Today, iRobot announced the Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock, its first flagship hybrid robot floor-cleaner with a dock that automatically washes the dirty mop pad and cleans itself. This is a significant move for the brand, as it previously seemed to shy away from the self-cleaning dock trend seen from other major players like Roborock and Ecovacs.
While last year's flagship Combo j9+ could refill its water tank and empty its dirt bin, it lacked the ability to clean the mop pad and extract dirty water. This took away from its autonomous cleaning experience.
As someone who's been testing smart robots for years, I've been impressed with iRobot's innovative solution for keeping the robot mop from running over carpeting. The Roomba Combo j7+ introduced retractable arms to lift the mop pad when vacuuming carpets, eliminating the chance of them getting wet or dirty.
Read more: iRobot Roomba Combo j7+: A Worry-Free Mop Vac for Low-Traffic Floors
This year's flagship, the Roomba Combo 10 Max, combines mop-lifting technology and floor-scrubbing power with a redesigned charging base. It automatically refills the robot's water tank, washes and dries the mop pads, empties debris and dirty water, and cleans itself. The streamlined base holds 60 days' worth of dirt and seven days' worth of liquid before needing to be emptied.
In this cutaway diagram of the dock for the Roomba Combo 10 Max, you can see clean water entering the base of the dock. Brushes in dock scrub the mop pads and then the dirty water is sucked up into a dirty water container in the base. After the cleaning cycle, the mop pads are dried.
Like last year's Combo j9+, the new base opens from the front, allowing you to place items on top. The Combo 10 Max's base is only slightly larger than its predecessor's. To achieve this compact design, the new base doesn't include storage space. In my opinion, this is a worthwhile tradeoff, considering these bases are already quite large.
iRobot OS adds smarter cleaning features
A large part of what makes iRobot's Roombas so appealing is not only do you get premium hardware features, but the iRobot OS is also constantly improving. New Enhanced Dirt Detect Technology leverages the onboard camera (which is used for obstacle avoidance) to detect dirt on the floor, so the robot knows which rooms need more attention. If the robot detects a mess, it makes multiple passes in that specific area to clean up the dirt.
Dirt Detective technology also creates custom cleaning suggestions based on historical data. It can recommend cleaning order, water usage, and scrubbing intensity for different areas. Since it knows what's a kitchen and what's a bathroom, it can recommend cleaning the bathroom last, so it doesn't track any dirt through the house, or suggest washing the mop pad right after it cleans the bathroom. Or it might recommend using more water when mopping the kitchen than in the hallway or suggest a more intense mopping scrubbing motion. These are just suggestions; of course, you can always direct the robot in the app regarding the order and strength of cleaning.
I'm excited to test iRobot's latest flagship and compare its AutoWash Dock to other premium robot vacuums I've reviewed. Given my positive experience with last year's Combo j9+ and its robotic lifting arm, I think the new Combo 10 Max will be a worthwhile investment.
The Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock is available for pre-sale on iRobot.com for $1,399, making it less expensive than its main competition, the $1,799 Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra and $1,499 Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 OMNI. The Combo 10 Max will start shipping in August.
[Image credit: iRobot]
Andrea Smith is an award-winning technology broadcast journalist, reporter, and producer. Andrea was the Technology Producer and an on-air Technology contributor at ABC News for over two decades before becoming the Lifestyle Channel Editor at Mashable, where she explored the ways in which real people, not just geeks, began using technology in their everyday lives.
