iRobot - Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot

Personally, I would only consider the 505 mop combo at this time. At $599 currently, it’s discounted but I wouldn’t say extraordinarily so. The 405 mop combo is similar to the 505 and has a much better discount at $399. For me, though, the lack of obstacle avoidance in the 405 is a deal-killer. The 505 also has heated drying of the mop pads and can swing one of the mop pads out to reach corners, something the 405 also lacks. Not as big of a deal to me as the lack of object avoidance in the 405.

So iRobot just released an entirely new line of robots. Their design is completely different, so not sure there’s a lot of data on the new ones. That said the Roomba 405 Combo is right on budget for you which is their latest technology. The j9+ combo is a solid model and the Combo 10 Max seems to still be their flagship as well.

We have an almost 7-month-old whose full coat hasn't grown in yet! With that said, I have Roomba 405 Combo that has been working well for us. I have it vacuum and mop 5 days a week, and then do a "deep cleaning" twice a week. We manually vacuum and mop once a week; the Roomba helps keep things neat in between.

Yes, the deep cleaning vacuum mode will use higher suction and do two passes instead of one, and the mop mode does Smart Scrub, which means it'll exert more downward pressure and go back and forth, rather than just spinning and going in a straight line. It does take longer though, because it usually has to go back to the base and recharge. The new 505 model just came out, so the 405 is discounted a bit.

I got one this week from Roomba. Room learning logic seems kinda broken, but it cleans well.

Sorry life got in the way, turns out we got the 405 combo, but I'm fairly sure that's about to be demoted to upstairs and replaced. The boss is complaining that it's worse than our j7+ 😬

I've been running my 405 for like a month I put in some very light cleaning solutions and it's fine. Basically just enough to make it a step above water and smell good. I wouldn't put anything bleach related or ammonia related I wouldn't really put anything other than like a natural cleaner definitely no vinegar nothing corrosive. Also they mentioned nothing that suds up too much so no dish soap. I also agree it's freaking awesome. The mopping function is the best my floor has never been cleaner

I was torn between this and the 505 but it seems like all the 505 has is heated pad drying which I don't really think is all that important. But yeah It goes back constantly to refill like every 10 minutes for about 6-700 square feet. So it works but definitely adds time.

So update it basically uses 3/4 of the water tank to mop. My house isn't that big it's probably mopping no more than 700 sqft. The mopping is also pretty bare Bones. I would call it the equivalent of going over your floor quickly with a damp Swiffer without scrubbing. I had a little test spot on the floor that was pretty light something you could just kind of rub with a moist finger and it would eventually come up and it's gone through two rounds of mopping and it's still there. I'm sure if it was more of a fresh spill and not something old and dried up it would probably get it but that's about it. But my expectations weren't that high I was just looking for something to get the dirt layer off and it seems to do that pretty well.

It's much much quieter is the first thing I noticed the 900 was so freaking loud on carpet. I couldn't hear anything and had to scream just to hear what I was saying. I could easily be on a phone call while 405 is going on carpet and barely be bothered. Can't tell how well it vacuums yet it has 4 different settings of suction. It defaults to the third highest and I just left it at that. It did pick up some test things I threw on the floor just to see. So I think it's probably pretty good at least as good as the 900. Might try out the high suction tomorrow to see if it's really loud. The mopping I'm undecided so far. I've never had a mopping robot so nothing to compare it to except good ole elbow grease mopping. Which I know is going to always be 10x better. But it seems like it doesn't store water it just wets the pads because it starts off out of the machine with decent wetness but then as it goes you can see the water decrease that it leaves behind. My floor is also reasonably clean right as I used my bissel vac mop the other day. But I did clear out the dirty water and it was pretty dirty so it's doing something haha. Will it lift up some caked on mess I don't know.

It looks very much like the old one honestly it's pretty basic. The biggest difference to me is it shows you all the rooms that it discovered when it makes your first map and lets you designate no-go areas. Also the schedule automation lets you pick various rooms and if you want them to just be mop vacuum or both. Also lets you name all your rooms if you really want. But I will say I'm pretty underwhelmed by the interface gets the job done but that's about it.

Love our J9. “Upgraded” to a 405 and it is horrible for pet hair.

I equate robot vacs to hand sanitizer. They do the job, but at the end of the day, soap and water make your hands feel the cleanest. I have both an ecovac deebot and a roomba 405. Honestly, the cheaper deebot worked more consistently than the Roomba. Their app is dodgy as heck. If you have pets with fur, I've found the old school janitor brooms to be the most efficient and effective on floors. Too much fur tends to clog up Roomba vacs. Go cheap to dip your toes in the robot waters.

the mopping performance of the 405 is hands down better. The spinning brushes are far superior to a dragging microfiber cloth. That said, you are correct with the 405 missing object avoidance. As long as you are not expecting messes on the floor like pet poop, the 405 is still a better choice. The lidar navigation is sufficient for most use cases.

Just received my +405, paired it up, and ready to map & roll...*except* it does not appear to work with the virtual wall barriers I've used on my i5 and older Roombas. I've been unable to locate elsewhere any discussion of such, but is the room mapping just *that* good now that the virtual barriers are no longer needed. (If so, I'm kind of sad because not only are the useful but I also just finished sticking cartoon bears on them to go along with the temperamental i5 \[dubbed "Goldilocks"\].)

If you are organized (don't have cables lying around) then lack of object avoidance will be a plus since it won't get scared of things that aren't really a problem. AI can sometimes confuse things with obstacles and skip cleaning areas. If you like leaving cables on the floor (say a charger plugged to the wall and cable hanging) and stuff around then object avoidance will increase the chances of a "hands off" experience. Navigation is easier on the 405 since it has lidar. If you like running the robot at night it's probably better. If your house is not huge and/or you run the robot during the day then the camera based localization may be good enough. The mapping part can be annoying on the j9+. Getting a map up, and making it reliable, will be a lot easier on a lidar robot like the 405. Hardware on the j9+ is a lot more modular. If something fails you should be able to replace just that part. So long term you're probably better off with the j9+. The vacuum part of it will likely last forever. Wet cleaning systems are trickier. Still the j9+ part is a lot more modular. The older app is annoying to deal with, but you can always hook up the robot to google home / alexa and then just "hey google tell roomba to vacuum and mop the kitchen" and forget about the app [https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/article/1509](https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/article/1509) On the j9+ you can put cute plants on it since the water tank comes out the front of the base ( The 405 is a bit smaller.