Roomba j7 Series

The biggest issue I’ve had with robot vacuums and pet hair is the auto empty feature. With 4 dogs, we have a lot of dog hair. I’ve had 2 robot vacuums not be able to auto empty (a Yeedi vac station and Roborock Quervo QV 35A) which is hugely frustrating. My Roomba j7+ auto emptied just fine, but didn’t have a mopping function. My current vacuum, a Eufy E25, auto empties and has a roller mop. The roller mop is key for reducing mop smells, since it rinses the mop as part of the cleaning process (as opposed to the spinning mop heads which only get cleaned when the robot goes back to base). Now that I’ve had a good vacuum/mopper, I’m never going back. Mopping keeps my floors soooo much cleaner, especially when it’s wet outside and my dogs track in mud. I like that the E25 has an auto-dispense function for the cleaning solution, which makes paying extra for the proprietary cleaner totally worth it. Another thing that’s really helped reduce smells is running the robot twice a day. First I run it on vacuum only to pick up as much dog hair as possible, then about 2 hours later I run the vacuum/mop setting (the E25 does not have a mop only function). This keeps the mop head mostly clear of dog hair, and prevents a wet dog smell. If you let the hair build up on the mop it transfers to the tray in the base station, where it stays damp and smells like wet dog. The E25 is good at avoiding dog toys, but struggles with socks and cables. Overall I’m very happy with it and it’s currently $649 on Amazon. As a side note, I highly recommend buying on Amazon so you can use the Asurion protection plan. Yes, I know Amazon is a terrible company. Unfortunately I am stuck with them because of the Asurion insurance subscription. It works great and I’ve made a lot of claims with them. Insurance is a must for any robots, because they will break. The Roomba I had died when our Rottweiler peed on it. Asurion refunded the purchase priced because it couldn’t be repaired, and that’s how I paid for the next vacuum!

It’s good for as long as you pay the subscription. If you don’t want to do a subscription there’s an option to purchase a warranty for a set period of time (up to 3 years, I think). Before I had a subscription this is what I did. They do not depreciate the value. You get your purchase price refunded back as an Amazon credit. For example, I bought the Yeedi in 2021 for $501.80 (after tax) and it died in 2024. I got a refund of the pre-tax price of $468.97. This has been consistent with all of the claims I’ve made over the years… you get the full purchase price minus tax. If you read the subscription fine print you’ll see that there’s a $5,000 maximum for warranty claims annually. They look at the previous 12 months, not the calendar year. Making multiple claims per year I haven’t come anywhere near the maximum, but something to keep in mind.

I used the individually-purchased warranties for years with a bunch of claims and it was always super easy. That’s why I jumped on the subscription when it came out, since I was buying so many individual warranties. My only other recommendation is to save your original packaging for the robot because if you do need to make a claim, you’ll need to ship it back to see if they can repair it first. The shipping label is free, but they don’t provide packaging. If Asurion can fix it, they do, then send it back to you at no charge. If they can’t, then you get a full refund.

I have two dogs and two cats and the j7+ works just fine

TLDR: my Roomba sucks and I want to upgrade. We have had a J7 for about 3 years now. The first 6 months to a year, it was fine. Then started experiencing small problems here and there. The tread disintegrated at one point, then it kept getting disconnected from wifi. Within the last year, it has become completely useless. Object detection doesn’t work at all. It eats socks or cords that are touching the ground and then gets trapped, the map gets messed up and it has to be factory reset. And it loses wifi connection halfway through a run, and ends up wandering or ending its job early, only to not be able to find the dock. This has been after a factory reset, after a new map run, after wifi reset, after disconnecting from my phone, and after ALL parts including a battery were replaced. So I’m pretty much done with the Roomba. Before the Roomba. We had a Roborock S5 that was fine other than not being able to handle our shag rug at the time. And before that, we had a Eufy 11S that was terrible at object detection. It was slim enough to go under some of the furniture, but was just the right height to get itself aggressively wedged under most of our lower furniture. What’s a good upgrade I can get? My home is a smaller house, only 1 floor. Mostly tile/hardwood. Some medium thickness rugs. 2 long haired pets that shed a ton. A kid that drops crumbs. Specifically, my highest priority would be I’d prefer something that is good for all of the pet hair and dirt. And good at obstacle detection (especially cat barf or a forgotten toy or sock. Or a cord end that is dangling onto the floor). And app usage that is pretty good. I’d need a map with the ability to create boundaries to avoid. I do not care about a mop and would likely never use the mop feature.

I have the j7 and I have taken it apart more than once to clean it and I'm not super happy with it. I got it at Costco so it might go back before they go belly up. I'll try it again a few more days but I didn't even have it plugged in for 6 months... because we had renovations going on in the house. It's Black Friday week but I prefer to buy from Costco because they do have such a good return policy.

I have a roomba j7 and I have two dogs, it's great with dog hair

I have a Roomba J7+. It was their first one that they say will avoid poo. Fortunately, we've never had to test that in the year we have had Ranger. It works well, but iRobot is having issues with money right now and the model is older. If you get one, it is important to remember that they still require regular maintenance to keep them from getting clogged or overwhelmed with hair.

Hair wraps around the brushes and needs to be removed. If you get a self emptying unit, they cannot get all of the dust out of the bin. Filters need to be cleaned and changed.

I have a Roomba j7+ on each floor of my house. I cannot speak to their latest lines as they have changed a lot and seem to not be moving in a great direction. But, the j7 was the first with their object avoidance that can identify poop and avoid it. I have not tested this specific feature, but I have seen it avoid socks and phone chargers. If you only want to touch the vacuum weekly or less, get one that self empties. The robot itself will need a little attention to get the last bits out of the bin 2-4 times per month, the bags they empty into usually last a month or two, and the rollers will need attention when the bin does. But, if you do not get a self emptying one, you might be eptying more than weekly. Check out Vacuum Wars on youtube and their website for in depth reviews and recommendations for different price points too.

Me, too. This is why I'm here--time to replace Dumbot. This will be my 4th robot vac and definitely not looking at iRobot!

My J7+ has always sucked, in all the wrong ways. I named it Dumbot. All I hear is Alexa saying "your Dumbot is stuck". Never understood the great reviews for it.