iRobot’s latest robot vacuums are smarter and more powerful, and the mop bot can scrub your floors more deeply. At least that’s what the company claims as it launches its latest flagships: the $1,399 Roomba Combo j9 Plus vacuum/mop and the $899 j9 Plus vacuum. Both models are available for pre-order now on irobot.com in the US and Canada. iRobot also launched two mid-range robot vacuum cleaners last week that can mop.
iRobot is clearly feeling the pressure from its many, many competitors. These latest models aim to provide more smart, powerful and scrubbing actions to keep up with Ecovacs, Roborock and Dreame, which are launching increasingly fantastic home cleaning bots.
Let’s start with the Combo j9 Plus. It has the same retractable mopping system as the Combo j7, which ingeniously lifts the robot mop over the vacuum cleaner so it doesn’t touch your carpets. Most of the competition deals with the problem of dragging dirty mops across the carpet by lifting the mop pads a few millimeters, which can be a problem on deep pile carpets.
I liked the retractable mop when I tested the Combo j7, but the actual mopping was only so-so: it didn’t really scrub, and it was easily outdone by the oscillating mop pads and spinning mop heads of combo vacuums from Roborock and others.
iRobot’s answer to the competition, which it calls SmartScrub, is actually quite smart. Instead of redesigning the mopping device, iRobot makes the entire robot move back and forth, mimicking the way you scrub the floor with a manual mop.
This doesn’t happen in every room; SmartScrub combines with another new software feature called Dirt Detective (more on this later) to target rooms that are likely to need it, such as kitchens and entryways. You can also choose to enable this per room in the app. Best of all, SmartScrub is also coming to the Combo j7 Plus via a software update.
The other new feature of the Combo j9 is a redesigned auto empty/recharge station that now automatically refills the mop’s water tank. This is something that I felt was missing when I reviewed the Combo j7 Plus; You have to refill the mop reservoir manually.
The cheaper $899 j9 Plus is a vacuum version of the Combo j9 Plus and comes with the same dock as the j7. Both new models have the same AI obstacle avoidance that arrived on the Roomba line with the j7 – and so will bypass the common household mess and dog poop that robot vacuums think are everywhere in our homes. It is important to note that this feature uses a camera located on the vacuum cleaner.
The company also says the j9 Plus models are Roomba’s most powerful yet. iRobot doesn’t release Pa numbers, but says it’s 100 percent more powerful than the i-Series. (That said, iRobot’s suction claims sometimes feel deliberately obtuse – the website says both the j-series and i-series are 10 times as powerful as the 600 series, while the s9 is 40 times more powerful. Assuming the j9 is twice as powerful as the i-series, that’s still alone half just as powerful as the s9. We have contacted iRobot for clarification.)
The new bots will bypass common household messes and the dog poop that robot vacuum companies think is everywhere in our homes
Both new models ship with version 7.0 of iRobot OS, which introduces an intriguing feature called Dirt Detective. It learns which rooms in your house are the dirtiest and cleans them first. iRobot says this “analyzes previous cleaning preferences, patterns and timing to automatically prioritize rooms that need the most attention.”
Dirt Detective works with a feature introduced in iRobot OS 6.0 that automatically identifies room types using the built-in camera. So it is suspected that a room with a refrigerator and an oven could be the kitchen (you can change these names in the app). It’s also smart enough to know to clean the bathroom last so you don’t end up spreading bathroom waste all over your carpets.
Interestingly, the new dock for the Combo j9 does not have a holding tank – a feature of competing docks from Roborock and Ecovacs. This is because it does not clean the mop pad; instead, you are expected to remove and wash it. This eliminates the chance of dirty, dirty docks, a real danger with the new multi-use docks if you don’t keep them clean. However, Roomba’s mop pad is thinner and smaller than the competition’s, so I’m skeptical about how effective it will be.
iRobot is finally bringing suction-level options to its vacuum cleaners
Roomba’s current auto-empty dock, left for the j9 Plus, is the best designed of the current crop of docks and looks more like a piece of furniture than others. A nice twist is that the new Combo j9 dock can also be a piece of furniture; they designed the top as a side table.
iRobot also says the new dock is much quieter than the previous version when emptying automatically – a process that on the current dock is a lot like a jet engine taking off in your living room.
Speaking of quiet, iRobot is finally bringing suction level options to its vacuums. Only on the j9 models you can now choose between low, medium and high suction power in the app. An option on every other robot vacuum out there, iRobot hasn’t given users this kind of control before. The main advantage is that you can leave the vacuum cleaner on low heat when you are at home without it bothering you or your family members.
I spoke with iRobot CEO Colin Angle ahead of the launch and he explained that the strategy with these new robots is to get back to basics with robot vacuums. “The features you ‘should’ want are spinning pads and lasers [lidar navigation]and long battery life,” he said. “But what you really need is cleaning, ease of use and whether it returns to the dock.”
He’s not wrong here: it doesn’t matter how many fancy features a bot has; if it gets stuck, it won’t clean your house. When testing bots with spinning mops, I’ve noticed that they crash more often; large flappy mops sticking out the side are an obvious tripping hazard. However, they do a good job at scrubbing your floors. We’ll have to see if the Combo j9’s new scrubbing action will make up for this once I get these new models in for testing.