iRobot - Roomba Combo j5

The j5s are great for pet hair, but unfortunately they’re dumb as rocks and lock themselves in rooms all the time. They’ve now been replaced by Roborocks and confined to the basement.

The Ecovac Deebot T50 Pro is awesome. I just got in a week ago. I ditched my iRobot Roomba J5 which sucked. Always got lost and stuck. The T50 has honestly been so much better and was only $650. I have 2 other iRobots that I’ll get rid of because they’re all god awful.

I’d highly recommend the Ecovacs T50 pro. I just got that after having a Roomba J5 which was awful. The Ecovacs does an absolute awesome job mopping and vacuums pretty well too. It has 2 spinning mopping pads which extend to get corners and close to the walls. The mapping is really good and it always finds its way back to the base, which the roomba never did.

They all have "docks," so I think you mean you don't want a self-emptying machine. To be fair though, the area on the floor taken up by a self-emptying dock is about the same as the space taken up by the robot alone; and the same will be true with just the little charging station. The only direction where you can save space by using only the charging dock instead of the self-emptying dock is vertically. Cleaning ability: Some vacuum models in the Roomba brand line have more suction power than others. It's up to you to research the specs on that. Last spring I bought my first robot, a J5 Combo, which \*can\* mop, but I've never used that feature and never will. I bought it because at that time I couldn't get that level of suction in any machine that was dry-vacuum-only. I tried a Roborock for about a week before I got the Roomba. Great app, great navigation. But when it ran over my in-floor vents for forced air heat, or over the steel ring that supports my swivel rocker, its rollers absolutely fell out. Seriously! And when it finished a job and I went to empty its bin, there was hardly anything in the bin. So I borrowed an old, outdated Roomba - a 690 Series - and ran that immediately afterward. The bin was full of pet hairs. So even an old Roomba far surpassed a new Roborock. It's possible that that particular Roborock machine was faulty, but I wasn't ready to give Roborock another chance after iRobot/Roomba had proven itself. Navigation: Roombas need decent light to do well. Roborocks (and probably other Lidar-driven robots) do not. Depending on when you want to have your robot run, this may be an issue. App: iRobot's app is clunky. It works, eventually ... but it's not fun or efficient. Every time I go into it I feel like I'm in a find-the-secret-door strategy game, plus it's very S-L-O-W. I can go make coffee while the map loads. Roborock on the other hand was slick. In short, in my experience there are trade-offs. So far, Roomba/iRobot seems to have superior cleaning and machine durability, whereas Roborock had superior navigation and app functionality. I value the cleaning ability the most. What you value the most is up to you.

I too have all carpet in my place except for kitchen and bathrooms. (I like to be \*comfortable\* here in MN, no cold hard floors for me, no matter that bare floors are all the rage these days.) I have a J5 Combo and a J7+. Both do very well keeping up with my German Shepherd's shedding, and for the first time in decades of GSD ownership I can walk through my main living area at any time and not get hair all over my socks. Huskies may not shed year round like German Shepherds, but the few I've known, when they blow their coats, it's a blizzard. You'll still have to brush them pretty often to keep up at those times, but a robot vacuum can help with the normal shedding and the hairs that keep falling no matter what you do in the grooming department. These two vacuums are advertised to have increased suction power over some other models. I think that with carpet, the extra suction is important. I never use the available mopping feature of the J5, but at the time that level of suction power didn't come without it.

I bought a mid-to-upper model Roborock a little over a year ago, after having tried my daughter's (somewhat old) Roomba. I ended up returning it because it did stupid stuff like drop its rollers out when it went over a floor vent. (??!?) And because after I ran it and found very little in its bin, I ran my daughter's six-year-old Roomba and it sucked up a LOT of hair. Maybe the Roborock I got was a lemon, since I'm hearing that other people think it does just fine. I loved its app - iRobot's app is not very user-friendly. But the goal is cleaning, not playing with an app, so I got a Roomba J5. Good cleaning. Added a J7 later on because I didn't want to tote the J5 to different levels of the house. I'd say the J5 is smarter than the J7, for some strange reason. J7 gets stuck at the top of a "cliff" (stairs) from time to time, and the J5 never did. Maybe the J7's camera is less capable. Heads up on Roombas: they require enough ambient light for their cameras to work. They're not into LiDAR navigation, which would allow them to do their job at night with all the lights off. Just in case that makes a difference to you. I haven't had a chance to personally compare performance between the i and the J models of Roombas, but went with J because I wanted the greater suction power that is advertised to come with them. Edit - PS re blow dryer for undercoat. I've found the best tool for GSD undercoat issues is an old-fashioned, low-tech undercoat rake. My present girl has a pretty short coat for a GSD, but wow that rake can really pull it; and she feels the difference. Something like this: [Amazon undercoat rake link](https://www.amazon.com/Coastal-Pet-Undercoat-Designed-Undercoats/dp/B0083TSC64/ref=sr_1_9?crid=J4X43SSVX9PI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2GaHbloLLXTdo2hjKm_oN6gb_cbIKNYd7UFh9e43Q6ogcCWKCY9vL4O1MdIff7VBUMbvZMfahjPK6CoBQH3wjXji1drTidQ5tYydwaw2GdFLCqMkElUijPLNAu_O0rPCbMTNI5Xa4gg137VrHl2elQH8Qf6DdGDMkdfOpMBbIK77IK_kRb98iO-COLDsb9L-Rgzc0HW1fcDDjEBQjylfrqXGAkNGH1i7I70Pypgpt87dqHzSUkzm2Smkw1zGclbo2pqp8XlX7lXGnZSkMFT0cVRtxg7XGTAOOWV3ID_VMMs.jA93VyAAfUBWBT-szQymuBvblJC8wB55Q0eCgTBf6js&dib_tag=se&keywords=dog%2Bundercoat%2Brake&qid=1751840435&sprefix=dog%2Bundercoat%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-9&th=1) No need to spend a fortune.

I have the Roomba J5 and it works wonders. We have a husky, a husky mix, and a long haired supermutt and it's a trooper

I have booth! I have the roomba for my office and the shark for my home. I’m happy w my shark. Have had it for about half a year at this point and it runs daily because I have a cat. It’s not as smart as they advertised it as. It won’t detect the cat nor my legs 😂 most of the time. But it will detect furnitures. The cat isn’t a fan of it so he doesn’t go around it when running but because it doesn’t detect him I don’t run it when I’m not home. It’s fairly a good vacuum. But the app is stupid. The roomba is good as well we have had it for around 2 years at this point. We have the j5 not j5+. The shark dose a better job of noticing obstacles. It dose a nice job of cleaning the office. But we have to make sure there is no cable on the ground. I say go w shark. The shark has a better tracking futures tho the app sucks dick.

Thankfully my cat hasn’t had an accident yet but I have a feeling the shark won’t detect the poop. simply because if my cats toys are smaller than a certain size it usually tries to run them over so I’m not sure. That being said it’s really good at picking up cat litter and cat hair. My girl is sensitive on that and we hardly notice any hair on the ground. Remember roomba has a camera system and shark has lidar. Lidar is good at detecting the house layout, mostly big enough objects and furnitures. Camera is good at detecting obstacles like poop

I see so many positive reviews of it. I want the e25, but I really want it to go on sale before pulling the trigger to upgrade from my roomba j5

All the i and j7 and below series vacuums have the same motor. Only the s9 and j9 have more suction, the s9 is actually better suction. On hard floors any of them will pick up the hair. The s9 will do very well on the area rugs. Not worth buying the combo models.

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.

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

Roomba j5 has POOP promise: for the first year of ownership: if the Roomba does not avoid poop and goes on top of it iRobot would replace it.

We are using a j5 combo and really liking it. Our main level is about that size i believe.

A roomba. We have a J5. You can run them every day with minimal effort, and they do a pretty good job, and then just go over once a week with your regular vacuum. We have tiles, and it does a great job. But this week, through a series of unusual events, I ended up using my roomba on medium pile carpet that is original to our late 90's home, and omfg the hair and dander is pulled up is insane. I'm disgusted. We vacuum it once a week with an upright bissel, but apparently, the roomba is so so so much better. For the couch, I have a handheld pet bissel and a reusable lint roller which work amazing. I have 2 blue heelers and a cat.

iRobot Roomba combo and Braava are really just automated swiffer mops that do not suck up the dirty solution off the floor. They spray the floor and drag an absorbent pad over it instead. If you have a handheld swiffer with the solution sprayer, you will find that the Roomba mop models work almost identically. These will do a general clean but do not scrub the floor and cannot clean up spilled food or drinks. Some other companies have spinning mops with a wet vac dirty water tank that do a much better job on spilled food and drinks.

There’s actually a roomba that does both vacuuming and light mopping (think of it like roomba swiffer). It has a reservoir of the liquid at the charging station and a bag dispenser for the dust as well. I never felt older than when I got genuinely excited for a roomba like I would for a console when I was younger. That’s my “treat yourself” buy when I get my next bonus lol

iRobot already did that with their first generation iRobot Combo (R11xx). The Roomba Essential was also not made by iRobot. Now it seems none of them will be. I just don't understand the end game for iRobot. Are they just gonna be riding on the brand name from now on and slowly disappear into nothingness because why would OEM give 3rd party better tech and design than they use in their own robots? iRobot, as much as they've been weird and stubborn with some things, I still love their core design of robots since introduction of E series and later i. I loved how they ALL had identical main roller brushes, identical side brushes, identical filters, identical dust bins, identical almost everything. Not only it's cheaper for them to supply 1 type of each part, it's easier for users, for regular maintenance and repairs. I work in this part of the industry and I can't stress enough how many times customers/consumers have no clue what device they have, be it robot vacuum or a regular vacuum. If you just need to tell "I have a roomba" and that's all it's needed to know which part you supply. So many Chinese robots as well as ones from other well known brands like Electrolux, Philips and Rowenta have different parts for almost every model and it's soooooooooooo annoying.

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. :(

Just gonna tell you, the mops work very very well. Not sure where you heard they don’t, but if you wanna if you insist on going vacuum only, I recommend iRobot. They are the best at vacuuming and have great customer support. I’d say j5, j7, j9, will all be great.

Oh ok, I can’t argue with that logic. If you have pets I’d suggest you go the extra mile and get the j9+ since it’s very good for pet hair. Regardless, you’ll love the j5.

YES. It is most definitely that bad. It’s bad on hard floors but god forbid you run it on a carpet. I have a video of it just plowing through fake dog poop on carpets. Edit: I have owned both the roomba j series and dreame l series, and both are so so much better.

I have a j series its super easy to get long hair out of the rollers/wheels/whatever. Wife went through chemo and it was a test for the robot...both survived!

Roomba J series would work

If you don't care about mopping, then I would suggest considering a roomba j series. The dual rollers, bin design (reduces filter clogging), dirt detection, and bin sensor for auto empty make it well suited for pet hair. Hair will still accumulate inside of the rubber rollers and require maintenance. VacuumWars recently found that the similar combo 10 max picked up 100% of 2.5 inch hair from carpet, which was much better than many modern flagship models from competitors. I have 3 robovacs (Ecovacs x1 omni, Roomba j5+, Roborock S6 pure) and rate the j5+ highly. I have 270 hours on it so far with no issues

The comment about robot vacuums only being for small places is probably based on the old random pattern robots. Most robots now map and do well in large houses. It sounds like most mapping robots would work for you, since you don't want mopping, have hardfloors, and no pets. So anything with lidar (prefered) or vslam navigation. Obstacle avoidance might be a useful feature for cords, shoes, toys etc. left on the ground. It might be worth looking into a Eufy L60, iRobot Roomba j series, Roborock Q series, or shark. I'm biased because I have three robot vacs (Roborock S6, Ecovacs x1 omni, and iRobot Roomba j5+ combo) and my roomba j5+ is the only one that is reliable and working at the moment

iRobot is likely the longest lasting brand, there are many accounts of people having these bots for so many years and well over 1k hours.. iRobot are still providing parts for 12+ year old bots. Where is the planned obsolescence there?

The combo 10 max (almost the same obstacle avoidance as all other modern/j-series iRobot models) initially scored in vacuum war's top ten for obstacle avoidance. It's also the only brand that guarantees avoidance of pet poo. Battery is debatable, but it's also a non-issue for most because of charge and resume

All have pretty poor customer service. I have three bots (Ecovacs, Roborock, and iRobot) and recommend the roomba i or j series for vacuum only (especially if you have carpet). It's designed for longevity rather than features. My j5+ has been reliable and kept up with 2 shedding dogs (long hair border collie cross) and two people

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

Yeah, Roomba’s been coasting on name recognition for years. Hardware’s fine, but the software is way behind Dreame, Roborock, even Ecovacs. J series especially has dumb pathing issues. You’re not crazy though. Plenty of us jumped ship 😅

The IRobot J series is quite terrible. They don't seem to have enough traction while mopping even on their lowest setting and using plain water, it'll just start sliding and not go in a straight line. Then it'll give up and be in the middle of a room. Also, the vacuuming is good with its dual rubber brushes but it seems the brushes pull up some of the moisture from the mop and then dust will clump up along with pet hair and clog before getting into the bin. I should've done more research than going with a Roomba. But I do like the obstacle avoidance.

The I and J series clean so much better than the 2 Essential. Even the lowest priced I series is well worth the extra money.