The best Roombas in 2025: A buyer's guide for Black Friday

The Roomba 505 is the most practical Roomba choice for most people whose main priority is thorough, frequent mopping — but without spending close to $1,000. This probably means homes with more hard floors than carpeting or rugs, and homes that get a lot of foot traffic near the door (whether that be shoes or paw prints).

I have always thought the double gyrating mop setup did a better job of scrubbing than a singular flat mop pad could do. iRobot finally picked up on the fact that that's essentially the universal take, and the switch proved worthwhile when mopping my apartment. One advantage of spinning mopping pads is that many have the freedom to swing on a hinge and scrub outside of the edge of the robot vacuum, getting into corners where a regular round vacuum can't. The 505 successfully cleaned right up against the sticky walls by my cats' food bowls, under my kitchen counter, and along my bathtub wall (iRobot estimates that it's 18 percent closer edge cleaning than that of former Roombas).

You may have noticed that these new Roombas have a circular tower on top — a design change from the flat chrome lids of the older Roomba j7 and j9. That indicates that Roombas are finally smart mapping with LiDAR, improving upon room-to-room navigation (despite the fact that the new Roomba Home app somehow looks more antiquated than the older app). At any rate, I'm just happy that iRobot's small obstacle avoidance legacy still lives on. The Roomba 505 successfully dodged all of the socks and cords I threw at it — an accuracy rate that even the most advanced Roborocks I've tested still can't nail.

The one lonesome roller brush underneath the Roomba Plus 505 Combo feels like a downgrade from the dual rubber brushes of the Combo 10 Max. The single brush, in tandem with slightly weaker suction, is why I'd still recommend the Combo 10 Max over the 505 for people who really care about pet hair pickup.

The Roomba 105 series vacuums are iRobot's most advanced and fairly-priced budget robot vacuums to date. They'd be ideal for the crowd who is totally fine with settling for a not-amazing-but-decent clean if it affordably lightens their chore load. It'd be a fine addition to an apartment or small space with low foot traffic and relatively simple layouts.

It's also nice that you can customize your choice to the features you need in your house — and how much you want to spend. There are four versions of the Roomba 105: a standalone mopping and non-mopping version, and a self-emptying mopping and non-mopping version. They all have huge discounts quite often, dropping both standalone models below $200 and both self-emptying models below $300.

To be real with you, if I was looking for the most reliable budget robot vacuum possible, I wouldn't be buying a Roomba. But if you insist on a cheap Roomba, the Roomba 105 series vacuums definitely offer better bang for your buck over the older Roomba i5 series.

The most impactful upgrade from the i5 to the 105 lies in suction power: The Roomba 105 offers 60 times the suction of 600 series Roombas like the Roomba 694 or Roomba 675, while the Roomba i5 offers just 10 times the power of the 600 series. This translates to 7,000 Pa in suction power for the 105 (a metric that iRobot hadn't used until this 2025 round of Roombas.) On my apartment's hard floors, the 105 had a commendable track record for the price — it sucked up most tracked kitty litter and spilled protein powder, and grabbed all but one or two heavy pieces of dry cat food. On rugs, most loose crumbs and visible fuzzies were taken care of, though matted down cat fur required a second pass from a stick vacuum.

Perhaps you noticed the circular laser tower atop this Roomba. iRobot finally decided to make the switch to LiDAR-based smart mapping with its 2025 Roombas, which ultimately just means faster, more precise room mapping. Somehow, the new Roomba Home app that you have to use now looks older and clunkier than the previous one. But the successfully made it to my selected rooms and zones about 95% of the time.

Note: I have not tested Roomba Max 705 Combo in person yet.

The Max 705 Combo would be the best Roomba to have on call in homes where pet messes on the floor are common. In my testing, iRobot's PrecisionVision small obstacle avoidance is some of the most reliable on the market, especially around surprise pet waste that needs to be avoided. For pet messes (or other spills) that do need to be mopped up, the Max 705 Combo uses heated scrubbing with auto-dispensed detergent for iRobot's most hygienic cleanup possible.

iRobot also revived the stylish wooden accents that we first saw on the 2023 Roomba Combo j9+. Anyone with a strict decorating style will have a hard time turning down this elevated look, compared to the cheap-y plastic builds of most self-emptying docks out there.

As the most powerful Roomba to date, the Max 705 Combo is kind of a shoo-in for the best Roomba for pet hair. I'm also psyched on the return of the counter-spinning parallel brush rolls underneath, which iRobot omitted on a few other recent high-end Roombas. From past experience, this dual system is incredibly effective at digging into rug fibers to pinch pet hair and long human hair (without major hair wrap around the rollers).

However, the 13,000 Pa suction power of the Roomba Max 705 Combo is only impressive compared to other Roombas — not to flagship robot vacuums from other brands. That's significantly less powerful than the 20,000+ Pa suction power of the Roborock Saros 10 and 10R that I loved in early 2025, and is completely left in the dust by the 30,000 Pa suction power of the mighty Dreame Aqua10 Roller Ultra that recently aced my hair clump tests at home.

It's a similar story with the Max 705 Combo's mopping. Yes, the heated paint roller-style mop surely offers a sturdier, more sanitary scrub than Roombas with a flat mopping pad or dual spinning mopping pads. But there are several other roller mop robot vacuums out there that do the same thing, aided by more powerful vacuuming and just-as-accurate small obstacle avoidance — all at more practical price points than this Roomba. Throw in the fact that the most expensive Roomba still doesn't have a livestream pet camera, and it's hard for me to recommend this Roomba over the other top robot vacuums on the market.

People in small apartments often turn down automatic emptying because the dock takes up too much room. If that's your current situation, you'll appreciate the brand-new dust-compacting Roomba. It can be stored under existing furniture like a bed or entertainment system (as long as it's against a wall).

Though the Roomba 205 can technically recognize rugs well enough to avoid mopping them, I've personally watched it flop when trying to hoist itself over rugs in my apartment. Given the number of times it has given up, I'd recommend the Roomba 205 for spaces without a complex rug arrangement — perhaps rooms that are either fully carpeted or rooms that have rugs that can be picked up easily.

iRobot picked up on the fact that many small spaces just don't have an extra cubic foot or two to house a self-emptying robot vacuum. Still, emptying a tiny dust bin multiple times per week dramatically diminishes the overall hands-off-ness of the robot vacuum experience.

So, iRobot found a space-saving solution: instead of making the dock more compact, why not compact the dust itself? The smushing technology keeps the collected debris compressed enough to fit inside the 205 for up to two months. When it's finally time to empty, you just un-click the dust bin and dump it into the trash.

The cleaning capabilities of the Roomba 205 fall in the middle of the Roomba lineup — sufficient for the average crumb and debris tracked in from shoes, small dried and wet spills, and other daily stuff. It could probably be on shedding duty for one pet if you're not that much of a stickler about it past the visible furballs. Compared to the most basic Roombas, the 205 sees improvements like stronger suction power and the option for more thorough mopping with SmartScrub — promising considering the 600 Series and Essential Series Roombas were borderline helpless in my testing. Unfortunately, I found myself not opting to mop with the 205 Combo, because it's annoying to click the tank on and off when the vacuum lives under a TV stand.

If you live in a small home or apartment, you may decide to forego a self-emptying dock to conserve space. But opting for a standalone Roomba doesn't mean you have to settle for a basic one that gets stuck all the time. The Roomba j7 is the cheapest standalone Roomba with small obstacle avoidance — a clutch choice if your floors are often littered with rogue phone chargers or pieces of laundry.

The lack of "Combo" in the title means this j7 doesn't mop, so ideally, you won't have a ton of hard floors that need to be mopped, or you'll be OK with mopping manually.

There are cheaper, more bare-bones Roombas than the j7, and there are more expensive, more self-sufficient Roombas than the j7. But iRobot keeps the plain ol' j7 relevant by putting it on sale for $299 pretty often. At its full price of $599.99, the j7 is way too expensive compared to other non-Roombas on the market that do way more for the same price. But when it's 50% off, it's an absolute steal.

In my experience, the j Series Roombas have a near-perfect track record when identifying various chargers, extension cords, and random socks laying around, when other brands missed a few. The j7's suction power and corner cleaning wasn't as meticulous as the obstacle avoidance when sweeping my apartment, but it was reliable enough for daily upkeep of my high-traffic areas — especially for $299.

Read my full review of the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+.

After settling on getting a Roomba that mops, the next question is whether you'd like to be able to freely switch between vacuuming and mopping mode even if you're not home. If your home has hard floors outfitted with several rugs that would need to be carefully avoided while mopping, iRobot's retractable mop is worthwhile.

The Combo j7+ is the cheapest Roomba that has that retractable mop on board. These Roombas know to not mop when carpet or rugs are detected and can lift the mop accordingly, offering handy flexibility in homes with many different floor types. Even on sale, $799 is a pretty hefty investment — but unless you have multiple pets that shed onto thick carpet and hard floors with heavy foot traffic, the Combo j7+ provides a nearly-identical experience to the Combo j9+ for much less money.

The Combo j7+ was the very first true vacuum and mop hybrid from iRobot. Though it's since been upstaged by the 2023 Combo j9+ and 2024 Combo 10 Max, the 2022 Combo j7+ will always be pivotal for iRobot's legacy — and because it's not the newest 2-in-1 anymore, it's also usually on sale.

Compared to the fancier two Combo models, the j7+ has less powerful suction power, less forceful scrubbing, and doesn't automatically refill the water tank aboard the vacuum through a bigger tank in the dock. Compared to the j6+, the j7+ has more meticulous obstacle detection and can pinpoint hurdles like socks, towels, and pet bowls on top of cords and pet waste. Its ability to dodge those pesky items that might be on the floor at any given moment, plus its ability to vacuum and mop in the same cleaning session, make the Combo j7+ a much more hands-off experience than the cheaper Combo models.

iRobot's base-tier mopping Roomba is obviously the most budget-friendly choice, and would only really be satisfactory in single-person homes with simple layouts, no pets, and a low likelihood of random objects on the floor.

Even then, anyone prioritizing a low price could easily find a better cheap robot vacuum in the $200 to $400 range. For instance, the Roborock Q5 Pro+ or Dreame D10 also mop and self-empty, but more importantly, bring smart room mapping into the picture.

I'm actually not really recommending the Roomba Combo 2 to anyone — I'm merely explaining its part in the Roomba lineup, then giving the heads up that this isn't the cheap robot vacuum you want to buy.

The biggest red flag here is the lack of smart mapping. This was a surprising call for iRobot to make in the good year of 2024, especially when several other similarly-priced robot vacuums from other brands do have smart mapping. A bot that knows the layout of your home is more crucial than mopping or even automatic emptying in my opinion — it's the biggest factor playing a role in whether your robot vacuum even makes it to the right rooms in the first place. I tested the Combo 2 early in 2025 after months and months of strictly testing vacs with smart mapping, and the experience was pretty infuriating. Not being able to grab my phone to send the vacuum to clean a specific room or zone just feels impractical at this point. I quickly found myself not wanting to use it because of how likely it was to get lost or stuck.

At any rate, if you can find the Combo 2 on sale for less than $300, it'll take care of hard floors sufficiently. It mops and self-empties — features we hadn't previously seen on the lowest-tier Roombas — and has 18 times the suction power of the 600 Series Roombas.