Roomba Combo j5

I have had several Eufys over the years and I always swore by them as a great little robovac. The Eufy is half the price of the Roomba and I always thought a robovac is a robovac, right? Wrong! The Eufy does a good enough job, wandering aimlessly around sucking up dirt and getting stuck… a lot. I finally got tired of going to help it and realized I may as well vacuum myself if I have to keep going to help it out all the time. The Roomba was on sale and I was so ignorant of what it actually brings to the table that I bought it because it was thicker so I figured it wouldn’t get stuck under as many things. Little did I know, this thing is on a whole different level. There is plenty of information out there on how to do mapping runs and design your layout etc. and I admit I didn’t do any of that and still don’t understand it well enough to explain it to anyone else, so I won’t try here. In “Eufy mode” I used it the same way and just set it going in a room. Only after it finished did I realize it was learning my floor plan and after a few times it had enough information for me to name rooms, set no-go areas and set up favorites etc. The first time I looked at the app and realized it was sending me pictures (pictures!) of obstacles and asking me whether this was a permanent or temporary obstacle and what area was carpet vs non-carpet, did the penny drop as to why the Roomba was more expensive. Through trial and error I now have a fully mapped house with named areas, no-go zones (such as under the treadmill) and known obstacles. I LOVE this thing! Where I have had issues (not sure they are serious enough to be called “cons”) I explain below. It never gets stuck under anything. In a month of running it almost every day, it has only twice sent me a message saying it was “near a cliff” which I eventually figured out was because it was on the edge of a rug with a light border and a darker inside pattern. It relies a lot on light to make its judgements so if the light isn’t terribly good in the room a thing like the floor going from a light to a dark color seems to confuse it. On brighter days it has made that transition without issue. For the same reason I figured out why a couple of times it returned to base without finishing the job (you know this because it tells you - the message was "path blocked"). I came to realize it doesn’t like to run in the dark. On both occasions I had left it running overnight and when Alexa turned off the lights and it couldn’t “see” it gave up and went home. When I first got it, it would stop and tell me the bin was full when it wasn’t and I thought this was going to be the most serious downside, because it had not been running very long when it would think the bin was full, even though the bin is quite large (larger than the Eufy). I have two long haired dogs and I found that the dog hair was obscuring the sensor for the bin, making it think it was full when it wasn’t even close. Setting it in the app to run with a full bin fixed that and unless you have either a really large area or a lot of pet hair in one run, I don’t believe it will end up getting clogged running with a truly full bin. Lastly, yes, it is noisy… but that is a small price to pay for such a time saving way to keep my floors in such good shape. I have come to like the sound of it, knowing it is running and makiung my life easier :) I haven’t tried it yet with Alexa, so I don’t know about that. The battery life could perhaps be a bit better, but if it hasn’t finished (I have one large area where this happens) it just goes back to base and recharges before resuming and completing the job. Again, you know this is happening because it tells you. Definitely a good buy and (sorry Eufy!) I can’t believe I waited this long to get one.

Robot vacuums are truly the future of the vacuuming industry as soon as they came out. We always wanted one for our home, but when they came out they were costly. Today, robot vacuums are now affordable for everyone to try. The robot vacuum came very nicely packaged and came with a few parts. What you need to get this up and running is the vacuum itself, the charging stand, and the app on your phone. Setting up the vacuum was very easy and I appreciated how quick it was. Initially, we were concerned because the vacuum was going around the room, but not picking up anything. However, we realized that it was calibrating and scanning the room. I wish the manufacturer made that more obvious that in the first few initial runs, the vacuum will scan the room as opposed to vacuuming it. However, once the vacuum finished scanning the room, it did an incredible job. We had it mapped out to clean the kitchen and the living room, and it worked amazingly. There were even times when it would miss a few spots, and we got concerned and we thought okay that's still a good job. However, the vacuum proved us wrong by going over the same spot that we were looking at, and it did a great job picking it up. Overall robot vacuums are a tremendous quality of life upgrade for anyone. It's like having your cleaner. The best part is that with the app, you can make it a hand-free experience by setting the time that you want it to vacuum. For example, you could tell it to vacuum before you get up in the morning or before you go to bed, and every single time once it's finished vacuuming it will go back to its charging station waiting for the next time that it has to clean. Overall, I highly recommend this vacuum in particular for everyone as this company was one of the first to truly pioneer this technology. I am very satisfied with this purchase, and I would recommend everyone to check this out.

I bought this vacuum and decided to wait about a year before writing a review. I wanted to make sure I got time to get to know my new j7, who would be joining the household lineup with my old i7. Truth be told, I was intrigued by the j7 and its P.O.O.P. guarantee (I have a cat) and the thought of a Roomba running over pet accidents during a job is a thing of nightmares. So what do I think about the j7 after a year of use? I think it has a P.O.O.P. guarantee because it is a piece of **** (i.e., it takes a piece of poop to know what poop is). Seriously, this Roomba makes my i7 look like an Einsteinian-level genius. Don't get me wrong, the j7 started out great, but then, well, it started acting like a college student on Friday nights with quarter draws. Eventually, after mapping out the floor and running jobs about 10 times, the vacuum would start a job and just randomly go about hitting objects like the aforementioned drunken college student. Then, for no apparent reason, it would vacuum the same spot 25+ times. One time, it vacuumed the same stretch of carpet for 2 hours (I was out of the house for that one). Okay, so maybe it just needed a system restore and reset, right? Maybe the Roomba just got a little stressed and needed a reboot (hey, we all need one once a awhile, why not my j7?) After the reset, the Roomba did its new mapping and did the jobs at an acceptable level for about three times. Now, it's back to its old ways. Presently, it has completely forgotten how to get into our bedroom, despite having a clearer pathway to said bedroom than an airport runway. Moreover, it has completely forgotten where the doorway to the bedroom is located, despite going through said doorway multiple times. Rather, it now assumes that the way into the bedroom is through a wall about 12 feet from the doorway. Upon discovering that it is a tangle piece of matter that must obey the laws of physics (and, therefore, cannot traverse through a physical barrier), it merely gives up and sulks at his base (if it can find the base). All-in-all, I would say the j7 is like a drunken college student that has maturity issues. Oh sure, you can expect it to do its job once in awhile, but you also expect it will act erratically, run into various random objects, and will give up doing the job at a moments' notice. I would not recommend this vacuum. Don't be tempted by the P.O.O.P. guarantee. It's not worth it.

I love this thing! It has changed my life. We call it R2D2. Yes, it's bothersome changing the dirt container when something big gets caught, but it's way better than sweeping and vacuuming myself everyday. The mop feature isn't that great, but it helps in a pinch. Also, it misses dirt every now and then, especially around baseboards, but again, I'll take that any day! I'm saving for an upgrade as soon as I can afford it. To be this is just as essential as a dishwasher in the home.

Update#2: The robot continues to improve. Truely no precleaning needed. The cleaning is not as good as our old Neato, but now that the Roomba lets you default to 2 passes its about 90% as good. The electrical contacts on the base tarnish and prevent recharging, fixed with finely sanding the contacts (this fix was recommended automatically in the app.) Bottom line: It gets our hardwood clean enough and only very, very rarely gets stuck. This is our first iRobot after 3 generations of Neato's (Most recently the D7 connected). The cleaning performance of the j7 is FAR inferior to the Neato. Even running the J7 twice, the hard wood floor with lots of chairs and stools is not as clean. However, the J7 is ultimately still an upgrade because we don't have to pick up before running. the robot successfully cleans around socks, shoes, toys and 5 kids worth of debris. We have had it 6 weeks, running it most days, and it has only gotten it's brush stuck once, and been stuck on an obstacle maybe twice-- something that happened with the NEATOs frequently despite precleaning. Other positives: Quiet, easy to schedule, easy to empty bin. Negatives: Seems to transport a bunch of debris to its base and not clean around the base well. Only cleans about 80% as well as our NEATO on hard wood. If the robot gets bumped off the base you have to go into the app to get the robot to charge again. Frequently, the robot won't start a cycle for mysterious reasons-- the robot will say "see the app" and the app will have no information. Some suggestions for the manufacturer. Add a front spinner brush to both sides or else have the robot go around the edge of the room counter clockwise so that the spinner brush consistently cleans edges. (The edges of the room are clean wherever the robot's right side hits them and not clean where it doesn't. Increase suction power. On hard wood, the spinner is too powerful for hard debris (cheerios) and throws the debris across in front of the robot rather than into the main brush. Make the obstacle "review" feature-- to my mind this robots killer feature-- more front and center in the app so the robots can get smarter together faster. Update: Robot now goes around the room edge counterclockwise, cleaning still not as good as Neato, but good enough

After my trusty Roomba 960 finally gave out following an impressive 8 years of consistent, low-maintenance performance, I was genuinely excited to upgrade to a newer model. Naturally, I chose the Roomba J5 Combo, enticed by the added mop function and newer tech. I figured—if my old Roomba was that great, the newer one had to be even better, right? Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite been the case. First off, the bin on the J5 is noticeably smaller than my 960, which means more frequent emptying—a real inconvenience. Due to the increased pricing, I opted out of the self-emptying model, and now I’m regretting that choice. The mop feature was a big selling point for me, but it’s been a major letdown. Even knowing it’s more of a wet Swiffer than a true mop, it barely dispenses any water at all. I even tried pre-wetting the pad, but it still failed to clean effectively. The mopping feels more like a gimmick than a real feature. Worse yet, the J5 has had a recurring issue where it gets “stuck” mid-clean—just sitting in place, running its motor endlessly without moving or cleaning. No button reset helped. I’ve had to go so far as to flip the unit over, unscrew the housing, manually pull the battery, and reinsert it just to get it functional again. This happened almost daily, even after factory resets and re-mapping the house. To top it off, the bottom housing already shows signs of wear after just a few uses—especially around the spinning edge brush. It makes me question whether this model is built to last even a fraction as long as my 960 did. That said, it’s not all bad. The J5 runs quieter than my old model and offers the same strong suction and dirt pickup, which was reassuring. One feature I really did love is its ability to take pictures of obstacles and ask for input to improve future runs. That’s a clever addition that shows potential. In summary, while the J5 Combo has some modern conveniences and solid vacuuming performance, it simply doesn’t match the reliability and durability of the 960. I want to love it—but right now, I just can’t trust it the same way I trusted my old Roomba.

Do you need the J7 model or a different Roomba model? Had the J7 for a week so far with excellent results. I experimented first with a 600 series Roomba but realized I needed the more advanced mapping, front camera, obstacle recognition features of the J7. it recognizes charger cords, sock, boxes, or stack (and is even guaranteed to recognize pet pooh and avoid it). For me this higher tech mapping and recognition lets me not worry if household projects mean I have left out a box or shoes, whatever, in the room. The J7 recognizes stuff like that and cleans around it without getting stuck. Some other models, including the higher end S9 I think, require you pick up more and tidy more before you clean. That's just fine for people whose house stays more organized all the time than mine does. Meanwhile, the cleaning features of the J7 work brilliantly. The S9 has more suction power, and more edge cleaning intensity, so I wondered if I'd be regretting that, but the J7 cleans my hardwood floors and my low pile area rug brilliantly. I've read that deeper pile carpet will benefit from more suction, but my house is mostly hardwood floor and the J7 is brilliant at that my one 10'x16' rug is spotless too. Do you need the self-emptying feature, the "+"? It's such a good feature that it was tempting. However, I was upgrading from a 600 series and wary of spending the high premium for the self-emptying feature when I was finding a good discount on the J7 by itself. What I have found so far is the J7 can easily clean the three large rooms I use it for, clean them fully three times before I get a message the dust bin needs to be emptied. Roomba customer service explained you can expect 800 sq ft of cleaning before you have to empty the bin. This varies probably and that's square feet as measured by the Roomba's cleaning pattern which won't include some of your furniture and fixtures so the cleaned footage measured will be lower than your actual room square footage as measured for the property. Also I wanted to put the Roomba's dock in a spot against my wall where I didn't want the taller self-cleaning box to stick up above the dock. It's a well designed box and not as tall as the i4 model's version, so that shouldn't stop you if you have a spot for it. Worth noting: you need to locate the dock against a well where you have at least 18" or so of space on both sides, and four feet if room in front of the Roomba. That's for navigation. The J7 dust bin is so easy to remove, empty, and replace, that it's just not an issue for me--certainly don't regret not having the self-emptier at this point. The dust bin parts are designed well: a button on the side pops the bin out the side of the machine; another button opens the bin so you can dump it once you have it over the trash. The filter comes out easily too so it can be tapped on the trash bin to clear it. Customer service tells me the dust bin can be washed in warm water and soap too, so you can get it quite clean if you want. They said not to get the filter wet though. One thing to consider is that the Roomba sides can get dusty too from cleaning, even the top can get a bit dusty because it cleans under couches so well and under cabinets, when there's room for it. That means that I've been wiping down the J7 after a full clean of all three rooms. Maybe this won't continue--my rooms were neglected for a while so my J7 may be cleaning more dust this first week than it will clean in the future. In the two rooms it's cleans several times now, it doesn't' get dusty. Even if the outside of the Roomba stays clean, however, the dust bin itself will be be a bit dusty when you remove it. So if handling the bin while you empty it bothers you, then the "+" self-emptying feature is for you. If you have the "+" feature, the dust from weeks of cleanings empties into a collection bag you eventually pull, discard, and replace with a new bag. Mapping: One of my rooms is two steps down from other two. The mapping is so clever I just lift the Roomba down to the lower level and say "Siri, tell [J7] to clean the [room]". The J7 figures out where it is in the room and cleans it fully. When it tells me it's finished, I put it back on the higher level and say "Siri, tell [J7] to go home" and it heads for its dock to charge. Customer service: easy and quick to ask questions.

We have had our Roomba for a few months now and are thoroughly pleased with it. The robot arrives well-packaged with clear instructions for getting it set up. Set-up does require a certain amount of facility with modern technology. You must download a phone app (Android and iOS are both available) and connect the robot to your home Wi-Fi network. The app walks you clearly through the process. Many smart devices will only connect to 2.4 band Wi-Fi but the J7 will connect to 5.0 too, making connection a snap. The app will then walk you through the process of mapping your home and dividing and labeling your rooms. From then on, you can send your robot to clean a whole level of your house or just a room or two. It’s amazing to watch it systematically vacuum a space, navigate around furniture and then unerringly find its way back to its charging station, all the while avoiding disasters like tipping down a stairway or getting tangled in cords. Being a woman of a certain age, I am past moving heavy furniture, so for me, the robot’s greatest feature is its ability to vacuum under beds and couches, places where my regular vacuum cleaner simply does not fit. Although the Roomba does the work of vacuuming for you, it is not a set-it-up-and-forget-it device. A couple of times, our robot’s map seems to have gotten corrupted, resulting in the robot behaving erratically. The problems were easily fixed by relabeling rooms or repositioning room dividers. Also, you will need to empty the Roomba’s dust bin (a relatively neat process—just press the push button to pop it open over a trash can), regularly clean and periodically replace its HEPA filter, wipe off its sensors and charging contacts, and clean out threads and hair that accumulate on its caster and rollers. I consider those little chores a small price to pay in exchange for not having to wrestle with my cumbersome old upright anymore, not to mention having a more thoroughly vacuumed house into the bargain. And if you have any questions about your Roomba, iRobot’s web site is loaded with detailed documentation and their customer service is responsive and helpful.