The Roomba Combo j7+ is a two-in-one robot mop and vacuum cleaner – and it’s a game changer

Unlike other two-in-ones, this robot vacuum can detect rugs to retract its mop and avoid a damp shag

The ‘Combo’ in the name refers to the mopping attachment. The ‘Plus’ refers to the optional base station, a charging point that doubles as an self-emptying bin. (The Independent)

The iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ is a robotic hoover that mops your floors and empties its own bin when full. Other mopping robo-hoovers exist, but most need some help from a human to manually switch between modes and swap out their mopping attachments. However, the Combo j7+ is completely automatic and uses a fully retractable mopping pad, which it safely stows away when not in use to avoid getting your carpets damp.

The two-in-one Roomba uses sensors to know when it’s on a hard floor and when it’s on a carpet or a rug, and then chooses the right moment to automatically deploy its special mopping arm, popping it out from a little compartment on the top of the device, like it’s doffing a little wet hat.

Combined with Roomba’s reliable obstacle avoidance and navigation, it’s a robo-helper you can confidently set going while you’re out of the house and without any supervision. Like other Roombas, the j7+ uses an on-board camera to spot hazards like dog poop, charging cables, socks and shoelaces, then deftly navigates around them to avoid getting stuck or creating an almighty mess.

When it’s finished cleaning, the robot also sends you slightly accusatory snapshots of all of the detritus you rudely left in its path, and asks if you’d like it to try cleaning again once you’ve tidied your things away.

Like most other Roombas, the Combo j7+ also builds up a floor plan of your home as it goes, which is saved in the iRobot app to make future cleaning runs more efficient. The first few runs see the robot bumping into walls and doors as it learns your home’s layout, until eventually it can clear rooms using neat, straight lines.

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How we tested

We test our robot vacuums in real homes. For this review, the Roomba Combo j7+ was mostly cleaning in a two-bedroom flat with hard floors and rugs. Typical dirt in this home includes pet hair from a small dog, and crumbs, splashes and debris from a regularly used kitchen. Typical hazards include various dangling charging cables, the occasional floordrobe, and trainers hiding under sofas because apparently that’s where we keep them now?

We also chuck all manner of stuff in front of our robot vacuum cleaners to measure their cleaning abilities. In this case, we dropped flour, lentils, and kibble to test the appliance’s ability to pick up particulates of different sizes. The mopping function was tested on small splashes of water, tomato juices, and a dried-in sauce stain. We also paid particular attention to the iRobot app and its ease of use. Read on to see if it cleaned up the competition...

iRobot Roomba Combo j7+: £999, Amazon.co.uk

(iRobot)

You can label rooms and designate virtual no-go zones, and because the Roomba knows where it is in the home, you can tell it to skip the room it’s currently cleaning if you find it getting under your feet while you cook or work. Other robot vacuums we’ve tested don’t differentiate between rooms, so if the device is bothering you your only choice is to end the entire cleaning run.

The Combo j7+ works with all of the main voice assistants too, so you can say things like “ask the Roomba to clean around my desk” to have it tidy up your lunchtime crumbs on command. Meanwhile scheduling allows you to have the Roomba set off at the same time, every day, automatically.

While it can hoover all day long by returning to its base station to recharge and empty its bin as often as needed, the water tank it uses for mopping has to be manually topped up. It’s a small 210ml tank integrated into the dustbin, which is just about enough for a two bedroom flat if you choose the mop’s eco-mode.

This mode uses less water, but you can create zones in the iRobot app for the robot to focus its mopping energy on, such as around the toilet, the dishwasher or your pet’s food bowl. After a few cleaning runs the app starts to suggest these zones automatically as it identifies particularly grubby areas of your home. Testing it at Christmas, it recognised our tree and offered to create a zone around its base, where it would hoover in two passes to catch every last needle.

(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)

So, how well does it clean? Like all robot hoovers, the Combo j7+ is never going to clean or wash your floors better than you could do manually, but that’s hardly the point. What it is excellent at is keeping floors at a generally decent baseline level of tidiness between more thorough cleans, and with almost zero involvement on your part, especially when it comes to the hoovering aspect. After four or five cleaning runs, depending on how hairy your home is, you’ll have to pop the rollers out to clean them by hand and remove any tangled debris or caked-in dust.

The Combo j7+ is basically the original j7+ with a mop on top: so like that model, it excels at vacuuming on hard floors and has a wide-radius spinning brush to get into corners. The large grippy wheels allow it to ride up onto thick shag rugs and over bumpy room thresholds without losing its way, and the round body makes it less likely to get stuck in corners or between chair legs.

On carpets the Combo j7+ cleans exceptionally well too, the dual rollers and powerful suction readily picking up our test dirt – flour, pet hair and pea-sized bits of kibble – without leaving any visible traces. Corners and awkward nooks are where the Combo j7+ tends to miss some dirt, though that’s not a problem specific to this brand.

Object detection can be a little over-cautious in small spaces, forcing the robot to avoid spots it could have reached, but it can be “trained” to understand which objects are safe to approach by reviewing images of the objects in the iRobot app.

(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)

The mopping function is less vigorous than you might expect. The Combo j7+ doesn’t scrub the floor, but drags a wet mopping attachment along behind it. It’s about as effective as lightly running a wet jaycloth over a surface, just enough to stop dirt building up over time and to lightly de-grease the floor as it goes. The Combo j7+ won’t tackle a dried-in sauce stain, even over repeated runs, but it will clean up any small splashes of liquid and keep the bathroom floor from getting dull and grubby during the week.

The small water tank means you’re either limited to only mopping certain areas of the home, mopping infrequently, running the robot in eco-mode, or stepping in to refill its tank at least once per cleaning run. Topping it up is simple enough, assuming you’re at home, but the Combo j7+ is smart enough to finish its run using just the vacuum mode if it runs out of water.

(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)

The Combo j7+ comes with a small amount of concentrated floor-cleaning solution in the box, but you’ll find cheap refills easily enough online. The Roomba itself doesn’t use a dustbag, but the base station it empties itself into does. These bags are big enough to hold the dirt from six or seven cleaning runs of a two-bedroom flat, and they’re reusable. iRobot recommends replacing these bags once in a while, along with the robot’s rollers and spinning brush, but besides that, the Combo j7+ doesn’t have any ongoing running costs.

Buy now

The verdict: Roomba Combo j7+

iRobot’s first two-in-one mopping vacuum cleaner is an excellent hoover and a lazy mopper, but even its half-hearted approach to lightly wetting floors results in noticeably shinier surfaces versus the non-mopping alternatives we’ve tested. Not having to step in to replace the mopping attachment means it can do the entire home, rugs and hard floors, in one sweep and without supervision.

The small water tank is the main drawback here, discouraging you from setting the Combo j7+ to regularly mop every hard floor with maximum wetness, but the iRobot app makes it easy to focus the robot’s mopping on the specific areas that need it: such as around the dishwasher and in the bathroom.

iRobot’s advanced object detection and avoidance is another key advantage for the Roomba Combo j7+, allowing you to confidently set it running while you’re away from home and be relatively certain it won’t become tangled up in a power cable and yank the television off the wall, or smear your dog’s poop all down the hallway.

The Roomba Combo j7+ is an expensive piece of kit, but it feels generations ahead of cheaper brands, and the mopping function is well-implemented, neatly designed and effective. The standard j7+ will do for most, but in the right home – one with a mix of rugs, carpets, tiles and hard floors, and with no steps – the Combo j7+ a game changer.

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For more vacuum recommendations, read our guide to the best upright models that tackle large areas with ease