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​

iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ Self-Emptying & Auto-Fill Robot Vacuum & Mop PROS: Product shipped and arrived very quickly - that's the best part of this review. Nice basic features like NO MOP zones and NO GO ZONES, decent object detection. CONS: You can return it within 30 days, but don’t expect a refund on the return for about 3 weeks. In my case, this is on, not iRobot. Wasn’t a big deal to me, but if you are low on cash and want to purchase a different one it’ll be a while. Device rams everything in your house and tries to push walls and furniture 3 or 4 times before it continues onward. Literally bounces off once, then twice, then three times. By the time the Roomba was finished mapping my house it looked like it was 4 years old; was scratched and scuffed up all around. I thought maybe this was limited to mapping, but it turns out it did it all the time, no matter what. It couldn’t find the base ½ the time and I would have to pick it up and put in the base unless I wanted some humor and I’d let it run for 30 minutes missing it’s ramp by 1/3 of an inch and then driving in circles and trying repeatedly just to fail. This robot could get lost in the packaging it was sent it. All my major issues started with communication errors on the base and off the base. After those settled down came the major issues as it told me the suction system was clogged. I checked it and it was a little dirty, but nothing obstructed it completely. After that the final death error was filter clogged and need to be changed. Changed the filter and nothing, reset everything same error. I believe the code was error code 30, but not 100% sure as it has been a bit. Mopping is horrible - it's like taking a wash rag and mopping your whole house while spraying cleaner down. The floor had streaks all over it and numerous missed spots and trails. Vacuuming was pretty good when it would run which wasn't very long, but not the best. Final thoughts: I have researched many vacuuming and mopping robots. I have concluded that even though they are the same make and model, some of them are great and some of them are total flops and pieces of junk. So, you may have the same Roomba I just wrote about, and it is running perfectly and doing a great job. You may decide to purchase one and it works great, or you may decide to purchase one and it’s just like mine. Roll the dice? Just remember the refund period is long. If you research other manufacturers, you’ll see the same results. Some say theirs is EXCELLENT and some say theirs are total pieces of junk. I think all the companies need a better QA or something.

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!

Product Review – Roomba J9+ Combo I purchased the Roomba J9+ Combo with high expectations, especially given the premium price point of over $1,300 and my existing loyalty as a multi-Roomba owner. Unfortunately, the experience has been extremely disappointing. Key Issues Experienced (since Oct 2025): • Erratic tank level errors preventing mopping • Frequent “unable to mop” alerts • “Pad not attached” warnings even when the pad is properly attached • All issues occur unpredictably and repeatedly I spent over 2.5 hours troubleshooting with customer support across two case files, yet the device still fails to operate consistently. Support has now advised that since the warranty has expired, they cannot help and only offered a trade-in—which is completely unacceptable. Why this is a problem: • A flagship Roomba should last more than two years without catastrophic failures. • I’ve spent over $400 on consumables for this device alone. • I own three Roombas, so I’m not new to the ecosystem or misusing the product. • Even Amazon (where I purchased it) can’t assist at this point. At this price point and brand reputation, the durability and customer support fall far short. A $1,300 top-tier product shouldn’t fail this quickly, nor should customers be left without a real solution. Bottom Line: This Roomba J9+ Combo has become a sub-par, unreliable, and faulty product, acknowledged even by support in earlier correspondence. I just want the unit to work, but the lack of effective support makes it hard to justify ever buying another Roomba. Not recommended until iRobot stands behind their flagship models with better long-term reliability and support. To top it off, Amazon has refused to help!

This product is so glitchy! I have been on the second dock replacement since June 14th. They don't seem to have any stock to replace the base again, and I have no idea what to do! I would not repurchase IROBOT. iRobot have been excellent at supporting us and we are now on our third base. This one seems to work well.

Have owned a J7+ and Braava before and given the good experience with them wanted an all in one combo which refills the cleaning liquid and had a better suction. Based on the hype went with Roborock S8. BIG mistake (well that’s for another review) and after having sunk my money in a place where the sun never shines, went for what I should have gone with in the first place. Enter the J9 combo and it delighted right out of the box. Suction is much higher and the mopping is top notch. Scrubbing the mop pad feature was never a priority as it leaves residue in the machine and creates a hygiene issue. Moreover the dirty water eventually lets off a smell. It’s easier to swap the mop pad. Cons: The navigation is still the same as in S7 and could have been upgraded to a LIDAR instead but as long as it does the job, it’s fine. Would have been great if there was just a mop only mode and hopefully it can be addressed with a software update.