Robot vacuum cleaners started out with the mission of taking over the task of floor mopping from us. But in the time that’s passed since, they’ve become smarter too. The iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ is an example, with useful wet mop capabilities.
iRobot, the parent company for the Roomba cleaning robots, has clearly done enough over the years to get the attention of Amazon. That particular acquisition, which was proposed last year, is navigating some regulatory speedbumps. But it makes one thing clear – iRobot has the technology, that is primed for the future we are heading into.
On a more specific point, the Roomba Combo J7+ is the latest addition to its product portfolio with multiple improvements and tweaks, the most important being the robot mop arm. Now it’s a wholesome package. The underlying tech includes the latest suite, navigation system with sensors and a camera. In fact, the camera adds better vision, that helps with room mapping and object detection. You can turn off collection of images of the insides of the home.
Also read:The iRobot Roomba J7+ vacuum cleaner has better vision than its peers
The Roomba Combo J7+, at first glance, is very similar to the Roomba J7+ we had reviewed last year. But it feels marginally more compact, it is less noisy as it scampers around the rooms (though the motor and suction sound decibels are only slightly softer), has a tank for water and floor cleaning solution mixture and a mopping arm that deploys when it drives off the docking unit.
One can always say the water tank capacity could have been more (it is just about 200 millilitres), but even with maximum water use for mopping, it can last one full cleaning cycle. The advantage of the mopping arm is that it deploys by itself when the vacuum+mopping option is selected. There is the choice of running just the former too.
That neatly leads us to the app. It isn’t a piece of software that you’ll need to get used to; quite self-explanatory, intuitive and stable with connectivity to the Roomba Combo J7+. Once the first few mapping runs are done, you have the option to manually modify the map too in case its missed some area of the home. In our case, it was a fairly accurate map, of course defined by any obstacles such as tables, sofas, the fridge and the dining table being some examples.
Between our experience with the Roomba J7+ and now the Roomba Combo J7+, there is the distinct sense that the latter has imbibed more refinement in terms of how audible the suction mechanism and the motor get. It’s a slight change, but an improvement nonetheless. What hasn’t changed is the ability to pick up even the smallest visible specs of dirt on the floor. And indeed, the carpets.
This robot vacuum cleaner goes over thick hand tufted carpets too, with absolute ease.
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The difference between the Roomba Combo J7 and the Roomba Combo J7+ is the additional bin-emptying mechanism. That is, when the robot docks back on the charging station after the cleaning is done, an additional suction mechanism deploys to clean the robot’s internal bin and dump the collected dust into the additional bin in the docking chamber. That is replaceable, and large enough for quite a few days’ worth of cleaning runs.
Mind you, the auto-empty function gets really loud for those few seconds. If you aren’t aware that the Roomba Combo J7+ has done a cleaning round and scampered back to its base, you may be in for a slight scare.
Battery life has always been just about adequate with the iRobot family of devices. In this case, a fully charged Roomba Combo J7+ does the entire home and the battery is down to the last 10%. Anyone with a larger floor area may require a splash and dash charge before a cycle can be completed.
None of this convenience comes without a significant outlay from your wallet. The Roomba Combo J7 (which is without the self-emptying mechanism) costs ₹69,900. The one with the bin in the dock is priced at ₹89,900.
You do pay a lot of money for a robot that can clean the floors in your home. If that is the primary perspective, as it should be, the iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ is a more than capable robot vacuum cleaner. The mopping system is definitely a bonus worth the extra money compared to the usual vacuum cleaners. It simply cleans, something we realised every day this was operational at home.
