Best Roombas, explained: The guide to deciding which Roomba to buy in 2025

Only a select few are willing to pay over $1,000 just to take a few chores off of their plate. So naturally, the fanciest Roomba will only be a practical investment for homes with several pets, homes with high-traffic hard floors that need more than dry sweeping on a regular basis, or people who prioritize the highest level of automation (and lowest amount of human intervention) possible. And even if you do have the budget, anyone considering the Roomba Combo 10 Max should absolutely wait to make their move until it goes on sale for $999.

The Combo 10 Max is also a wise next step for households that have been using an outdated Roomba for too long and want to upgrade. Rather than enduring the struggle period that is re-mapping, the iRobot ecosystem allows home maps to be transferred between Roombas via the iRobot app.

Only one main feature separates Combo 10 Max from all of the Roombas before it, but it's a huge one that makes me definitively recommend the Combo 10 Max over the Combo j9+: a self-washing and self-drying mopping pad.

Before the Combo 10 Max dropped in the summer of 2024, iRobot was in limbo in terms of innovation — it was the only big robot vacuum brand that still made its users manually wash their robot vacuum's mopping pad. In my experience, having to face the soggy mopping pad every few days was enough to make me avoid mopping with any older Roomba altogether, so the Combo 10 Max's AutoWash dock is an upgrade to take seriously. The water tanks and dust bag can also be accessed through a door on the front of the dock rather than the top, allowing the Combo 10 Max to hold decor full time.

The Roomba Combo 10 Max is also one of the most powerful cleaners of all the Roombas, dishing out what iRobot says is 100 percent more suction power than the Essential series and lower-tier j series Roombas through a four-stage cleaning system (versus the typical three-stage system). While it's pretty reliable on various crumbs and cat hair on my rugs, I've personally been disappointed with the hit-or-miss results in the corners of my bathroom and along the edges under my kitchen counter.

I've noticed the boosted cleaning power much more on the mopping front due to iRobot's SmartScrub feature, which spends extra time, water, and elbow grease on any extra dirty areas that you designate in the app. I can feel the tension in my shoulders release when I see the Combo 10 Max go back and forth over spots I know would still be sticky after one pass.

The cheapest mopping Roomba will satisfy anyone who can settle for not-the-most-thorough-but-decent cleaning if it means they don't have to spend much more than $500. This is especially true in homes where only one or two rooms, like the bathroom or kitchen, will require mopping. Potential i5 owners will also have to be OK with having to physically switch out the water tank for the dry dust bin depending on which flooring they're trying to tackle since the i5 is a Swap and Mop Roomba rather than the design with a mopping pad built in.

iRobot's summer 2023 product drop extended mopping capabilities to one of the more affordable existing Roombas. At $549.99 for the self-emptying version or $349.99 for the standalone vac, the i5 more than halves the $1,399.99 price tag of the Combo j9+. You probably wouldn't clock that price difference upon first glance, though, because the i5+ has shed the tall, skinny auto-empty dock it had for years for the stylish compact one of the j7+.

The i5 series is one of iRobot's Swap and Mop models that can't vacuum and mop on the same cleaning run, meaning you have to be around to physically swap the dust bin for the water tank. The convenient part is that, despite its inability to detect small obstacles like phone chargers, the i5 remembers specific rooms as well as the carpeted spots you want it to avoid while mopping. (A 2022 firmware update unlocked Imprint smart mapping capabilities for all Roomba i series vacuums, aside from the i1 and i2).

If you live in a small home or apartment, you may decide to forego a self-emptying dock to conserve space. But opting for a standalone Roomba doesn't mean you have to settle for a basic one that gets stuck all the time. The Roomba j7 is the cheapest standalone Roomba with small obstacle avoidance — a clutch choice if your floors are often littered with rogue phone chargers or pieces of laundry.

The lack of "Combo" in the title means this j7 doesn't mop, so ideally, you won't have a ton of hard floors that need to be mopped, or you'll be OK with mopping manually.

There are cheaper, more bare-bones Roombas than the j7, and there are more expensive, more self-sufficient Roombas than the j7. But iRobot keeps the plain ol' j7 relevant by putting it on sale for $299 pretty often. At its full price of $599.99, the j7 is way too expensive compared to other non-Roombas on the market that do way more for the same price. But when it's 50% off, it's an absolute steal.

In my experience, the j Series Roombas have a near-perfect track record when identifying various chargers, extension cords, and random socks laying around, when other brands missed a few. The j7's suction power and corner cleaning wasn't as meticulous as the obstacle avoidance when sweeping my apartment, but it was reliable enough for daily upkeep of my high-traffic areas — especially for $299.

iRobot's base-tier mopping Roomba is obviously the most budget-friendly choice, and would only really be satisfactory in single-person homes with simple layouts, no pets, and a low likelihood of random objects on the floor at any given time.

Even then, anyone prioritizing a low price could easily find a better cheap robot vacuum in the $200 to $400 range. For instance, the Roborock Q5 Pro+ or Dreame D10 also mop and self-empty, but more importantly, bring smart room mapping into the picture for $299.99 on sale.

I'm actually not really recommending the Roomba Combo 2 to anyone — I'm merely explaining its part in the Roomba lineup, then giving the heads up that this isn't the cheap robot vacuum you want to buy.

The biggest red flag here is the lack of smart mapping. This was a surprising call for iRobot to make in the good year of 2024, especially when several other similarly-priced robot vacuums from other brands do have smart mapping. A bot that knows the layout of your home is more crucial than mopping or even automatic emptying in my opinion — it's the biggest factor playing a role in whether your robot vacuum even makes it to the right rooms in the first place. I tested the Combo 2 early in 2025 after months and months of strictly testing vacs with smart mapping, and the experience was pretty infuriating. Not being able to grab my phone to send the vacuum to clean a specific room or zone just feels impractical at this point. I quickly found myself not wanting to use it because of how likely it was to get lost or stuck.

At any rate, if you can find the Combo 2 on sale for less than $300, it'll take care of hard floors sufficiently. It mops and self-empties — features we hadn't previously seen on the lowest-tier Roombas — and has 18 times the suction power of the 600 Series Roombas.

The Roomba j9+ could still be the way to go if you want a powerful Roomba for pet hair on carpet but don't have much need for mopping past a single tiled bathroom. That's a twisty checklist to justify buying one of the most expensive Roombas that's not the best at anything. This is especially true when similarly-priced models from other brands wash and dry their own mopping pads — which the Combo j9+ does not.

But if you're really set on a Roomba, opting for the Combo j9+ over the Combo 10 Max (which does autonomously maintain its mop) will save you several hundred dollars, depending on if either is on sale at the moment.

I'm not so much picking the Roomba Combo j9+ as I am including it to provide context for you to choose a different Roomba. The Combo j9+ actually isn't the best Roomba at anything, but on sale, its ability to bring home iRobot's best suction power and market-leading small obstacle avoidance could still make it an OK value. I personally enjoyed it when I was testing it, except that having to manually remove and wash the mopping pad made me not want to send the Combo j9+ to mop at all. That shouldn't be happening with a vac over, like, $400. (It does refill its own water tank, though.)

That obstacle avoidance technology is also an inarguable reason to choose the j9+ over the previous most powerful Roomba, the 2019 Roomba s9+. Despite the s9+ being slightly more affordable, the small price difference isn't worth having to tidy up cords, socks, or pet toys off of the floor before starting a cleaning. I would know — I lived with both the s9+ when it was the fanciest Roomba and the mopping version of the j9+ when it was the fanciest Roomba. The Roomba s9+ is so outdated that it's unlikely to be found in stock, anyway.

After settling on getting a Roomba that mops, the next question is whether you'd like to be able to freely switch between vacuuming and mopping mode even if you're not home. If your home has hard floors outfitted with several rugs that would need to be carefully avoided while mopping, iRobot's retractable mop is worthwhile.

The Combo j7+ is the cheapest Roomba that has that retractable mop on board. These Roombas know to not mop when carpet or rugs are detected and can lift the mop accordingly, offering handy flexibility in homes with many different floor types. Even on sale, $799 is a pretty hefty investment — but unless you have multiple pets that shed onto thick carpet and hard floors with heavy foot traffic, the Combo j7+ provides a nearly-identical experience to the Combo j9+ for much less money.

The Combo j7+ was the very first true vacuum and mop hybrid from iRobot. Though it's since been upstaged by the 2023 Combo j9+ and 2024 Combo 10 Max, the 2022 Combo j7+ will always be pivotal for iRobot's legacy — and because it's not the newest 2-in-1 anymore, it's also usually on sale.

Compared to the fancier two Combo models, the j7+ has less powerful suction power, less forceful scrubbing, and doesn't automatically refill the water tank aboard the vacuum through a bigger tank in the dock. Compared to the j6+, the j7+ has more meticulous obstacle detection and can pinpoint hurdles like socks, towels, and pet bowls on top of cords and pet waste. Its ability to dodge those pesky items that might be on the floor at any given moment, plus its ability to vacuum and mop in the same cleaning session, make the Combo j7+ a much more hands-off experience than the cheaper Combo models.

Read my full review of the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+.

More than 20 since the first Roomba came out in the early 2000s, but only a handful of those will be relevant and in stock at any point in time that you're shopping. Roombas are classified by "series," which are kind of like umbrella groups that have several Roombas under them. (For example, the Roomba j Series is made up of the j9, j7, j6, and j5.) The differences between the series simply stems from how good at cleaning and navigating those vacuums are, and the ascending numbers also give some insight as to how advanced each model in that series is.

The guide above dives into the differences between each current Roomba model. But let's not forget what each current Roomba model has in common.

• All current Roombas up for grabs and in this guide are WiFi-enabled, app-connected, and compatible with Alexa. On the iRobot Genius app, you can schedule recurring cleanings, start a spontaneous cleaning from your phone, and if your model supports it, send your Roomba to a specific room or zone. Each time iRobot updates Genius, every Roomba receives the update (even if you bought it pre-update). The latest version whips up custom cleaning suggestions based on where it worked the hardest during earlier rounds, like suggesting a kitchen sweep after dinnertime each night.

• All Roombas deploy at least a three-stage cleaning system that loosens and lifts dust and dirt from carpets while relying on a side-sweeping brush to push debris from edges and corners into the bot's cleaning path. Dirt Detect is an adaptive method even the most basic Roombas use to sniff out dirtier areas of your floor and work harder on them. A handful of more advanced Roombas uproot debris with a fourth stage, so look for that in a Roomba's description if you're dealing with lots of carpeting.

• The plus sign in a Roomba's title denotes the inclusion of a self-emptying Clean Base. The Clean Base is where those models will charge as well as empty the debris they've collected into a bigger canister for a few weeks at a time. (Without the Clean Base, Roombas are still self-charging and know to return to their dock when cleaning is finished.) i Series Roombas and on can be purchased with or without a self-empty dock. The only time this is not the case is with the new Roomba Combo 10 Max. It does empty itself, but because its self-empty station also self-washes and dries the mopping pad, it's called an AutoWash Dock rather than a Clean Base.

Admittedly, things do get confusing when older models discontinued by iRobot itself are still available for purchase at various stores. There's also a curious little arrangement between iRobot and select retailers involving store-exclusive spinoff versions of current Roombas with negligible design differences but notable price variations. For instance, Walmart sold an Roomba i1+ for the longest time that was nearly identical to the mainstream Roomba i3+ (aside from a color change), but for some reason, was almost always on sale for significantly less than the i3+. If there are any blips like that going on, it'll be noted alongside the mainstream counterpart above.

The j5 and j6 Series aren't sold at all retailers, and are in and out of stock at Amazon and iRobot's website. However, iRobot often makes a j5 or j6 model one of its main doorbuster deals during shopping holidays like Black Friday or Prime Day. As of January 2025, the Combo j5 and j5+ are the main j Series available beneath the j7.

The Roomba j5 and j7 have the same amount of suction power. The main difference between them is their small obstacle avoidance capabilities: The j5 only covers cords and pet waste whereas the j7 can also detect things like shoes, socks, and towels (on top of pet waste and cords).

When it comes to the mopping models, the Roomba Combo j5 or j6 are Swap and Mop models that can only enter mopping mode if a human clicks the water tank and mopping pad attachment on and off. Bumping up to the Combo j7+ shifts the mopping mechanism to iRobot's built-in retractable mopping arm, which the Roomba knows to lower or lift depending on its cleaning path.

2-in-1 robot vacuums (aka hybrids or combo models) aren't to be confused with dedicated robot mops like iRobot's Braava Jet, which is often sold in a bundle with a Roomba. Rather, true hybrids are robot vacuums with a water reservoir and mopping pad attached somewhere. Some mop more intensely than others, but the bottom line is the same: They vacuum identically to their non-mopping counterparts, but also dispense water to wipe hard floors.

For instance, when eyeing a mopping Roomba, there's virtually no reason to choose the iRobot Braava Jet m6 (even if it's on sale) when the similarly-priced Roomba Combo j5 or cheaper Combo i5+ exists. The Braava Jet m6 on its own won't vacuum, so you'd need to already have a robot vacuum, buy one, or do the vacuuming yourself before sending it out to mop. The Roomba, on the other hand, can do both, as well as empty itself and use small obstacle detection tech to avoid cords and pet waste. While the Combo j6+'s scrubbing may be slightly less meticulous than that of the Braava Jet m6, the discrepancy isn't enough to buy a standalone robotic mop.

Giving a flat-out answer to that without asking about cleaning needs or budget is pretty impossible, and just wouldn't make sense. While I'm the most likely to recommend some iteration of the Roomba j7 to most people, my answer does change if someone's budget is particularly strict (or particularly flexible) or if someone's household is particularly... lived in.

Naturally, there is one Roomba that is technically "the best" when it comes to the sheer number and power of features: the best at cleaning, the best at navigating, and the best at being self-sufficient. But which Roomba is categorically the best isn't necessarily the Roomba that robot vacuum reviewers (or the general public) would recommend, especially when price tags (and often, overpricing) come into play.