iRobot Roomba Combo i5+: Cleans & Mops, Empties Itself (Up to 60 Days)

So far it’s fine. The battery is what could be better. Settings are “single pass” for large rooms and multiple for smaller areas like hallways.

I think it’s mostly fine but for the money I kind of expected better.

I have to switch out for the mop function.

I think I’ll have it working overnight to “hopefully” wake up to cleaner home.

Speaking on the mop function… what’s the point in it being like 12” wide if it only uses like 2”? See the picture I included. I’ve had it mopping for 4 hours and only one small section is dirty. And when I followed it, it was only leaving a little trail behind.

After the Roomba had made 3 vacuum runs, I noticed that 1 of the brush arms had been torn/broken off. Used 2 more times and the 2nd arm was missing as well. Contacted Roomba customer service and they reviewed the issue and sent out a new motor/brush assembly. Really only needed the brush. When replacing the brush, I noted that the 3rd arm had a tear and would have failed on the next vacuuming. Poor design/materials.
On the positive side, customer service was helpful, but initially non-committal to replacing even though it had only been in service for 2 weeks.

I have a Siberian Husky and this has been a complete game changer. I was casually mentioning additional cleaning responsibilities to my client since moving to a bigger space. My client emphatically told me I had to get a robot vacuum and it had to be a self emptying one. Well needless to say I listened but I got it for home because my 11 year old Husky has been blowing his coat and HATES being brushed. This machine has been a total game changer, (yes, I had to say it twice) in picking up his hair, dirt and dust. The pictures I posted show what was inside after running it daily since February 7th to the 19th. It looks like it compacts everything to hold a lot inside the bag. I cut it open since I was interested to see if it had really picked up much of anything. I turned the bag inside out too. I was surprised to see how much dirt was inside. Mind you I had vacuumed with my regular vacuum a couple days before getting the i3. My floors have never been cleaner after turning this miracle machine loose in the house. I thought this was hype but it is not. It works!!! It picked up cat litter that gets tracked out of the litter box too. If you have a Siberian Husky this is a must have for your floors.

First the bad: The Roomba arrived non-functional. It was throwing an error code (27) from the first time I used it, which indicated after troubleshooting that the Cleaning Head Module needed to be replaced (a $65 part). I tried all the other options but in the end had to buy a new cleaning head module. Unfortunately, because the vendor I purchased from was not an authorized seller (it was third-party, not Amazon), it was not under warranty. If you want it to be under warranty, buy from the iRobot store on Amazon.

Now the good: First, iRobot customer service was as helpful as they could be and genuinely tried to assist without charging me for a new part. Once I got the new cleaning head module and replaced the malfunctioning one, everything worked great. It is a little loud and you have to do some pre-cleaning (pick up throw rugs and cat toys, *ahem*) but it gets all the bits on the floor and permanent rugs and works its way around obstacles. I hate vacuuming, especially multi-floor; the Roomba does the downstairs, and i do the upstairs with my stick vac.

All in all I'm happy, but I would have been happier if it had worked out of the box without expensive repairs.

I love not having to clean every 2 days my white polished tile. The Base is not so good while self cleaning. There is always some cat hair and debris left, so you have to finish manually anyways. Not big deal. I find it fun. Not for people that expect the machine to do everything without some maintenance every 2-3 day.
The negative thing: when you put the mob, don't allow the rumba to go back to the base. It will soake the base with water and every time you use later the vacuum and empty the dust bin you will get the water all the way up to the dust reservoir and dust bag. It will soak the bag also in water and trigger the computer to report the bag full, when in reality it is just soaked in water and dust. So be aware of this detail.
My solution, I just don't let the rumba to go back while carrying the mob/vacuum kit. I put something in front of the base and the app will let you know that the rumba was unable to reach the base.
Still I love this machine. I just hope the developers come with a solution for this. Maybe don't letting the rumba returning to the base. Believe me by the time you go to check the base it is already socked from the bottom to the top. And once you empty the next time the dust bin you will take all that water into the reservoir. Not good. I had to open it and remove the water and the humidity.

Product: j5+
upgrade purchase from 692
Give another try with iRobot
Number of dog: 1 golden retriever
Usage after a few weeks of usage: quite disappointed especially when the product description indicates this i5 or j5+ were designed to deal with dog hairs even with multiple dogs. The improvements are the brushes no longer stuck while entangled with dog hair like in 692. However, the front wheel design remain the same and it entangled with dog hair as shown in attached photo. This design from years ago has proven not working. I think I might need to switch to Roborock next time.
- The build for this i5+ has cheap parts loosening sound after a few use.
- The front wheel start to chip away and loosened up after a few times of removal to remove dog hair.
- There will be dog hair found wrapping around the side brush and stopped it from turning. it requires clean up after a few use depends on the usage.
Overall feeling after a few weeks of usage: Quite disappointed as I have high hope of iRobot but it seems the brand name can no longer be kept up with its innovation. Time to switch to other better brand.

Pros: Very handy. We have it set to vacuum everyday as we live I’m the country and dirts an issue. The floor is always clean with no issues.
Cons: It doesn’t do a great job of emptying itself or mopping though. I have to hand empty the self emptying vac tray every few days. The mopping feature does not work at all. The combo unit goes out and vac’s but there is no mopping. Half the mop pad gets slightly damp but I’d compare it to lightly dragging a moist paper towel across your floor.

I'll start by saying our house is kind of a war zone for vacuum cleaners. 4 dogs, 2 cats, plants, you get the idea. Loved the concept of a robot vacuum that ALSO self empties.

The roomba lasted 1 year and 3 months before it decided it no longer would self empty or give the option to self empty in the app. No error, no blockage, still charged (so we gave it to a friend but it wasn't meeting our needs of self empty). During the time we had it, the cleaning head module had to be replaced 3 times. Twice the company replaced it for free, but during that time you have a non-working roomba. The 3rd time they said I'd have to send the whole roomba in, so I just bought it myself.

Overall I wouldn't recommend this particular vacuum for serious pet/high needs households, and here are some of the reasons why

-Brush rolls, side sweep, and robot front wheel easily and often become tangled and needed manual cleaning
-Frequent need to change air filter
-Having to buy self empty bags can add up and is wasteful
-Mapping was very "meh", didn't seem very intelligent and didn't really do line cleaning. Often would spend up to 10 min trying to find the base which is annoying
-Its very loud. Not just the base empty, the vacuum itself is quite loud, almost as loud as a regular vacuum. This really impacts when we are able to run it and it not be annoying

After this one died I got a shark self empty model not having high expectations, but already I greatly prefer it. The base can be emptied into the trash, it's extremely quiet INCLUDING the self empty feature. The mapping is notably superior. All this on the cheapest Shark robot vacuum I could find (RV9125 model). So while roomba might hold the higher brand recognition, I have to say it might be relying more on the name than product quality.

Well after a few weeks with Robert the Roomba, we've gotten to know him and his quirks. It really is like training a new pet - lots of work at first, and then you'll still have accidents and ongoing training forever. Plus there are some bugs in the system to be worked on iRobot's side. I'll summarize our findings:

-Make sure to give him wide open clearance space in front. We started with him in a 4' wide hallway that our Eufy had no problem with, but Robert couldn't find his way around.
- For some reason, Robert won't save a map after he runs. This means that if you start a new job, it's like he's learning your house from scratch again. If you want him to be smart, you have to set him out on a "Smart Map" run, which is just like a normal run except with no suctioning. There, he'll go around your house like a blind idiot bumping into things and eventually come out with a cool map that you can divide up into rooms and he'll follow from then on. But why this requires a separate run and can't be saved after a regular run I don't know.
- Speaking of the Smart Map run, this may take you 3-4 (or 8) times before you get it. Because he wanders around like a more basic, unintelligent robovac during the smart run, it means he misses a lot, gets stuck a lot, and generally causes you frustration. Each smart run will return a map of what he covered, and if you're like us, he'll often miss entire rooms or sections of the house. We had to run it several times before he came back with an adequate coverage map. And I say adequate because it only loosely resembles our actual floor plan, but it's close enough. Oh, and make sure to pick up everything off your floor - slippers and cat toys will screw him up.
- Once you get a map you're happy with though, the app is pretty neat in how it lets you draw rooms. He'll suggest rooms for you too, but those didn't make any sense. It's a little quirky drawing lines in the app to section off your house (e.g. sometimes lines go all the way across your house, sometimes they'll stop at a room), but the experience is cool and rewarding.
- Once you have your smart map drawn, then the cool part happens: you can create a bunch of different schedules to vacuum different parts of your house. For example, our entryway gets vacuumed every day because of foot traffic, but the bedrooms only need 3 times a week. This feature alone is a HUGE benefit and way cooler than our previous Eufy 11s Robovac. Almost worth the cost of the device itself.
- Once you have your map, the vacuum experience is pretty good. He'll follow your map but still bump into a lot of stuff (I assume the "edges" of the objects he mapped are pretty fuzzy). It is cool to see him go down a straight line, bump into the wall, and turn around down another straight line. Gives you a feeling of pride that you trained him well. The suction power is good too - picks up all the litter my 4 cats leave scattered around - better than the Eufy. And it's neat to watch him stop in the middle of job, go to the bathroom (or go for a battery charge) and then come right back where he left off.
- Keep in mind this is all relative. He still moves like a half-blind old dog. Bumps into things. Stops and stands still for 30 seconds at a time like he's lost. Spins around in circles going nowhere. He gets stuck on weird things - will chirp at me that he's stuck on a cliff when he can't find his way off of a thick rug. Bumps into or rolls over everything you left on the floor. But like an old dog, he mostly knows his way around and can make it back to his bed and take a dump by himself.
- Speaking of... you've heard other reviewers say he's pretty loud when he goes to the toilet. But you don't understand. When I say loud, I mean LOUD. Like a jet engine in your house going off for 20 seconds. And sometimes one flush isn't enough. I'll regularly hear 3 jet engines taking off in a row. During his normal vacuum run he's not exactly quiet either - much louder than my Eufy and too loud to hold a conversation near. Like a normal upright vacuum.
- The app is really nice to use. Friendly, designed well, drawing maps and scheduling jobs is easy. Get lots of notifications on Robert's status (successful job, stuck, problems with the toilet, etc) which is neat. Robert likes to talk. Probably the highlight of the product. I also really like that you can specify if you want him to cover a room twice instead of once, for when you're extra dirty.

All that said, there are still bugs:
- Since day 1, Robert tells me that the dust bag is full nearly every day. Which is a lie. Robert is a liar. Not only is that impossible after one day, but it forces me to go check the bag and I can visually see it's still mostly empty. Usually this just means taking the bag out and putting it right back in, which thankfully is easy, but required because he won't clear that error until you do.
- I've also gotten a few complaints that the pipes are clogged. I know Robert takes big dumps, but this is a lie too. Unclogging involves getting out a screw driver and taking the base apart. Three times I've done this and each time there was absolutely nothing in the pipes. I don't know what that's about.

Overall: I think this is a very nice upgrade over the Eufy 11s. We genuinely feel like we don't need to vacuum as much, which we didn't always feel with the Eufy. Works greats on litter and cat hair on bare floors - carpets are iffy. Robert can be a pain sometimes but at least he makes the experience fun, just like an old pet.

The promise of a hands-off experience though doesn't get met - I have to help Robert along almost daily. DEFINITELY not worth $500-600, but if you can get it on a black Friday-like sale, then go for it.

I am a firm believer in Irobot products and have had at least one in my house for probably a decade now. I grew tired of dragging on upstairs in our house and have been looking to buy a new iRobot for some time, when this model went down in price.

1. What's in the box?: You receive the robot, a power cord, the home base station and some typical pamphlets, plus an additional filter for the robot and an extra bag as well.

2. Set-up?: Literally this requires you to unpack everything, out the robot on the home base and let it charge for some hours. Once this is done, then comes the fun part. Setting it up with the IRobot app on the phone. This is actually quite easy if you follow the instructions. I already have a system so I needed "Add a Robot". There are instructions saying "allow local networks" and I admit I assumed this was already allowed and went through a bit of not being able to connect the robot. Once I actually allowed this connection I was rewarded with the robot being connected and ready to go.

3. Use?: First off this is a vacuum cleaner so it is not silent! But it is fairly quiet although I cannot imagine anyone using this in the middle of the night in the room they sleep in. Both this is like other IRobot in that it will sweep the rom and is quite good at recognizing obstacles and not simply running into them like my older robot. Also, because I have dogs, it was important to have these types of rollers as they will jam less frequently due to dog hair.

The best part is the home base which allows for a simpler issue of not having to constantly having to take the robot and manually empty the bin (although this seems fairly simple, it does become a pain when the robot chokes on pet hair and stops (almost always in some weird place like under the couch or bed because thats where the hair goes)).

I love that this model maps although it lacks the higher end mapping features of the more expensive models. Still, I think th ability to schedule and understand the robot situation is a great thing to have on an app. Also, having two or more robots on the ap is easy to switch and use.

Overall:? yes, the price point isn't cheap, but the ability to keep my house clean, relatively free of out hair, a minimum of interaction needed to use makes this a great product.

I always thought these were gimmicky. But I got one for Christmas and liked it so much I bought 2 more. I have all hard flooring, no carpets, and 2 dogs, a cat, and two birds that all contribute to mess. So I had to sweep everyday or I'd get those pet-hair tubleweeds blowing around. Having to sweep all the time I get lazy and let it go; or when I do it I spend an hour or 2 sweeping or vacuuming. These robots save me hours of time and get the job done better because they are relentless. I set them on a schedule and they do it everyday completely. I have one robot that I manually have to empty the cup everyday. He's in the bedroom, since I'm in that room every day that's convenient enough and only takes 2 minutes. I bought an i3+ and an i4+, they self empty and I have to change the bag about once every 2-4 months. I don't mind the cost of the vacuum bags because they give me so many hours of my time back.

The first one I got is the little guy. The little guy's name is Finigan. Finigan isn't too smart. He vacuums in a random pattern. I started with him in the main part of the house. He did a great job but his battery usually ran out before he considered himself done. So the space is a bit more then he likes. He did a great job though. But I loved it so much I got more to cover the whole house and moved him to the smaller bedroom area. In the bedroom suite (bedroom + bathroom~350sq ft), he spends about 45 minutes zipping around to cover everything. When his battery is low he docks himself. I have to empty his cup everyday. At first his cup was usually about 3/4 full to full. The first day it filled and he stopped. I had to empty it and re-start him. After a few months of daily vacuuming, the cup is about 1/4 full each day. So I switched him to a MWF schedule. He's still about 1/4 to 1/2 full each use. He even goes under the bed and keeps that clean. It's really great.

The i3+ is Dixie. Dixie does the downstairs. Dixie is smart. She goes in straight line patterns and covers the entire space using a very planned straight line methodical routine. The first day she poked around learning. It was about 1.5 hours. After that, the entire job was planned out and she did the whole thing in about 45 minutes. She has no problem when certain doors are opened vs closed. When it's open, she goes in and vacuums. If it's closed, she skips it. Her cleaning time varies from about 45 minutes to 1hr 15minutes depending on whether the extra rooms are included (doors open vs closed). She drives back to her base when done and docks. And the base sucks out what she collected. I love the base, it means I do not have to tend to her everyday. I actually only need to change the bag about every 3-4 months. There's not a lot going on downstairs. The litter box is there and so the cat pays visits. But we aren't down there daily tracking things around. Thanks to Dixie, there's no fur balls, hair-tumbleweeds, dust, or dirt. Always a nice clean floor. It's awesome. Her map in the app shows where she found 'extra' dirt. Usually right in front of the litter box. It's so awesome not having to sweep up litter daily. I have her on a MWF schedule too and that is more than enough to keep the place clean.

I recently got Nick, an i4+ for the upstairs. He's quieter. He's like Dixie in is planning and map reporting, so he's smart. It's very cool. He also gets the job done quickly. First day was like 1.5 hours learning. Now he's done in 50 minutes. The base sucks everything out so I don't have to tend to him as much as Finigan. He's in the main part of the house and it gets the most dirty. The dogs spend all there time here. The cat is up here most of the time. And we have two birds who send seeds everywhere. It's amazing how far from the cage those birds can flick seeds. And their feathers and drift everywhere too. Nick takes care of all that. I do need to manually get under the couch and behind and under furniture which I do once every month or so. But this robot is awesome. Saves me the day in and day out sweeping and vacuuming.

Having robots spend 3+ robot labor hours each day vacuuming is an awesome human labor saver. Once they've hit the whole house for a month or two I'm able to step them back to MWF schedules. Their brushes do a great job in the corners, better than me sweeping or vacuuming; mostly because they hit those corners every day and spend the time swirling that brush to work on it. That constant day in day out effort pays off over time. I really can't imagine going back to manually doing this. I look back at the hours I spent doing it thinking that was Neanderthal days. I look forward to telling my grand kids how I used to walk to school uphill in the snow everyday, dial rotary phones, select music off of CD's I had to manually put into a machine, and now, that I spent hours sweeping the floors in the good old days.

THIS. PAYS. FOR. ITSELF. If you’re considering this but keep looking at the price tag OR maybe seeing reviews about the vacuum base being too loud.. DONT. PANIC.

This vacuum works! It cleans absolutely everything and the app is very simple/easy to use. You can name your robot and then sync it up with Alexa so you simply ask to clean your room at any time, any place. It even cleans itself! I’m about a month in and I have yet to change the bag in it, it says about 60 days so we’re gonna see what happens!

To prevent any confusion: this unit does NOT come with a remote which was kind of a bummer - I wish they had an in-app remote so I could just lead her to where I’d like her to clean - that would be amazing! Otherwise, I couldn’t be happier with this purchase it was worth the money. I’ve saved hundreds AND the chicks LOVE it!

IROOMBA SHOULD TRY THIS:
• The ability to talk to your vacuum and it talks back *robot stop cleaning* “iRoomba, what’s wrong?” - “Error 80, I’m stuck and need assistance”
• R2D2 sounds when it’s cleaning or starting up would be crazy! I’m sure there’s copyright issues with that, but any similar droid sound would work and the ability to decide how you’d like your vacuum to sound would be so I can really get the full experience of owning a robot!! Even a Butler voice would be cool! :)

Good suction power, low noise level, great battery life, and VERY easy to clean.

SUGGESTION FOR BATTERY LIFE: I suggest having it run atleast 2-3 times a week so it can drain and recharge its battery healthy; if it sits on its charger all the time it will overcharge it’s battery and kill it faster.

I DID HAVE 1 ISSUE:
When I first got the robot setup, the wifi setup was very frustrating. I’m currently using Eero Pro so I was thinking maybe it would a connection issue between them. One day my wifi was not picking up my robot and I assumed the robot got stuck and the battery died; when I got home this wasn’t the case it was sitting on its charger and had cleaned the room during its scheduled time!

BUT I WAS ABLE TO SOLVE THIS:
I restarted my robot and reset its wifi settings following instructions on the website; this time I turned on the MAC Address connection via the iRoomba app and opened a reservation/port within the Eero app; this worked! Eero automatically connected using the MAC Address and IP, since then I haven’t had a single drop. I recommend to iRoomba in the future that they come up with a better way to connect to Eero Pro - now that Eero is an Amazon company it should be VERY simple and automatically enable the MAC Address dedicated connection at setup when it detects an Eero router.
• iRobot should ask what kind of router you’re connecting to at setup

That would be great. Buy it!