Customer Ratings & Reviews

While iRobot may have popularized robot vacuums, it seems like everyone makes one these days, and at every conceivable price point. Having used both a Deebot-branded robot and an iRobot Roomba i3 in the past year, I was very curious to see what iRobot's latest entry could do. I was overall pleased with the performance of the i3 I used previously, but found that I couldn't always trust running it while I wasn't home. It cleaned the floors effectively and avoided larger obstacles, but struggled with complex layouts, shiny chrome chair legs and cords. I dreaded getting a "Roomba is Stuck" message on my phone while I was out as it meant the vacuuming would not be done when I got home. Enter the j7 line -- while similar in design and power to the i3 line, the j7 includes a camera on the front of the robot designed to help it find and avoid obstacles, especially the ever-pesky dog doodoo. The j7 include iRobot's latest machine-learning power, able to detect and avoid a variety of obstacles as well as build a smart map of your home with clean zones, keep out zones, room labels and the like. The j7+ also includes iRobot's latest Clean Base, which automatically empties the robot's dust bin into a vacuum bag while the robot is docked and charging. Setup was a breeze, even easier than the i3 due to the inclusion of Bluetooth LE. The first run of the j7 took nearly an hour, during which it began building a smart map of my home. After running this first "cleaning mission" the iRobot app allowed me to send the j7 on a "mapping mission" during which it did not vacuum but instead focused on building a more complete map of my space. After the mapping mission, the app presented me with an editable Smart Map, allowing me to adjust room boundaries, label rooms and add Clean Zones and Keep Out Zones. Using the iRobot app is a breeze and worked nearly flawlessly. After a third run of the j7 I found the map to be highly accurate, and I was able to add a Clean Zone outside my cat's litter box. Even better, after encountering obstacles like cords, the j7 saved a picture that I was later able to review in the app. I was able to tell the vacuum whether the obstacle was temporary (like a forgotten sock) or permanent (like a power cord) and even direct the robot to go back and clean areas with forgotten items once I'd picked them up. In use, the j7 cleaned effectively, and got progressively faster after each run. It was clear the vacuum was learning the space, which was neat to see in real time. The j7 is brave, and got stuck twice in my testing, but after freeing it the robot was able to resume cleaning easily and remember where it was stuck so as to avoid the area. In contrast, the i3 would sometimes have trouble resuming after becoming stuck, because it would lose its place within my home. Voice control with the Google Assistant works well; I can tell j7 to clean a specific room or clean zone and have it do so with no issue. The Roomba respects the boundaries set in the app and seems to have no trouble going to and from rooms as directed. It hasn't gotten stuck on cords or curtains, either, which is something the i3 occasionally struggled with. It also finds the home base much quicker than the i3. My only real complaint with the j7 is noise. It's not a quiet machine, which iRobot says is because of how powerful the suction is. Seeing as how the j7 is a nimble navigator I have no qualms about running this while I'm not home, so this is not a big issue for me. I will say, however, that the automatic Clean Base is very loud -- some have compared it to an airplane taking off, and I concur -- so be mindful of this if you're running it while someone is sleeping. The Clean Base only makes noise for 10 seconds or so after the robot docks, so again, this can all happen while you're out of the house3, and you'll be none the wiser. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the Roomba j7+. It's a noticeable upgrade from the i3 I had before, and has no trouble with the complex layout of my apartment. While noisier than other machines, it can be set to run while you're away with little worry about getting stuck. The iRobot app works extremely well, and the Smart Map is both really cool and genuinely useful. I also appreciate iRobot's long track record of reliability, support and parts availability. It makes the high price a little easier to stomach. Overall, this really is the Cadillac of robot vacuums -- or perhaps the Volvo of robot vacuums, as it's both sleek, powerful and reliable. If you want the best money can by, this should be right at the top of your shopping list.

Poor product. We have had several floor cleaners amd this was the worst one yet. The eye on the front docks at an angle and cant read the QR code. That means it wont charge and empty without assistance. Maybe I got a lemon.

Horrible, I have bought this machine the second week of December and it is still trying to learn my home. It does not get my kitchen and it does not clean well too me. I am going to give it one more week and i will take it back. It bumps in brand new base boards and run over my puppy's water dish.

I’ve had this robot vacuum since June. The past 3 weeks, it has been stopping about 1 minute into its run job. It will light up red and send me a message that says it got stuck and was rebooted (it’s in the middle of the floor - not stuck on anything). If I press the button, it tells me an error 15. I followed all directions in the app for error 15, including the last resort step of doing a factory reset. The vacuum still produces the same error. We usually buy the cheap, off brand robot vacuums, but finally decided to splurge in hopes of having one that I can program for different parts of the house on different days. I would rather buy the cheap $100-150 robot vacuums every year than have this one that has now been useless after 2 months.

Fancy object that makes noise and goes in circles. Pretty worthless. Grab the dust buster and it will vaccum in 3 seconds. This thing we returned just so smart and useless all at the same time.

I returned this item. Changed my mind. Have no review to share. Thx

Worked great for 2 months. Then battery completely died. no indicator lights. No recharging. Went through the reset steps. Nothing. Power supply is good. The battery is simply dead. Too late too return. What a waste.

Not the quality I was used to in previous Roombas. Did not do a good job on carpet. Software problems developed with my original purchase as well as with its replacement. Finally traded up to the s9+, which I have been very satisfied with.

Worst Robot vacuum I've encountered yet. Won't clean carpet (even very short firm carpet), also bad at cleaning hard floors - leaves TONS of dirt, hair, food. The bags must be replaced every time they're full which is insane because the bag gets half-full it says it's 100% full and won't work anymore till it's emptied. Don't think because this unit is expensive it will be top of the line - It's like they crammed a bunch of low/mid grade parts in to save money and it did not work out. Back to the drawing board Roomba this is just awful. Then making customers pay for bags just cuts the legs right out from under this thing. It's a slap in the face, really.

Had issues connecting this irobot to the app. Only was able to connect once. I had to manually move to the area i needed cleaning and manually empty to bin. It also fell down stairs twice. It also scratches very easily. After the first run it looked like if i had it for a month.

If you are buying this item online, make sure that all items are present within the box. The item was missing the power cord and the extra brush. I was unable to get the power cord and extra brush since I was past the 45 day return/exchange (bought it early in December). Always Double check your items that are bought through Best Buy online. You would expect to have all items that are listed within the description.

Has no suction power. Instead of cleaning, it made a mess, scattering dust and dirt all over the place. I would not recommend. Our old 980 blows this one out of the water.

The idea of not running over poop is a great idea, but this vacuum doesn’t have any sucking power, doesn’t even pick up rice cake crumbs, dog hair or cat litter. I will try to return it.

After letting it have enough runs to map the place its starting to show its flaws. It's a tad too "aggressive" when its feeling its way around even after it has learned and mapped out the place, it will bump into things and knock them over and scrape against the walls. If your home's walls have baseboard at the bottom the robot will struggle depending on their shape. Ours are angled from the floor up to the wall in a skirt shape, which makes the robot scrape against the wall, stopping the rotating brushes, since it only has one rotating brush compared to the competitors it will go around the same surface areas more than once and still miss things.

Purchased this model and a shark. The roomba constantly has issues where it will not charge. This model also uses disposable bags to store waste instead of empty-able bin.

Bought it for my dad who had a less expensive brand that broke. He hated it and it was returned within a week. He didn’t like you had to buy bags to put in the back. And he said it didn’t pick up stuff as well as his less expensive model.

I received J7+ yesterday. I spent about 7 hours overall to connect it. I called to Iromba few times. After 45 min waiting, got agent. He attempted troubleshooting. He was unfamiliar with J7. He asked me to find home & cleaning buttons. J7 has only one. He said escalation team will call. They never called. I called again afternoon & waited 2 hours on the line to get somebody live!!!! I gave up & disconnected. I’m very upset & disappointed. So far I received UGLY SERVICE!!! These Rombas are very expensive.

I was NEVER able to use this as the Roomba Assistant who answered Best Buy's question, "Does this work on 5G network?" with a false statement. IT DOES NOT WORK ON 5G! I have spent hours trying. Finally, the chat bot said it only works on 2.4 GHz then gave me "customer support." They confirmed that I would have to set up a new 2.4G network to make this work. The rep actually said, "You will have to call your internet provider as this is not our problem."

The vacuum takes 6 hours to clean the house. The house is not big. It is loud and does not clean very well.

I had to return this item after 5 days of agony. I have an Orbi mesh WiFi system, capable of gigabit speeds. No matter what I did, this robot wouldnt pick up the required 2.4 MHz, even when I turned the 5G off in the settings and added the Roomba MAC address to my router…… the thing still wouldn’t talk to my WiFi. You would think that they would be making these things to be 5G compatible now, but they aren’t. Its a shame, i really wanted to love this thing.