iRobot - j6+

I’ve got this same one. Honestly, even at $150 it’s still overpriced. I got rid of a “lesser” Roborock and have regretted it ever since. With all the issues this Roomba has, it’s honestly more of a chore just troubleshooting the thing than it is to vacuum yourself.

I have the Wyze robot vac and a roomba self emptying vac. I vastly prefer the performance of the wyze vac.

I bought a Roomba when they first came out 2 decades ago. It did ok, but I bought it more for the novelty, as my 3 story loft was not conducive to robot vacuuming. I have a new place that should be perfect. Wide open spaces, flat floors, few obstructions. Saw $100 rebate for a J6+ at Costco, and bought one. And wow, it is terrible. In 2 weeks, it hasn't completed a single full house cleaning mission. It gets stuck in ridiculous spots that I think my 2 decade old "dumb" Roomba could have avoided. And at least half of its fails are because it gets stuck trying to get on its own docking station (which is in an easy to reach and clear spot) to charge. That should be a no brainer part of its operation. Almost all of the fails seem to be from low quality software. I guess because of brand recognition, I mistakenly thought Roomba was synonymous with quality. Is this a new thing, or has Roomba been a junk brand for awhile now?

I'm boxing mine up tomorrow and returning it too. Good thing for Costco's return policies. I'm just shocked how bad the software is. They've had 20 years to figure out how to get a robot to go into its own charging dock. I've sat there and watched it back up, go back forward, miss, back up, spin around, miss again. It literally does this until it either manages to get itself stuck on the dock, or just runs its power down. I'm just at a loss how Roomba could have become such a low quality product so quickly.

Do not buy this! The charging contact can be faulty and can melt, which is a potential fire hazard, too. This happened to ours in less than 3 months and it's a pretty common issue with reviews. Spend the extra dollar and go with Roborock instead.

Irobot has a camera for object avoidance. I think it works pretty great.  It worked perfectly in the beginning, but God forbid when you are training the ai(?) by reviewing the photos you ever allow anything as "not an obstacle" then it will run over similar things forever. Like string, after I told it a cord off the ground was not an obstacle. :(

We love ours. We have one for upstairs and downstairs. Don’t try to get a cheap one, we did that and went through a couple of them pretty quickly. Now we have two good ones (iRobot) with the bin that they self empty into when they get full. We have three kids, two dogs, and a cat that sheds more than both dogs combined, and having robot vacuums has been a game changer. Before we got the one with the bins, it would get full and need emptying before it finished a whole cycle. Now it goes and empties itself and then goes back to cleaning. It’s some trial and error at first. Just run it the first few times when you’re watching it to see where it has any problems. Then you can try to adjust any problem areas. Our upstairs vacuum doesn’t go into the bedrooms because the kids have lots of tiny Barbie shoes and stuff. We have them clean up good and just regular vacuum real quick every other week or so (and we keep bedroom doors closed so the pets don’t go in there to keep hair shedding out). But the robot keeps the main areas of the house from getting hairballs and dirty. We recently got a robot mop as well, and that has been awesome! I feel like it’s just like having any other vacuum. You have to get everything picked up off the floor before you start. You wouldn’t start regular vacuuming with things still on the floor. If there are areas that it gets stuck often, either block it off or try to adjust any problem areas. We usually pull all of the dining room chairs away from the table so that it can get a good clean under the table and around it. We run the vacuums & mop anytime we leave the house, and it’s so nice coming home to freshly vacuumed and mopped floors!

With two labs and a cat our J6+ has been a valuable member of the family over the years. An absolute life changer, we love you Alfred, thank you for your service. (Sorry for trapping you in the bathroom)

The later Roombas with a camera/vision system are pretty good at avoiding things that could cause snags/clogs. I used to be vigilant with clearing the floor and even putting dining chairs on the table, but now I just have my Roomba run every night with dog toys, kid toys, wife's shoes and purse, chairs, charger cords, laundry baskets, and everything else blocking its path. It probably only cleans about 60% of the area I want it to, but I can still feel a noticeable difference when I walk barefoot through the house.

They were joking cause J6 and Jan 6 sound the same. That being said, the J6 is slightly different than the J7 in that they’ve software locked object awareness to the J7, J8 (official Costco model), J9. The J6 is their unspoken “budget” flagship to the J7. In the Same way the J5+ is the “budget” model of the J9+ super similar but missing some key conveniences. I would actually recommend the J7 over the J6 if it’s possible for a good price but idk if I’d spend an extra 400-500 on it just for the object detection over other options.

I have a Roomba that I picked up from Costco. It can be controlled via app and it has a self emptying base.