iRobot - Combo J5+

Unpopular opinion: iRobot. They’re easy to repair and there’s an abundance of filters and spare parts. The i5+ is a mid level entry robot. You can likely find it around $300 or just stay on the lookout for a sale. Even better mid level option, the j5+. Probably above your price range, but it’s a good investment, per say. I say that having had a Roomba 960 since 2017. A Roomba j7+ since 2021 and my most recent addition a Roomba s9+. Honestly the 960 is still a beast. I have several floors, for the record…they’re not in a closed glass case. 🤣 Roborock has some models that do well, as well. I’m not sure if them off the top of my head. PS: A combo robot just isn’t it quite yet, I wouldn’t spend the money on a combo at this point, especially at your price point. Question: what size is your place? Square feet wise.

Roomba’s aren’t terrible, just other companies have surpassed them. iRobot has a big 2024 with a lot of change in the c-suite and mid levels which should change the trajectory. The j series aren’t a bad robot there are just better ones out there. I say keep the j5 because iRobot has always made robots that are easy to fix and/or replace things. Their customer service team is usually pretty good as well. I admit, I am biased. I’ve had Roombas since 2017. Sure, there’s a glitch or a bad software update every now and then but I love having something to do the light cleaning so I only have to vacuum with my fill size vac one or two times a month.

Combos from iRobot aren’t that great, to be honest. The i5 as a vacuum isn’t bad at all. It’s the lower mid level but no less cleans decent. J5 and j7 are great mid to middle upper levels. I have limited experience with a combo and I wasn’t a fan. The vacuuming aspect of things is great.

I had an i8+ which died and got exchanged for a j5+ this never worked and after 6+ months of troubleshooting I finally got a replacement unit that works. I will never buy a Roomba again.

Don't bother. The J5+ I have is a pain. It has good obstical avoidance, but is constantly getting clogged. I've had it for 1 year and already looking to replace it because the suction has stopped working.

i have a j5+ and it will be the last roomba i ever buy lol. actually the worst thing i’ve ever wasted money on and i got banned from the sub for saying that

I would think the C20 would be much more convenient than the j5+. Although there's no internal water tank on the C20, the dock has both clean and dirty water tanks on the base station, and can automatically wash the mop. It will have to return to the dock frequently to keep the mop pads wet, but it should do this automatically as it's cleaning. With the j5+, pretty much all maintenance on the mop will be manual, meaning you will be responsible for cleaning and drying dirty pads, and refilling the onboard water tank (which will be smaller than the C20's base tank). Additionally, since the C20 washes the pad multiple times during the job, the pad will be less likely to smear dirt across the entire floor. Finally, the spinning pads on the C20 will provide more scrubbing power than the stationary pad on the j5+. Astroturfing is always a concern with reviews; the best thing is to look for reputable reviewers. Just A Dad on YouTube has recent reviews, including a comparison with the Eufy X10, and he has a good reputation for being independent.

I have a Roomba 960 for 10 years now. And it works very well! I just changed the battery after 9 years. It's connected to my Home Assistant, disconnected from Internet and all could stuff. But today I am looking for a new one. I would like a self-empty station. It's not an easy stuff to find a new one. Ten years ago, market was IRobot and Neato. Today, Neato is dead, replaced by more than 10 Chinese brands. All with a lot of technology: Mop, cartography, cameras, vacuum suction of 10000Pa, and a budget of more than 1000$ in most of the cases. It's ok, this is the new market. I want something simple: * Clean the ground, and do it WELL! * a self-empty station * a little bit of cartography, but not too much * no mop, it doesn't work well, and it's more maintenance * A reliable product, that will work in 10 years, I want to be able to buy replacement part if something fail. * No internet connection. It's a vacuum, it doesn't need to go on the web, just to clean. With my shopping list it's not easy, and I have two models in competition: Roomba J5+ vs Roborock Q8 Max. But both seems to be garbage! J5+: * Irobot doesn't give the vacuum suction. But based on reviews and comment, it's less than Roomba 960 (9.3CFM for 960, 7.3CFM for J5+). I should expect a worse result * I can jump to J9+, seems to have a better suction, but more expensive Q8: * Everybody love Roborock, but when you look at the reviews, it's broken after one year * When it's not broken people say "It's work well, it's my 4th Roborock in 4 years!" Why do you change your vacuum every year??? So I have the choice between a vacuum with 5000Pa of suction but will probably have failure in one year, on a Robot that will be robust, but a suction below than we have 10 years ago...

I sure the mops work well. But I want to replace my 960 to reduce maintenance, especially having an auto empty station. And at least the same level of performance. If I take a model with mop, I must fill a water tank from time to time, and replace the mop. It's more maintenance. I compared the 960 with J5 on on Rtings, and it's the same level of performance. I will buy the J5. There is a good deal on it

I run a Roomba J5+ daily on the main floor where my GSD hangs out. And a couple times a week in the bedroom/hallway, because she sleeps in there with me. Been doing this for a little over a year, and it has helped a lot. It does pretty well at keeping up with the hair. One thing I've noticed though is that, at least in my house, the dust filter needs to be cleaned regularly, even with a self-emptying vacuum: every two or three runs or so. This is because dust (not hair) tends to cake onto it, and the self-empty feature doesn't pull that off very well. If it gets even partially blocked the vacuum won't pick up debris and dust as well. Fortunately the dust filter is easy to get at. Keeping the equipment clean will help it perform at its best. My house is probably dustier than many because I have carpet throughout, except in the obvious places (kitchen, bathrooms). There's no roller brush on most Roomba models; instead, it's a pair of rubber (or silicone?) rollers. Nothing gets stuck on them, though you may have to take them out and clean around the axles occasionally. Robot vacuums definitely help, but I don't think any robot vac is going to be completely hands-off, set it and forget it.

In my experience, the key to getting rid of the hair ropes on carpet is to condition the carpet by vacuuming regularly (and cleaning the rollers whenever the ends are full of hair during this period). Eventually the hair and dander levels are reduced to a maintainable level where no hair ropes are formed. It's kind of different from manual vacuuming where everything is picked up in one pass. I run my j5+ every day with 1 or 2 shedding border collie crosses in the house Otherwise a newer model with anti-tangling features might work better

The shark will likely navigate and localise itself better thanks to it's lidar navigation. It will bump into walls softer than the roomba will. However the j5+ will avoid unexpected obstacles on the ground like shoes, cords etc. better. The j5 mopping isn't thorough as there isn't any spinning or agitation, but it's better than nothing. The j5 will also likely last long, unlike many bots that have been suggested by others here

This is objectively bad advice. You don't know what their requirements are. If they have carpets only then the j5 will outperform all of these models and last longer

Do you have it set to vacuum while mopping, sucking up moisture which makes hair and dust clump? I think the auto empty of Ecovacs/Yeedi is on the weaker side (at least comparing my X1 omni with my roomba j5+). I'd make it clean one small custom zone or room at a time on a schedule so that the hair doesn't build up too much between auto empties

I'm really happy with my j5+. Every run is fine and I have ~450 hours on it. It's navigation sucks compared to my lidar bots and it can't run in the dark. It also seems like the older combos are less reliable. With that being said it vacuums well and has good obstacle avoidance. It can handle insane messes thanks to the bin sensors

My j5+ is really good with pet hair. No clogs or tangles. Long human hair does get stored inside the rollers, but will eventually wrap around the rollers My Ecovacs x1 and roborock s6 have a bristle brush that pet hair gets stuck in

Obstacle detection/avoidance of the j series is good, it's the navigation that is problematic (hard hitting walls/furniture, poor coverage, and getting lost) I feel that this model needs better anti-tangling tech to be more competitive

Just avoid Roombas. They're really loud so you can't really run them when you're in the house whereas Eufy and Roborock are very quiet (maybe not all of them just the ones I've seen). Roombas have also fallen behind on software, I spent €900 to replace my 4 year old 960 with a J9+ Combo, it's constantly struggling to dock, if you take if off the dock yourself it loses the mop function unless you restart it literally 10 times and it's forever getting stuck or ignoring the saved map. Now I have the clean bag full error after two months when the previous bag lasted me a full year. I got a J5+ for upstairs and it's equally bad. Can never find the dock or will do a random 10 minute clean before going back. My 960 wasn't perfect but when I bought it, it was one of the only decent ones on the market as they hadn't taken off at the time and it was also on the US market for like 4 years by the time I bought it.

Agreed, I had to have my j9+ replaced once because of several issues and the replacement dock they sent me doesn’t even work! The J5 has been great though, these combo robots are not very good IMO