iRobot Roomba j9+ Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum – Powerful Suction, Identifies and Avoids Obstacles Like Waste, Self-Empties for 60 Days, Best for Homes with Pets, Smart Mapping, Works with Alexa​

I bought the j9+ based on all the reviews I was able to find and also that the previous s9 model was no longer available. The setup was super easy as long as one is comfortable using your phone's app to handle all the tasks. The initial mapping was very cool to watch. If you're a tech nerd, you'll love trying to figure out how the algorithms are working to navigate the furniture, walls, entry ways, etc. In about 40 minutes R2D2 mapped out my first floor very accurately and was able to work it's way around the jungle of chair legs at the dining room table. It took a while, but it managed! After the initial mapping run, it went right back to it's base and started charging automatically. Next was the actual vacuum run, but before that we decided to put a "no fly zone" around the Christmas tree and blanket around it. The app easily let me set up a 5x4 square which I placed in the map of the house - which was very cool, and pressed the "Vacuum Everything" button on my app. It was remarkable how R2D2 started in the room with the most dog hair and then proceeded to follow it's map throughout the house. The suction on the wood floors was excellent, and I was impressed when it rolled over the few throw rungs we have, I could hear it kick into a higher gear because it recognized the carpet. Our black lab leaves plenty of hair around on our light colored floors which made it easier to see that R2D2 was doing a great job. During the first mapping, I kept all the bedroom doors closed off the main hall. While it did the first vacuum I forgot the master bedroom door was open. It noticed the new opening, but did not enter the room. I took this as a new mapping run I would need to perform, but I was amazed when it completed the entire house, paused in the living room for about 10 seconds, and then proceeded back to the new opening it discovered previously. It recalled it found a new opening but did not disrupts it's current task - it finished and then returned back. We've only run it two times, but already we discovered that it remembered the master badroom, added it to the routine and completed the room before returning back to base. It also updated the map in the app and asked me about the new room and what to name it. I was also able to place the new boundaries for the entrance to the bedroom and master bath (which it also found while exploring). The app also shows pictures of obstacles R2D2 came in contact with during it's journey. A wire under the curio cabinet was captured in a crystal clear picture taken by R2D2 and sent to the app for me to decide whether this should be considered a permanent obstacle, or something which I could remove and it could continue working in this space next time. I simply moved the wire closer to the wall, let the app know it was taken care of, and we'll see how R2 does with it next time. I love this robot... I am super impressed by the effectiveness of the vacuum, the ease of the app, and how simple it was to set up. I have seen other reviews about noise, and speed, but it's no where near as loud as our Shark standup (which is a beast) and regarding the time, I set and forget. So far I have not had to come to it's rescue, but we also don't have a lot of things laying around on the floor which I guess would complicate things. For about 500 sq feet, the app tells me it's taking 90 minutes. No where close to fast, but I am writing this review while R2 is taking care of the floors! Very happy and I'll come back in a few months with an update....

One star is being overly generous. I don’t write reviews, one way or the other, but this was too large of an expense not to. If it helps just one person, it will be worth my time. I purchased this unit in Dec. ‘23. I used it maybe 10 times within the first year because I found that moving all the obstacles before vacuuming was a bit of a hassle, and also it just didn’t compare to my push vacuum in performance. I did like the fact that it was able to get in difficult spots, such as under the beds. A couple weeks shy of its one year warranty date it lost its suction. After some degree of difficulty in reaching customer service, a lengthy amount of time on the phone, and photos sent via email, diagnostics were run remotely and they determined that there was an issue with the base. A new base was sent in a timely manner and they offered to extend my warranty by three months. After setting up the new base I ran a quick run of one bedroom. The robot would not seal adequately enough to the new base to provide enough suction to empty the bin and I got an error message. Again, I went through the same lengthy process with customer service and it was determined that the entire unit needed to be replaced. My warranty on the original robot was now within a couple days of expiring so I asked if they would still honor the three month extension. After checking with supervision they informed me that since they were replacing the entire unit they would not be able to honor any further warranty on the new unit. Ok. New unit. It should last a while, right? The new robot arrived, again, in a timely manner. It set up easily and I mapped the house and vacuumed without difficulty. A month later I went to vacuum and I got a message that the unit was unavailable because the software was being upgraded but would be available shortly. Three days later it was still displaying the same message. I rebooted several times. Nothing. I finally resorted to a factory reset and now I can’t connect to the robot at all. I’ve since done some online research and there is a definite trend here with issues occurring during software upgrades. Folks are being run through hoops via customer service only to be told that there is no fix, but…get this…they are offering 50 whole dollars toward a new unit. No joke. Check Reddit. I call b.s. Save yourself the aggravation, time and expense and vacuum the old fashion way. This thing has not been worth it, IMHO.

A quality built product. This is my second addition for the house. The mapping is great, I can have it clean just a particular room. The vacuum figures out the naming of the room all on its own. I can edit the rooms if need to change anything. I had a different well known vacuum that didn't last much past the warranty, it was good that I had an extended warranty for the product. So I bought this one as my second addition vacuum. The self empty is also great. So long as the irobot vacuums are available these are the only ones I will purchase for their ruggedness.

Edit 6/5/24: This model is advertised as being able to avoid pet waste, IT DOESN'T! One of my cats vomited a significant amount of freshly eaten dry cat food. It was a pile as big as or bigger than a pile of poo. This robot ran right over it. It was a disgusting mess to clean out of the rollers and dust bin. Also, the camera is so low resolution that you can't make out what it took a picture of when reviewing its activity for avoidance training. The camera requires a good amount of light so I've had to resort to programming my smart home lights to turn on during scheduled cleaning times (in the middle of the day) so the robot can "see" where it's going. I have been a Dyson person for the last 10 years and I really wanted the new Dyson Vis Nav but it’s currently unavailable and the price is astronomical. That got me looking at Roomba. All the positive reviews can’t be wrong and I got mine for $300 below MSRP right here on Amazon. I like how well it mapped my home! It’s really accurate. I have not had it long enough to comment on all of the features such as Dirt Detective but there are a few things I can comment on. I feel it could use stronger suction. I’m using it on hardwood floors and I want it to get stray cat litter. It picks up most cat litter but a lot of granules get left behind in the roller chamber. Also when the Roomba docks and attempts to empty itself it never fully gets all the litter out of the dust bin in the Roomba. It seems to get all the cat hair and regular dirt/dust with no issue though. Battery life is also very good. It is able to vacuum my entire house on one charge. Run time seems a bit long (2 hrs) but that may improve as it learns more about my house. I don’t really care too much about run time as I have it set to do it’s thing while I’m at work and it’s done by the time I get home. I plan to keep my eyes on Dyson though. As they improve their robot and add features I’ll probably jump ship. Theirs has the power of an upright vacuum and it has a permanent washable filter. Also no bags to deal with. For now this is a good machine to get my feet wet in the robotic realm.

This vacuum is absolutely amazing. I ended up giving it to my mom because with my two dogs I also needed the mopping option as well, but I will be 1000% honest the one I have gotten for myself does not compare to this at all. This vacuum sucks everything up, including the finest of dog hair. My mom always knows when he has ran because her floors look great. I would give this 1000 stars if I could. The only complaint that I have is that it is a little loud. But I guess with the loudness you know how good it cleans lol

Update to what i placed below. It failed literally one minute after writing my review. Warranty process was smooth and they sent a new cleaning module. This has caused the sound to be reduced considerably. I don't think I can change the star rating though when initial product was so poor. It did vacuum before it died, so I would have just accepted that as the functionality of this device possibly until the warranty expired. It is great that they have the warranty and replacement parts, that would be what keeps this from a 1 star review when it died immediately after writing the review for ~a year of ownership In general I would give at minimum 3 stars if a product does it's intended purpose, but honestly this one has so many problems that I feel like it deserves less than that. Does it do it's job? Yes, it'll vacuum and do a decent job mapping the room and doing that. At least 80% of the time. So what's it's problem? Multiple for me. 1. It sounds like a dying banshee when it's going. That's on low powered suction. Higher suction is worse. I've worn electric ear plugs that cut sound off when it gets to damaging levels and have had it cut off for this vacuum if that tells you anything. 2. It'll occasionally fail to connect and have issues requiring a reset. 3. Bags in vacuums is something that's been solved for the most part for multiple decades. Yet they bring it back in their self emptying base to try and get extra cash. I didn't realize this when I got this, so on me. It's ridiculous when there are other bases and products that can do without the bags. 4. It's avoidance system only works sometimes. It's using a camera and AI, so somewhat expected, but I've seen it drive up bookshelves, run right over towels, etc. I don't have a pet right now, but for advertising that it won't smear messes, I have to question that a lot based on what I see it do. In general I feel like there's probably a better robot out there for this. I had an ecovacs cheaper model without the self emptying base before this, and I feel like it's definitely comparable in functionality. They just had a way worse app. Although I'm slowly learning they're all trying to shill more crap at you and collect as much data as they can. These app driven products really seem to just be made terrible. Shouldn't really rate the product for the app though since it changes and in general they all suck.

My wife and I wanted a robotic vacuum cleaner to manage dog hair. She bought a Eufy for upstairs, I bought this for downstairs. Simply put, this does not work (details below). If you are thinking of rolling the dice on this despite the reviews, be warned, Roomba does not do returns through Amazon and I ended up paying $80 to ship it back to Roomba. It is not worth the risk. If you are still deciding, let me go into more detail. A little context - after I returned this I ended up getting a Roborock unit so I'll be comparing this to my wife's Eufy and my Roborock. The software is bad - compared to the Eufy or Roborock, this thing is comically dumb. The first time I turned it on, it took forever to map the room (didn't clean while mapping), barely sucked up the dog hairs, then spent the rest of it's battery life trying to "dock" back into the bottom of my fridge before dying. I thought it was a glitch - everyone makes mistakes - so I picked it up, put it back in its dock, and waited a day for it to recharge. On day 2, I tried turning it on and low and behold, there was an error that prevented it from running. This thing sucks in every way other than that which a vacuum should suck. Comparing the Roomba with the Eufy and Roborock, this is MILES behind either. Ranking the three, Eufy is the clear leader - strong vacuum and hair gathering plus intelligent AI that prevents it from committing suicide off a staircase. Roborock is second to Eufy - the AI isn't as smart, the software isn't as good, but it gets the job done and I'm going to be keeping mine since all I need it for is dog hair removal.

I got this device after moving in to a new places. It was *incredibly* helpful to do a couple mapping runs, set up a schedule, and have it pretty much reliably clean the place while I was at work or otherwise out while the apartment was still in flux with things being moved, boxes being emptied, etc. I initially felt this was a great purchase, despite the significant cost. But as I got more and more set up with arranging this here, and that there.. it began to get far less reliable. First off, the IR sensors on either side scrape along the wall and pick up a lot of paint and scuffing from the walls. I'm not sure if that's the main issue and they're less able to reliable sense where they're at, or if it's a software issue.. But at some point within the first month or two (it's now been a total of four months and I haven't used it in at least two), it began to ignore whole areas, and eventually barely be able to navigate between the dock and a targeted room for cleaning. And I maintained the hell out of this thing. I liked keeping it clean and operating well, and would regularly inspect and wipe it down. Initially, after making more significant arrangement changes or getting new pieces of furniture, I'd notice it not working well, or failing to update the map any after a run, and wiped my entire floorplan map multiple times. It seemed to then map run well enough, but it just kept going back to this 'I don't know what the hell I'm doing' mode, and I just got tired of it. I even got the extra warranty, which stinks now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe I'll throw it down some stairs to get a new unit (likely just a refurbished one..) and resell that. Anyway. I was initially thrilled by the prospect of only having to spot clean and the majority being automated (and initially quite competent). But that illusory help with day to day life evaporated into a very expensive hunk of plastic that seems to only want to waltz in the middle of a room without actually doing much productive.

Truly, this thing sucks. In terms of vacuums, that’s what you want. It has good variable suction and picks up a surprising amount. It’s great at avoiding tangles and things you forget on the floor and its picture review helps define those items. Yes, the app has its bugs but overall, once automated, the bot goes on its happy little way. The noise level isn’t bad and it works out its paths fairly quickly. The base, that’s where it REALLY sucks. The vac inside of the self emptying bin is incredibly powerful. Does it empty every single thing? Not every time but it gets the bin emptied for the next job. In doing so though, a jet engine takes off. Would suggest programming it to run more daytime when not home. Now I’m looking forward to a Braava mop to compliment the vac.

My unit is faulty and the dustbin does not self-empty. This is a hardware problem. The battery does not last anymore. I missed the return window by 2 days. The support team is not able to support. I am so disappointed and do not recommend

Complete waste of time and money. Every day a new problem such as the recharging electrical contacts in the base unit that get 'stuck' in the down position and the unit won't charge its battery until you physically 'pry' them up to make contact. 'Sealing problem with the base' is an almost daily problem where the unit says it can't empty the bin but a recycle of the 'empty bin' function sometimes fixes the problem. Why couldn't this unit do that itself. I have had many messages that the base unit was clogged and on one of those occasions I dismantled the base unit to investigate. Nothing! No blockage, no nothing. Not everyday but frequently there are notifications of parts that need replacement. If I had known the deficiencies of this product I would Never have purchased it!

Will not work in UAE at 220V. It needs 110V AC. No mention of voltage required anywhere in the listing. Finally had to contact iRobot in the US who asked me to return the item.

This j9+ is my second Roomba vacuum after my j5+ and was a really easy addition to the family and the Roomba app. I let the j5+ handle the main floor with its mainly hard surfaces and the j9+ is handling the 2nd floor which is almost all carpeted. The j9+ has noticeably more suck power than j5+ and works really well on the medium and low pile carpet. It climbs room transitions with ease, eg from the carpeted rooms to the tiled bathrooms. The Roomba neatly works around chair legs and kitty water dishes without bumping anything. No spilled water. Regular maintenance is simple and fast. After a few vacuum runs I had to remove the side brush to untangle a cat toy with a long yarn tail. I also checked for trapped carpet fibers in the spinning brushes and found almost none. I really love the app. I have been able to create daily cleaning schedules with times set to avoid our activity (upstairs gets vacuumed while we're making breakfast). I have it set to vacuum rooms in an order that is least likely to interfere with us even if we return upstairs sooner than usual. I added Clean Zones and a couple of Stay Away zones and now I can just let it do its thing. No regrets on this purchase.