does make cleaning gains without the extra hardware on top. It does seem to bump more furniture as it goes but on the other hand, it gets dust and dirt closer to walls and items than the LIDAR-fitted device would. The Roomba also only has one sweeper brush at the front, instead of the two I am used to. I preferred two to rotate inward and push debris right in front of the robot vac but maybe iRobot found in testing that only one was required? At least it means less parts to replace as they wear out. The last robot vac talked and voiced status updates when necessary – this one will beep occasionally but relies on the app to keep you up to date. Battery life and charging status can be set in the app so it shows as a light on the main button on top but otherwise, you will need the app to get status updates. Back to what I do like – the straight line vacuuming and mopping is good and the robot vac does its best to keep them as straight as possible, adjusting when it does eventually hit an object and pivoting around it as close as possible. The mopping function is good, with the stowing of the wet mops a great and necessary feature. You need to manually clean and dry the mop pads after use but other than that and keeping the tank topped up, you could have the Roomba mop daily without too much fuss. I thought the Roomba was skipping some of the edges as it made turns at the end of each run but watched it finish up by mopping all the edges, before it stowed the mop and headed back to recharge. This is a great robot vacuum and I am very happy with the upgrade, even though other than the mopping being a bust, the last robot vac was mostly fine. Having the ability to have the floors mopped well and keeping the carpets dry is a great feature. The vacuum alone functionality is excellent, while the constant learning of what is an obstacle, compared to a central database of known household objects makes this a very smart robot vacuum. I’ve retrieved many a cat toy or string from the previous vac but so far, am having no problems with the Roomba Combo j7+. They say “don’t believe the hype” but in this case, I’m impressed with what iRobot and the Roomba range have achieved.