This budget robot vacuum nails the basics

iRobot Roomba combo 105 design and setup

Out of the box, the Roomba combo 105 is a smart-looking piece of kit. It has the classic circular Roomba design, finished in a tasteful matte black plastic, with a raised LiDAR turret on top that houses the laser navigation system. It’s simple, functional and feels well-built.

In comparison to older Roombas, the setup process is refreshingly straightforward, assuming you can easily switch to your home wifi’s 2.4GHz channel. That’s something I couldn’t do with my Google router, which combines the 2.4 and 5GHz networks with no option to split them. But most routers will let you choose channels – it’s a bugbear anyone familiar with cheaper smart home tech will be painfully aware of.

The iRobot app is clean and easy to use, and the initial firmware update took just ten minutes without any hiccups. The first mapping run produced a very rough floorplan that treated furniture as solid walls and merged two bedrooms into one – the robovac apparently thinks we should knock a wall through – requiring a considerable amount of messing around in the editor to get things right. You’ll need an accurate map to label rooms and create your virtual ‘keep out’ and ‘no mopping’ zones.

iRobot Roomba combo 105 navigation and obstacle avoidance

The combo 105 is a tale of two halves when it comes to intelligence. On the one hand, navigation is great thanks to that LiDAR system. When creating its first map, the robovac simply pops into each room for a quick scan rather than tracing its way along floorboards. When cleaning, it moves with a clear sense of purpose, working in neat, methodical rows that ensure full coverage of the floor space, and navigating in tight circles around table legs. It’s impressive work for iRobot’s cheapest model, and consigns those old bump-and-go robots to the rubbish bin of tech history.

However, object avoidance for anything smaller than a breadbin is basically non-existent. Odd socks, dangling shoelaces, Lego bricks and phone cables will all get the better of the poor Roomba combo 105, owing to a lack of an on-board camera. This is a robovac you need to pre-tidy your floors before use – unlike more expensive options that can spot and avoid those sweaty trainers you kicked off after your morning run and forgot about.

Having tested more expensive and more capable robovacs with keen obstacle avoidance, the Roomba combo 105’s lack of proper situational awareness is the biggest compromise you’re making by spending less. We’re busy, messy creatures, and less likely to pick up after ourselves than we’d like to think, so the added headache of having to run around before each cleaning like you’re baby-proofing the place isn’t worth the cash savings.

iRobot Roomba combo 105 cleaning performance

When it comes to the actual cleaning, the Roomba combo 105 is a decent performer for the price. Vacuuming suction is powerful, and the edge-sweeping brush cleans along the floorboards well. While the round body of the robovac gives it unbeatable manoeuvrability in tight spaces, the shape means it misses a small spot in inside corners.

I found the Roomba combo 105 needs two passes to catch larger crumbs, which it has a habit of flinging across the room with its spinning edge brush, but a single pass does the job with daily dust and pet hair on hard floors and medium-pile carpets. The robot’s ‘dirt detect technology’ uses sensors to identify more heavily soiled areas and automatically gives them a second pass – a simple but effective feature.

The mopping function is as basic as it comes. Fill the onboard tank with either water or approved cleaning solution, attach the microfiber pad to a plate on the bottom, and the robot simply drags it around as it vacuums. It’s cheap and cheerful, without any scrubbing pressure or spinning, and with the pad attached, the robovac will automatically avoid rugs, carpets and any areas you’ve told it to. The Roomba combo 105 won’t tackle any dried-on spills, but will give floors the lightest of wiping down. Again, the hassle of attaching the pad hardly seems worth it.