New Roomba combo bots have swappable mud and water tanks


Roomba is bringing the combo mop and vacuum function to its cheaper robotic vacuums with the brand new Roomba Combo j5+  and Combo i5+. Roomba’s final combo bot was the Roomba Combo j7+, which might routinely swap between mopping and vacuuming with a swing-arm setup. These cheaper bots can each mop and vacuum, however you will have to manually configure them for both process.

The thought right here is form of intelligent: the robotic comes with two bins, one which sucks in mud and one which acts as a water tank with a mop pad on the underside. You will want to modify out the bin relying on which cleansing mode you need (the iRobot advertising staff has provide you with the phrase “swap and mop”). Different combo bots have to steadiness water tank dimension and dirt bin dimension, however right here, you get water and dirt bins which might be free to take up as a lot room as doable. Roombas have small bin areas to start with, although, in order that works out to a 210 mL water tank and 360 mL mud bin.

The vacuum half appears to be a bog-standard Roomba, full with a charging base that may empty the mud bin. The mop half does not have a water sprayer or seemingly any connection to the remainder of the robotic in any respect. There’s additionally no fancy water change system or scrubbing function. It is only a self-contained water tank that retains a rag moist and drags it alongside the ground. It virtually seems like you could possibly retrofit the water tank onto a standard Roomba, however on this unit, after all, all of the vacuum features flip off if you’re mopping.

iRobot Roomba robotic vacuums

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One concern is that the robotic must chorus from mopping your rugs. Neither mannequin will likely be significantly “good” about that, however the costlier J5+ can map your property, and you’ll lay out “no mopping” zones within the app, due to a front-facing digital camera. The cheaper i5 does not have as many sensors, and the press launch says it is “ultimate for smaller houses with principally onerous ground surfaces.”

For all this speak of a “funds” bot, keep in mind that that is iRobot, so every thing continues to be fairly costly. The J5+ with a base is $799, whereas the i5+ is $549. Each robots are up for preorder now.

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