Roomba Combo i5 Robot Vacuum & Mop - Clean by Room with Smart Mapping, Works with Alexa, Personalized Cleaning Powered OS, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpet and Hard Floors

For the first week of ownership, we were disappointed in the robots random movements, but we had read in other reviews that it needs some time to explore and update itself, so we gave it a chance. The more it explored, the more software updates were downloaded, and the more efficiently it performed. Here are the pros and cons of owning this model: PROS: - Software updates that have greatly improved the i3's capabilities. - - Scheduled automatic cleaning is easy to setup in the app. - Unlike the more expensive Roomba models, it works in the dark. Lights off? curtains closed? No problem. - Sucks up a lot of dirt, lint, and hair from our floors. Long hair (we have a lot) collects at the ends of his rollers and is easily removed. - We have 2 steps down from the main level to our family room. It vacuums to the edge, but has never jumped. - The app isn't needed for a cleaning. For our family room, we don't use the app. We just set it in the room, press the button and away it goes, cleaning in an efficient manner. - Durable. Sucked up a USB cord and a sun hat string that had been left out on the floor. These items got tangled up, jamming the robot and causing it to shut down, but no damage was done. - Widely available replacement parts... for a day may a come when his little mustache stops whisking dirt into his big suck face. CONS - It took 5 days of assigning it to "clean everywhere" before it accurately mapped our single-story 1500sf home, then allowed me to divide up and label rooms/areas, and the ability to assign it to clean specific rooms. - It can't clean our whole house in one charge. It goes back to the station recharges itself and then finishes the job. - The main con is having patience with the robot exploring and the software updates (my experience below). It will take some time for all of the features to become available. Make sure you have strong Wi-Fi signal throughout your house and send the robot out on cleaning runs and the updates will happen. Software Updates: - The app and the robot started with limited functionality. After doing a few whole house cleanings over 3 days, it started getting updates and more features were added to the app. It took another few days before it was fully updated and had an accurate floor plan. While it was cleaning it was also doing a lot of exploring, going back over the same areas, pausing to ponder the universe, etc. I think this was part of preparation for the next software update regarding the mapping. After cleaning all accessible areas of my house a few times, a map appeared on the app and asked me if it was accurate or if the robot should remap my house. Some parts of rooms were cut off or shaped weird, but I clicked "accept" anyway. It then prompted me to add/delete partition lines to divide the house up into rooms. The lines can be moved any direction and rotated 360° so you have good control over creating different areas. After doing a few more whole house cleanings the map updated itself and accurately represented our floor plan. In the end I'm glad we had patience with it. It cleans great now and it's efficient.

When my 360 S5 lost it's mind I resorted to my old upright for a while but really missed a robot cleaner. The 360 was a quality vacuum but after a couple years decided it would only work in the kitchen, in every other room it acted like it was terrified and would not clean but a small area. Now to the iRobot i3. First I purchased it used as the price was really attractive. When it arrived it was in perfect condidion and had obviously never been used. It was unblemished and clean and included everything except it's original packaging. The software was easy to set up and tho I did have to run the mapping feature twice it mapped my small apartment quickly and accurately. Setting up the layout of rooms was easy and a nice feature (I don't always want to clean the whole apartment). Suction is OK (the 360 S5 had much stronger suction). I don't have pets so I'm not sure how well it picks up various kinds of hair. The spot clean feature is nice, with my old vac you set up a spot via the software with the iRobot you just put it where you want to clean a press the button on the robot. The dust bin is a bit on the small side but adiquate for my needs. The software is fairly easy to use and has some nice features (keeping track of the health of bushes and filters and a setting to prevent the robot from cleaning when the bin is full are nice). iRobot branded replacement filters are a bit expensive compared to off brand but might be worth it for me as I may only need one every 3 months or so. Overall if I'd paid full price I'd still be happy with the i3. That I paid considerably less for a used (though as I said above truly like new) robot I'm realy very happy.

I've had this iRobot for about two months now - set-up was easy, although it took a couple of tries to get the app to find the vacuum. I set the docking station in a fairly open area in my dining room, with a schedule to run at midnight, every other day. For the first 6 weeks, it ran for about 4 hours, returning to the docking station once the bin was full. However, starting about 2 weeks ago, I would awake to an error message in the app, saying it had gotten stuck after running for only an hour. Sometimes I would find it actually stuck under my couch, but other times it had returned itself to the docking station. I moved the station to an even more open area in my living room, AND bought the virtual wall to keep it from going under the couch, but it continued getting "stuck" and returning to the station after an hour. I tried rebooting the robot, and even deleted it altogether and set it up as a new vacuum, but the issue kept happening. So this morning, I started a manual job to watch it - it was going in a large circle, covering part of my kitchen, then part of my living room, then part of my dining room, then returning to re-vacuum those same areas in those three rooms. It also saw my living room rug as a barrier, and wouldn't go over it - even though it had done so without problems when I first got it. I called tech support - the first rep was very nice and tried to help - she even sent me a link so that I could show a video of it's behavior. She couldn't help me further, though, and sent me to an escalated support queue. That agent told me I needed to email them a video of its behavior before they could help. I explained that it would be a long video, since the circular journey within those 3 rooms took about 10 minutes, but then commented that I didn't understand why it kept getting stuck in the same place, since it's supposed to be mapping my house. The agent told me that this model does NOT actually map the terrain, despite the fact that the description says, "SMART NAVIGATION GETS THE JOB DONE - The i3 navigates & maps your home in neat rows using state-of-the-art floor tracking sensors to vacuum hardwood & carpet." The agent said that the term "map" refers to the cleaning method, not actually storing a map of the area from prior jobs. Apparently, if I wanted that feature, I needed to by the i6, i7 or higher models, which are substantially more expensive. I'm disappointed by the misleading description, as I specifically bought this model because I thought it was actually mapping my house. Overall, I think it's a good vacuum (though I'm still not sure why it stops vacuuming after only an hour when it worked fine initially), but just bear in mind that it won't remember where it got stuck from job to job. Would be nice if the company changed the description to make that clearer.

I've had this vacuum for a little over a year and it's really just been an annoyance. My review is summarized below, but I would also suggest a quick Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo search with the terms "roomba terrible reddit". Confirmation bias is a thing, but so is astroturfing and premature reviewing, both of which are prevalent on this site. Let me go ahead and get the one positive out of the way: The vacuum is pretty strong. It pulls more crud from between hardwood boards than my Dyson vacuum. Yay. -----After owning an i3 since July 2022 here are my takeaways:----- * Automation should make life easier and this fails so hard it's almost impressive. I spend less time manually vacuuming and maintaining my Dyson than I do futzing around with the Roomba unit and app. It does get stuck occasionally. I knew that going in, but all the hand-holding the unit requires really adds up. * The Smart Map feature has yet to work for me and I've tried it several times. I think it was only recently added as a feature for the i3 when I purchased it, so I assume it's a feature that's been shoehorned in and that I should be grateful for their generosity. Basically, the unit will roam around the house not vacuuming. I will assume it's doing it's mapping thing, but it's not doing that either. By the time it's done not creating a map, there's not enough battery power left to really do any vacuuming. I mainly purchased this vacuum for the vacuuming feature so the Smart Map feature seems at odds with that. * The unit gets so close to cleaning the corners of rooms. So close in fact, that it's easy to forget that the robot didn't clean the corners at all, ever. This one's not a secret, but what else can't this thing do! Keep reading to find out! * The iRobot app says I have to replace the filters in 5 months. I've barely used this vacuum, and haven't had it running on a schedule in months. However, the app (as of today 8/13/23) suggests I spend $65 on new filters. It even sends me push notifications telling me that iRobot needs me to buy their filters asap. Why? Is it simply on a timer? I do have an option to "Reset" the "High Efficiency Filter" on the Product Health screen. Is that option there because it's unreliable? Is it being misdiagnosed by the app or faulty sensors within the unit? No way to know! * The app is rough. I'm not sure why honestly. It's hard to describe because the issues are so sporadic and intermittent. Maybe it's because iRobot has to support dozens of different models with marginally different feature sets in a single app. I get secondhand embarrassment even opening the app and this is coming from a person who has used the HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO Max apps. I'm curious if the makers of my cheap, automated catfood dispenser are also MIT roboticists and engineers, because that app has more features and has been completely hands-off since the 15 minutes I spent setting it up 3 months ago. * The unit draws more power than it needs. I'm probably a stickler for this, but I'm surprised my cheap, Amazon-purchased cat toys don't draw nearly as much power continually once they're fully charged. I'd love to test it more and get some insight as to what's going on but then I wonder: to what end? So that I can get my terrible vacuum back up and running or something? Maybe it's because it's communicating to the cloud that new filters are desperately needed in 5 months! -----A couple of side notes for anyone still reading this 🤷:----- * I'm not surprised the Automatic Dirt Disposal unit is no longer for sale. I remember nearly purchasing it a year ago until I briefly skimmed all the negative review. Just now I checked the iRobot website and they indicate that there's an entirely different slew of issues there. Their business model with accessories seems to be: create the disease to sell snake oil. * iRobot, the manufacturer, uses green for its primary brand color but the design is not environmentally conscious, in my opinion. Unless my unit is very specifically defective, I think this is misleading. But at least they can say the logo was colored green back in the 90s before green = environmentally conscious. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they're just not good at branding or robots. Keep up the g̶o̶o̶d̶ work! Lastly, iRobot support, please don't respond to this review. If you do respond, please acknowledge that you decided to ignore this part of the review.

I normally don’t come back to review a product after this long, but this one really deserves it. I’ve had this robot vacuum for almost 3 years now, and honestly it completely changed my daily routine at home. I live in a small apartment, and it works perfectly for my space. These days I barely ever have to sweep the floor myself. I just run it or set a schedule and let it do its thing. The suction power is great for everyday cleaning. It handles dust, hair, and light debris without any issues. It’s perfect for maintaining a clean home. Of course, it won’t replace a deep clean once in a while, but it keeps everything consistently clean, which makes a huge difference. One thing I really like is how easy it is to use. No complications. You can control it with the button or through the app, and the mapping feature helps a lot when it comes to cleaning specific rooms. Another big plus is durability. After almost 3 years, it’s still working really well. That’s huge for me, because it shows this is a reliable product and not something that starts having issues after a short time. The mopping feature is also a nice bonus for everyday use. It won’t replace a deep floor cleaning, but it definitely helps keep the floors looking and feeling clean. Overall, if you live in a small to medium home and want convenience, this is absolutely worth it. It saves time, keeps your place clean, and makes your routine so much easier. Easily one of the best home purchases I’ve made.

I bought this for my wife for Christmas. It was her request, so that got me off the hook if it didn’t work! Frankly, I didn’t EXPECT it to work very good. How could that little thing with hardly any suction at all POSSIBLY clean carpets and hard floors. I was so wrong! I have gone from skeptic to absolute fan! This little guy has exceeded my expectations dramatically. Our hard floors used to be continually dirty. You know how it is. Either sweeping or dusting mopping constantly to keep hard floors clean. I really didn’t expect the Roomba to do much with the hard surfaces. Boy was I wrong! I love it for the hard floors! I love emptying the bin and finding an incredible amount of stuff every time! Plus, by keeping the hard floors clean our carpets have stayed cleaner as well. And it does great on carpets. Or at least on ours. We have good quality plush carpet that’s all one length. We don’t have pets, so I can’t comment on pet hair. We don’t have kids, so small objects and toys and things of that sort are not a problem. But the carpets themselves look fantastic after the Roomba goes through the house. Occasionally, I leave little bits of debris on the floor intentionally to see if it’s going to pick up small shreds of paper or the odd piece of string or something of that sort. The result is… If it’s not something that is stuck to the carpet it usually gets picked up by the Roomba. I did not get the additional canister that empties when on the charging base. Therefore I usually have to empty it twice to cover the whole house if I go several days between cleaning. About 2500 ft.². The first couple of cleanings were especially fun when I let it go under the beds and rooms where we have lived for many years. I really didn’t expect it to be able to clean the accumulated dust under the beds. It did fantastic! Of course, it’s little debris area filled up rapidly, and several times, when cleaning in areas that had not been vacuumed in a long time. It took two and three times running under beds before they were really clean underneath and the dust bin didn’t fill up. After the initial cleaning or two, even under the beds and throughout the entire house can be cleaned usually without having to empty the dustbin. All I can say is I’m glad my wife wanted this for Christmas! Roomba has been a great cleaning asset to our house!

I bought this to supplement my vacuuming and help get cat fur up more frequently. I love that it can go under a bed and the first time I was amazed at the amount of stuff it picked up. It takes a LOT of time to map my house. I have less than 2000 sq foot one-story and it went for 8-hours with several charging trips the first pass. I didn't realize the map would not be generated until multiple passes had been done. It took it several days to finally create the map, luckily only 2-3 hours each time. There were some odd rooms, so I had to send it around to remap. It's now mostly mapped correctly, but I still have a few rooms where it's odd - connecting bathroom and bedroom. Trying to put the lines in to create the rooms is very tricky. I've redone several rooms over time and some are still slightly off - it goes into a room I don't expect it to, and not one I can close a door to but line on map looks correct. It jammed almost immediately - 2nd vacuum trip, and none of the website help is correct for this unit, nor any of the youtube videos. I was almost ready to chunk it, but finally got it unjammed. It also seems to lose it's mind if not used in a week and just won't move. I've had to reboot it several times to get it to start. The little spinning duster has jammed into the bumper multiple times, so the session must be paused to fix it. I've already replaced one when it got stuck on a rug, and the current one is now bent but still working. Now I know why the replacement packs comes with 3. When it works, it works well, and I have hard floors and carpet. It seems to have an issue keeping the stray pieces of cat litter in its bin, so I have to clean up the base area after that room. I've got one area rug I will need to take up as it's just too thick and robot seems to be picking up too many fibers. It can get over it but now concerned it could cause a problem longer term. I have to put up cardboard at my slider doors as it gets stuck on the rails. It does a good job cleaning the carpets, but cleaning the rollers takes some tweezers to get the stuff out of the end connectors. Given the company is in financial issues, not sure I'd recommend this, and that company help page is not helpful. Also skip the mopping function. I thought that would be good, but given the map issues I can't really ensure it won't hit a rug or carpet. Mopping isn't that great, so I'll keep my other mop/vac for that. Given all the issues, I'd never run this when I wasn't home to monitor it. I didn't get the larger dust bin so I have to clean the small bin out after 2-3 rooms.

We have not used the "mop" feature but we do the whole house with the smart mapping vacume. Combination of carpet and hard floor. All works great. We use it 2-3 times a week and sometimes do just high trafficed areas. I recommend cleaning the catch box and blow out filter every time. Amazing what it picks up. Battery life is 1 hour of vacuming and 1 hour to recharge to finish if necessary. All processes are automatic. I bought this "used" from Amazon and it was a super value. You can pick up chairs etc. or just let it hunt around obsticles. It figures it out every time.

Pros: - Cleans almost everywhere and moves in straight rows. - Slows down before hitting a wall or obstacle, most of the times. - Almost never get stuck. Doesn't need my intervention. Happened once since I've got it. (a month and a half) - Works well with Google Assistant. - Deep cleans carpets and rugs. *Perhaps too much. - App is simple enough and works well for what I need (schedules). - I'll be honest: I've owned the i3 for a month and a half now and I haven't used my "real" vacuum since. My floor are always clean now. I'm lazy and happy. Cons: - *Will be too rough on wool or other delicate fabric carpets/rugs - Hair (long) rolls in around front wheel and rubber brushes bearings. I clean it every other day. (very easy to do) - The Edge-Sweeping Brush with scatter some debris around since it's going very fast but chances are the i3 will pick them up after so it's not a big con. Note: -I suggest keeping a cluster-free floor as this thing will eat everything small enough in its way. It has very good suction! In my case, it ate a small cat toy, once. Just remove all small stuff from your floor and let the i3 do its thing. If that's too much work for you, go for the new Roomba J7. -If you want to be able to clean specifics room and not your entire floor each time, go for the Roomba i7. EDIT: This is not true anymore as the i3 have the mapping feature now and can clean one room at the time if needed. Also, it is possible to create schedules using your rooms in the app.

Works really well I must say for a little gadget. Not AS good as me but coming home to a clean floor does make me feel great. I have a dog and my SIL runs a small business out of our house so we have people in and out often, it was hard to keep up with the foot traffic on our hardwood. THE INLY REASON I GIVE IT 4/5 is the mapping doesn’t seem to work very well I have mapped a thousand times and it still wants to go past the map so I’ve purchased those boundary makers and that stops the robot from going where I don’t want to go however with the mapping and for the price you’d think it would just stick to the map anyways I would recommend!!

Lo amo, excelente

Little noisy but major upgrade from our last pet series. The mapping feature works flawlessly and with the new app support this device is perfect for a house.

Even thought this robot vacuum is surely an upgrade from my old, stupid chinese robot, I was expecting a bit much more from Irobot brand. The mapping is a HUGE PAIN. I went mad yesterday seeing my robot having difficulties to reach the room I sent it to vacuum in an oderly and timely manner. I live in a 850 foot square appartment, should not take over 15 minutes to reach the room. Then, it only vacuum half of it before taking 15 minutes to return to its base. I had to put it inside the room, close the door and select clean everywhere. Frustrating. Don't throw away your mop and bucket, you'll still need it. The mop combo helps a bit for daily maintenance but won't scrub your floor. It will only remove a layer of dirt. The vacuum succion is great, better than my older model. The silicone brush are easy to maintain, I highly recommend for pet fur and long hair. Looking back, I wish I have saved more for a better model, smarter for mapping and such. The vacuum everywhere function is great, the vacuum by room is subpar. Overall, I still recommend this model, if you're not willing to spend 1000+ on a "high end" robot, but be aware, it has flaws to deal with. I know I will spend more on the next one. Edited Februrary 2025: It stopped working. I did all the maintenance, kept it clean, the battery's fully charged but it wont leave the base because ''the bumper are stucks''. They aren't. I gave it three star at first, now it's one.