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IRobot Roomba Combo J9+ Review: A Tale Of Two Robots
iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ review: a tale of two robots
MSRP $1,400.00
"The iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ is one of the best robot vacuums for plush carpets, thanks to its swinging mop arm design."
Pros
Cons
Robot vacuum and mop combos are a dime a dozen nowadays, with little separating each model beyond their name. Products today are capable of vacuuming and mopping, then emptying their dustbin without manual input, and they all feature companion smartphone apps to help customize their performance. The iRobot brand stands out from the pack, however, due to its unique mop-lifting arm — which retracts the mop to the top of the robot when traveling on carpet. This is a massive win for iRobot, as most robots from other brands can only pull their mopping pads up a few millimeters, causing them to drag along the top of plush carpets.
It's a brilliant design choice, and one that makes the Roomba Combo j9+ look like a compelling addition to any home. Unfortunately, that brilliance in design isn't carried throughout the rest of the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+, which stumbles on basic features. But if you're willing to look beyond a few shortcomings, this robot might be a great fit for your home, especially if you're worried about dirty mops mucking up the carpet.
A striking designThe first thing you'll notice about the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ is its sleek design. The robot itself is circular, though without any mopping pads on the bottom, it looks much more streamlined than the competition. Instead, its tiny mop is located on a swing arm that stows away nicely on top of the unit. If you didn't already know it was there, you might miss it.
The iRobot docking station is noticeably smaller than those offered by other companies like Ecovacs, giving you plenty of versatility when placing it. The majority of the dock is matte black, with various bevels and textures giving it a sophisticated look.
You'll also get a nice wooden plate that sits on top of the unit, serving as a decorative table or stand. Place a few plants or knickknacks on top, and it looks like a modern piece of functional furniture. Compared to other models in this price range, the iRobot dock is impressive.
Hands-off operationLike all robot vacuums over $1,000, the Combo j9+ is designed to be autonomous. You can program a cleaning schedule using the smartphone app, and it'll automatically go about its tasks without any manual input. Once it's done, it'll scurry back to its dock to empty its dustbin and charge its battery.
When traveling on carpet, it'll bring its mop up to the top of the chassis — ensuring no water touches your floors. Then, when it detects hard floors and is ready to mop, it'll lower the mop and begin scrubbing away. It never once detected the wrong type of flooring and always performed the proper operation throughout my home.
In other words, you won't have to worry about the Combo j9+ accidentally trying to mop your carpets.
Toss in a dustbin that supports up to 60 days of debris before needing a change and a water reservoir that'll wet the mop for around a month before needing a refill, and it's clear that iRobot built the Combo j9+ to be a hands-free vacuum. When you do need to perform maintenance, the dustbin and water reservoir are easy to access, thanks to a swinging door design that gives you ample space to work.
Another cool feature is Dirt Detective. This allows the Combo j9+ to scan your home and figure out which room is dirtiest so it can tackle that section first. All told, it did an admirable job with both mopping and vacuuming, thanks to the option to turn on duplicate cleaning passes (meaning it passes through dirty sections of your home twice) and top-tier components like the dual rubber brushes and easily replaceable mop.
Struggling with the basicsWhile the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ does a solid job of cleaning and uses an innovative mop design, it falls short on the basics. For one, the unit is quite noisy when operating, which is less than ideal if you're running it in the morning before work or at night as you're trying to sleep. It's especially noisy on hard floors, though it still makes quite the racket when traveling on plush carpets.
Running the vacuum at night isn't a great idea — not just because it's loud, but because the robot doesn't operate well in lowlight situations. It'll shine a bright light in the direction it's heading to help with navigation, but testing found that it struggled in dark areas and often needed rescuing.
During the day, it did a solid job of avoiding obstacles — including moving pets and stationary hazards like toys and shoes. After each run, it'll show you images of hazards it encountered and let you choose whether these are permanent fixtures that should be avoided or temporary objects that'll be removed before the next run. This cool feature, known as Obstacle Image Review, helped create a more reliable map of my home as the Combo j9+ performed more cleaning cycles.
Cleaning times were longer than expected, though they did get shorter with time. The first few runs took over 40 minutes to clean just 165 square feet. That eventually fell to around 30 minutes after nearly a dozen runs — though products like the Ecovacs X2 Omni and Roborock S8 Pro Ultra tend to work faster and quieter.
The iRobot smartphone app isn't as versatile as you'd expect, with just the basics available. This includes changing the type of cleaning (such as vacuuming or vacuuming and mopping), setting a cleaning schedule, checking your cleaning history, and customizing maps with restricted zones and room labels.
It would have been nice to get live updates on the map, displaying which areas had been cleaned and where the robot currently was in the home (as Roomba done with other products). I also found it troublesome to send the robot back to its dock after a canceled cleaning, as sometimes it wouldn't properly respond to my inputs through the app.
The Combo j9+ docking station is missing a few features that have been developed in other brands, such as the ability to rinse and dry its mop. This may sound frivolous, but having a dock that cleans its mop prevents the buildup of mildew and unpleasant odors. Since the iRobot dock doesn't offer this feature, you'll be on the hook for monitoring your mop and ensuring it stays clean.
Is this a $1,400 robot?At the end of the day, the iRobot smartphone app is adequate to get the job done. And while the robot is a bit noisy and isn't the best in lowlight situations, it still cleans as well as the leaders in the segment. But does it justify the $1,400 price tag?
The answer depends on several factors. If you're in a home with plush carpets and don't want to worry about dirty mops dragging across them, the swinging mop arm might be enough to sell you on the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+. It's not the best robot vacuum and mop available, but it's the only one that practically guarantees your carpets stay dry during a combined mopping and vacuuming cycle.
If you can find it on sale (iRobot loves to discount its products during shopping holidays), the Combo j9+ is a solid recommendation. Its regular $1,400 price tag is steep — and it doesn't do enough to justify that price. But at $1,000, it's a strong competitor.
Be sure to cross-shop with the Ecovacs X2 Omni and Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, as both offer similar features and are in the same price range as the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+.
Editors' RecommendationsThis Self-Charging Robot Vacuum Is 42% Off At Amazon — Almost 14,000 5-Star Reviews
Let's be honest: Cleaning up before New Year's is a time-held tradition that most people follow! Walking into the new year with a clean home can help improve your mood and welcome positive energy into your home as you make the big transition! Seriously! One thing you can buy that'll get your house spic and span in no time before the New Year hits — and well after, is a robot vacuum! We found a bestselling option at Amazon that's 42% off right now!
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The iRobot Roomba Vacuum will help make your cleaning process easier and efficient. It uses a three-stage cleaning system and dual multi-surface brushes to pick up dirt from carpets and hard floors and an edge-sweeping brush to clean up corners and edges. This vacuum is also voice-activated with the help of Google Assistant, Alexa or the iRobot Home app and will start cleaning at the admission of your word.
Get the iRobot Roomba Vacuum for $160 (was $275) at Amazon!
Also, this vacuum comes with a full suite of advanced sensors, which helps the machine navigate under sofas and tables, while its cliff-detect technology keeps it from taking a tumble down the stairs. Finally, it comes with dirt-detecting sensors to inform the robot about the dirtiest, high-traffic areas of your home and clean them frequently and thoroughly!
iRobot has been around for a long time, and the brand has a loyal following, but one Amazon reviewer said, "I live in a small apartment, so it's not difficult to clean. This little guy, I call him "Rob," is the perfect assistant. He does a wonderful job of covering all the areas in my apartment, from hard surfaces to carpet. Very gently bumping into walls and furniture, he covers everything. Sitting in my living room with soft music going, I heard it running in the bedroom, but then I didn't. I thought he must have become stuck. When I checked on him, there he was, sweeping away deep under the bed! I love sweeping now. So easy!"
SEE IT!
Another satisfied reviewer noted, "My first robot vacuum didn't have the brush roll. This is a game-changer. [It] Picks up so much more than my vacuum that just had the side brushes. On the flip side, it doesn't get lodged under the fridge like my previous vacuum. It has a good battery length and seems to find its way home easily. It does a great job picking up cat hair and household messes. It usually cleans the whole upstairs thoroughly before it heads home if it doesn't end up sucking up my teenager's phone cord and ending the job with a stuck error. I do like the alerts to my phone, so I know if it went well or if it's stuck somewhere. It's a good vacuum, and I'm happy with the purchase."
One happy Amazon reviewer added, "I'm not going to lie — I was a non-believer in these little vacuums. But my house is so big, and my dog is so dirty — I was desperate. I am so happy I bought this little guy. He works hard and goes under my furniture, which I never do. 10/10 I hope you last forever, buddy. Thanks for all your help."
If you're looking for a new cleaning device to make your life easier, this might be the perfect option for you!
See it: Get the iRobot Roomba Vacuum for $160 (was $275) at Amazon!
Want a smart vacuum but not feeling this option? Shop more of our picks below!
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The Best Shark Robot Vacuums Are As Good As Their Roomba Cousins — Or Better
Table of ContentsIn an unspoken sort of way, Roomba has been crowned "the best" on the sole basis that it's the most established brand in the robot vacuum market. But Shark has always had competitive street cred when it comes to vacuums in general, and its newest round of robot vacuums is finally a force to be reckoned with among Roombas and Roborocks.
Having tested the top bots from all of these brands, we're ready to name the best Shark robot vacuums for 2024.
Are Shark robot vacuums as good as Roomba?It's not the definitive one-word answer you were hoping for, but making an unequivocal call between the two brands just doesn't make sense. As in the Instant Pot vs. Ninja Foodi debate, both vacuum brands are constantly growing their lineups, expanding their price ranges, and filling blind spots in which the other brand may have previously been the winner.
However, Shark typically does one thing better than Roomba: Making the best robot vacuum features accessible. Since robot vacuum's mainstream presence took off around 2015 or 2016, a trifecta of cleaning technology (outside of the vacuuming itself) has arisen that separates the best robot vacuums from the ones that do the bare minimum. These are mopping, smart room mapping, and automatic emptying.
iRobot and Shark both have several options that offer all three or some mix and match version of two. With the release of its Matrix line in spring 2023, Shark is your best bet for securing more autonomous features at a lower price (compared to the prices on the Roombas with matching capabilities). There's also a high chance that any given Shark robot vacuum is on sale at any given time. In our guide below, we'll note the sale price we see most frequently in "The Good" section — so don't take that full price too seriously.
Shark really shines at spot cleaningSometimes, there's an unexpected mess that you want to clean without messing around with a map on the app. In those cases, Shark Matrix robot vacuums make spot cleaning much easier than Roombas do. Setting a zone for a one-time clean in the Shark app is as easy as dragging a square in the designated spot cleaning tab, compared to having to create and name an official cleaning zone on the map in the iRobot app. Shark Matrix robot vacuums also have a physical cleaning button if you want to pick the robot up and place it in the right area — an underrated feature that modern Roombas completely skip.
The Mashable team has tested dozens of robot vacuum cleaners, including some of the best Shark robot vacuums. Now, we're gathering the top cleaning machines from the brand into one place.
How we tested
Mashable's shopping reporters and contributors have tested dozens of robot vacuums from Shark, iRobot, Roborock, Yeedi, Ecovacs, and similar brands. Previously, our team has written guides to the best robot vacuums overall, as well as the top models for pet hair, carpet cleaning, and hard floors. For this guide, we wanted to name our favorite Shark robot vacuums, and after careful testing, researching, and comparing specifications and special features, we've settled on four options for your consideration.
When testing robot vacuums, we put these devices through several weeks of cleaning tests at a minimum. We analyze how effectively they clean multiple types of messes on various types of flooring. In particular, we give special attention to their ability to clean carpets and pet hair. For hybrid models, we also see how thoroughly they clean hard floors and how easily they avoid carpeted areas.
Finally, we regularly update our robot vacuum reviews and shopping guides as we test new models.
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