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.

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.

I got the new Roomba 405 which vacuums and mops and uses a new app that’s way better than the old one

405 Combo has spinning mop pads that do not extend and basic obstacle avoidance (read none besides bumping and infrared distance and lidar), the 505 Combo has a front facing camera for obstacle avoidance which is far superior as well as an extending mop pads which can go into corners/tight spots. The 405 Dock doesn’t use hot air to dry the pads whereas the 505 Dock does. VacuumWars puts it quite well https://vacuumwars.com/irobots-new-2025-lineup-buyers-guide/#:~:text=The%20405%20introduces%20spinning%20mop,it%20the%20most%20advanced%20option.

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

We have the mop vac combo (forgive me, I don't remember what exact model, but I DO know it is the self emptying combo w\ the removable dust filter "trash' bags, and has a grey "tweed" designer -look on the top. That probably makes no sense). At any rate, I LOVE the vacuum feature, esp the self-emptying component. However, the few times I have attempted to use the mopping feature, it has not worked well at all. Admittedly, my model could be a slightly older model, like maybe last year's, so take that for what it's worth. It starts off fine, but after no more than 10 min if that, it seems to get stuck. What it's stuck on is beyond me because it happens in dining room each time & sounds like it's spinning it's wheels (like a car stuck in mud). There are no rugs, chairs are moved out of the way & there's no visible debris obstacles like  one of my son's marbles or a plastic milk cap or anything. Literally just hardwood flooring. I've tried rebooting, I've tried popping the water/mop pad on & mopping immediately (thinking it would help reduce soaking & "puddling" near the wheels), I've tried wiping the wheels and following behind it to wipe up the drag marks of water. But it still spins & does nothing. I can't complain too much as I won it at my husband's  Xmas work party raffle, and like I said the vac feature is excellent. Since we have a young son & a dog that sheds constantly, I'm ok w/just the vac👌

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.

I’ve had a Roomba for over 10 years now. It’s 100% worth it. I got it when I was a single cat lady in my 20s working long hours. Now I’m married and we have 2 kids, a cat and a dog. We upgraded to the Roomba that maps the house and empties itself in the docking station. It vacuums the whole house 3x a week and does the high traffic areas 5 nights a week after the kids go to bed. I do wish the mop version (Brava) worked better. I have not gotten that damn thing to properly map my house to mop for me and the solution that they sell for it makes all of our house shoes squeak for days.

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!

I bought one well over a year ago possibly on year 2. iRobot self emptying. If it only lasted a year I’d buy another one. It works as well as it did when I bought it. I replace the rollers and the brush thingy like twice. Get the iRobot replacement the knock off parts lasted like a week. I have all tile. Bedroom is carpet. If it runs everyday it’s not a problem on carpet. If it’s a few days of fur it creates nests I just hand pick up. I don’t have to do this if it runs daily. Completely worth it. I also live near a beach and it straight picks up all the sand too. It’s great. Never not having one.

I guess I’m the outlier here but I love mine. I have the self emptying, mapping Roomba. It mapped my space great and does a really good job cleaning. Self emptying is the best upgrade, as I previously had a much cheaper model and haaaated emptying that thing constantly.

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

They \*could\* but I doubt very much that they do; it would cost a lot. The biggest privacy risk is revealing a map of the layout of your home if your online account is hacked. I have an iRobot Roomba that empties its own bag into a base. Love it. Love not having to vacuum under beds and sofas. It took some prep to make my home ready for it--furniture needs to be high enough (and legs wide enough apart) for it to run up under. Lamp cords need to be secured. Don't run it automatically or when you're not home. Do clean the hair out of it after it runs (takes only a couple minutes). I run it once a week. I spend 3-4 minutes putting things like litter baskets and chairs up off the floor so it has a better reach, then schedule it to run 3x. Then turn the schedule off again and return loose items to the floor. Spend about a minute getting hair out of its rollers. I've had several good looks inside my Roomba and didn't see anything like microphones or cameras. Its bump sensors are not cameras. It does have an internet connection and so can be voice-controlled if you connect to Alexa or Google Home. But that is optional. If you only operate it with the app or onboard buttons, it cannot be voice controlled.

We’ve used a self emptying Roomba for years. 3 dogs, a Basset, a Lab, and a Terrier. All are moderate shedders and fur accumulation is a problem. All three are indoor/outdoor dogs and mud is a consideration for us. We have area rugs from Costco that help dry paws and pick up some dirt. We launder them at a coin-op each month to save wear and tear on our washer. The Roomba is fine for keeping visible areas tidy, but one pass on the floor and the internal bin will fill with fur and dust. We still vacuum with a stick vac in corners and under furniture, Roomba can’t reach. No mopping robot can keep up with mud from paws if you live in a rainy muddy area. Invest in a good Swiffer wet mop or a light weight bucket based mop.

I started with a eufy and it was pretty good on all hardwood floors. It would pile some fire up in the corners I could pick up. But then I upgraded to a roomba with the self emptying thing and I love it. The app and tutorials are very helpful.

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

I have a self emptying roomba vacuum. It runs daily at 9:30 am, recharges and empties itself, then finishes rhe rest around 2 in the afternoon. I live on a horse farm with 4 dogs and 5 cats and only if its muddy do shoes come off at the door. That robot is a wonderful thing.

I have an IRobot Roomba self emptying one! It literally just got done vacuuming. Genuinely LIFE CHANGING. I got mine as a Christmas gift and it’s great but I’d probably go with the Shark 2 in 1 self emptying robot mop/vacuum when my Roomba dies. I run mine at least 2 times a day and I think it helps keep it where hairballs don’t build up and get stuck in it.

Two huskies here. We have a self emptying Roomba. We run it 5 days a week. I have to keep up with the replacement parts, or it starts just wadding up hair and leaving it in chunks. But even that cuts manual cleaning time, because I can just take the hand vac to the chunks. We've had it since 2021.