Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot

I don't know about the best, but I got ourselves a Roomba Plus 405 (G181) and I'm pretty satisfied with the results - despite the mediocre reviews. We have a large kitchen area with few runners and carpet and the robot does a pretty good job mopping the lvp and keeping the area clean. I run it once every 2-3 days. It cannot really reach the inside corners very well and collect the crumbs or debris there. But everything else is really good.

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.

I have the Roomba 405 with the lidar and it’s the best robo vacuum I’ve ever owned. The mopping feature is a huge time saver- I have two dogs with muddy feet any day it rains and it used to mean dragging out the steam mop but now just click a button on the iPhone and done. The vacuum is also great. The auto-empty dock is amazing and even though the dock uses disposable bags you can just empty the disposable bag and reuse it. Just a great product all around. They’re pretty cheap now too.

My roomba pulls the spinning mop pads up when it’s not mopping. Works great.

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.

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.