Roomba j7+ Series

This will not be a popular opinion because everyone in this sub really seems to dislike iRobot (for some very understandable reasons) but I literally just updated from the same i7+ & M6 combo last month to the Roomba Max 705 Combo and I'm pretty pleased with my purchase. I will say I was able to find it on sale for $799 (and I also had a gift card for the retailer I bought from which brought the price down even further) so that was a factor. I don't think I would be as pleased at MSRP, but then again I spent more on the i7+ when it was first released and it served us very faithfully for 8 years and is still performing fine after a battery and roller chassis upgrade a few years ago that is still holding strong, so to me a newer upgrade for less money than I spent previously seems like a good deal. The Braava still works as well, it's just seriously outdated tech and we moved from a giant house with more carpet to a giant house with a lot more hard flooring so mopping is a bigger priority now. The old bots have been sent to live and work on the 2nd floor and the new one replaces them both on the first floor admirably. I haven't tried any of the currently popular robot vacuum & mop brands, but a lot of them seem to have gimmicky features that I don't really need and just look kinda cheap and unattractive to me, just a personal preference. I really like the look of the 705 combo, and while she's a big bertha, she feels pretty solid. The lidar navigation is light years better than the i7's VSLAM, I find the object avoidance to work very well (we have 2 kids and 3 cats who leave their toys and stuff all over the house, and one of the cats is elderly with health issues so sometimes the errant poo appears outside of our litter robot, but so far none of that has been an issue.) We have a lot of long, floor length drapey curtains and it gets really close to them without disturbing them (after the initial mapping run where it did gently sweep them to the side, but it didn't damage them.) We also have a room with a lot of instruments, drumsticks, picks & amp cables all over the floor, and a home gym with rubber mats and dumbbells and such all over the place, and it does great avoiding everything we don't want it to touch. It only got stuck once, on a doormat, but that seems to have been a fluke because it runs every day over that mat and only got stuck the one time. It's so much more hands off than the i7+ & M6. The mopping has been great and I really appreciate the Y-shaped pattern it can do because I find it gets into little crevices better. I had the older Braava that did the Y motion years ago and I'm glad to have it back again. I've read about leaking issues with some units but mine has been fine from the get go, even though it was missing a couple of dock seals when it arrived. Customer service sent them to me quickly and I haven't really noticed any difference since I installed them, I'm still not getting any leaks, but with the extra seals it seems less likely, at least. I did see some foam left behind on the first couple of runs, but the app said it was probably the remains of previous floor cleaning solutions that just needed to be washed away. The foam was white and dried clear on my dark wood floors, and it went away after the 2nd or 3rd mop run in each area. I will say the app is pretty basic, but it does what it needs to do and it's not like the old iRobot app was amazing, either. I haven't had any issues with connectivity, voice control, Android home integration (although the options are pretty basic from the home app, there are plenty of voice commands that work well), and the scheduled/automated settings all work fine for me. Is it the bleeding edge of tech? No. Is it the best value at MSRP? No. Is it a huge upgrade from what you currently have at a comparable price to what you're already used to? Yes. I think for people who have already migrated to Mova, Dreame, Narwhal, Roborock, they might be used to certain features at certain price points and see anything iRobot as a step back, but for people coming from older Roomba models, the 705 combo at least really IS a nice upgrade, and not more expensive than they're used to. I'm not telling you NOT to look into the other brands, especially if they offer features that fit your needs better, just commenting to say that I recently made the switch to the 705 combo from your exact setup and despite the fact that basically all my research told me it was a "meh" robot, it was worth the gamble to me at the sale price, and it's a gamble that has paid off a lot so far. I can't vouch for the longevity of the company supporting the older or newer robots now that they're restructuring, but if I get several solid years of service out of my new bot, I'll be pretty satisfied. It does a great job cleaning my floors, picking up lots that the i7+ & M6 combo left behind, and I haven't had any issues with it so far. Maybe I've just been lucky with my iRobot vacuums and mops but they've all been pretty low maintenance (I don't mind cutting off hair tangles from the brush roll) and done what I need them to do, so even now I haven't felt the need to look outside. That may change in the future, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the 705 combo and I was fully expecting having to return it based on internet reviews, so it might be worth a look if you're not sick of iRobot at this point.