iRobot 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

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.

--Edit 4/13/2025-- Now after it finishes a cleaning run, it just won't position itself back on the charging station. Further cementing it's legacy as the worst robot vacuum I've ever owned, and Roomba's legacy as selling s!$*$^, horrendous products. Good riddance and never again with Roomba. I have owned quite a few robot vacuums in my life and until this one, I had always stuck with cheaper models because I didn't see the value in the more expensive models. I finally decided to give a recognized name brand a go and Try the IRobot Roomba i5. And I have to tell you, what an utter disappointment. I can't find one good thing to say about this hunk of junk. For starters, it is NOISY. Forget about letting it run while you are home. Which is the only time you are going to want to run it since it has no sensor to detect any kind of pet messes and you definitely don't want the experience of a thin layer of dog vomit spread across your entire house. The detection system on this thing is laughable. It is supposed to sense objects, walls, etc. But instead it just aimlessly wanders around banging into everything unlucky enough to be in its path. If you are like me and have a dog that sheds a lot, this will get hair into every place you can think of and it will literally stop the brushes from spinning as it gets wrapped around everything that moves. The side brush no longer works because it got hair wound around the motor shaft and burned it out. This happened within ONE MONTH of purchase. The LIDAR mapping is a joke. I ran it a couple of dozen times and it failed to ever draw anything that even remotely resembled the layout of my home. So no chance at actually having a schedule for cleaning specific rooms. My home is about 1200 ft2 on the main floor which is where this hunk of #!@% resides. The battery life has this thing relegated to taking about 3 trips at about 90 minutes each to do a mediocre job of cleaning. So you are going to sit there for 5-6 hours per day listening to this thing. Which as I previously mentioned, it is LOUD. I have purchased robot vacuums for a third of the price of the Roomba i5 that out perform this thing by a wide margin. If this is the quality that iRobot puts out, I can't fathom how they are even still in business. I suppose there are a lot of households out there and you can build a zesty enterprise on just burning everyone once. There is definitely a miniscule amount of care and thought that goes into their machines. If I could, I would return this thing. I tried to give it a chance. I really wanted to like it. But it is just awful. I thought about reaching out to iRobot directly, but any company who is okay with putting out a product like this would likely just be a waste of time. Massive disappointment and the first and last product I'll ever buy from them.

Affordable and works great! Our 2017 Roomba 960 (or something) was $600 and worked near daily until a few weeks ago. It was loud! I trust the brand and was super excited that the new version is so much cheaper. It works very well. I have had a few issues that are concerning but have not put the time into solving them: -Trouble connecting it to the app and WiFi. Kept loading over and over and not recognizing/finding the device after it had showed up on the phone as being found. Operating it without the app currently. -Tricky to empty, awkward to pop it out and then unlatch it to empty. Major plus is that the bin is huge, holds a ton more dog hair/sand than the older version. Maybe they made it annoying so I decide to upgrade to the self emptying one! -Gets stuck numerous times on one leg of the coffee table. Always the same leg and it keeps returning to the same site three or more times per cycle after I move it away Pros: -Quieter than the original but still loud -Lower profile, goes under most of the furniture -Hardwood floors get really clean - picks up dog hair and sand/dirt very well! -Finds the way to the dock no problem -Long battery and bin life Haven’t tried the dust/wet mop component yet but I’m very happy with our new Roomba!!

So this I5 is my third roomba i have bought, and a second mapping roomba. Both mapping roombas had terrible mapping skills. The mapping run never worked well and never saved the map. You still can't send it on supplementary mapping runs, to explore room by room, you have to clean everywhere which takes forever to map and if it gets stuck anywhere or if you pause and send it home in between, the job shows as canceled and the map is never saved. So I thought I'll just do clean everywhere and it got stuck behind a door and closed it and only mapped one room. The next time I asked it to clean everywhere, it kept trying to clean only that room and never tried to explore. It also features a new slanted bumper which makes it easier to get into spots it can't get out of, it got stuck in 4 different places in the mapping run itself. Some simple software fixes would have helped: - Allow room by room exploration. Right now if we send it on a mapping run, it deletes the existing map, and we cannot ask it to map beyond existing boundaries. - Allow saving of a mapping run manually if it doesn't automatically save - Learn to recognize doors and try to not push them closed all the time - You also don't have the option to change its home base, in case I decide to move the dock anytime, i need to remap the entire house. Design-wise, my biggest gripe is the slanted bumper and it got stuck under shoe racks, cabinets, between chair legs, etc. Its obstacle detection is worse than the model I bought 3 years ago, if not the same. Previous one took more than a week to finally map my previous home, let's see how long this one takes. Haven't even had the chance to see how it mops yet but vacuuming and battery life seem fine. Couldn't test some other things also like creation of avoidance zones and not sure if it has any no-mopping zones etc for carpets. When I sent it on its run, it asked me if I had carpets, and if yes, I had to change to the cleaning bin instead of mopping bin.

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.

Edit: after a few months with this thing, I hate even looking at it. Updated pros: none Updated cons: Gets stuck under furniture and ledges Won't climb onto carpet Still can't map my environment Upshot: it sits and does nothing because when I turn it on, it cleans a small corner of my living room, then gets stuck somewhere (not the same place typically) and requires rescuing. 2.5 really. Too many compromises for too little clean. Pros: - does a good job where it can reach. -Easy setup. -Definitely picks up pet dander. -Have not had any issues with kitty litter. Cons: -Won't complete map. This is a big one as there are a lot of no-go areas in my house. See below. -Constantly gets stuck under furniture and cabinets- it gets under things and then gets stuck trying to get out, then sits spinning until it runs its battery out -Pretty noisy -consumables run out fairly quickly I would have liked this item a lot more if it were an inch or so taller. It just gets stuck again and again and I have to rescue it. I even glued a plastic piece to the top of its sensor to make it stop going under things. All that did is change where it gets stuck. I'd even be willing to take the time to make a manual map to keep it from needing to be picked up but that option is not available. As it is, it's a decent- no more than that- adjunct to manual vacuuming. Would not buy again. iRobot- You should work on your software. Apple for example has apps that allow for measurements using the phone camera. It seems like this would be easy to emulate for the mapping function. I'd be much happier if I could just take pictures and map them onto an app. The robot is pretty useless for this in my experience.

We absolutely love our Roomba and honestly wish we had bought one years ago! We decided to test the waters and grabbed this one when it was on sale for $199—best decision ever. We have three large dogs and a cat in our one-bedroom condo, and my husband is severely allergic to pet dander. We've tried everything to help ease his symptoms, but nothing has made as big of a difference as this Roomba. The amount of fur, dust, and debris it picks up is insane—far more than I ever got with a broom or Swiffer dry pads. Those pads are still great for tight spots like under the dresser, but for everything else? The Roomba wins hands down. Setup was a breeze, and the suction power is shockingly strong. I honestly didn’t expect it to pick up this much, but it has exceeded every expectation. Running it daily has made a huge difference in my husband’s allergies—he feels so much better now! The mopping feature isn’t perfect, but hey, it’s still a lifesaver. It keeps the floors fresh without me having to mop constantly. I do a deeper clean once a week with a Swiffer mop since the Roomba’s mop pad mostly glides over the surface rather than scrubbing. We use Bona floor cleaner, and it works well with the system. Another huge plus—it connects seamlessly to our WiFi, and I no longer have to spend hours sweeping and mopping every day. Now, I can focus on other things while my Roomba handles the mess. If you’re on the fence, just do it. You won’t regret it! 🏡✨🐶🐱

This is my 3rd robot vac and my least favorite. I am comparing this to a MooSoo vac and a Wyze robot vac. Lets start with the downsides to the iRobot Roomba. 1- Expectations- Being the most known brand in robot vacs and being around the longest (or what seems) I had high hopes for this machine. It did not deliver in four key areas. The App, The mop, the Vacuum, The bin sensor A- The app has the least features and is the least flexible of the three. Both other vacuums offer real time mapping so you can see where the vac is and where it has been. They others have special cleaning modes like "Spot cleaning" and "Edge cleaning" , with the Roomba you can pick a room and that's it. The Moosoo had a manual remote so i could drive myself if i wanted, although not very often. In order to get a "smart map" (the dumbest of the three) you have to set it out on a 2 hour journey through your house bumping into everything to map things out. The first time my map didn't save, so i had to do it again. You don't have to do this to run the vacuum, but then it just does everything and you can't control where it goes. In contrast the moosoo will map while vacuuming so you could send it out for the first vacuum then you would have a map of where it went and then a map for future vacuuming. The Wyze has LIDAR which is a step up and highly recommended. It can scan a room from one spot and have an accurate map in seconds. To do my whole 1500 sqft main floor takes about 10 minutes. B- The Vacuum performance- When it travels from the charging station to the room to vacuum, the vacuum part is off, so its just pushing dirt around your house collecting under the vac the whole time. Then it arrives back to the station to charge dragging all of the dirt? Then a large dirt deposit starts gathering at the statoin. WHAT? Who thought that was a good idea? The same goes when it travels to different areas to vacuum, the vacuum doesn't run while its traveling so you are dragging dirt thru the house depositing it along the way into already cleaned areas. Both the Moosoo and Wyze vac, the brushes are running the whole time so they never leave dirt behind The second thing is the side brush works when it wants too. ITs random, i couldn't figure out when it would work. Next to the wall, nope, well sometimes? Middle of the floor nope.... So the brush gathers trash outside of the suction area then when enough accumulates it just falls off the brush leaving trash in the floor that the suction never grabs? HUH?? The Wyze and Moosoo the side brush always runs. The moosoo had side brushes on both sides and did the best cleaning. (but the battery died and i can't find a replacement) The third thing is that the suction value isn't adjustable on the roomba. Both of the other Vac's have three modes of suction adjustment. I have hard floors and don't need max suction, the standard mode works great. I saw many complaints about how noisy the Roomba vacuum is during use, thats because its using max suction all the time. ITs not any noisier than the other vacuums when they are at max suction, except i never run them at max suction and I can watch tv or talk on the phone without the robot being uncontrollably loud. C- I tried the mop, I was hopeful but it is really an exercise in futility. It would only lay down the cleaning fluid about 4 inches wide behind the vac, the mop is about 8 inches wide. It doesn't hold much the fluid runs out before the battery does. I ran the vac first, then sent it back around with the mop so it would do the maximum job. That didn't change anything and it would pick up moisture in the bin and any dirt that it picked up would just be stuck to the inside of the big. Speaking of the bin, it is hard to empty completely, there is a huge square lip that catches much dirt and you have to literally shake it in a special way to get all of the dirt around that lip. D- The Bin full sensor. Just google Roomba i5 bin sensor cleaning. There are something like 6 identified areas that have to been completely clean or the bin will say full. After each cleaning i empty the bin. It was the second cleaning when the "bin full" warning popped up. Then i had to look it up and then spend 10 minutes cleaning the machine. Neither of the other two (Wyze -MoSoo)have this complicated bin full sensor system and they work great. You just need to check them after you do your whole house, but hey that's just common sense right? .

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!!

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.

The robot vaccum itself is great! It connecta to you wifi and than you can control it at home or when you are out of the house. The mapping is great, it takes 2-3 days than the vaccum knows where to go. It is also very powerful. I had sone robot before but the suction was bad and the floor was still dirty after two hours of cleaning. The price is great! I purchased a used one and I think it was defective already because it worked for 2 weeks only and I had to return it but I am pretty sure the issue was with the unit I got and not the product itself. Looking to buy one again on black friday or bozing day but a new one this time!

Having had a Roomba 980 for about 7 years now, I was quite pleased with how quiet the i5 is. The 980 seems louder than it used to be, but the i5 is quiet enough that running downstairs it doesn't wake me up. The mapping function works quite well, and being able to program specific rooms is a blessing. There are still places in the house where either model can get stuck, so separating the jobs into specific rooms helps overall. Separating also let's me keep it out of rooms that are being used at specific times of the day - like the kitchen when making breakfast. Getting stuck is one of those things that must be lived with. A sofa that's just the right height is a trap for Roomba. On one of the main floor sofas I built a wooden frame to go around the legs which prevents it from getting trapped. The i5, unlike the 980, frequently gets stuck on some vintage air vents (about 30cm square) on the main floor. Unfortunately, and also unlike the 980, the robot cannot recover from this. It tells me to move it and press start, but it doesn't continue. This is probably the worst feature of the unit, and I hope iRobot updates the software at some point to fix it. I've taken to putting a large book on the vent and will build something better when I have time. The robot also reboots from time to time, stopping the job. It's infrequent but annoying. On the positive side, it runs to completion far more often than the 980 does and finds it way home reliably. At 1/3rd the price of the 980 I'm quite happy. A couple of small puck shaped bollards would do the trick. I've tried the mopping function on our wood floor in the kitchen and it does a reasonable job. As a vacuum it can do better than vacuuming by hand, but as a mop it is inferior to hand mopping, but it is good enough to make hand mopping be needed less frequently, which is good. It cleans well and doesn't bump the furniture legs as hard as the 980, so I'm very pleased with it overall. The 980 is now relegated to the easier and cleaner upstairs duties.

I am very happy with this vacuum. Vacuums like a dream, the mopping could be better honestly, it just drags around a damp pad but the vacuuming is excellent so I can't complain.