Top-end Roomba can now refill itself with water via furniture-sized dock

IRobot has much more new robots to check out. This week it is refreshing the top-of-the-line lineup with the Roomba Combo j9+, which is available in at $1,399. Just like Combo j7+, it is a vacuum with a mop pad mounted on a swing arm setup. In mop mode, the pad swings below the robotic and drags throughout the ground. When it is time to vacuum the carpet, relatively than lifting the pad just a few millimeters and doubtlessly dragging it throughout the carpet, the entire pad swings round to the highest of the robotic and appears like a racing spoiler. The improve to the j9+ includes a brand new dock that can refill the robotic’s water tank and a “SmartScrub” characteristic that does a greater job of mopping.

Most of the brand new options are enabled by the brand new dock. These vacuum docks unavoidably simply continue to grow in measurement as they get extra succesful, and the j9+ combo dock is so huge that iRobot’s press photographs humorously counsel adorning the Combo j9+ base by placing a vase or another knickknacks on high. The Combo j9+ dock is approaching the dimensions of a small finish desk, so iRobot says it gave the dock a “wood-like high to double as a usable floor.” It really seems to be fairly good, with ribbing across the perimeter and a pretend leather-based tag on the aspect as a gap deal with. Grab the tab, and the entrance of the dock will swing open like a cupboard.

Inside the door, you will see useful storage bins for brand spanking new mop pads and dock vacuum luggage. In the primary physique of the dock, there is a white tank on the high that shops the cleansing liquid, and beneath that may be a drawer for the mud bag. Altogether, it will suck mud out of the robotic and refill it with water, and iRobot says you will get “60 days of filth emptying and 30 days of liquid refill.”

The one vital lacking characteristic is that the dock can’t clear the mop pad, so you are not fairly at maintenance-free mopping but. The most superior combo mop-bot out there’s in all probability the RoboRock Q Revo, which has a dock that can clear the mop pads and has a dryer—after a job, a flowery hair dryer will blast away on the mop pads so they will not get smelly from mildew.

As far as we can inform, the robotic should pull into the dock in two instructions, relying on whether or not it needs to deal with mud or water. There is a single bin that holds mud and water, so the ports to entry each components of the bin are at the back of the robotic. That’s not how the ports on the dock are aligned, although—the water port is in opposition to the again wall of the dock, whereas the dust-emptying port is on the entrance. When the robotic pulls in entrance first, the charging pads and dirt emptying gap will align with the dock to energy up and empty itself. To fill with water, the robotic has to drag out of the dock, spin round, after which drive in back-first to hook up.

The new Roomba is a bit smarter, too. “Dirt Detective” and “SmartScrub” will attempt to detect how soiled an space is and go over it a number of occasions if wanted. iRobot says the bot will now “study from previous cleansing missions to mechanically prioritize dirtier rooms and modify settings like suction, cleansing passes, and scrubbing;” it can additionally modify its suction energy. SmartScrub is supposed to counter among the extra superior mop-bots on the market, like Q Revo, which spins its mop pads at 200 RPM prefer it’s a flooring buffer, leading to most flooring scrubbing. The j9+ Combo would not have something like that, but it surely can detect a grimy spot and go over it a number of extra occasions.

The Roomba Combo j9+ is up for pre-sale and can ship in October.

Listing picture by iRobot