
172 in Robot Vacuums
iRobot - Combo j7+
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Mar 17, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
12
10
"pet mess avoidance genius"
"I think my J7 dragged a charging cord once in 3yrs."
"the VSlam navigation and obstacle detection and avoidance have been awesome."
15
4
"literally NOTHING robot works like an iRobot that I’ve seen so far esp the j7 and the 988 those are the strongest in their class"
"it does a great job with getting fur out of rugs especially."
"My Roomba j7 Combo (not even an s9) used to do much better on carpet, thanks to the counter rotating rubber brushes, as they have a lot of tiny "notches" that really help with picking up stuff on carpet."
10
5
"The self-empting feature is great, rarely had an issue with that."
"Yes. Self emptying and you can buy a years worth of generic bags very economically priced."
"It has a reservoir of the liquid at the charging station and a bag dispenser for the dust as well."
10
2
"I haven’t had any issues at all with this robot ... it hasn’t broken or had any other weird things happen"
"They constantly send replacements for everything every so often, without me even ordering or noticing(free)."
"I had my first for >10 years before I upgraded and no complaints with the one I have"
13
5
"Honestly, when I have it on schedule, it keeps the house clean and I don't see any hair at all"
"To me, the most important thing is cleaning all the dirt and leaves, and trash stuck on his fur from the outside on a daily basis... and the robots take care of that."
"It picks up most of the hair"
Disliked most:
10
16
"All I hear is Alexa saying "your Dumbot is stuck"."
"It was making phantom rooms I was done playing the delete and re-map until the map gets perfect, which did work for me in the past but I was over it."
"approximately twice a week the vacuum is not able to finish its job and return to its base properly."
6
14
"The charging issues are the most annoying because I have to clean the charging pads 20 times before it starts charging again. ... And the reason I trashed my last Roomba and got a new Roomba was because of the charging pad issue. So i gave roomba 2 chances and both models had the exact same issues"
"It also burnt out its suction fan in the first month I had it, prompting a warranty replacement of the part which meant had to disassemble the unit, install the new part, and send back the defective part. ... Incredibly frustrating."
"it clogs constantly. ... It can't handle any debris larger than a quarter in diameter at most without it getting stuck in the bin due to the size of the emptying tube. ... I have a kid whose paper scraps freqently end up on the floor and those clog it about once every 2 weeks and prompt me to have to take apart the base. ... If I dodnt spend so much on it Id have thrown it away by now."
0
5
"I don’t run it very often because the sound makes my dog bark so I have to only run it when the dog isn’t in the house, which isn’t that often"
"Only thing is it’s kinda loud when it empties itself at the station, so heads up if your doggie gets spooked by noise."
"its noise level... was a nightmare."
1
6
"half the time it isnt running because of a clog in the vaccuum bin or base station. ... The bin is usually easy to fix, but this last time it was the tube that goes to the bag (another expense i didnt have with the shark) and that required disassembly."
"The running times to sweep our main floor have gone from a few hours to now over 6 hours."
"approximately twice a week the vacuum is not able to finish its job and return to its base properly."
3
4
"pretty pathetic excuse for mopping"
"However, the few times I have attempted to use the mopping feature, it has not worked well at all. ... 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."
"They don't seem to have enough traction while mopping even on their lowest setting and using plain water, it'll just start sliding and not go in a straight line. Then it'll give up and be in the middle of a room."
Same here. Have had this roomba j7 combo for over 3 years now and never again. Having so much issues with this thing now.
I have all hardwood and the Roomba combo j7+, a samoyed and an icelandic sheepdog. Merlin (my sammy) is afraid of it, but it does a good job on maintenance vacuuming. I run it 3 times per week on a schedule. Anything less and the fur does start to overwhelm it. I don't know how a Roomba would function on carpet but just wanted to put this out there in case someone found it valuable.
It’s maybe the same brush mechanism as the i7 but it’s the roller mop they’re touting on this one. It’s not even a Roomba - they don’t design and make their own robots now, they had to outsource all of it to catch up with the competition after ignoring LiDAR for so long. I ditched my J7+ Combo for a Saros Z70 and I couldn’t be happier about it!
It do be like that sometimes - I never shut up about mine, my Roborock is my second robot vacuum (I had a Roomba J7+ first) and I’ve been blown away by how effective both of them were at actually cleaning (we’ll leave the Roomba’s technical limitations out for now.. 😆).
This is exactly the same as my L10s Plus - same rated "pa" value and same default brush (all rubber single brush). On carpet it's just awful and it behaves exactly like in your video - so annoying and irritating! I've found that using the mixed rubber/bristles brush that came with my old Mi Robot Vacuum Mop 2 Pro+ (Mijia 1T), also manufactured by Dreame, the pickup ability on carpet becomes much much better. That's the same brush that comes for instance with the Dreame F9 and D9 (1st generation) and Mijia 1C. The type of "debris" you've shown, basically "slides off" the rubber brush and gets left there as the brush doesn't make traction on it to lift it. The long bristles help a lot, at least on my experience. Maybe have a go? My Roomba j7 Combo (not even an s9) used to do much better on carpet, thanks to the counter rotating rubber brushes, as they have a lot of tiny "notches" that really help with picking up stuff on carpet.
I really appreciate someone bringing this up! As a design geek, I always struggle when I have to make purchase decisions because not always I find something that I consider "well designed". The robot vacuums category is one of these... However, here some robot vacuums that have a design worth talking about (of course, things need to be contextualised for their time). In completely random order: - **Roomba s9**: a sleek and professional finish, the first (and only) D-shaped Roomba, taking advantage of its shape and bringing to market the best edge cleaning ever (before robot vacuums with extensible side brush were a thing) together with one of the best vacuuming performances ever. - **Roomba i3**: the first one of the newly engineered Roomba mid-range series, bringing to "budget" conscious consumers a new methodical navigation method, together with a modern aesthetics which drops the carrying handle for a new fabric-textured top finish and with modern, clean lines. - **Philips (Versuni) HomeRun 7000**: not a particularly noteworthy product, however a robot vacuum distancing itself from the competition thanks to the typical Philips design, with dual-finish robot and fabric emptying base. Not the best result, but at least an attempt to bring an externally developed product (ODM'd by 3irobotix) in line with the company design style (uses for instance with air purifiers etc). - **Roomba j7/j9+**: distancing itself from its predecessor (Roomba i7, with a good looking "techy" design), it brings a much cleaner design, more minimal, and enriched by a metallic disc on top together with a UI based on the RGB light around the only button (not the most intuitive one, but an attempt to do something different). It also features a newly redesigned self-emptying station, now developed in a much more compact and modern-looking form factor, thing that will be later copied by most other manufacturers. - **Neato Botvac lineup**: overall, Neato products have always been lacking in terms of design (an exception being the Kobold VR300, which changes the design aligning it to the family feeling of contemporary Vorwerk products), however these specific units brought more thoughtful, cleaner lines (to an extent...) together with the LiDAR tower cap in some bold, unique colours. This aesthetic didn't survive long and wasn't - overall - in line with the brand identity of Neato. Still, a good attempt. RIP. - **Dyson 360° VisNav**: not too much to say - it looks good. Perfectly matches a useful D-shaped layout with the Dyson family feeling. Balanced despite the lack of simplicity, modern in a retro-futuristic way, and functional. - **Karcher RC3000**: one of the first robot vacuums with self-emptying station (the first one?), with a bold design perfectly in line with the company identity. - **Dreame W10 Pro**: overall, similar to all other Dreame products, but in the (now abandoned) D-shaped style. Adds a gold accent to differentiate it from the "non-Pro" version which lacks the front sensor array (ToF 3D cam + RGB cam). Clean lines, clean colours, very minimal and stylish overall. - **SmartMi VortexWave**: innovative design for this unique robot vacuum and mop: D-shaped style allowing a large front brush that can be exchanged to leave its place to a roller-style mop. The first robot vacuum supporting both dry and wet vacuuming. Clean lines and a good mix of minimal and techy design. - **Electrolux Pure i9.2 (also AEG RX9.2)**: one one-of-a-kind. The genuine successor of the original Electrolux Trilobite. Developed in-house by Electrolux, this product was one of the first to implement small obstacles avoidance (2017 for the first gen Pure i9) thanks to its navigation method fully based on dual-line lasers. Overall an excellent product, unfortunately killed by the high price, lacking marketing, and growing Chinese competition (at much cheaper prices). Futuristic design for a robot with futuristic features. - **Matic robot vacuum**: the only one that in recent years has dared to challenge the paradigm of robot vacuums. Narrower but much taller. Boxy design resembling a robotic toy, with large wheels and front, "peninsular" brush assembly. Together with a revolutionary vSLAM navigation system based on nVIDIA Jetson Orin. It has its flaws, but it's the kind of competition we need in the category. - **Narwal (in picture, Freo Z10)**: not really a worthy robot vacuum cleaner/brand overall, but one of the first brands to really bet on rotational mops, together with the distinctive clean and alien-like shape of their docks which has now been copied by many competitors. - **Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (Roborock)**: the first LiDAR-based robot vacuum to bring LiDAR and methodical navigation to the masses, at a price that made it the the-facto standard of robot vacuum recommendations in 2016/2017. Together with the new technology at low price, it brought to the market a modern and clean design and a futuristic, intuitive app. - **DJI Romo**: too early to speak about this as a robot vacuum cleaner, but from a design perspective it takes the clean, curvy Narwal style and turns it inside-out giving it a transparent cover. Good result, but durability of the good look is still TBD. - **Mach R1** (sorry, I refuse to call this Eufy S1 Pro): birthed by the Anker Innovations incubator "Mach" (later absorbed into Eufy), it finally brings to Anker-owned Eufy a new style that was really needed. Futuristic and clean, not much to say. A very good result resembling the square-ish shape of older LG HomBot, but in a new futuristic, semi-transparent twist. That's all folks 😬 Edit: pictures in the comment below because somehow embedding doesn't work in this comment.
Your criteria is very similar to mine. I got rid of my roomba combo j7+ a few weeks before they declared bankruptcy and bought a Ecovacs X8 Pro. I think it’s the same as Deebot. Has both extended roller mop and onboard wet and dirty water container.
Hi lovely community, I'm looking for some help. I live in a flat with 2 cats that's hardwood and some low pile area rugs. I had a Roomba J7 Combo without the dock. It did a decent job at vacuuming and mopping but stopped mopping after a year and a half and it couldn't be fixed. I'm looking for a reliable robot vacuum with great ability to pick cat hair out of carpets and off floors. I can't manually vacuum and I'm not looking to test out super new features. Budget of around 500 euros and based in Germany I have looked in depth at Reddits and reviews and I don't want the newest robots. I'd like something tried and true that vacuums well for at least 3 years. I'm thinking Roborock and will buy from somewhere with a warranty. I've seen the Roborock S8+, repeatedly mentioned as well performing over a long period of time. This now seems to be really hard to find. Currently the QRevo is on sale on amazon but I think that only has one roller rather than 2. Would love to hear from some people that have had their bot for years and are still happy. I'm mainly interested in the vacuum features. Thanks for the help!
I have two dogs and two cats and the j7+ works just fine
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.
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.
I have 3 j7+ Combos that are all about a year old to a year and a half and I’m watching this all in horror.