I bought up a bunch of robot vacuums from Dreame, Ecovacs, and Roborock lately to test them out and they were all really bad at vacuuming so I returned them to Amazon and bought a pair of used Roomba j9+’s the non mopping combo ones and they vacuum so much better than any of the new combo vacuums did and saved me tons of money
I'm using the J9+ vacuum only model. I have 2 Bernese Mountain dogs so non stop hair, we had 4 but unfortunately 2 old girls passed in 2025. Anyways, it keeps our house looking great. Miss 1 day though and then it's chaos 😀.
With pets I recommend Cleaning the rollers and caster wheel nightly if needed and then once a week take the filter out and clean it also. You can use a makeup brush, or I use a little rechargeable air blower gun to blow it out outside.
Hiya, we have Bernese mountain dogs, a Westie and just lost our Corgie recently 😔 Our house knows a thing or two about dog hair. Our J9+ Vacuum only device is amazing at keeping our floors and air clean. It runs daily, sometimes the master bedroom needs twice because all it takes is one Bernese wrestling match to leave hair everywhere 😂. My settings are 2 passes and high suction.
Maintenance is key, especially with pets! I remove hair from rollers daily, and each weekend I do a more thorough cleaning like blowing out the filter with an electric air blower, removing the front wheel and clearing the hair, removing the plastic caps from the end of the rollers to clean the hair from there, wiping down the charging contacts, which takes less than 5 mins. This will keep your device, and you, happy 🙂
I have dogs so vacuum daily. My J9+ vacuum only does a great job with my hardwood/tile flooring, plus the two carpeted bedrooms. I just make sure to clean the rollers after each run and then do a 5 minute deep clean on the weekends where I blow out the filter outside and clean the hair from the end caps of the rollers and the front wheel.
There are a bunch of new models since this version so others might have good advice on those.
I LOVED my Roomba J9+.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of going the iRobot Select route instead of buying it outright and when it was time for a new robot, I got the 705 max and it is just awful in comparison. Navigation might be slightly better but it has major issues with the app, gets hair tangled constantly, won’t make a proper seal with the redesigned dock, doesn’t give proper notifications on errors and leaves you guessing why it just randomly decided to stop doing anything. And the Matter integration is very poor, at least with Apple Home. Always gets stuck as “updating” instead of the live status.
TL;DR: Don’t get the Roomba 705 Max.
Have a j9+ and that thing is a workhorse that rarely has issues that interfere with the schedule.
The issue is roomba has no competitors that aren’t liable for the same fate (eventual etrash)
Yes, agree. I'm deeply disappointed and frustrated how things are progressing (regressing) in this regard. They can generally do parallel lines well enough, as long as the "intelligent" modes are turned off. But I find they generally require two passes to clean up what my older robots did in one pass. Glass sliding doors, or patterns in the floor, can cause them to swerve and miss areas.
The Ecovacs in particular avoided a whole area on the floor because of a shadow cast by my countertop there.
The Narwal made a perfect map of my upstairs, but when I directed it to go to only clean my laundry room, it went to every other room first trying to find a back way in, finally it got to the edge of the laundry room, turned around and again went to every other room, then got to the laundry room a 2nd time, and then finally went in to clean it. This repeated every time.
I had a Dreame that would get stuck in some sort of virtual box until I moved it out with my foot.
My dining table has a round pedestal base. No robot in the last few years will vacuum tightly around it. They all leave about a 1" gap, which is exactly where the crumbs tend to collect. I still keep my Roomba J9+ in service to go clean up after the others once a week.
Another thing that foils modern robots is cleaning close around chair legs. I do a test, sprinkling some oatmeal around a chair leg. Modern robots will get about 50%-75% of it, but my old Roombas would consistently get all of it.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but the best navigation, edge/corner cleaning, and overall coverage I've ever seen was from my Roomba S9.
Good choice. I have an S9+ that's been taking care of my upstairs for about 6 years. I've only had to replace the battery once. I also have J9+ and have tried every flagship from every brand, but they'll have to pry the S9+ from my cold dead hands.
There are a few compromises to be aware of. I've had a Saros 10 for almost a year, but I still send my Roomba J9 out once in a while to clean up what the Saros misses. I also have the Narwal Flow, Roomba 705, previously had Dreame and Ecovacs, and nothing can clean tight around chair legs, round table pedestals, etc. as well as the classic Roombas.
Roomba roller brush design also picks up hair, fur, and fuzz on rugs much better than any other brand, regardless of reported power.
Also, LIDAR-based robots won't clean under curtains or bedding like classic Roombas could. I'm only aware of Dreame/Mova having a setting to accommodate this.
The Roombas (old and new) also have more advanced voice control via Google/Siri/Alexa that allows just vacuuming, and can specify zones in addition to rooms. All other brands can only "clean" which wastes time and water when you just need a quick vacuum.
Also, the Roomba app is just way more efficient to use.
Not saying the move isn't worth it overall, but there are some sacrifices to be aware of.
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Reliable, great mopping (lifts pads), but poor cable avoidance.
JefTheDrunkBates
