Second Chance iRobot Roomba Combo j7+

This robot vacuum cleaner takes a large part of my cleaning work off my hands. It mops, vacuums and empties itself into the charging station. Because he is so smart, he dodges obstacles and explores your house. It just needs enough space and is always in sight.

Vacuuming and mopping at the same time
It saves me a lot of time that I outsource both the mopping and vacuuming with this robot vacuum cleaner. He mops and vacuums my house at the same time. I find that very useful, because I don't have him vacuumed first and then have to mop myself. I also think that he drives around well, because he also goes over the same places more often. Especially if the robot sees that a place is dirty. This way you still get the polishing effect that you also have with a mop.

Self-learning
During the first ride, the robot teaches itself where obstacles are. This way he knows for the next time where a power strip is that he has to avoid. He also teaches himself where the carpet is. Handy, because he first vacuums my carpet in the living room without using the mop. Then he unfolds his mop and vacuums and mops the rest of my house. He also takes all corners well and drives with ease over my thresholds between rooms.

Empty and charging station
I really think it's a luxury that I don't have to worry about the robot thanks to the empty and charging station. When he has finished cleaning, he drives himself to the charging station, where he empties and then charges himself. I find that especially easy when I'm not at home and I let the robot vacuum and mop. The only drawback is that its home base takes up quite a bit of space. He must have 0.5 meters of space on both sides. That can be difficult in a small room. This means that it is always in sight.

I used my old Roomba for 12+ years. It was a "dumb" one, which meant that it only ran *randomly* through my flat .. which also meant it took ages to vacuum. And it couldn't mop, so I had to always spend a lot of time afterwards.. manually mopping the place.

I got the new one since it promised to take care of both the above shortcomings. And boy, it doesn't disappoint!

It took just 1 attempt to map my house, and now it does a fab job of *simultaenously* vacuuming and mopping my 100 m2 flat in less than an hour! That too.. on 1x battery charge and without needing to refill the water-tank mid-way.

The simultaneous operations is a major plus .. and that's a big difference to the i7 models, wherein you have to keep changing the dust-collector with a water-tank.

It has no issues with cleaning my hard wood floors, and it automatically retracts the mopping arm when it either detects carpets or if it goes into one of my "no-mop" zones.

The wall unit can easily take quite a few loads of dust, etc. I guess the wall unit bag will only get full after 2+ months, in my case. Which means even less "manual" intervention .. great! Only thing is that it is very noisy for those 5 seconds when the Roomba's contents are being sucked into the wall unit's bag. It sounds like a jet engine taking off .. luckily for just 5 seconds or so.

Recommendations for new owners : for the first couple of times, turn on all your lights in your house, clear up all the mess on the floors (as much as possible) and run the device in mapping mode : Map > + > Start Mapping Run .

It's nice that iRobot allows me to name my device. I call it "Mr. Sparkle" .. whom I am in love with at the moment .. since I've been freed of the hours spent on the dreary chore of cleaning my place!! Yes, it costs quite a bit .. but I love the quality of the cleaning which it provides. :)