Roomba Combo j5+ Review — Smart, Self‑Emptying Vacuum & Mop
The Roomba Combo j5 plus is a robot vacuum that converts to a mop, designed for busy U.S. households who want one machine to handle both tasks. Its enclosed auto-empty base holds up to 60 days of debris, so you spend less time maintaining floors.
Key Features & Benefits:
- Enjoy vacuum-or-mop flexibility with the interchangeable Roomba Combo Bin.
- Save weeks of upkeep: auto-empty base holds up to 60 days of debris.
- Remove embedded pet hair using the 4-Stage Cleaning System and dual rubber brushes.
- Avoid obstacles in real time with PrecisionVision Navigation that detects and steers around them.
- Keep hard floors streak-free using the microfiber pad and compatible cleaning solutions.
- Control cleaning zones in the iRobot Home App to skip carpets while mopping.
Original price was: $729.99.$498.00Current price is: $498.00.
The Roomba Combo j5 plus is iRobot’s hybrid cleaning robot that combines the company’s latest vacuuming technology with a swappable mop bin, letting a single machine vacuum and mop hard floors. It’s designed for people who want automated, hands-off floor care—especially pet owners and busy households that need frequent, reliable cleaning without daily effort.
Quick verdict: if you want a robot that vacuums well, avoids common obstacles (including pet messes), and can switch to mopping with a simple bin swap, the Roomba Combo j5 plus is a practical, low-fuss option.
What’s in the Box
- Not specified (manufacturer components list not provided in the input)
Design & Build
iRobot keeps the Roomba Combo j5 plus in the familiar Roomba form factor: a low-profile circular robot intended to slip under furniture and navigate around legs and obstacles. The listing emphasizes functional design choices rather than luxury materials, focusing on a practical, durable chassis that houses the drive system, sensors, camera, and interchangeable cleaning bin.
Because exact dimensions and weight aren’t listed in the provided material, I can’t give definitive size or clearance requirements—so check the product page or manual for fit in tight spaces before buying. The swappable bin concept is the main ergonomic touch: instead of attaching a separate mop unit permanently, you swap to a “Roomba Combo Bin” when you want mopping capability. That keeps the robot lighter and simpler when you only need vacuuming, and adds mopping without extra hardware hanging off the back.
Controls are primarily app-driven (plus on-device buttons), so daily operation is intended to be hands-off. The mop uses a removable microfiber pad that attaches to the bin—easy to replace or launder.
Key Features
Swappable Combo Bin: Vacuum or Mop on Demand
Benefit: You get the flexibility of both functions without owning two separate devices. Swap in the Roomba Combo Bin to turn the robot into a mop for hard floors; swap it out to return to vacuuming.Real life: On weekdays you can run vacuum-only cycles to pick up pet hair and debris; on weekends switch to the combo bin for a quick mop pass on tile or hardwood.
4-Stage Cleaning System
Benefit: A multi-step cleaning path—agitate, lift, extract, and filter—improves pickup of dirt, dust, and pet hair compared with single-stage cleaners.Real life: Helps pull embedded pet hair from carpets and move dust into the robot’s bin along baseboards and under furniture.
Dirt Detect Technology
Benefit: The robot identifies dirtier spots and concentrates cleaning there for a deeper result.Real life: If a high-traffic entryway collects grit and tracked-in dirt, the robot senses it and spends extra time working that zone rather than passing over it briefly.
Auto-Empty Base Holds Up to 60 Days
Benefit: The Clean Base automatically dumps the robot’s Vacuum Bin into an enclosed disposable bag, reducing how often you have to handle dust and debris (claimed up to 60 days).Real life: For average households, that means you can run routine cleans for weeks without manually emptying the robot. (source: listing, checked 2025)
PrecisionVision Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance
Benefit: A camera-driven navigation system helps the robot map and react to obstacles in real time, identifying and avoiding objects of many sizes—cords, shoes, and even pet waste.Real life: You get fewer interrupted runs from tangled cords and fewer encounters with obstacles that would otherwise block the robot’s path.
P.O.O.P. (Pet Owner Official Promise)
Benefit: iRobot promises the robot will avoid pet waste, and if it doesn’t, there’s a replacement policy subject to terms and conditions.Real life: This is reassuring for pet owners who’ve worried about a robot smearing a mess. Check iRobot’s website for full eligibility and claim procedures.
Neat Rows & Multi-Pass Cleaning
Benefit: The robot cleans in organized, overlapping rows and makes two passes for more consistent coverage.Real life: This approach reduces missed spots and helps ensure edges and mid-floor areas get equal attention, especially useful on mixed-floor homes.
App-Controlled No Mop Zones and Mapping
Benefit: Using the iRobot Home App you can set virtual “No Mop Zones” so the robot will avoid mopping specific areas (like rugs or furniture that shouldn’t get wet).Real life: Prevent accidental carpet soaking by defining no-mop boundaries before running a mopping session; the app also supports scheduling and customizing runs.
Mop Design & Microfiber Pad
Benefit: The mop pad is a specialized microfiber that works with plain water or an approved cleaning solution to remove footprints and fine dust.Real life: Use the mop for light, routine cleaning on sealed hard floors—but avoid using the mop bin on carpets (the robot will avoid carpets when the mop bin is installed).
Performance & Use
Real-world use is where the Roomba Combo j5 plus aims to be convenient. Vacuums run with the 4-Stage Cleaning System and Dirt Detect should capture a broad mix of debris—crumbs, pet hair, and tracked-in dirt—while the Auto-Empty Base reduces interaction frequency. When you want mopping, swap to the Combo Bin, fill it with water or a compatible cleaning solution (iRobot lists approved liquids on its website), and the robot will avoid carpets and only treat hard floors.
Setup tips
- Place the Clean Base on a flat surface with clearance on all sides as recommended in the manual (specific clearance not listed here; check the printed guide).
- Create maps and No Mop Zones in the iRobot Home App to prevent the robot from entering areas where mopping isn’t desired.
- For the mop bin, use the listed compatible cleaning solutions only; using other fluids could void warranty or damage the unit (see the iRobot site for details).
Maintenance tips
- Replace or empty the Clean Base bag when indicated. iRobot claims the base can hold up to 60 days of debris in its enclosed bag (source: listing, checked 2025).
- Rinse or replace the microfiber mop pad as needed; follow laundering guidance on the pad and avoid harsh detergents unless specified by iRobot.
- Keep the camera and sensors clean of dust for reliable navigation—wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth.
- Check brushes and wheels periodically for hair and fiber buildup and remove tangles to retain suction and mobility.
Limitations to note
- Specific runtime, suction metrics, water tank capacity, robot weight, and physical dimensions are not listed in the supplied material, so you should confirm those factors if they’re critical to your purchase decision.
- Mopping performance is best described as a maintenance-level clean rather than a heavy-duty wet scrub—suitable for light spills, dust, and footprints.
Pros vs Cons
| Pros (evidence-based) | Cons (evidence-based) |
|---|---|
| Swappable combo bin lets one robot vacuum or mop as needed (source: listing) | Exact specs (battery life, dimensions, weight) are not listed in the provided information |
| 4-Stage Cleaning System and Dirt Detect for focused pickup of dirt and pet hair (source: listing) | Mopping is maintenance-oriented; listing does not claim heavy scrubbing or steam cleaning |
| Auto-empty Clean Base holds up to 60 days of debris, reducing manual emptying (source: listing, checked 2025) | Clean Base bag lifespan will vary by household; “up to 60 days” depends on usage and debris levels |
| PrecisionVision Navigation helps avoid obstacles including pet waste (source: listing) | No detailed claims about noise levels or suction power are provided |
| App-controlled No Mop Zones and neat-row navigation for thorough, predictable cleaning (source: listing) | Components included in box are not specified in the provided materials—confirm what’s bundled before purchase |
| P.O.O.P. (Pet Owner Official Promise) gives added peace of mind for pet households (source: listing) | P.O.O.P. has additional terms and conditions—eligibility and claims handled via iRobot’s site |
Who Should Buy
- Busy households that want a low-maintenance cleaning routine with fewer trips to empty the robot.
- Pet owners who need reliable pickup of hair and want features that reduce the chance of a messy encounter with pet waste.
- Homes with mixed flooring where occasional mopping and regular vacuuming both matter—especially if you value switching between functions without owning separate machines.
- People who prefer app control and mapping to manage how and when their floors are cleaned.
Who Shouldn’t Buy
- Households that need heavy-duty mopping (deep-set grime or sticky spills) — the mop is designed for maintenance cleaning.
- Buyers who need detailed hardware specs (battery runtime, suction power, exact dimensions) before purchasing—those details aren’t provided here and should be checked on the product page.
- Users who require a fully autonomous, always-mounted mop system (this design uses a swappable bin, which requires manual swapping to change modes).
Specs
- Model name: Roomba Combo j5 plus (product name provided)
- Swappable vacuum/mop bin: Yes (source: listing)
- Cleaning system: 4-Stage Cleaning System (source: listing)
- Dirt detection: Proprietary Dirt Detect technology (source: listing)
- Auto-empty capacity: Holds up to 60 days of debris in Clean Base bag (source: listing, checked 2025)
- Navigation: PrecisionVision Navigation with camera (source: listing)
- No Mop Zones: Supported via iRobot Home App (source: listing)
- Mop pad: Specialized microfiber pad (source: listing)
- Other numeric specs (battery life, dimensions, weight, water tank capacity, suction levels): Not listed
Closing CTA
If you want a single device that handles both vacuuming and light mopping—with strong navigation, dirt-targeting tech, and an auto-empty base that reduces maintenance—consider the Roomba Combo j5 plus. Check the full spec sheet and bundled components on the seller page to confirm fit for your home, and look up iRobot’s cleaning-solution recommendations and P.O.O.P. policy on their website before buying.
Specification: Roomba Combo j5+ Review — Smart, Self‑Emptying Vacuum & Mop
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silvia penados –
I cheaped out on my first robot vacuum and bought one without smart mapping. I had no idea how important that feature is. Don’t skip that feature! The knock off one I ordered before (Laresar) was like $350 and died in under 6 months. It constantly bonked hard into everything, was total chaos/random on where it would go, never connected to my Alexa, customer support was completely MIA, no warranty, just bad. For my birthday this year my husband bought me the Roomba J7. I am kind of confused why it says J9 on the side, but whatever. My only other strange thing is when you try to setup the mop on the Roomba app, despite scanning the barcode it came with, it seems to send directions for an entirely different unit. Telling you to put down a drip tray and plug in a separate device. Because of this, I thought my roomba was missing pieces, so I contacted Amazon and they sent me another roomba, that one didn’t have a drip tray/other plug in device either, so I came to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with the mop setup directions on the app. Besides for that though, it’s done a pretty dang good job of keeping the (hardwood) floor quite clear of debris. It’s fascinating to watch it slow down when approaching objects so it doesn’t hit them as hard, or how it reroutes itself around things in its way. Quite intelligent. It is a bit loud when it’s going, but that doesn’t bother me all that much. I have a medium pile area rug in the living room and it doesn’t do a very good job of sucking up the cat hair that’s embedded in the fibers of the carpet…it just pushes the cat hair into rolls. I wouldn’t waste my money on this if you mostly have carpeted floors – it works much better on hardwood/laminate/vinyl floors. I appreciate the ease of connection with Alexa to this robot, I like the self emptying container, I like that it reroutes itself very easily when it gets stuck somewhere. I haven’t used the mop on it just yet, but even still, I would recommend this product to others.
Virginia Wright –
I love this Roomba. I had an older model that you had to empty. I still have it and use it in my barn office. This one is awesome! I can have it clean all the floors in the morning while I’m having my coffee. I have 4 small dogs and 3 cats living inside and it does better than I can do with my Swiffer or my Shark. I don’t think I would use it for carpeting. I use my Shark for the carpeted downstairs. Gone are the giant dust bunnies (I call them indoor tumbleweeds). I also love that it empties itself at it’s docking station. The machine is pretty quiet compared to my older model. I will warn that when it empties it is very loud for 4 or 5 seconds. My main floor is almost 1800 ft. of cleaning area. It can clean most of it on one charge. I also like its internal mapping. You can specify rooms so you can clean only the rooms you want. The initial mapping takes a few hours but I only had to do that once. After that, it can find new areas when cleaning and let you know. You can also adjust the boundaries and change the room names. You set up quick links in the program. The only problem I am having is setting it up with my Alexa Echo. It is paired and you can see it in the Alexa app but I cannot get Alexa to respond to a clean command.
Ryan J –
me encantaaaaaaa aunque da mucho problema que se desconecta y cuesta volverla a conectar
Max Headroom –
It’s a huge improvement over my over-10-year-old Roomba! So much smarter! I love how it mapped my floor plan and that it now knows where it has been and where it needs to go to finish. The mopping is so-so but that’s not why I got it. I have 2 cats and need it for the mid-week vacuuming. It was a great buy at 44% off!
cesar –
Funciona excelente y sí reconoce desniveles o escalones. El único detalle que sí se atora con los cables de algún aparato eléctrico. Por lo demás limpia muy bien.
Lorelei –
I really like the vacuum function of this Roomba. There is a lot of dust and cat fur that it picks up and auto empties. I love the little spinning brush that gets the corners and edges. One downside is that my hair (which is not long) gets wound around the wheels. You need to check for things caught in the wheels each time. Once I needed little scissors to remove.
I find the mop function pretty useless. The floor is just as dirty as before it ran. The pad isn’t “scrubby” enough and the container doesn’t hold enough liquid to nearly complete the job. I bought the Roomba with this function so I can run it at night so it running out in the middle (or sooner) of the job isn’t helpful either.
If I had to do it over, I would buy the Roomba without the mop function.
Ryan J –
Avoid at all costs! iRobot makes an inferior product riddled with software issues. This is a BRAND NEW unit, it can vacuum a floor fairly reasonably but when you put on the combo bin to “mop” it ceases to function, even if it’s in the same room as where it vacuumed. The combo bin barely functions to begin with, the “mop” gets wet from two pads that wick the cleaner/water onto the pad itself and it’s not remotely effective. It will leave one wet streak before drying out and doesn’t wick enough water to get the pad properly wet. When it is pushing around a dry/ barely damp mop pad it just doesn’t function like it should. It constantly, CONSTANTLY, stops itself to reorientate itself or figure out where it is, it gets stuck consistently and this is after it runs reasonably okay as just a vacuum. Faulty design on the sensors, poor software programing, whatever it is iRobot has no desire to remedy the issue but instead just release new products.
Go buy a RoboRock instead.
Francisco –
Overall great purchase and saved me a lot of money. I purchased a preowned J5+ (my J9 is in storage) because I wasn’t looking to spend too much money and I’ve yet to experience issues with my other bots so I figured I’d go with a lower model. With it being preowned, I fully expected nothing was going to come in the box, it would be damaged, or simply not work but I was completely wrong. It worked like a charm, easy to set up, came with all the accessories, instructions, and was nearly brand new outside of a few scratches. Noise level is great, maybe a little louder than the J9+, but definitely tolerable. My roommate says it’s slight louder than her shark vac but super convenient that it has a mopping feature so she can excuse the noise. The suction was great, mapping for the price point is amazing, and the J5+ comes with cord detection which was a must have with all the cords I have lying around; I don’t need to move anything when it can maneuver around the obstacle or cord. Battery life is good so far so I have nothing but positive things to say about a preowned purchase.
John Santos –
My biggest issue with the Roomba is that it usually dies from the battery going dead before it makes it back to the charging station. You would think it would learn how far it could get and start for home, but I’ve had it since August, cleaning 3 times a week plus spot jobs, and it doesn’t seem to have gotten any better.
I know it knows it is running on fumes because I’ve caught it a few times in the App saying it was returning home to charge, and had it not make it there. Instead it heads back in the right general direction but wanders off before getting there. If it had gone straight back (or even indirectly back), it would have had plenty of power to reach the charger, but it just doesn’t dock, most of the time! I’ve seen it drive right past the dock, turn around, go into the next room, vacuum for while, and then let out a plaintive bleep and die. All the while the App on my phone saying it’s returning to the dock to recharge. Often, when it does make it back, it will resume vacuuming before it is fully charged, and then die. If it had just waited on the charger for another 10 minutes, it would have finished the job!
I think this is purely a matter of bad programming. It seems to know how much charge is left in the battery; the little battery icon in the App seems to be fairly accurate. I think the battery is okay. It is new and gives about an hour and a half of run time on a full charge.
My house is as lot cleaner after 4 months of running 3 times a week. It does seem to work fairly well, except for its insanely over-optimistic notion of how much more work it can do on the remaining charge in its battery. My biggest peeve is the number of times I have to rescue it and carry it back to its base station because it ran out of battery. (The App keeps track and since Nov 4, it has run 30 times and died with a low battery 10 times and gotten stuck 6 times, so it had preventable problems more than half the time.)
Update: 12/23/21. It refuses to vacuum my living room. If I set up a special job, it almost always claims it s path was blocked. But it is perfectly happy to vacuum other rooms that require going through the living room to get there! I have it programmed to vacuum the front rooms in the house twice a week, which includes the living room. Looking at the maps afterward, it shows it vacuuming all the other rooms, but only around the edge of the living room. I think there is some “memory” in it where it thinks it shouldn’t be there, or thinks the living room has magically transported itself to another universe or otherwise is totally F’ed up. There appears to be no way to diagnose or reset it. I could erase it’s map (basically do a factory reset), but that is a huge pain, especially since I currently have it set to avoid the Christmas tree (which is NOT in the living room, and if the keep-out zone around the tree is causing this problem, then that in itself is a serious error in its programming.)
I’ve tried rebooting it, but that didn’t help at all.
Roomba’s support is useless. Basically, they just read the minimally informative web page at you.
It would be quicker and more effective to use a manual vacuum cleaner.
Update 1/9/22: it is still refusing to vacuum my living room for no apparent reason. When told to explicitly vacuum the living room, it just skirts the edge and declares itself done in a couple of minutes without actually doing anything. When it does its regularly scheduled set of rooms including the living room, it does the sun porch (adjacent to the living room, where the base station is), traverses the living room to the front entry, then skirts the living room to vacuum the dining room, then returns through the living room to park in the sun porch. I’ve tried remapping my apartment to no avail. Next step is a complete factory reset, but I don’t want to do that until my Christmas tree is down, because the tree causes it problems. and I’ll lose my “keep out” zones.
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July 2, 2024 –
I came back here to downgrade the rating, but it is already 1 star. For the last year, it has been getting worse and worse. It constantly requires attention, always get stuck on obstacles it use to negotiate with ease, like very low thresholds and the edges of carpets and the tile area in front of my fireplace, and often gets lost trying to dock to recharge or because (on rare occasions) it has actually completed a job. Often it gets lost within inches of the docking station. The software problems are worse than ever. For instance, it will announce that the charge is low and it is returning to the docking station, but then will wander off into another room, not on the path to the docking station, and the battery will run off because it forgot to recharge. I’ve actually seen it announce it was returning to the docking station, then hear it in another room, check the status and see it is vacuuming again with very low charge and not having gone anywhere near the docking station. This is clearly a software bug.
Sometimes it get stuck on a perfectly level surface and says it is on an uneven surface, to move it and press clean. I DON’T move it, just press clean and it resumes. Clearly, it was NOT stuck.
I’ve cleaned it many times, replaced the brushes and filters, replaced the pivot wheel, tested the main driving wheels as per the instructions, and today, discovered and performed the docking test. It worked perfectly and then got stuck 10 minutes later.
On the advice of a friend, I replaced the battery last week. It seems to last longer on a charge but doesn’t perform any better otherwise.
I’ve done many reboots and checked for software updates. None available.
Yesterday afternoon, I tried to delete and create a new map. After a couple of hours exploring one room, it ran out of battery and said to move it to the dock. I did so, but by then it was getting dark and it never resumed the mapping run as it said it would. This morning, it was fully charged, and the map it produced yesterday looked bogus so I told it to start a new mapping run. It never got out of the room with the docking station, and, over an hour into it, it is stuck again on the 1/16″ high lip at the edge of the fireplace hearth. I think it is trying to vacuum up the tiles, which it thinks are dirt, and despite the fact that it is not supposed to do cleaning while on a mapping run.
The fireplace (and the thresholds) never used to be a problem. Getting totally lost never used to be a problem. I’ve replaced all the replaceable parts. The problems all have the stench of undebugged software. I suspect they might have replaced a rule-based algorithm with some sort of generative AI, or some other bone-headed move.
If I can’t get the mapping run (in my small, single-floor apartment with few obstacles) to work and can’t discover any way to reload the original software from 4 years ago (which basically worked), I am going to trash the useless piece of junk.
Is it possible to rate something ZERO stars?
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I was just about to boost the rating to maybe 3 or 4 stars, when it struck again!
i tried everything to make it work properly, including buying a new battery. It didn’t claim the battery was at EOL, but friends who have multiple Roombas told me the problems I was having could be due to a dying battery. So I replaced it. Since i didn’t know if it would help, I bought a “compatible” battery https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KXYNBDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details for about half the price of an iRobot-branded replacement. The battery fit perfectly, has identical specs, charged up fine but didn’t solve any of the problems I was having.
Tried deleting and creating a new “smart” (i.e. idiotic) map. It kept getting stuck and never finished a mapping run. It could clean okay without a map, but kept getting stuck and could only rarely find its charging station. It would often vacuum at random for an hour or two, announce it we returning to the station for recharging, but never get there. I think this was due to the lack of a map. The vacuuming and battery life with the new battery seemed fine. But without a map, I couldn’t schedule it or tell it what rooms to clean.
Finally, I tried the last remaining replacement – the tires! The tires are cheap but a little tricky to replace, but I did so. The new tires have a much thicker tread than the originals and some reviewers said this was a problem but they seemed to work fine.
The first thing I tried was a new mapping run. It worked perfectly! I then realized I had left a couple of doors shut, so it couldn’t map two of the rooms. So I told it to vacuum the rooms on the map. (It had to go back and recharge a couple of times, which worked fine.) Then I opened the two doors and told it to map again. It found and mapped the new rooms and then I told it to vacuum them. Last week, I manually told it to vacuum, half the house on Monday and again Thursday, and the other half on Tuesday and Friday. (There were lots of “return to the base and recharge the battery” events in the course of these two weeks.)
Over the weekend, I set up the schedule again. It was supposed to do 1/2 the house on Monday and Thursday and the other half on Friday. Monday evening, I noticed it had not done the scheduled Monday job, but didn’t have time to look at it. Yesterday, it also didn’t do its scheduled job. The App said it wasn’t charged, so I wriggled it on the charger base to make sure it lit up. (Maybe I need to clean the contacts, though I did that pretty recently.)
Today I had some time to look at it. The App still said it needed charging, so I made sure it was on the charger base again. The App said it couldn’t contact the Roomba, so I restarted the App. (Sometimes this helps. Crappy software.) When I did so, it still said it needed charging, so I went an reseated it again and pressed the “Clean” button. This time is says “Please install an iRobot brand battery and now refuses to charge or do anything else!
Back to zero stars for this incredibly annoying, incredibly time-consuming “labor saving device”.