Refurbished iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ Paired with Alexa or Google Assistant Robot Vacuum and Mop

Short version - If you have actual carpet instead of low pile rugs, this really is your only option. The only true "competitor" to this style of combo, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, is not rated to be able to handle a living space with 80% or more of real carpet, and refilling the reservoir after one or two cleanings is not the world ending hassle people make it out to be. Long Version - I recently moved from a location with primarily hardwood floors to a apartment with carpet everywhere except the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom. Beforehand I owned the Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro+ which I purchased after doing extensive research and cost analysis. the N8 Pro+ did it's job, it got up any crumbs and kept the floor maintained longer in between deep cleanings. It couldn't handle a cleaning solution in it's reservoir so I just used distilled water as recommended by the manufacturer. As anyone who has done research on robot vacuums knows, it had it's shortcomings. Besides the water only tank, it also could not go onto carpet with the tank attached - A standard problem among the previous generation of robot vacuums. As such my bedroom, the only carpeted room in my previous apartment, was left untouched by the Deebot as it was easier to vacuum it quickly with a standing vacuum. Despite their flaws, my appreciation for vacuum robots pushed me into buying one better suited for my new home. So I dove once again into countless robot reviews, lists, competitions, etc. My criteria quickly pushed me to analyze the top models in each robot vacuum manufacturers catalog, specifically two robots in particular - The J7 combo and the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. Because the three hardwood sections are separated by spans of carpet, I wanted a combo robot that could complete the whole apartment in a single run without my interaction *DURING* it's cleaning job. This is where I believe many people get the purpose of a robot vacuum, and particularly this model wrong. This is a MAINTENENCE machine - simply put, this is not full service machine which removes the necessity to clean your floors entirely. All robot vacuums are a luxury device which extends the time between deeper cleanings. I have one long haired cat, and without this device, I would normally vacuum once or twice a week to keep my allergies from flaring. With a robot vacuum, I can extend that to once or twice a month should the robot do it's job properly. Same with the hard floors; because it does the equivalent of a quick swifter job, I don't have to scrub my floors as often. Vacuum robots are also not miracle workers who never break. For the hours it saves you cleaning your floors, it only needs a few minutes of TLC once a month to keep doing it's job. If you expect any robot to never have to be touched, even the RoboRock S7 MaxV Ultra which many will say is the Combo J7's superior, you'll be wasting your money. With that, the reason I chose this machine is because it can clean my entire house without me doing anything during it's cleaning. I don't have to remove a reservoir, or in the case of the Braava, pick it up and move it to the next hardwood spot in my house. From my research, no other robot can currently go from hardwood to medium pile carpet with it's mop pad attached. I could be wrong, or at the very least this review will soon be dated once iRobot's competitors integrate their solution for this issue into their product line. As of right now however, no other robot can do this without getting the carpet wet from it's mop pad (again, the roborock S7 MaxV Ultra cannot raise or cover it's mop pad far enough to prevent your carpet from getting wet). That is why I chose this robot, especially in light of it's flaws - that of which I am not blind nor a fan of the common issues reported on this machine. It's price point even on Black Friday is roughly 100-200 dollars more than it should be (in my opinion the sale price of 900 should be the machine's normal cost), it bumps into things quite forcefully, it's mop does not vibrate or spin nor does it automatically refill the reservoir or clean the mop pad on it's own, it's quite loud verses the other robot vacuums I've interacted with, and if you don' t program the roomba to vacuum your carpet first, the moisture from mopping can cause build up in the brush housing. My only note on the flaws listed above is perhaps because I developed good habits around the reservoir with the Ecovacs Deebot, I'm fine with the lack of a mop filling and cleaning system. To me, it's really not that hard to take a mop pad off after a cleaning or to fill the reservoir after two jobs. This review is based on my personal opinion, experience with robots, and willingness to pay for this kind of luxury equipment. My reasoning for buying this unit it niche, however it fills that role successfully, and because I hadn't seen any buzz around this specific issue I figured I post this review. Thank you for reading and I hope this helped you make a decision.

UPDATE 12/16/2023: It has been almost a full year since I wrote the Original Review below, and there is some additional information that I learned after I had posted it. In the end, I was working directly with one of iRobot's CSRs who also looked into other brands to make their products better. He was able to get almost immediate responses from Tech Support, and we were able to identify many of the issues that I had been having. One of the biggest is that you can't have multiple iRobot devices on your network when using this device. If you do, none of the devices will work properly, which is what I had reported. However, there is a core issue with all of iRobot's mopping devices which still exists today, and that is "conservation of matter". If you remember high school physics, or chemistry, you know that this means that matter cannot be created, nor destroyed. It can only be changed or moved. You might be thinking how does that have anything to do with this device? Well, dirt, grime, liquids, etc., are all matter. If you don't do something to physically remove them from the floor, they just constantly get spread across your entire house. The same goes for the cleaning fluid, which is never removed from your floors, it just piles up, layer by layer. BTW, the bottoms of my feet were solid black after using this for a couple weeks. I think you can see where this is going, as you will need to manually remove all of this guck that keeps getting thicker as you use it. I had concerns about this from the beginning, and they were confirmed when I bought a Shark Steaming Mop to clean the floors after I returned the Roombas. The steamer uses nothing but steam to clean, and when I first tried to use it I noticed that the floor was foaming up with soap and I had to stop using it, as the soap would have damaged the steamer. I did purchase a different system from a different manufacturer to replace my iRobot devices, and this device has been working perfectly for almost a year. At the time that I bought it, it was the top device on the market, and I had to pay full price ($400 more than the Black Friday Deals) because iRobot took so long to respond. But, I am more than happy with this new device. It is a full cleaning system, vacuum with mop and wash and dryer. The mop and wash cleans the mop every so many minutes (10+ in increments of 5 minutes) where I have it set to 20 minutes. So, every 20 minutes it goes back to the dock, washes the mop, and then resumes where it left off. When it's done, it empties the vacuum bin, washes the mop, and then dries the mop for 3 hours (configurable), something that Roombas cannot do. For the first 2 weeks that I had it, I filled the tank with nothing but water, and it took 2 weeks for it to completely remove everything that the Roombas had left behind. The water in the waste bin was almost completely solid black for the first week, and then became more transparent over the following week. I live in Las Vegas, so there is a ton of dirt that gets into the house, even with the house sealed shut. Now, my floors are very smooth, not at all sticky. Both my socks and feet are no longer covered in crud. If you solely need a vacuum, the iRobot vacuums are not bad. However, I can't recommend any of their mopping devices, as they do not clean anything. They simply spread the mess over the entire floor space and add a very thick cleaning solution to it, making it even worse and sticky. My current solution removes everything from the floor and uses a very light cleaner. After 3 refills where I add cleaning solution, I do 1 refill with water only, just to make sure that nothing ever builds up. I hope this update helps, as it brings up fundamental issues with iRobot's mopping products. Original Review After trying to get this to work correctly over the course of almost 4 weeks, I have decided to return this product, the M6 that I also purchased, and all of the accessories. The major reason being that the App just does not work correctly, and you can't use any of the devices w/o the App. Additionally, the mapping is absolutely terrible. My entire house has hard floors, which should produce almost perfect mapping, but each room has walls that 4-5 feet displaced. It thinks that walls are 4-5 feet thick as well, which has led to other issues. I have followed all of the directions provided online, and from working with their technical support, which stopped communicating with me once I provided them with a list of about 20 things that I found wrong. The App constantly loses communication with the devices, and when it does, you lose all control of the device. This isn't a WiFi signal issue, as I have full maximum signal coverage throughout the entire house, and all other devices work perfectly at all times. I performed a factory reset at least 6 times w/o any change. I have rebooted each of the devices at least 30 times w/o any change. You would think that after a reboot that you should be able to connect, but nope, none of the iRobot devices connects. I ran 3 mapping runs yesterday, all of which completed successfully, but not one of them updated the map. In the app it states that the map is not available, when I try to see the result of a Mapping Run. It will also ask you about changes to the map after a vacuum or cleaning, which is where I noticed that it was trying to tell me that it encountered carpeting in approximately 60% of my house. There isn't any carpeting anywhere, not even a rug. I could go on in regard to other issues, but I don't see a point. iRobot makes a lot of claims in their advertising, but I haven't found any of it to be true. When I did a deep dive into the issues that I have encountered, I learned that I am not alone, and that they've been reported at least 8+ months prior. I am going to try another product with the hope that it will work better. I expected better from a company that has been in business for over 32 years, but I guess that it is expecting too much. BTW, tech support has access to everything that you do with the app, and the devices. They described absolutely everything that I tried, they could see my map, and could see that I was constantly losing connection. All of the issues that I found are also listed on Reddit.

I've been using my Roomba j7+ for about a month now and can give an informed review. A word of caution: Beware of buying "almost new" for a reduced price. I ordered one and it would not charge no matter what. I followed all of the instructions and even called customer service and we worked together to try to solve the issue unsuccessfully. I returned the item to Amazon, but ordered another, this time making sure it really was new and not used. Don't buy used. At least I won't again for these things. Pros: The Roomba j7+ works really, really well especially in the vacuuming department. I have two cats, one of whom sheds prolifically, and a large dog that does the same. This thing does a pretty good job at getting all that off the carpet. It does a better job at vacuuming than my old push vacuum cleaner, and that was a pleasant surprise to see that. I run it every day. It vacuums the carpets, and vacuums and mops where I have white ceramic tiles: the kitchen, entryway and two bathrooms. The AI never ceases to amaze me. This thing makes decisions which room to vacuum next (unless you tell it to vacuum a specific room), goes around wires and I hear even pet poop (I don't have that problem in my house). It's very good at suction and goes slow enough to do a bang of a job cleaning the carpet. My wife an I have even given our Roomba a name. He's George. Our George won't fall down stairs. It just refuses. From my kitchen there are stairs leading down to the basement. There's no door at the top of the stairs. George the Roomba has "cliff" sensors preventing it from going over the edge of a top stair and tumble down the stairs. No need to set an obstacle blocking the robot from getting to the edge of the stairs. You can set a schedule for it to vacuum certain areas or the whole area (your home). You can have it do it every day at a certain time, every other day, any day of the week and any time of the day you want. You can even set it up so that it vacuums as soon as you leave the house. It's kinds like Santa Clause: it knows when you're asleep and it knows when you're home. (It was an early Christmas gift my wife and I gave to ourselves.) The Roomba J7+ works with Alexa and Google. I presume it works with Siri, but I'm an Android kinda person. I have Amazon echos in every room of this house, smart bulbs everywhere, and I can turn on lights or change their colors just with my voice. I can also say, "Alexa, ask iRobot to vacuum the bedroom" and it will say, "Okay, I'll tell iRobot to vacuum the bedroom." And magically the Roomba wakes up, backs away from the charging station, and make a beeline for the Bedroom without bumping into a wall or a door or anything. Cool stuff. Impresses visitors to the house. Cons: I'm disappointed with battery life. My house is fairly simple, not a huge mansion. I have a bedroom, living room, office and kitchen. That's it. Two bathrooms and the kitchen has white ceramic tiles, one dog, two cats, my wife and myself. Sometimes we have grandkids crawling all over the house, but not every day. George (my iRobot Roomba J7+) has to take two breaks, return to the charging station (where it empties the bin inside the robot by powerful suction into a proprietary vacuum cleaner bag (that cost $19.99 for only 3 of them). and then remains there while it recharges due to low battery. An hour and a half later it comes back on automatically, goes to the place it stopped before, and resumes cleaning until it's finished the mission. However, because it has to recharge twice, it can take over 5 hours just to vacuum and mop the house. So I'm disappointed with the battery life. I just had to finish mopping my kitchen floor by hand. I find that I have to do that once a week or so, even though the iRobot Roomba J7+ rolls into the kitchen, lowers it's mop and starts vacuuming and mopping the floor. George the Roomba doesn't do a very good job mopping. The little "mop" is a crescent moon shaped pad that inserts into the top of the vacuum cleaner. It can be removed and washed, but it's about the size of a small wash rag. You fill a small tank at the top of the vacuum cleaner with whatever cleaner you want to use. The iRobot Roomba j7+ came with two small packets of floor cleaning stuff. One for tiles, another for wood floors. Once that was gone, I just use stuff like Mr. Clean. You can pour it in full strength or diluted. It's up to you. But in the end it's all about that "mop head." You know, the small crescent moon shaped pad that is smaller than a wash rag? The Roomba comes with two of these in the box, and you can detach it and wash it in the sink. When it's all said and done, however, how well can you clean a floor with good cleaner but one small wash rag that gets dirty fairly quickly. So after a week I've noticed the ceramic kitchen tiles needed a more thorough hand mopping, and I consider that a con. Summary: Overall, this thing has improved the quality of our living and has been doing a good job vacuuming our carpets and picking up animal hair. It saves us time to do other things we enjoy doing, and it's fun to watch, too. It doesn't do a perfect job at mopping, true, but it does vacuum and mop. You might need to still do some mopping, but not as often as before. The battery life is disappointing. I thought it would be able to do the whole first floor of the house in one go, but it has to recharge itself several times and therefore takes a long time to finish the vacuuming. A workaround would simply to have it vacuum more used areas of the house more frequently, and the less used areas less frequently, thus reducing the area it has to clean on a daily basis. This would give enough battery life to complete it's job. I've read a lot of reviews, and i've got my personal experience. This is probably the best vacuuming robot that you can buy.

Very expensive but it’s very good. Cleans well and it’s better than most othe I’ve tried. However it does not worth all the money it costs and this makes a bad cost benefit balance this is the only reason I’m giving 4 stars. Another thing that is not good is the liquid confainer used for mop, it is too small and will not sustain a full clean of 3 rooms of of a house. Buy it if you want good floor automate cleaning. Not perfect and not cheap still the best in town.

I’ve been using the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ for 3 months now (purchased in “Like New” condition), and it’s been a great addition to my cleaning routine—especially as a pet owner with two cats. It simplifies floor maintenance and does a solid job keeping my home tidy. Pros: 1. Cleans well: It does an excellent job picking up cat hair around the house, making it perfect for pet owners. 2. Seamless transitions: The robot switches between mopping and vacuuming without issue, making it effective on mixed flooring. 3. Smart navigation: It avoids obstacles like pet toys and boxes and has no problem staying away from my living room carpet while mopping. I’ve also set up no-go zones, and it does a great job of avoiding them. 4. Great for maintenance: The mopping feature is fantastic for regular upkeep, leaving my floors looking refreshed. Cons: 1. Quite loud: The robot is a bit noisy when running, so I usually move to another room. The loudest part is when it empties the dirt at the base, but it’s tolerable for the 40 seconds it takes. 2. Frequent liquid refills: For my 600 sq ft mopping area, I have to refill the mopping liquid after each use, which can be a bit annoying. 3. Best for cleaner homes: It’s great for maintaining cleanliness but may struggle with heavy dirt or buildup. Stubborn stains on hardwood floors still require a steam mop or manual cleaning. Overall, the Roomba Combo j7+ is a reliable and efficient helper, especially if you have pets or mixed flooring. While the noise and frequent liquid refills are minor drawbacks, its performance, including smart navigation and the ability to avoid no-go zones, make it well worth it for daily maintenance.

Price and Value At $799, the Roomba J7+ does not justify its cost. A more reasonable price point would be closer to $399. Given its limitations, I would likely consider a different brand for future purchases. Setup and Design Packaging and initial setup with the clean base were straightforward. The rubber rollers are well-designed, and the side sweep mechanism makes routine maintenance simple, even with long hair. Cleaning wrapped hair takes only a few minutes every few weeks. App and Mapping The mobile app is underwhelming, and smart mapping is the J7+’s weakest feature. Despite the advertised technology, the robot often collides with furniture and walls, suggesting that the onboard camera is either underutilized or ineffective. During mapping, the unit even managed to push over a ladder that was leaning against the wall. The app also requires lights to be on during mapping or cleaning, which is impractical for overnight scheduling. When errors occur, the app provides little useful information, only stating, “Something went wrong.” The result is an incomplete cleaning cycle with no real insight into the cause. Vacuum Performance The J7+ is reasonably quiet, but this comes at the expense of suction power. On hardwood floors, performance is adequate, but it struggles when encountering new obstacles. For instance, after placing a dining table in a previously mapped room, the robot was unable to navigate around it and abandoned the job entirely, requiring a full remap. Based on its suction power, I doubt it would perform well on carpets. Mopping Function Mopping is more of a novelty feature. The J7+ essentially drags a damp pad across the floor, collecting light debris but failing to clean anything dried or sticky unless set to “Smart Scrub” on maximum output. This drastically extends cleaning time and quickly depletes the small water reservoir. An auto-fill station would solve this, but it does not appear to be an upgrade option for this model. Clean Base The clean base functions reliably, but debris extraction is extremely loud—comparable to the sound of a jet engine. While it doesn’t bother me personally, it could be disruptive in many households. Conclusion Overall, the Roomba J7+ feels like an overpriced novelty. It completes jobs successfully only about 75% of the time, and the additional effort required for remapping, troubleshooting, and refilling the mop solution undermines its convenience. For users with minimalist homes and primarily hard floors, it could be a viable option if purchased at a significant discount. However, at full price, I recommend considering a less expensive model or a different brand altogether.

Please excuse this review if you somehow manage to have a working product that actually performs well for you. My experience is these J7+ Combos are useless garbage. Worked for exactly 2 weeks on a daily basis then started acting up. Issues started with errors that robot couldn't mop as it required a pad (Pad was on unit and replaced on a daily basis). 2nd issue was that the pads began mopping only in the center and both sides. Nothing would stop this issue including replacing pads. 3rd Issue was the robot wouldn't save maps, started moving furniture around (yes bumped into furniture and baseboards so hard it actually dented and moved items). Finally and the last straw, the robot ran over dog poop, entered keep out zones then started spinning in circles before returning to base without completing the job. Robot did absolutely nothing but spin within a foot of the base then returned. Received numerous useless errors on the app. Called technical support and here is my experience: iRobot outsources their technical support. The reps barely speak nor understand the English language. Went round and round for an entire week with Factory resets, rebooting, reinstalling app, re-registering device. Nothing worked to resolve the above issues. Technicians attempted to blame my WiFi for several issues (which of course is not the case as all other of my devices work just fine). The next was to blame a lack of understanding of the product (even though I understand well how to use it). No solution iRobot representatives provided worked. Despite iRobot's guarantee that the J7+ combo will not run over dog poop or they will replace with a new unit for the first year of use, I had to fight to receive a new unit as that is exactly what my unit did. Despite my thorougly cleaning the unit, it ultimately died. Finally reached an agent who agreed to send me a new unit (Jose #3). He stated I could simply dispose of the stinky dead unit. He additionally stated I would receive an email confirming replacement within 24 hours with shipping information. 3 business days later, no email. Forced to call again. New rep (Jose #4) stated I would receive an email within 24 hours (same as previous rep). This time I did receive the confirmation email along with shipping and tracking information. However, this email stated I must send the old unit back upon receipt of the new robot and the new unit will be sent without a battery. I replied that I was instructed to dispose of the dead unit (which I did). Receive "new" replacement robot in about a week. This supposed "new" unit is apparently a factory refurbished robot which is registered to another individual and wouldn't allow for resetting to a new user. Back to technical support. Again, USELESS!!!!! They read off a script and do not listen and give bad advice. When the tech support agents (they all use 3 names: Jose, Daniel and Thomas; despite being non-english speaking individuals with different accents and commands of the English language) cannot solve the DOA issue (reboot attempts, factory resets (that didn't work), app refreshes, etc.), rep (Daniel #6) stated it will take 5-7 business days to escalate to a higher level of technical support. After a strong warning to have him listen to me and another 2 hours of useless attempts to resolve the DOA issues, I hung up on "Daniel #7" during the final attempt to have this unit replaced once again. I give up as resolution is futile. I will file a complaint with the BBB and with my state Attorney General. After a full month of approximately 30 hours of useless nonsence, I still have an unusable and dead robot. The extended warranty purchased only covers years 2-4. Amazon will not assist as purchase is beyond their 30 day return window. This is a $960 waste of money. STAY AWAY and purchase a competitors product which actually works.

for the first three months, I was over the moon about this roomba. It vacuums and simultaneously runs a wet mop. It’s more like a wet swiffer, but it’s more than enough to pick up pet hair and light dirt. My floors looked great! Now for the terrible news, and the reason for the two star review. About three months in, I noticed that the robot would not mop. I tried resetting it, I tried replacing all of the parts that I could reach, including the mop, but no go. When I went on Reddit, I saw that a lot of people have this problem with the G7 and the J9. So I called irobot service and was met with a very cold reception. They told me that if I jumped through a bunch of hoops, including providing a lot of information to them, that they would send me a label that would allow me to ship the entire thing back to them and they would fix it if possible. keep in mind that this thing weighs probably 30 pounds. I don’t know how I am supposed to ship it since I no longer have the original packaging, and just throwing it in a box would mean that it jostles around. also, what am I supposed to do while I have no roomba? Bottom line: I bought the roomba brand because I thought it was a sound investment. I will not buy another from this brand. Bissell sells a robot mop/vacuum that is quite good and only about $300. It doesn’t give you the same Smart mapping, but it works quite well. I am also looking into Robo rock. UPDATE: customer service was terrible. They kept sending me emails saying that they were going to close my inquiry. I finally was able to mail the item back to them and have heard nothing after a week. In the meantime, of course, I have no use of the roomba. since I am sick, I really need a roomba. I did my research this time and bought the roborock S7, which, so far after a month works like a dream. The mop is much better than the mop on the Roomba, and the mapping function is far superior. I will never buy another roomba product