The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Page 1 Showing 1-20 of 53 reviews
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
You need this, just go for it!!
|
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is honestly the best robot I’ve ever had.
It’s actually my second one, I keep one in the living room, which is on a lower level, and the other takes care of the kitchen, bedrooms and hallway.
It’s low maintenance and it’s great, once you set it up, you can basically forget about it for days. The auto-cleaning and self-emptying functions are a game changer, no need to constantly change the mop or add water. It just takes care of everything on its own.
I leave the house for work, and when I come back, the floors are spotless. It picks up all the dog hair (I have a Golden retriever, so imagine the challenges) dust, and even gets under the furniture without getting stuck.
Honestly, this thing is worth every penny.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
Hello, we are happy you love our products! Please know that we are driven to continually improve our products to help you do more, every day.
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Best yet and gorgeous
|
|
Posted . Owned for 2 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Very thorough cleaning with vacuum and mopping, love that it does multiple passes, and everyone has noticed how nice it looks in my living room. Would buy it again in a heartbeat as it's so much better cleaning than my old rock.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
Hello, we are happy you love our products! Please know that we are driven to continually improve our products to help you do more, every day.
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
Very disappointed
|
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I have had an iRobot for several years that only vacuumed to my floors when I saw this new model I was excited to purchase it because I have all ceramic tile floors. Unfortunately, the machine did not stand up to my expectations after several hours on the phone with iRobot and they were not able to fix it. They sent me a new one unfortunately the new one I got had a totally different problem than the first one I got l so there was several more hours on the phone with Tech Support for them to tell me they’re gonna send out a part for me to install I’ve had this iRobot for roughly 5 weeks now and has yet cleaned my floors I will only hope that I received this part and it fixes my problem and I will have no problem changing this review although the Service I received from iRobot has been unacceptable. A few of the people I spoke to were extremely rude and did not follow up with what they told me they were going to do
We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on the Roomba 705 Combo. We're sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing. Please reach out to https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/contact-support-info, so we may properly diagnose your issue.
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
Quality control leaves a lot to be desired
|
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This item arrived damaged. Purchased as new inbox, but upon unboxing it noticed none of the corners lined up, and there was a large bulge in one side. I sent a flashlight inside of it and saw a couple of areas where screws had broken through some plastic pieces, and a couple of cylinders that were meant to have been fed through an area were not fed through, but laid over the top. Very poor assembly will be sending this back.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on the Roomba 705 Combo. We're sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing. Please reach out to https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/contact-support-info, so we may properly diagnose your issue.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Highly Effective with a Plethora of Features
Robotic floor cleaning is, by no means, a new product sector. However, this is my first dive in...and it's a deep body of water.
The iRobot-Roomba 705 Combo Vacuum & Mop + AutoWash Dock is a beast. I mean, the Robot is large, the dock is large and the feature list is large. Really too much to explain here. You will learn as time passes. Here's the good news: After set-up you can choose how deep in the well you go to explore all the features. If you wish, just let it do its thing- it will self learn the space, refining the map as time passes.
Before expounding, here's what you get in the box:
The Roomba Robot, The AutoWash Dock (you only empty the dry side and change water when it tells you), a small vial of soap, two bags and two filters.
You have to perform some minor assembly, plug in the dock, download the app, and sync your new Roomba. After it downloads the latest software, it steps you through filling the water tank, etc.
The first time using Roomba takes quite a while as it explores your spaces and creates a map, including obstacles and furniture. As time passes, the map gets refined and you can label rooms, define limits, and more.
Features in the app I love:
1. Spot Clean: allows you to touch the screen and define a small area where perhaps there's a spill or high levels of dirt from pets or a walk path. You can specify Vac+Map, Vac then Mop, Vac, or Mop.
2. Smart Clean-All Rooms: also provides all those options, but you can also select Smart, Light, Standard, and Deep Clean. Smart seems to assess the dirtiness of a region and then self-determines the intensity and type of cleaning needed.
3. Smart Clean-Specific Rooms or Zones: Same as above, but with specificity to get straight to needed areas without the robot wandering around.
I found the Roomba 705 to do a very good job on my luxury plank vinyl tile floors, including a couple of low-pile floor mats. The vacuum and mopping delivered satisfactory-to-great results and of course, got better over time due to the frequency of cleaning. You can schedule cleans, or start and stop manually.
Of course, all is not perfect with robots😉 As I mentioned at the beginning- the Roomba is a beast. The robot is the size of a medium pizza (14.41" diameter, with a sweep diameter slightly wider) and 4.13" tall...taller than the bottom of my cabinets, meaning it couldn't always reach the nastiest of areas. The dock is substantial as well, coming in at 17.95" wide x16.93" deep and 17.01" high. It's hard to hide. Also, both the robot and the dock make a lot of noise when at work. Quick testing indicated a high of 66.8 decibels and an average of 61.6 for the robot.
Overall I'm really impressed with the performance and customization options. Even with the noise, it's a lot better than mopping!
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Good but not as good as other flagship models
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Highlights:
* Easy to set up
* Simple app with good features
* Roller mop is much better than spinning discs
* Mop guard keep carpets dry
* Good suction
* Attractive materials and finishes
Room for improvement:
* Noisy when operating
* Large base station
* Missing some features that competitor flagship models have
* Initial setup was a tad rocky
iRobot was a pioneer in vacuum robots years ago. The technology has improved not only in navigation but also in cleaning performance. What remains the same is that the value of these robots is in how well they navigate your home and keep your floors clean.
This Roomba Max 705 Combo is the current flagship model from iRobot. It not only has a camera for obstacle avoidance but also a sleek embedded Lidar for navigation without needing a turret on top. The allows the robot to have a lower overall height and fit under more furniture better. This unit vacuums and mops, and its base station not only empties the robot’s dustbin but also has large tanks to store fresh and dirty mopping water that it transfers to/from the robot when docked.
Setup:
The basic hardware setup is typical. he packaging was labeled very well and nothing was confusing. You unpack things, connect and install anything that ships in accessory boxes, and then place the base station where you’d like to keep it. You’ll periodically need to replace the dust bag, empty the dirty water and refill the clean water, so best to place the unit where you can easily access these things in the dock.
Once everything is connected, plugged in and charged up, the next step is to add it to the free app and let it map your home. App setup was super easy and the app found my Roomba quickly and easily got it set up on my home’s WiFi. After a brief firmware update, next was allowing it to wander my home and figure out where to clean by creating the initial map of my home.
This was a little tricky during my setup. The app got a bit confused and it just didn’t want to do the mapping run complaining that it needed “assistance” without telling me what it needed help with. I finally coaxed it into doing its job and map creation went quickly. I was a bit surprised that it immediately decided to start a cleaning job right after map creation without letting me adjust the map, but that’s OK.
Once it was done and returned back to the dock to empty its bin, clean the mop, etc…. I went into the app to see what it created for a map of my home.
The map wasn’t perfect but it was a great start. I was easily able to separate rooms that got joined, join rooms that shouldn’t be separated, create a no-go zone for areas that frequently have obstacles and name everything for easier reference later.
Usage:
The first few runs of the mopping left me a bit underwhelmed. The mop wasn’t yet primed and it left streaks on my tile floors. Fortunately this improved over the next few jobs and the mop started doing a great job.
What didn’t improve, though, is how much motor noise this unit has. The whirring and grinding while cleaning is so noticeable that even when the robot speaks notifications of what’s going, I can’t easily hear them over the motors.
The mop rotates and slides out to clean edges. There is guard that prevents the wet mop from moistening your carpets which is great. There are two “whiskers” in the front that spin to push loose dirt toward the “mouth” for suction. There’s the main drive motors and finally the vacuum itself. All of these motors make a considerable cacophony of noise.
After getting primed, the mopping worked well and the suction isn’t bad, but I think that competitor flagship models not only navigate better but also clean better and do so with less noise.
In fact, the features of this Max 705 Combo unit are merely table stakes for some competitor models. I have a robot from the competition that also rises up to traverse transitions and get up on high-pile carpets. This other robot also has a spinning brush in the front that extends out to get into corners better. Then there’s the dock - other models have the ability to drain the dirty water directly into the house drain and fill from the house water supply so you basically don’t have to touch it… at all.
I do appreciate the “Live Activities” on the lock screen of my iPhone when the robot is cleaning. It even says the room that is being cleaned and what’s next. The map shows where the robot is currently working and what has been done already. Aside from the Live Activities, most competitors do this and more.
Overall, this robot is great for an iRobot Roomba flagship but it lags behind the competition in features and capabilities. While this robot does have some nice material and finish choices for the robot and the dock, iRobot does need to keep up with the Jetsons a bit better. The noise also needs to be reduced quite a bit. The app needs some more features. The navigation could be a bit better. It’s nice, but others just do it better.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Powerful - Stylish - Efficient
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Our new iRobot Roomba 705 Combo Vacuum and Mop arrived just in time the day before Thanksgiving. After completing the initial setup, we’re eager to discover whether this Roomba 705 will leave us feeling truly thankful.
My first impression was of the subtle, smart design that blends seamlessly with our décor and would suit most settings. The front panel adds a stylish touch with its textured dark cocoa finish. The docking station’s height and width fit neatly into our home, and it is noticeably more compact than many other advanced robotic vacuum systems.
The Roomba 705 arrived in secure, well-organized packaging. While the Quick Start Guide was not immediately accessible and its QR code initially failed to respond, I was able to quickly locate the app in the Google Play Store and complete setup. On a subsequent attempt, the QR code worked properly.
Once up and running, I directed the Roomba to map my entire home, and I was genuinely impressed by how quickly it completed the task creating a full map in record time. On its first docking attempt, it handled the procedure with ease. This was especially impressive compared to my previous advanced robotic Lidar vacuum system, which frequently malfunctioned, failed to follow a consistent cleaning pattern, struggled with docking, and often ended up lost.
The time Roomba 705 took to complete a full-home cleaning was highly efficient, showcasing the strengths of iRobot’s programming and firmware. One clear benefit of this efficiency is its ability to cover large areas on a single battery charge. I’m very impressed!
App:
- Cleaning levels can be customized for each room, specific sections, or the entire home, with a wide range of options available (see pictures)
- Maps extremely informative – easily modified to fit your needs
o 3D and Furniture (see pictures)
o No Mop Zones
o Keep Out Zones
- Robot Health complete reports on parts wear and cleaning systems
- Owner’s Manual – downloadable
The app delivers strong functionality, though its interface is not immediately intuitive and required time to learn. The owner’s manual offers basic guidance but could be more detailed. Providing clearer, user-friendly instructions from the beginning would greatly improve the overall experience.
Cleaning:
- The mopping function performs exceptionally well on hard floors, though coverage is limited in corners and along wall edges
- The carpet vacuum performs effectively on short-pile carpet in our home
- “Strong Suction: Provides up to 180× more suction than the Roomba 600 series”
- “PrecisionVision AI Technology”
- Excellent obstacle avoidance with precise LiDAR positioning
a. “LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances and generate highly accurate 3D maps of surfaces and environments. It is widely applied in mapping, surveying, autonomous vehicles, archaeology, forestry, and even space exploration.”
Notes:
- Wi-Fi setup smooth and solid, took a few tries to link – require 2.5
- Three lights along top indicate debris bag full and dirty and clean water tank status
- Mop roller slides out for edge and corner cleaning
- Reusable dust filters – comes with two
- Hands free docking
There is much to appreciate in the iRobot Roomba 705 Combo Vacuum and Mop, featuring exceptional technology that excels in vacuuming, cleaning, and navigation-among the most efficient I have seen in a robotic system-along with its stylish design.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Convenient, capable, large, app needs polish.
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Roomba 705 Combo makes a strong first impression. It has a larger footprint than standard models, but the build quality justifies it. The chassis feels solid, and the expanded optical system does noticeable work. In use, the robot rarely bumps into anything, navigating with far more precision than older Roombas I’ve owned.
Setup is straightforward. The included parts are easy to identify and install, and most users familiar with iRobot hardware will be able to assemble everything without referring to the manual. The docking system is especially well designed. The bag replacement, water tank, and general maintenance steps are simple, intuitive, and require minimal effort. The extra vacuum bag included in the box is a welcome touch.
As for performance, the unit vacuums and mops effectively. After a manual vacuuming and a mapped cleaning cycle, the floor looked excellent and streak free. Later runs produced streaks depending on the direction of travel. This isn’t a failure of the cleaning system itself so much as a limitation in path control. If there were an option to adjust cleaning direction relative to the grain of the flooring, I suspect the streaking would disappear.
The weak point is the app.
This model relies on the new iRobot software platform, which means owners of older units will now be using two separate apps. Switching between them is easy, but the fragmentation is still inconvenient. The new app does introduce a useful parts tracking system. Each consumable has its own service timer, and ordering replacements is integrated directly into the interface. Given how difficult it has become to source parts for older robots, this is a meaningful improvement.
Where the app falls short is mapping. In my case, the robot identified the view through my sliding glass door as a separate “room” outdoors, and the ability to remove that section has evaded me. Room boundaries, merging, and custom zone editing feel incomplete. For homes with mixed flooring, this matters. Incorrect mapping could lead the mop over carpet if the boundaries aren’t managed correctly, and it took several attempts before the layout stabilized.
Once the map is accurate, the robot performs well. The hardware is clearly capable. The limitation is the software layer, which feels early in its development and in need of refinement.
Final Thoughts
The 705 Combo is an excellent piece of hardware held back by an underdeveloped app. The cleaning system, sensors, and maintenance design are all strong. If iRobot improves the mapping tools and room editing controls, this model would be easy to recommend at full price.
As it stands, it earns a confident 4 out of 5 stars, with the caveat that its full potential depends on future software updates.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Worthwhile Upgrade With Room to Grow
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to use a few different types of robot vacuums and the ones that can mop and vacuum are my favorite. They do come with some limitations, but it’s nice to have that option. This Roomba has a lot going for it, but does have some drawbacks — especially for its price point.
WHAT IT DOES WELL
The Roomba 705 does a good job with general cleaning/sweeping. When I ran it, the robot did leave the floors cleaner than they were. I love that this unit has the option for self-emptying and auto-washing of the mop head. That is one of my biggest pet peeves with robot vacuums. The startup process was fairly smooth and it’s been low maintenance since that point.
WHERE IT COULD IMPROVE
Even though the vacuum picks up most debris, it does leave behind smaller dirt particles. I wasn’t impressed by that since I had to use a different vacuum to clean up after the vacuum. In comparison to other robot vacuums, the Roomba 705 is a bit loud especially when it is on hard floors and finding a place for the base station is a bit problematic due to its size. The app needs some work though. It’s a little limited in the functionality and for this level of robot vacuum, I expected more advanced controls/features.
Even though there is room for improvement, I think it’s still worth getting if you only have a basic robot vacuum. It is a sizable investment, but it will last for a long time.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The vacuum/mop I had been looking for
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I have tested several “mopping” vacuums, from varying manufacturers over the last few years – including iRobot J5, and all of them were a tad painful to use to the point I kind of gave of on the mopping. But this unit addresses everything I didn’t like about previous products I had tried.
Unpacking was easy – just plugged in (large) base, filled water container, removed some packing on robot itself and set in base. I already had the iRobot app installed on phone for use with prior I6 and J5 vacuums, but starting early 2025 (?) there is a new app - Roomba Home - that must be used/installed. App walks you through adding the vacuum and Wi-Fi network (even connected to my 2.4, 5 & 6 GHz combined node).
It comes with an extra set of side brushes and filter.
Mapping my 3100 sq ft ranch took around 30 minutes to complete. I did pick up a few things and made sure doors were open, etc., before starting. The mapping was maybe 70% correct – but editing was easy to do adding/combining/renaming rooms was easy although the map orientation was 180% off so had to turn it and then save.
The vacuum is noticeably taller (4 inches) than my previous 2 (3.5 inch) Roombas. It still fit under guest bed and cabinets (barely) – but the wide rotating brushes on either side help it get into edges.
App has a multitude of settings;
Preset cleaning routines, create your own – create your own schedules - or select rooms one by one.
You can choose to vacuum and mop, just vacuum, just mop – or vacuum first then mop.
You can choose from smart clean, light clean, standard clean and deep clean.
There are 4 suction levels (quiet lower suction and extended run time, balanced for all floor types, powerful and high).
There are 3 water levels - light, balanced and high.
You can choose 1 or 2 cleaning passes as well as smart scrub for sticky messes (on/off) Water level – light, balanced and stubborn.
You can also choose mop functions for global use
Water temperature (room, 104 F or 161F) – I choose 104F.
Mop cleaning frequency (standard – before/after routines, medium - during refills and before/after routines and high – in between rooms, during refills and before/after routines).
Cleaning solution (on/off) – I used the provided iRobot StayClean (good luck finding it) – good news is you can add your own directly into the water.
Mop Dry Duration – 3/4/6 hours. Since I am in a dry area, I choose 3 hrs.
AutoEmpty Frequency – every 270ft, 540ft or after every routine. I initially had set to 270 initially but WAY too often so changed to after every routine.
For initial run I decided to clean my living room which is a mix of hard flooring and large area rug to see how vacuum worked. I choose smart cleaning, vacuuming (powerful suction), mopping (balanced) and 1 pass. It seems to do all the edges first and watching the Roller mop Perfect edge extend out to mop along the baseboards is kind of freaky. It ran for about 20 minutes then went to base to empty water. It did this continually until it was done with area ultimately taking 1 hr and 15 minutes to complete 600 ft using 46% of battery. It cleaned/mopped the hard floor areas very well as there were a lot of dusty shoe prints that were gone when completed. It vacuumed the area rug also and it was not wet at all. I then had it vacuum/mop the kitchen, which after Thanksgiving was just a tad messy. It got 99% of spots off the floor (only missed little very stick spots) and 100% of crumbs – using just 1 pass. The floor is dry as it mops – so no waiting around for floor to dry. May require more time using more water.
I cleaned the rest of the house (60% carpet 40% floor), and it used about ½ of the water and left about 2 inches of dirty water in dock (I emptied as even after a couple of days it started to smell). There are LED indicators on dock to indicate dirt bag is full, dirty water is full and that clean water is empty. So, you can tell with just a glance if anything needs attending to.
I decided to divide my house up into 3 routines. 1 to do rooms with just carpet (vacuum only) as one routine. 1 to do all rooms with hard flooring (vacuum and mop). 1 to do rooms with mix of hard flooring and carpet/area rugs (vacuum and mop). This seemed the easiest and quickest way to complete entire house.
The ClearView Pro LIDAR + PrecisionVision AI Technology works great. I did not have to create “no go zones” as with previous Roombas. It did not get tangled anywhere even with all the wires under my desk. It worked around tables/chairs with no issues. It did get stuck on one throw rug but hasn’t since. It seems much gentler on trim, etc. that previous models – which was also an irritating issue with prior models.
You can monitor the cleaning in real time on the map. It shows areas cleaned and exactly where robot is as it continues to clean. It is color coded so you can tell what cleaning function it is doing/finished. Grean is for vacuum, blue is mopping and aqua (?) is for mixed.
Vacuum is a tad squeaky when running on carpet and when emptying/refilling at base but not to bad when mopping. Lower suction level would probably help.
The PowerSpin Roller Mop + PerfectEdge is a HUGE step up from the vibrating pad and it has a “door” to contain itself when vacuuming.
Remote access works well. I started it at sons house across town. It does work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, but I don’t use them with this.
1-year warranty on parts only.
Not sure how long brushes/mop will last but app does give a long list of usage information to help keep track of components.
Still uses bags for dirt in base – why not bagless?
Overall, this new 705 Roomba has changed my mind on mopping vacuum robots. It easily converts itself from vacuum to mop and back again while cleaning. It is self-contained – it empties the vacuum as well as emptying and refilling the mop function, it is delicate on woodwork, has excellent navigation (although initial mapping took a little editing), the software/app is relatively easy to use, and the mop is now a rotating “brush” instead of vibrating pad. I would say it mops on par with my Tineco Cordless 6 series just a tad behind my Dyson GenDetect5 for vacuuming – but I don’t have to manually run it.
This is my 4th iRobot to test and each has worked well, with this one being the best yet. If you are looking for an “all in one” low maintenance robot – this is one you will want to consider. I recommend it.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
Hello, thank you for letting us know about your experience. We're happy to hear your excitement for our products!
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Doesn’t fully replace traditional vacuums and mops
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
“What’s the hype around Roomba’s and robot vacuums?” Sure, they supposedly ease your workload by doing a task (in this case tasks- vacuuming and mopping) most of us hate doing. But how well does it perform these tasks? The answer to this question kind of depends on the effort you put into setting up your Roomba, and a little bit in what your expectations and needs are from this type of device vs. traditional mops and vacuums.
SETUP:
In the box you’ll get a your Roomba robot vacuum, a home base station where your robot will charge and empty itself, a power cable, two sets of vacuum bristles/brushes, a spare vacuum dust-bag (one comes preinstalled in the base station), a small bottle (I think it’s like 3oz) of Roomba’s Stayclean floor cleaning solution, and an extra vacuum filter.
Once you’ve installed the vacuum brushes, setup the base/home station, and let the device charge, you’ll then download the Roomba Home app. In the app you’ll connect your device to wifi and register your product. Then the fun starts: mapping your home.
MAPPING:
The mapping process was interesting. During the mapping process your Roomba will stroll around your home trying to detect the layout using it’s built in LIDAR sensor. The first time I tried mapping my house the robot completely missed an entire room. I re-read the instruction and it said to ensure each room was well lit, so I made sure all the lights in the house were on and even opened up the blinds to let in as much light as possible. The second time it got every room, but somehow it sensed that my living room was half of its size. The third time was the charm, it successfully scanned an accurate map of the house, but it had a hard time differentiating the rooms and considered three rooms as one.
Not to worry though, you can then edit that map and place manual dividers on your map to create additional rooms and even label each room. You’ll want to do that so that you can set routines later on in the Roomba Home app.
What’s kind of cool is that after a couple of cycles around your home the map will start to identify certain objects based on the type of room (again, you’ll want to label each room accurately) such as beds, kitchen tables, couches, etc. The map seems to refine itself each time it vacuums/mops.
OPERATION:
So once you’ve set up your maps, you can then start setting routines for cleaning each room on an ongoing scheduled basis, or you can manually select a room (or multiple rooms) and then start a vacuum, vacuum & mop, vacuum then mop, or just mop routine in the selected areas. There’s also level of clean you can select, such as deep clean, but for the most part smart sensing was the cleaning option of choice for me.
The vacuum & mop function is pretty nice, and it definitely got some of the small stains lifted from my tile and hard surface flooring, but I wouldn’t say that it performed a deep scrub rather that its effective for small messes in-between heavier mopping sessions. Another nice feature is that the robot has a mop guard that will prevent the robot from soaking your carpets and rugs. After the first routine was completed I took a look to see how dirty the water was from it, and was shocked at how little water was actually collected from mopping such a large space. It definitely made me question how effective the mopping function was, but like I said, it did get out the less tough stains.
Vacuuming sessions tell the same story, it’s pretty good at picking up most debris on hard surfaces, and on mid-high pile carpets, but on lower sitting rugs and carpets it struggled a little bit to pick up some crumbs I had after a get together. Again, it’s effective for jobs in-between heavier vacuuming sessions. Also, it struggled with a floor rug sitting at the entrance of my house, regularly bunching up the rug and trying its best to get itself unstuck from it. In these cases, you can set a zone for the robot to stay out of in its cleaning sessions by editing your map in the Roomba Home app.
The way it goes about cleaning each room is by first completing a perimeter clean, then it shuffles back and forth in straight lines to clean the entire area. In all routine settings I couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t get as close or clean as I would have liked to the right up close to walls and edges of furniture. Which is a downside.
Additionally, in all cleaning modes the robot is rather loud. Not as loud as a traditional vacuum is, but the Roomba also takes a lot longer to complete a routine, so the sound is droning on longer than a normal vacuuming or mopping session would. Then, when it empties its contents into the home base receptacles, it gets even louder, but fortunately that part is relatively quick. These noise complaints shouldn’t be a big issue if you schedule your routines for when you’re out of the house though, so keep that in mind.
What I did appreciate was the nice uniform vacuum lines it leaves on higher pile carpet, which makes you’re home look like it’s always been recently vacuumed.
CONCLUSION:
If you are trying to ease your workload, or feel like you have too much space to effectively clean on a regular basis, then the Roomba Max 705 Combo Mop & Vacuum is a solid option. It does a decent job cleaning your hard floor surfaces, and is even better at vacuuming medium to higher pile carpet. The fact that it’s self emptying means that it’s really truly can be an automated routine that you won’t have to often think about. Though all that said, it doesn’t fully replace (at least in my opinion) the need to manually vacuum and mop around the house at least every so often. And mapping can be a pain to nail down, especially in unconventional layouts. So it all really comes down to your needs and expectations.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Good Upgrade, Still Not Perfect
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I have used about four different Roomba products over the last fifteen years. I started with a simple vacuum model, moved to a vacuum with a docking station, and later bought the j9+ vacuum and mop combo. The first one was fine, other than constantly getting lost or stuck. The second threw nonstop bag full errors even when the bag was empty, and it also got stuck all the time. The j9+ was the worst by far. It clogged itself with wet dust, the bag sensor constantly misread, the rollers shredded themselves from packed hair, and I spent more time fixing it than it saved me. At one point I realized it would be faster to just mop by hand.
Since I apparently enjoy pain, I bought the new Roomba 705 Combo. Out of the box, it was much easier to set up than the j9+. The new app takes some getting used to, but once I figured out the layout, it was fine. It does not import maps from the classic app, so it runs a fresh mapping cycle on day one. After that, you can add furniture, fixtures, and custom no-go, mop only, or vacuum only zones. This part works well. Once I customized the rooms, the robot stopped getting lost and actually returns to its dock every night.
After nearly two weeks of use, it does a decent job overall. My floors look clean, with noticeably less dust and hair. The mopping feature still needs work. It leaves streaks, and you can literally see the wet lines it draws across the floor. The mop roller does not seem to dispense enough liquid or make consistent contact.
I run automations that mop and vacuum twice per week and vacuum only on the remaining five days. With two dogs and two humans living here, it keeps up well enough. After two weeks, I pulled the vacuum rollers to clean the hair, and one was already damaged. A single strand of hair got trapped in the center and cut the rubber in half. This is the same failure I have seen in earlier Roomba models, and it is baffling that there is still no engineering fix.
On the positive side, I was genuinely surprised that the vacuum intake was clean. No compacted wet dust, which was a huge problem with the j9+. The redesigned mop seems to help with that, and time will tell if it stays that way.
There is a new issue though. The mop roller has a habit of grabbing things it should not. Twice now I found the robot stalled because it sucked up the rubber dog bowl mat and wrapped it into the mop roller. It did not ruin the mop roller, but it did destroy one of the edge brushes another day when it grabbed a loose thread from a throw rug. I fixed this by marking those areas as off limits in the app, and that has solved it.
This model is also taller than previous ones, and it actually got itself stuck under the edge of my dishwasher door. Again, creating a no-go zone fixed it.
I have also learned that it is better to separate vacuum days and mop days. When it tries to do both on the same run, it sometimes struggles to tell the difference between my dining room rug and the hardwood floor. That led to wet balls of rug fiber being spit out on the floor. It looked like robot droppings. Since switching to separate cleaning modes, it has not happened again.
I did get one bag full error after only five days even though the bag was completely empty. I reseated it and the error went away, but this is a familiar pattern from earlier models. I am hoping it does not become a long-term problem.
I like the new dual edge brushes. They do a better job kicking debris out of corners. I just wish one of them had not gotten ruined on day one thanks to that rug thread.
Aside from the issues above, it has kept the floors fairly clean. It is not better than doing it by hand, but it is good enough to maintain the house between manual cleanings, especially if your home is mostly hardwood like mine.
For now, I would only recommend this model to people who need help maintaining their floors every day and cannot clean manually. It is better than the previous Roomba models I have used, but I am waiting to see what happens at the six month mark. Every Roomba I have ever owned worked fine for the first few weeks, then the dock seals or sensors started acting up. My hope is that this model avoids those problems, but only time will tell.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Mixed Emotions
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Not sure how I feel about this. Time will tell. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either. It’s been a long time since I owned a robot vacuum. Back to the days when then would ping pong around a room and you used a magnetic strip to keep them out of a room. With a lot of tile/hardwood floors, and the advance in technology, figured I’d give them another go.
What I like:
- Mapping feature so now I can just edit the map for the areas I want the robot to stay out of, instead of the old magnetic strip. It can virtually be blocked from rooms.
- The option to mop and the roller brush that is constantly being cleaned, compared to the pad versions.
- The docking station that self-empties the machine of debris and water.
- Like that you can vacuum, mop or combo and do a spot clean.
I have questions:
- Why does the dry cycle for the mop take 4-hours? Seems like an unnecessary about of time for such a small roller. This means there’s a hum from the dock for 4-hours while it dries and periodic revolves/indexes the brush during the cycle. (I’m assuming on that last part.)
- Why is it foaming? The app says this is because it may have found residual cleaning solution on the floor. I’m skeptical. I feel like the solution used might be too soapy. I used the sample solution provided. Again, the app says this could be normal but it’s annoying, especially when the foam is carrying dirt, then it dries and you have dirty spots where the foam dried out. Seems like they know it’s a “problem” but trying to spin it as a feature.
- Why is it acting like there’s obstacles on the floor, when there are none. I’ll try to share a video and the map. The robot dances a circle around this open space. Wasting time and missing a spot in this inefficient manner.
- The robot jitters too much. It’ll speed up and then jerk to stop or slower speed. Even with nothing in its path, it inches along the floor like it’s bumping into furniture and trying to find the edge. Again, the floor is wide open.
- It still misses spots. Looking at the post clean map, there are areas it still doesn’t technically cover. Gaps in the pathway. How is that possible, given the robot knows where it’s been and reports out on the map. Ultimately, about 1/3 - ½ of the obstacles it claims aren’t even there.
- The dock can be quite noisy during bin dumping and mop roller prep. As in, if you have this automate at night while you sleep, you might be awakened by it.
- We have bench seating at our kitchen table. There’s a horizontal bar that goes across the bottom of the bench. The robot bumps into it because it’s low enough I can’t pass under, but high enough that I guess it doesn’t register the obstacle and keeps trying. After about 10-15 minutes, I had to rescue it from under the table and then setup the area in the app as a virtual do-not-clean area.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Great robot that avoids toys on the ground
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I’ve had many different robot vacuums over the years, including past iRobot ones, and others from other brands. I also have smaller kids and a dog that leave a mess and stuff all around, so with every other vacuum I needed to pre clean for it to be able to run. The Roomba 705 is the first one that I am able to let run and that will do cleaning around all the random stuff left on the ground, so I can actually have it set to run periodically. Every other one would just run into stuff or get lost.
On top of avoiding things on the ground, so far the general cleaning has been decent. It sees rugs and avoids moping, and the mop does do a pretty good job cleaning up spills from food. The vacuum does a good job getting stuff too. The app also works pretty decent and allows you to pick the rooms and customize per room on one run what to do. So if you want to only vacuum one room, and mop another you can do that. It also allows you to add furniture so you can go clean up in a specific spot.
Now while I’ve had a good experience, there are a few things that could be better. One is that that the vacuum doesn’t do a great job around the edges of a room. And even worse if you have a carpet near a wall and some open area between it and the wall. It does a great job in the open but at least for me I feel there are a few things left near walls. The other negative on the mop is that you must use the iRobot solution, so you’ll be buying that.
I’ve also had a few odd things happen. First is it kept telling me the bag was full, but when I took it out it was empty. I ended up having to open the robot and found there was stuff stuck in the waste basket that I cleared out. I get things could get stuck, but it would be nice to tell me the right info. I also had the first map run not show up in the app, so I had to do it again. And I’ve had some connection issues to the robot too.
Overall though this has been the best robot vacuum I’ve had. It does a decent job both vacuuming and moping, and avoids random stuff on the ground it can’t pick up.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
This one lives up to the hype
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Firstly, this is NOT the big, clunky plastic gadget that drags a wet rag around your floors, like a lot of it's predecessors. It is heavy and feels solid. Setup was a bit confusing at first, but we figured it out pretty quick. I've had the dualling brushes before, but this one really shined when I saw extending self-cleaning roller come out. It makes it produce a much more precise clean, especially against walls. It is able to just vacuum, just mop, or do BOTH depending on the setting you have on it. The LiDAR mapping --- it must be heavily AI-generated because it is super duper accurate. It even added my sofa , my kitchen table, and my bed to its own map because it detected them all on its own.
A few compliants cuz nothing is perfect:
The app is verrrryy complex. You won't be able to learn it all in one day unless you dedicate your entire day to just this. The customizations are endless it seems. You can customize every room, for everyday, to either vacuum, mop, or both, you can plan for when it self-cleans, there's just so much to customize, but once you get it all setup, you're good to go.
I would expect it to let me know when my water tank and/or solution is empty --- I didn't get any notification for that on my app.
Also, the solution needed needs to be purchased on their site and the shipping seems to take forever.
This all being said, this Roomba is EVERYTHING. It has made a night and day difference on my hardwood floors and tile. It is so smart, it doesn't get "stuck" anywhere like my other similar robots in the past. I took a change on this one, but it totally lives up to its "premium" classification.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Great, do-all cleaning Roomba
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I've had a couple different robot vacuums and each have been OK but usually lacked one feature or something. It was usually a feature that just didn't quite make the vac as useful as it could've been. However, with this one, I think it's a winner both in terms of functionality and feature packed.
My other robot vacs have all been just vacuum bots. For my place, it works really well since I have a decent mix of hardwood/carpet. These are great in general just for keeping everything clean and dust free without the need for me to get up and manually vacuum every week or so. The older robot vacs I had did a decent job at vacuuming for the most part. A couple were a bit underpowered and the others were just slow for some reason. At the end of the day though, they did their job and cleaned my place without too much issue.
However, with this vac, I now have vacuum and mop functionality which is a pretty huge step up in the functionality department. My two bedrooms are the only rooms I have carpeting so now I have the "luxury" of getting the rest of my place mopped each week as well which is pretty cool. Needless to say, the extra spin cycle does add some time to the cleaning routine but I think it's well worth it now.
One of the nicer things I noticed about this robot in particular was how quickly it was able to create a 3D map. Took maybe half an hour or so whereas some my older robot vacs would take an hour or more for this same task.
Everything is controlled through the smartphone app which makes using the robot vac a breeze. It also allows you to creatine routines, manage the voc as well as order new supplies for it when needed.
As far as a robot vac, I think this is the one I'll be sticking with for awhile.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Smarter, Cleaner, Easier
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Unpacking the Roomba Max 700 Series Combo + AutoWash Dock was incredibly simple, and the setup process took only a few minutes from start to finish. The initial software update installed in about eight minutes, and the unit was ready to go immediately afterward.
Despite its strong performance, the Roomba Max 700 is impressively quiet. Suction power is excellent, and the AutoWash Dock makes maintenance almost effortless its self-cleaning cycle runs smoothly and reliably every time. The smart cleaning functions are also well designed, adapting to different floor types and room layouts with ease.
One standout feature is the level of cleaning customization available. You can select from Smart Clean, Light Clean, Standard Clean, or Deep Clean depending on how thorough you need the job to be. It also offers multiple cleaning modes, including mop-only, vacuum only, vacuum + mop simultaneously, or vacuum then mop for a more detailed finish. In my experience, it ran for about thirty minutes before returning to the dock to empty debris.
The mapping capabilities are excellent. The unit excels at obstacle detection, accurately identifying stairs to prevent falls and even avoids cords, socks, and pet waste. Its room and zone selection tools are highly precise, allowing you to send it exactly where you want. With four cats in the house, I was especially impressed by how well it picked up pet hair and it even leaves clean, sharp lines in the carpet.
Overall, the Roomba Max 700 Series Combo + AutoWash Dock is a powerful, quiet, and highly customizable cleaning system that takes everyday floor care to the next level. It’s an easy recommendation for anyone looking to simplify home maintenance.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Very versatile cleaner!
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I have had several automatic floor cleaners but this one is by far my favorite! This unit manages wet and dry cleaning and knows which floors need which treatment. My slate entry way gets a mopping while the hardwood and carpets are just vacuumed. Crazy that it knows! You can also tell it to mop areas it might not through the app. You can also determine how much water to use so on the hardwood, I might want to mop, but with less water.
The docking station holds the water and cleaner. It also empties the dirt after each cleaning. It hold bags similar to the old vacuum bags I remember my mom's old vacuum using the the 70's.It also runs a cleaning cycle when it returns to the dock, emptying its debris and cleaning the rollers.
The one downside is that the iRoomba seems much noisier than other similar style vacuums I have owned. Both getting ready (it takes in water as needed to start the cleaning) and then when it comes back to the dock. Even running its program seems a bit noisier than others.
There is an arm that will come out to clean along baseboards. I have followed it around trying to actually see it (and take a picture for the review) but I have not been able to capture it!
Overall, this is a very versatile robot vacuum. I would suggest letting it run while you are at work or other times the noise will not bother you.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
I Wanted to Love It.
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I was really looking forward to the Roomba 705 Combo because of the LiDAR and rolling mop with heated water - I ended up wildly disappointed with this iRobot. For starters, this robot vacuum is riddled with software issues in the app as well as the machine itself. The only positive trait of the Roomba 705 is the new roller mop and possibly the LiDAR - but even the LiDAR has its shortcomings.
PROs
1) Roller Mop - The roller mop is the #1 feature for this 705 Combo vacuum. I've had several robot vacuums in the past that just had mops that vibrated and dragged around a dirty mop. The roller style mop on this iRobot is a brilliant design that makes me wish they put the same effort in designing the rest of the vacuum. Not only does the roller extend out the side of the machine to get close to the walls and corners, but its also heated and cleans itself as it goes. This constant cleaning of the roller combined with the hot water and rotating brush will actually clean your floor.
2) No Wet Carpet - Wet carpet was one of my major concerns when I initially picked out the 705 Combo. After seeing the marketing materials, I knew the mop roller did not automatically lift or detach at the base like other models I've seen - so, how was this going to prevent my rugs from soaking up the moisture from the roller? As it turns out, the engineering team at iRobot must have brewed an extra strong pot of coffee before their design meeting because they managed to whip up one of the coolest solutions. There's actually a mechanical cover that closes over the roller when it's on carpet - which makes it impossible to transfer any moisture. So cool.
CONs
1) App - The app feels like a half-baked product you'd expect to see from a start-up.
I'll list a few issues:
a) Robot failed to connect to wifi
b) App fails to recognize the robot periodically
c) App deletes maps without warning
d) App fails to show the robot when on a mission
e) App throws an error and only way to resolve is to delete and re-map
f) App freezes and sometimes modes can not be selected
g) App fails to save a routine
h) App lacks meaningful trouble-shooting with errors.
More often than not, you will have to delete the map and start over but the list goes on and on and on. The issues with firmware are unacceptable considering the company has been around as log as it has.
2) Very Confused Robot - I had hoped that the robot's ability to map and find its position would be improved with the LiDAR - I was wrong. It may be better than other models that rely on a vision based system but the 705 struggles to find its way most of the time. Its sluggish method of positioning is most noticeable when it starts a mission. If you want it to clean a specific room, it can take around 2 minutes to figure out the room positioning and that's before it even starts cleaning. I've had situations where it needed to clean the kitchen and the Roomba had to drive to the living room to find its position before eventually returning to the room I asked it to clean.
3) Endless Empty Cycles - This might be one of the most annoying flaws with the firmware. I'm not sure what triggers it, but the Roomba will spiral into an endless loop of cleaning for a few minutes followed by docking and emptying the bin. It will never complete the task but it will keep going back to the dock and using the incredibly loud AutoWash Dock to empty the unit. I eventually have to go into the app and manually end the mission.
4) App Features - I can't tell if iRobot is trying to make the app easy to use by having a fraction of the app features I've seen in competitor products or if they don't want to put in the time. I'll list some of the features that I would consider standard but iRobot decided against.
a) Emptying scheduling for dock. Example: I scheduled a routine for 9:30PM but I don't want the dock to empty the vacuum after 7:00PM because of the excessive noise
b) Ability to adjust mopping or vacuuming intensity after a mission has started
c) Re-mapping for specific rooms
d) Spot cleaning. Example: I only want the vacuum to clean a mess in small area of a room. I don't want to clean an entire room just to clean a small spot
CONCLUSION
Based on my experience, you will pull your hair out if you invest in the 705 Combo Vacuum. I've never owned a product intended to improve my quality of life only to see it achieve the complete opposite. My time invested in troubleshooting alone could have been time spent cleaning the floors myself.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on the Roomba 705 Combo. We're sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing. Please reach out to https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/contact-support-info, so we may properly diagnose your issue.
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Good, with room for improvement
|
|
Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
In summary, the 705 Max Combo is a good at both vacuuming and mopping, but is held back by a immature (at the time of writing this) mobile app, and being louder than its competitors. With roller mops being relatively new, there are also a few pain points with the mop that may be resolved in future product releases.
We have around 2400 square feet of tile with some rugs. 3 dogs, a cat, and 2 younger kids. I've been a long time user for older Roomba models (S9+, J7+), along with Roborocks S8 Max V Ultra and the Saros 10R. I was looking for a robo vac that had excellent mopping performance, and the 705 does deliver there.
The Good: It's quick to map and navigate around now that Roomba is using LIDAR. The unit gets all dog hair out of our rugs, and seems to do well on tiles floors as well. Mopping performance is great, I've noticed a big improvement in how our floors look after mopping with the 705 compared to my Saros 10R which has spinning mop pads. It also seems to use far less water to mop than my 10R unit which means I don't need to fill it up as often.
The Bad: The mobile app is very immature at this time. As of 10/20/2025, you can start, pause, and stop a routine from the app, as well as setup a schedule. You can pre-set your desired clean level (suction power, water level for mopping, etc) before the routine starts, but you cannot change it during. This is a feature that Roborock offers on its vacuums, and I'm pretty sure older Roombas did as well. The unit is very loud over our tile floors even on the lowest suction setting compared to older Roombas and our Roborock which is much quieter. If not for the great mopping performance, I'd return this for how loud it is. Over carpet and rugs the noise level is very good. The roller mop, while it performs well, can leak foamy water all over the floor if any debris gets sucked into it.
I would recommend this to a friend
Brand response from iRobot Team
Posted .
Hello Matthew, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about the Roomba 705 Combo. We’re thrilled you are loving your new robot. Three cheers for clean floors!