The American company that invented the category of vacuum cleaner robots has had a difficult year, beyond its constant war against the multitude of Chinese manufacturers launching countless new models, it had to lay off 31% of its workforce. The reason for this is Amazon's decision to give up the purchase of the company for 1.4 billion (the European Union vetoed the purchase). iRobot did not give up its relevance in the thriving robot market, it launched the Roomba Combo J9 Plus, which includes a solution for vacuuming, wet mopping and a docking station for emptying dust and filling water, and along the way also found a design solution that I did not see in the competitors.
Roomba Combo J9 Plus - the docking station is also a designed shelf
In recent years, the docking stations of the robots have become bombastic, it is no longer a minimalist surface used only for charging, but a place to empty the dust into a compatible tank, fill the robot's internal water tank from a larger tank, and more. At iRobot, we tried to find a solution for this designless elephant that stands for many people in the center of the house - the living room. Instead of trying to hide it, they turned it into a design element. The station is still built as a large cube, but the upper part includes a plastic surface with a wood-like design intended to be used as a shelf. Whether for placing a flower pot, a picture frame or a router.
The design of the J9 Plus still comes in the standard rounded look, but it also includes a mechanical arm that we met in the model - J7 Plus (for the full review). This is an elegant iRobot solution to prevent the robot from wetting the carpet it walks on. The upper part of the robot includes an arm on which the reusable cloth is put on and where it is stored, when it is dry and clean. During the cleaning process, when the J9 Plus automatically detects the carpet, it returns the rag to the storage area at the top so that the carpet does not get wet. This solution works well and also the process of lowering and raising the arm provides a robotic experience. In addition, you can also mark through the application areas that you do not want the J9 Plus to approach.
In general, the iRobot's wet wiping action is not bad, the robot tries very hard to clean dirty places as it moves every few centimeters in its cleaning process back and forth. It should be understood that this is a wiping and not a thorough washing, which removes dust, sand and things stuck to the floor and it also feels cleaner than just vacuuming. Antibacterial cleaning liquid can be added to the water tank to ensure that the floor is cleaner. A 2 liter bottle costs NIS 160.
What's nice here is that you don't have to remember to fill water in the robot's internal tank every time you send it for cleaning, because it fills the water directly from a larger tank at the docking station (this tank is filled approximately every few weeks). What's more, you have to remember to remove the dirty and wet cloth from the robot and clean it independently.
In terms of vacuuming, the J9 Plus includes double rubber brushes that reduce the amount of hair that can be caught in them (hair is still caught in a low way). Beyond that, there is also a side brush that knows how to move the dust from side areas (here a lot of hairs get caught and need to be removed). In my tests, the J9 Plus vacuumed the house without a problem and didn't get stuck on the shaggy carpet, which some of the competing robots I tested did.
At the end of the vacuuming process, the J9 Plus empties the dust into the docking station. The station includes a disposable bag that needs to be replaced every few months. This is a great solution, which saves the need to empty the dust every few days from the robot itself, so that it can be operated for many months, without fearing that the dust tank is full.
Roomba Combo J9 Plus - will tell you what the dirtiest room in the house is
The iRobot application, which also comes with a Hebrew interface, offers many capabilities, for example, building an automatic map of the house and successfully identifying areas in the house. The robot was able to identify in my apartment where the living room, the stove area, the dining table and the carpets are located, and thus adjust them on its own in the application. The recognition of the rooms was good, but I had to make some adjustments to the areas where the room or corridor starts.
For the mapping of the house, there is an option in the application that allows the robot to move relatively quickly and perform the mapping without cleaning. After that, the robot will continuously study the house and if it detects new areas it will update about it.
After the mapping, the robot can be sent to clean a certain room, several rooms or the whole house. You can also choose the strength of the suction and the wet wiping (amount of water and if a smart cleaning is performed in which the robot passes several times in each area of the spring, repeated brushing, a process that adds a lot of time to the work). The suction power at all three levels is noisy and you should take that into account, because it is not a pleasant noise to be around, even at the lowest power. As a person who watches TV or works with headphones, it didn't really bother me, but it did for the other residents of the house. The preferred option is to send the robot automatically (setting through the app) to clean the house while you are at work.
One of the app's favorite features is that it can tell you which rooms are the dirtiest in the house and then send the robot to clean them. This option is called - Dirt Detective.
The navigation capabilities of the J9 Plus are excellent, it manages to avoid many objects that my children leave on the floor, including toys and navigate between them without getting stuck. What's more, socks or shirts left on the floor caused him to get stuck, when they got caught in his brushes.
Price: NIS 4,990 (official importer of Kohelet)
Bottom line, iRobot is in competition with a host of manufacturers offering different solutions for cleaning the house. The J9 Plus is fighting back, it's an excellent vacuum cleaner that includes a great app and lots of capabilities for a better understanding of the area it cleans. In the area of washing, this is a pleasant solution, which does improve the cleaning of the house, but it is important to understand that it is an intermediate solution between the weekly sponge and not a replacement.