iRobot - Combo j7+

Same here. Have had this roomba j7 combo for over 3 years now and never again. Having so much issues with this thing now.

I have all hardwood and the Roomba combo j7+, a samoyed and an icelandic sheepdog. Merlin (my sammy) is afraid of it, but it does a good job on maintenance vacuuming. I run it 3 times per week on a schedule. Anything less and the fur does start to overwhelm it. I don't know how a Roomba would function on carpet but just wanted to put this out there in case someone found it valuable.

Amanda, Thank you so much for this! I recently moved into a larger house and have a Roomba J7+ combo that’s a year old and basically worthless. I have a cat and a border collie that both shed continuously. My main floor is half hardwood, 20% dense pile carpet, 15% rug, and 15% tile. I spend most of my “living” time here and would likely be interested in a flagship for this area. The other area I’d like a robot is my master floor. It consists of 95% dense pile carpet and 5% bathroom tile. I’m allergic to dust mites, so vacuum performance is crucial here. Unfortunately, I rent, so removing the carpet is not an option. I’m going to move the roomba to the first floor, until it dies. If you were in my shoes and wanted to spend $2000ish, what would you pick? I don’t mind spending a little more if needed, but don’t want to go nuts. Affiliate Amazon links would be greatly appreciated!

It’s maybe the same brush mechanism as the i7 but it’s the roller mop they’re touting on this one. It’s not even a Roomba - they don’t design and make their own robots now, they had to outsource all of it to catch up with the competition after ignoring LiDAR for so long. I ditched my J7+ Combo for a Saros Z70 and I couldn’t be happier about it!

It do be like that sometimes - I never shut up about mine, my Roborock is my second robot vacuum (I had a Roomba J7+ first) and I’ve been blown away by how effective both of them were at actually cleaning (we’ll leave the Roomba’s technical limitations out for now.. 😆).

This is exactly the same as my L10s Plus - same rated "pa" value and same default brush (all rubber single brush). On carpet it's just awful and it behaves exactly like in your video - so annoying and irritating! I've found that using the mixed rubber/bristles brush that came with my old Mi Robot Vacuum Mop 2 Pro+ (Mijia 1T), also manufactured by Dreame, the pickup ability on carpet becomes much much better. That's the same brush that comes for instance with the Dreame F9 and D9 (1st generation) and Mijia 1C. The type of "debris" you've shown, basically "slides off" the rubber brush and gets left there as the brush doesn't make traction on it to lift it. The long bristles help a lot, at least on my experience. Maybe have a go? My Roomba j7 Combo (not even an s9) used to do much better on carpet, thanks to the counter rotating rubber brushes, as they have a lot of tiny "notches" that really help with picking up stuff on carpet.

I really appreciate someone bringing this up! As a design geek, I always struggle when I have to make purchase decisions because not always I find something that I consider "well designed". The robot vacuums category is one of these... However, here some robot vacuums that have a design worth talking about (of course, things need to be contextualised for their time). In completely random order: - **Roomba s9**: a sleek and professional finish, the first (and only) D-shaped Roomba, taking advantage of its shape and bringing to market the best edge cleaning ever (before robot vacuums with extensible side brush were a thing) together with one of the best vacuuming performances ever. - **Roomba i3**: the first one of the newly engineered Roomba mid-range series, bringing to "budget" conscious consumers a new methodical navigation method, together with a modern aesthetics which drops the carrying handle for a new fabric-textured top finish and with modern, clean lines. - **Philips (Versuni) HomeRun 7000**: not a particularly noteworthy product, however a robot vacuum distancing itself from the competition thanks to the typical Philips design, with dual-finish robot and fabric emptying base. Not the best result, but at least an attempt to bring an externally developed product (ODM'd by 3irobotix) in line with the company design style (uses for instance with air purifiers etc). - **Roomba j7/j9+**: distancing itself from its predecessor (Roomba i7, with a good looking "techy" design), it brings a much cleaner design, more minimal, and enriched by a metallic disc on top together with a UI based on the RGB light around the only button (not the most intuitive one, but an attempt to do something different). It also features a newly redesigned self-emptying station, now developed in a much more compact and modern-looking form factor, thing that will be later copied by most other manufacturers. - **Neato Botvac lineup**: overall, Neato products have always been lacking in terms of design (an exception being the Kobold VR300, which changes the design aligning it to the family feeling of contemporary Vorwerk products), however these specific units brought more thoughtful, cleaner lines (to an extent...) together with the LiDAR tower cap in some bold, unique colours. This aesthetic didn't survive long and wasn't - overall - in line with the brand identity of Neato. Still, a good attempt. RIP. - **Dyson 360° VisNav**: not too much to say - it looks good. Perfectly matches a useful D-shaped layout with the Dyson family feeling. Balanced despite the lack of simplicity, modern in a retro-futuristic way, and functional. - **Karcher RC3000**: one of the first robot vacuums with self-emptying station (the first one?), with a bold design perfectly in line with the company identity. - **Dreame W10 Pro**: overall, similar to all other Dreame products, but in the (now abandoned) D-shaped style. Adds a gold accent to differentiate it from the "non-Pro" version which lacks the front sensor array (ToF 3D cam + RGB cam). Clean lines, clean colours, very minimal and stylish overall. - **SmartMi VortexWave**: innovative design for this unique robot vacuum and mop: D-shaped style allowing a large front brush that can be exchanged to leave its place to a roller-style mop. The first robot vacuum supporting both dry and wet vacuuming. Clean lines and a good mix of minimal and techy design. - **Electrolux Pure i9.2 (also AEG RX9.2)**: one one-of-a-kind. The genuine successor of the original Electrolux Trilobite. Developed in-house by Electrolux, this product was one of the first to implement small obstacles avoidance (2017 for the first gen Pure i9) thanks to its navigation method fully based on dual-line lasers. Overall an excellent product, unfortunately killed by the high price, lacking marketing, and growing Chinese competition (at much cheaper prices). Futuristic design for a robot with futuristic features. - **Matic robot vacuum**: the only one that in recent years has dared to challenge the paradigm of robot vacuums. Narrower but much taller. Boxy design resembling a robotic toy, with large wheels and front, "peninsular" brush assembly. Together with a revolutionary vSLAM navigation system based on nVIDIA Jetson Orin. It has its flaws, but it's the kind of competition we need in the category. - **Narwal (in picture, Freo Z10)**: not really a worthy robot vacuum cleaner/brand overall, but one of the first brands to really bet on rotational mops, together with the distinctive clean and alien-like shape of their docks which has now been copied by many competitors. - **Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (Roborock)**: the first LiDAR-based robot vacuum to bring LiDAR and methodical navigation to the masses, at a price that made it the the-facto standard of robot vacuum recommendations in 2016/2017. Together with the new technology at low price, it brought to the market a modern and clean design and a futuristic, intuitive app. - **DJI Romo**: too early to speak about this as a robot vacuum cleaner, but from a design perspective it takes the clean, curvy Narwal style and turns it inside-out giving it a transparent cover. Good result, but durability of the good look is still TBD. - **Mach R1** (sorry, I refuse to call this Eufy S1 Pro): birthed by the Anker Innovations incubator "Mach" (later absorbed into Eufy), it finally brings to Anker-owned Eufy a new style that was really needed. Futuristic and clean, not much to say. A very good result resembling the square-ish shape of older LG HomBot, but in a new futuristic, semi-transparent twist. That's all folks 😬 Edit: pictures in the comment below because somehow embedding doesn't work in this comment.

Your criteria is very similar to mine. I got rid of my roomba combo j7+ a few weeks before they declared bankruptcy and bought a Ecovacs X8 Pro. I think it’s the same as Deebot. Has both extended roller mop and onboard wet and dirty water container.

Hi lovely community, I'm looking for some help. I live in a flat with 2 cats that's hardwood and some low pile area rugs. I had a Roomba J7 Combo without the dock. It did a decent job at vacuuming and mopping but stopped mopping after a year and a half and it couldn't be fixed. I'm looking for a reliable robot vacuum with great ability to pick cat hair out of carpets and off floors. I can't manually vacuum and I'm not looking to test out super new features. Budget of around 500 euros and based in Germany I have looked in depth at Reddits and reviews and I don't want the newest robots. I'd like something tried and true that vacuums well for at least 3 years. I'm thinking Roborock and will buy from somewhere with a warranty. I've seen the Roborock S8+, repeatedly mentioned as well performing over a long period of time. This now seems to be really hard to find. Currently the QRevo is on sale on amazon but I think that only has one roller rather than 2. Would love to hear from some people that have had their bot for years and are still happy. I'm mainly interested in the vacuum features. Thanks for the help!

Me, too. This is why I'm here--time to replace Dumbot. This will be my 4th robot vac and definitely not looking at iRobot!

My J7+ has always sucked, in all the wrong ways. I named it Dumbot. All I hear is Alexa saying "your Dumbot is stuck". Never understood the great reviews for it.

We have the Roomba j7+ We did a fair amount of research before getting it and watched YT videos comparing all the different makes and models and this was highly rated for pet hair. It’s pretty good - but like others have said you do have to spend time cleaning the hair out of the wheels which is an annoying and dirty job and also I find that I don’t run it very often because the sound makes my dog bark so I have to only run it when the dog isn’t in the house, which isn’t that often (of course, I could try to get the dog used to it, but I haven’t taken the time to do that) As an alternative to a robot we also recently bought the Shark Auto Detect and we are loving it! It’s cordless and really lightweight. It’s so easy to maneuver picks up tons of hair and has really good rollers that don’t get stuck on hair. I actually was looking forward to vacuuming today, which is crazy. I never thought I would say that!

Thanks, I hadn’t heard about fur compression yet. I have a very furry dog and this feature sounds useful. My Roomba J7+ always thought the dustbin was full if some hairs were sticking out in front of the sensor.

I agree. I had a J7+.