iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ Self-Emptying & Auto-Fill Robot Vacuum & Mop – Multi-Functional Base Refills Bin and Empties Itself, Vacuums and Mops Without Needing to Avoid Carpets, Avoids Obstacles​

6-Month Review: Disappointing Experience with the Roomba Combo j9+ I purchased the Roomba Combo j9+ Self-Emptying & Auto-Fill Robot Vacuum & Mop with high expectations, but unfortunately, my experience has been nothing short of disappointing. After only six months of use, the vacuum stopped working entirely. Performance: Initially, the vacuum performed well, offering decent cleaning on both hard floors and carpets. The mop feature was a nice touch, but not as effective as I had hoped. However, the excitement was short-lived, as the device began to malfunction. First, it started missing spots, then the cleaning power seemed to weaken. Despite resetting the unit and troubleshooting, it completely stopped working before the 6-month mark. Issues with Features: The self-emptying and auto-fill features, which were major selling points for me, worked only intermittently. At first, the vacuum would empty itself into the bin, but soon this feature failed. Additionally, the auto-fill function for mopping stopped working properly after a few uses, making the mop less effective and more of a hassle. Durability: The fact that the product failed within such a short period is deeply concerning. For the price, I expected better durability and longevity. I’ve had multiple issues with connectivity, and it often gets stuck in corners, which leads to even more frustration. Customer Service: I contacted customer support, hoping to resolve the issue, but the process has been slow and unhelpful. I’m still waiting for a resolution, and I am left with a product that no longer functions as advertised. Overall, I am extremely disappointed with the Roomba Combo j9+. It didn’t live up to expectations in terms of both performance and reliability, especially for a high-end model. I would not recommend this product based on my experience, as it simply didn’t last long enough to justify its cost.

It sometimes works as expected. SOMETIMES! It wanders aimlessly. Errors pop up constantly. Most of the time it doesn’t refill the bin on robot. The mop doesn’t come down unless I tap on it. Def not a time saver I would expect these robots will improve over time. However this one was a waste of my money. UPDATE: A rep from iRobot reached out to me to discuss the problems I am experiencing with the robot. After a discussion he offered to send me a new replacement at no charge to me. Along with many extras. The new robot arrived within a few days. Set up was a breeze. So far the new robot is behaving flawlessly. I have a 3 level home and have two other robots of different models that have worked great for a few years now. Initially I was disappointed with the j9+ combo but iRobot customer support reached out and made it right. You don’t get this kind of customer support from most competitors. UPDATE:...I have had the replacement for about 4-5 months with little to no issues....now i am getting error message"battery is not detected".....i did every troubleshooting there was to do....irobot is sending me a new battery at no cost...i am hoping thats what the issue is but i am really disappointed that the battery only lasted a few months.....

This is my third Roomba product. I replaced my previous i9 because i wanted a swiffer capability. This thing sucks. Gets lost. Starts cleaning the wrong room. Gets lost in corners. Frequent cryptic error messages. For the first week the app had no help features. The error messages often have no bearing to the problem. Now the red light is on AGAIN. The error message says that it isn’t charging but the battery is full. It says that maybe the bag is full but it’s a new bag. It says that maybe the water tank is not in place but it is. In other words the app does not know what the heck is going on. I am soooo disappointed and disillusioned by this roomba product. In a few months I will likely purchase a similar product but from a different manufacturer. I am through with Roomba. Another issue is with the app. Constant warnings about cleaning the charging surfaces even after one use. Never had this problem with my previous Roomba. Well one day after cleaning the surfaces for the umpteenth time I took the roomba out of its dock and then just simply sent it home. Voila! No charging issue. This problem is more than moot. It means that I cannot use the roomba remotely because when the charging issue warning comes up there is no way to start the robot. Another glitch - if a warning pops up to change the mopping pad for instance after changing the pad and resetting it the warning will not go away. Aggravating. This happens with other maintenance warnings. And this thing cost a fortune. I have taken out my Dyson vacuum and invested in a swiffer wet jet. Pathetic since I bought this thing to save my back.

Got this shortly after it was released. I’ve had many versions of the iRobot over the years. It was a bumpy start with this one in the beginning, but everything seems resolved and since I bought it 9 months ago. Within a month or two of getting it: 1) It stopped refilling. TS had me reset it to fix that. 2) Then the arm stopped working and I returned it. A) the dock was broke on the return, they had to resend a new one. Since then the robot is much more reliable, seldom gets stuck and returns to the dock at least 95 percent of the time. The good. 1) It cleans well. It’s not a deep clean. But since I have it mop 5 days a week in high traffic areas and 2 days in low traffic, I only do a manual mop and vacuum once every month or two at the most. 2) love the autofill option 3) The phone ap and navigation work well and remind you when it’s time to replace or clean items. What could be improved? 1) The refill tank opening is a bit small. Its a pain to refill, but that only needs to be done maybe once every 6 weeks or so for me. 2) A mop only option would be nice. 3) The refill options available from manufacture make more sense on the other robots. Why can’t I get a roller package that includes filters for this one. I have started getting 3rd party replacements because of this 4) The pad maintenance reminder is way too far apart. IMHO opinion this should be cleaned every few mopping uses. Unrelated note on latest release of product: I’m not sure why they released a self cleaning model. The mop pad just goes in the wash machine and it’s good to go. It only takes 30 seconds to remove the old one and put a clean one in. Unless you have kids or dogs that drag in mud regularly I don’t see this as being a necessary feature. I haven’t noticed that the dock itself gets dirty so I don’t see why the dock needs self cleaning.

What a piece of garbage! It worked great the first 3 times, then started streaking the floor. I called customer service who sent out a new part that I installed with the same result. Now they have said they were sending a box to ship it back to "the repair center" it. Just today I decided to manually wet the mop, so it wouldn't streak... it did better. Then I started wetting the floor in the next room ahead of it.... this crazy thing decides to stop deploying the mop and vacuum only! It's a $900 living room decoration at this point. Keep in mind I purchased at the beginning of February... this thing is not old, outdated, or even been used much. Do yourself a favor and do not buy this!! 8/6/25 Update: It did go back to the factory and they either replaced the cover (mine had a scratch from going under a dresser) or they replaced the entire unit, not sure which. I waited due to purchasing another home. Mapped the new home and ran it... it didn't mop at all. Okay, maybe it needed primed. Manually filled the robot tank... that worked. Then it ran it's first schedule... looked good and didn't streak, I'm happy. Now today it's running for the second time... unhappy again!! Didn't mop the master at all and streaking like crazy again. My Debot lasted 3 years before it started going nuts and loosing the map and I wasn't happy with that. With an initial cost of 1500, that's 500 a year for a mop and vacuum. That was still better than the 3 times for a grand!

EDIT: Bought in 2024. 1.5 years later, I have lots of regrets. This other review summarizes my issues perfectly: “2 year ownership: would not recommend https://a.co/d/02ygyBMu “ Changing from 4 to 2 stars (and I may be back to reduce it more). It can’t dock amd charge, it bumps into every baseboard and piece of furniture despite have a map, and half the time misses large areas when mopping. I have to watch it to make sure it doesn’t get stuck and to see why it misses areas (answer: no reason). I bought this to save myself time, but if I need to babysit it I might as well use my Dyson upright. Lately, it’s just gotten dumb and can’t figure out where it is (and yes, I’ve cleaned all sensors and contacts). See the video of it slipping around while mopping - that’s a new issue today. I now regret buying this, and it stings double since I paid a high price when the model was the second highest one you could buy. {END OF EDIT - SEE ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW} This is my first Roomba. I splurged and got the one that can mop, which is nice. It does a good enough job vacuuming and even mopping, but there are just some spots that it seems to regularly miss. There’s a corner in my kitchen that it can’t seem to get to with the mop… I’m not sure if it’s because the mop isn’t able to get into the corner or if the Roomba just keeps overlooking it. It doesn’t appear to be any more difficult than any of the other corners. I still don’t regret this purchase, because it saves me from having to mop and vacuum regularly, and now I can just do the spots, such as the one it misses, or pull out my upright vacuum before I have guests for that extra clean, for example. So I guess my advice for anybody new to robot vacuums is this: it’s going to keep your place clean 90% of the time, but it’s not going to replace manual vacuuming and mopping yet.

After using an older Roomba model robot vacuum for several years now with no issues, I decided that I wanted a combo. Because I liked my old Roomba, I went with this model vs another brand. This is my experience after about 2 months of use: Pro: - The vacuum suction is absolutely fantastic. It removes pet hair and any other dirt with ease. - Mapping was much faster than with my old Roomba. - Battery charges extremely quick. - Manages to clean larger areas before battery needs to be recharged. - While I had to empty my old Roomba's bin daily, the self cleaning emptying is a welcome feature to not having to attend to daily maintenance. - Does a great job identifying obstacles and cleaning around them. (Thanks for the abundance of nosey cat pictures) Con: - Can not deal well with litter. If litter is not sucked up fast enough, it will simply be smeared along with the mop and leaves pretty stripes. I had to make a large area around litter boxes a no-cleaning zone to avoid this. - Mopping feature is not removing real dirt & I have never seen it actually scrubbing a spot going back and forth, even if it clearly passed a dirty spot. It is however good for keeping up with an environment. - This combo is not very quiet - but I take it for the impressive suction. - Starts random cleaning jobs never scheduled, even during set "quiet times". - Compared to other robot vacuum apps, the Roomba cleaning map still looks like a drawing of a 3 year old when cleaning is completed. - App constantly crashes when trying to acess "My Home" tab on a Samsung Galaxy. - Getting an "Error15" regularly. Device then restarts and clean button on device needs to be pushed. Then starts to clean a random area, not initiated. - Due to the mopping feature and dirt getting wet, the device can get pretty crusty and needs to be washed out regularly. Overall it is an amazing vaccum cleaner and fun mop. I am sure it can be fantastic if it gets some major SW issues ironed out, but at this point the issues are too prevalent to justify the high cost.

The J9+ Combo is one of the only two robots currently on the market that purport to be able to keep medium-pile carpets/rugs dry. The other is the Dreame L20 Ultra. I got both and pitted them head-to-head. The J9 is the only one that succeeded in this goal. Note, others, like Ecovacs and Roborocks can't lift their mop pad high enough to clear medium pile carpet. I've been using the J9+ daily for 2 months now, and it has performed fantastically; and I've been using top-end robots from several manufacturers for many years. Unlike others, it created a perfect map on the first try, has never gotten stuck, detects/respects rugs, and avoids objects well. Pros: • Great mopping performance. Got off stubborn stains in less passes consistently in numerous mopping tests of different substances, such as dirt, sauce, milk, batter, cocoa, etc. (see measured test for example) • Great vacuuming performance. In my embedded rice test on shag rug, Roomba J9+ picked up 64%, compared to 42% from the L20. • Great mapping (see pics) and navigation. Just detects and handles rugs properly. Efficient pathing, never misses a spot. I don't recommend doing a mapping run. I just did an initial "Clean Everywhere" with only vacuum, and that produced a perfect map, and did so just as fast as when the map is already in place. Tested and compared mapping on a total of 5 floors across 2 homes. • More conservative object avoidance, probably owing to the P.O.O.P. guarantee. I don't need this and prefer more aggressive, but might be important for some users. • Less obtrusive dock. • Can clean under drapes and bed skirts, and not befuddled by glass doors and mirrors, like LiDAR-based bots. • Quick and easy to replace pads. Stored in dock. Recommend buying 12 more for ~$40 then only need to wash once a month. • Less long-term maintenance. Changing a pad on the top of the bot, from a stash stored in the dock, seems less work than: dumping dirty water, cleaning bottom of dock, refilling clean water 4x as often, and replacing pads every 1-3 months, as with L20. • Less complex, less mechanisms to break down (LiDAR, self-cleaning, self-drying). • Runs immediately, doesn't have to take time to wash pads first. • Cleans faster. • Quieter when not running (no dryer hum). • Simple procedure to clean unknown room: 1) Carry to target room and press button; 2) it will immediately clean whole room and return to where it started. • Can co-exist with active family. You can walk around it while it works, and it's quiet when it's not working. • App is better designed and efficient. Can do everything in less steps. No limited combinations of settings. Can clean favorites, zones, custom rooms, everything, with Google Assistant voice control. • Works on 5GHz Wi-Fi. • Good object detection of cords and backpack straps (even low-contrast), as long as they are not stretched out in a line. Cons: • Would not mop bathroom unless I removed mats. No indication of why. Guessing there needs to be a certain amount of available hard floor to deploy mop. • Doesn't mop within 2" of edges. • More frequent bumping. Doesn't bother me, but can be disconcerting to others. Doesn't do any damage. • Doesn't navigate well in the dark, however does work reliably in some cases, such as cleaning my kitchen. • A little louder, both bot and base. Measured 65db for base empty, vs 60db on L20. • Eats stretched out cords (no matter the contrast) • Leaves too wide of a berth around obstacles, typically 1'. • Each time switching to the app takes about 5 seconds to connect. • No spot clean button! • Mop arm elbow sharp and close to ground. When on a side angle due to one wheel on fireplace hearth, possibly ripped off piece of my floorboard that might have been sticking up a bit. Resolve by no mop zone around raised areas. • No Android widget. • Recommended to change mop pad after each use.

I truly wanted to love the J9+ Combo, but enough is enough. I can’t recommend it. This product is fundamentally broken in so many ways. I "upgraded" to this from the Roomba 980, which I absolutely loved. However, I hardly used it because the home had to be pre-cleaned constantly, and it didn't mop. I wanted to get a Braava but never did. Then suddenly, the competition for the robotic vacuum market became actually competitive. But I had such a good experience with iRobot's Roomba that I decided to go with their top-of-the-line model, the J9+ combo. So, the good: - Room mapping is pretty decent, and being able to dictate which rooms to go to and clean, avoid, plus how to clean (mop and vacuum, or just vacuum), is nice. - It does a good job vacuuming, better than the Roomba 980, and more accurately. - Battery life is very good. - Obstacle detection is pretty decent. - The docking station is nice looking and convenient because it has storage. The bad: - It docks correctly only about 30% of the time. If the Roomba does not detect the docking station, it doesn’t empty the contents from the vacuum, and you can't refill its water tank. The solution to this is to take out the Roomba and manually send it home again. - Of the 30% that it does detect the docking station, 40% of the time it fails to vacuum due to a "sealing problem," requiring me to try it again or remove Roomba from the docking station and send it home. - Mopping is mediocre. It does not seem to saturate the washing pad enough, or it's not spraying enough, but you can notice lines of what's wet and what's not as Roomba drives around. It's frustrating. - The home mapping system seems to fall apart if a landmark has moved. For example, I moved a speaker, and it threw Roomba off every run since, and I had to run a map of my home again to fix it. - The dirt gets caked on the suction port where the rollers are because I assume the dirt's wet when it's sucked. It's quite difficult to clean off and seems like a huge design flaw. - Constantly erroring. The final straw was it stopping a job because there was an issue with the floor sensors. The floor sensors are clean; they should be fine. - This thing gets DIRTY. I have had this for a month, and compared to my Roomba 980, which I've had since 2018, there are hardly any scuffs or anything on it. The J9+ combo looks like it's run a marathon and fell on its face each time. - You cannot have it only mop; it must vacuum and mop or just vacuum. I don't know if my product is defective, or if this is just how it is. However, as of right now, I can't recommend this to anyone. At $1,799, this is a rip-off, and even at a highly discounted price of $1,399, it's not good.

I couldn't be happier with my purchase of the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+! This multi-functional robot vacuum and mop have truly revolutionized my cleaning routine. The self-emptying and auto-fill features make it incredibly convenient – I no longer have to worry about constantly monitoring the robot. It does a fantastic job cleaning both carpets and hard floors, and the mapping technology ensures that it covers every corner of my home. It's been a time and energy saver, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to simplify their cleaning chores!

I would give it zero stars if I could. The product is horrible and the support is even worst. We bought the unit from Amazon as a new unit. On delivery it showed up with dirt in it and black hair coiled around the moving parts. It was immediately returned. The unit was then again purchased directly through i-robot. It worked ok for the first 10-11 months and then started having issues. I robot was contacted and the robot was diagnosed as being defective and a new unit was to be delivered. 2 months later no robot had arrived; upon contact with their support it sounded as if they were going to send a battery as opposed to a new robot as promised. Neither arrived until a third conversation. The new robot finally arrived with i robot trying to lighten the blow with an upgraded model. Now a little better than a year later we have problems with a wheel on the robot (which is not a big deal) contacted irobot to buy a wheel (not warrenty) and they cannot support the unit as they have no parts in stock. They suggested we try one of their approved dealers only to find they do not have stock either. For the price you pay for these units, you would think they could at least support their product. One word sums it up and that is “pathetic” spend your money on a brand half the price and twice the product. At least they will support you.

For the price of this, there seems to be an issue every other week with something getting clogged, it not finding its way back to the base, etc. We had the singular Roomba before that just did vacuuming and I liked it much better. Others may have different experiences but this was ours. It's actually been quite disappointing.

J’ai un J7+combo et un j9+ combo et je suis très déçu du j9+. Il manque souvent de batterie sans être capable de se retourner à la base pour recharger à genre 5 mètres de celle-ci! Il n’est pas capable de gérer les zones de nettoyage même ceux qu’il me propose…, il fait un erreur 15 à chaque fois qui ne se corrige pas même après quelques fois à effacer la carte et refaire le parcours cartographique. Je suis déçu!! Moi qui pensait faire un bon coup d’avoir un j7 et un j9. Et depuis une semaine, il fait un bruit bizarre 🤷🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️