iRobot Combo Review

Combo is iRobot's first mop-and-vacuum robot, and it's also the most stylish model from the company. The polished aluminum top and iRobot Logo are more classy than the blatant designs of other competitors.

Shop the IRobot Roomba j7 with Dual Rubber Brushes iRobot Home application is used to guide and set up your robot. The app tracks data about usage and maps of your house including furniture and obstructions. Maps and information about images are only shared when you have opted-in.

It's not a mop

The Combo irobot, a very intelligent mopping robot, takes all the intelligence of the excellent Roomba J7+ and adds a reservoir of water onboard, mopping pads that are small and a robotic arm which can lift and lower the pad. It can accomplish many tasks in 11 minutes before running out of juice and returning to its base station to recharge.

The model comes with the iRobot home app, which means you can begin and stop cleaning runs. The robot also looks attractive, with matte black material that does not show dust or fingerprints and a brushed aluminium top part with small iRobot Roomba i8+ Combo - Robot Vac And Mop logo.

It is a great vacuum cleaner, and it does not have any trouble crossing large area carpets or transition strips between flooring surfaces. It can even pick up fine dust that many robotic vacuums fail to pick up. It's not very good in mowing. It's not able to eliminate dried milk stains, for instance, unless you send it out several times.

IRobot's dedicated Braava jet M6 mopping robotic cleaner, often available in a bundle along with the j7 plus for less than the combo Combo is a superior job in this, as well as other challenging tasks. It can even suck up ketchup and wine that has spilled, though I'd advise against sending it after any kind of liquid with a significant sugar content.

It's an air vacuum

It's also among the better-looking robot vacuums, with a smooth top piece that doesn't display dust and fingerprints as easily as competitors. The tiny water tank and dustbin are easy to close and open but they're not the greatest in terms of capacity. The Combo J7+ also comes with the smarts you are used to from iRobot including maps and obstacle avoidance mapping that works effectively and swiftly. The mopping arm is what makes this model stand out from the rest of its competitors. It keeps the mop pad hidden behind the vacuum, but if it spots the need to mop a surface, it lowers the pad underneath and behind the robot. This is a huge upgrade over other robot vacuums that require you to manually remove the mop pad for hard floors and carpets or even turn the whole unit off to mop.

It's an electric charging station.

When you're ready to charge your Combo Irobot, simply place it on the changing station and align its metal contacts with the ones on the base. The charging station functions well and is simple to set up. In my tests it took just a few minutes to charge, and then it made noise when completed. After the Combo robot is fully charged you can begin a mapping run on the app to help the robot better understand your home. The app also allows you to mark certain objects as permanent avoidances, such as lamp cords. You can also connect Alexa or Google Assistant to your robot to allow the voice commands to navigate around your home.

It's a smart device

Combo irobots utilize acoustic and onboard sensors to learn about the kind of floor they're navigating and the furniture in your home. This information is then combined with images from the robot’s onboard camera as well as maps of your home, to create an individualized plan for cleaning every room. It's smart enough to stay clear of your lamp cords, couch as well as other objects you wish to keep. As with any connected device there are questions about the security of these data. But iRobot affirms that it will never sell customer data and that no images are captured without customers' consent.