The iRobot Roomba j7 + promises a world where the daily grind of vacuuming is handed over to a smart vacuum cleaner who'll make your life easier and your home cleaner. Sounds too good to be true? How will this clever little chap cope in a house that's wonky and filled with four pets who love to shed?
In this review of the iRobot Roomba j7 + we're going to put the little automated vacuum cleaner through its paces in a series of challenges that will test its capabilities to the point that we're just glad that robot vacuums aren't yet eligible to join a trades union. Two large dogs, two fur shedding cats, a 270 year old home where nothing's straight or straightforward, floors included, can the iRobot Roomba j7 + cope with the challenge of getting around picking up after four pets and a human who tends to eat wherever he happens to sit?
Dog hairs. Cat hairs. Undulating floors. Cracks, crevices, cats, canines and crumbs - is the iRobot Roomba j7 + able to clean up the competition or will this smart mini machine pack its robot bags and apply for a job cleaning a small one-bed apartment instead?
Let's find out.
iRobot Roomba j7 + review after one year of use
Does the iRobot Roomba j7 + still perform adequately after a year of heavy workload?
Modern robot vacuums are no small investment. If you're considering spending a significant amount of money on a vacuum cleaner that is designed to make your life easier but can also deliver satisfactory cleaning, you will want to be assured that is reliable and works well for more than just a few months.
As ever, K9 Magazine is here to help by providing regular updates to our reviews to establish whether the products we test still work well long after the initial unboxing and effective performance they deliver when brand new.
The iRobot Roomba j7 + has been put to work in a multi-pet home on schedule of 3 cleans per week. It's fair to say, if any home was going to work this clever little automated vacuum cleaner to its absolute limits, this is the place.
Firstly, the problems.
Sometimes the iRobot Roomba j7 + finds itself getting stuck. It's not a big deal if you are home at the time. The app sends a message explaining that the iRobot Roomba j7 + has run in to problems and each time it's been a simple case of just picking it up, turning it around or generally offering the smallest of helping hands to get the little chap back on the right track.
This is, at worst, an occasional minor inconvenience.
The good FAR outweighs the bad. Because the iRobot Roomba j7 + is a very, very good vacuum cleaner.
One of the things we worried about with the iRobot Roomba j7 + was whether it would be able to maintain a strong vacuuming cleaning performance. It's all very well delighting in the initial novelty and sheer convenience of having a robot vacuum helper, but that would soon turn to frustration if the cleaning performance dropped off notably within a few months.
We can report, conclusively, this has not happened. The iRobot Roomba j7 + is still delivering a mighty impressive carpet cleaning performance a full year after we took the product out of the box.
As far as novelties go, this reviewer can confidently state he hasn't lost that initial sense of thrill of seeing freshly vacuumed carpets despite not moving a muscle to actually contribute to the job.
If you are considering buying the iRobot Roomba j7 + and wanted to know whether it will keep up its standards despite a heavy workload, we can confirm it absolutely does deliver on the reliability front. A very impressive achievement that tends to suggest modern robot vacuum cleaners have improved significantly since the earliest models we tested - which did suffer with the ability to keep cleaning performance up after just a few months of heavy cleaning duties.
There's further good news on price too. When we initially carried out our review in January of 2021, the iRobot Roomba j7 + was retailing from around £799. That price is now a full £200 lower and it's possible to buy an iRobot Roomba j7 + from just £599.
Robot vacuum cleaners: an introduction
We tried our very first robot vacuum some years back. It was a novel experience.
Let's be honest; when we imagine a robot vacuum cleaner we're picturing a utopia where they do as good a job as we can do with an upright vacuum. We imagine they'll be quiet, efficient, simple to use. We imagine they'll get in to all the nooks and crannies and we can set them up and then never have to worry about doing the vacuuming ourselves ever again.
Our reality, when using an early generation robot vacuum, didn't quite meet that expectation.
I got used to seeing the little robot vacuum doing its thing around the house and it was a real novelty. There he goes, cleaning the living room. Oh, here he is doing his thing in the kitchen. Our dogs and cats got used to him. He was like a very welcome house guest who just loved to clean.
But, and here's the rather disappointing truth, after less than a few months, it became quite noticeable that while our new robot friend certainly seemed to be putting in the hard yards, he wasn't actually doing that great a job of actually cleaning. So we would have to get the upright out and follow up where he'd missed things.
After a few more months, he basically gave up. His ability to get around the house remained undiminished, but his ability to actually clean the carpets and floors was all but gone. A vacuum cleaner who can move about but not actually clean is not much good to anyone. So he was retired and the dream, temporarily at least, was over.
Now we're in a new era. Can the iRobot Roomba J7+ offer a new reality?
Reviews for the iRobot Roomba j7 + have been glowing. It holds a mightily impressive 4.5/5 star reviews on Amazon, from a healthy 1,630+ total ratings.
So, how did I find it to use?
iRobot Roomba j7 + out of the box and set up
Out of the box the iRobot presented a lovely change from some vacuums we've reviewed at K9 Magazine through the years.
Making complicated things simple is a fantastic trait for a company to strive for (think Apple).
Previously, we've encountered a vacuum out of the box that just looks so daunting and overwhelming to put together. So many bits, attachments, different boxes, different instructions. You end up feeling you've basically been provided with a set of parts and you are now required to actually build the vacuum cleaner yourself.
Thankfully the iRobot Roomba j7 + is so elegant in its simplicity. You encounter the vacuum cleaner, the charging station and one attachment box. That's it. Once you've read (or watched) the easy to follow set up guide, downloaded the app, you're good to go.
Set up and presentation, therefore, represents a big win for the iRobot Roomba j7 +.
What the manufacturer says about the iRobot Roomba j7 +
- iRobot has over 30 years of robotics expertise and innovation with over 30 million home robots sold worldwide. Whether you choose Roomba, Braava or both - your floors get the specialized care they need.
- Forget about vacuuming for months - For up to 60 days, the i7+ automatically empties its bin into the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal with AllergenLock(TM) bags that use 4 layers of allergen blocking material to trap 99% of pollen and mold.
- Cleans when, where, and how you want - With advanced navigation, the i7+ can clean messes where you want, when you want. And equally important, it can stay out of where you don't want it to go.
- Vacuums messes in the moment - Cutting-edge mapping and smart navigation allow you to send the i7+ to messes when they happen, with just a simple command to your voice assistant*. *Works with Google Assistant and Alexa enabled devicesAlexa and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com or its affiliates. Google is a trademark of Google LLC
- Small dust? Large debris? No problem - Vacuums stubborn messes with a 3-Stage Cleaning System that uses Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes and 10X the Power-Lifting Suction*. *compared to the Roomba 600 series cleaning system
How does the iRobot Roomba j7 + cope with tricky spaces?
I live in a very old house where nothing is level. Floors are definitely not straight or straightforward. In the rooms where we have carpet, there are plenty or tricky spots that will catch out a robot vacuum that is not super smart.
Once the iRobot Roomba j7 + was set up and going about its business of learning the landscape it would be working with, I was impressed at how much attention to detail the little guy paid to the tricky areas.
The iRobot Roomba j7 + has a really simple to use app and the manufacturer states:
"We're building a world where robots intelligently communicate with each other and the rest of your connected home. Because our goal is not just to create a home that’s smarter–it’s to create a home that takes care of itself. The i7+ lets you forget about vacuuming for months at a time."
iRobot Official
I must say up front, I am currently quite a way through the process of converting as much as I can convert of my home in to a smart, connected home. That's lights, heating, TVs, music. Adding a smart vacuum cleaner (that actually works) is the dream.
How well does the iRobot Roomba j7 + clean & can it cope with (lots of) pet hairs?
If you've read our previous vacuum reviews, you'll know that no matter how good the tech, no matter how easy a vacuum may be to set up, if it falls short of getting the principle task done - effectively cleaning floors of the debris left by two large dogs and a couple of cats - it's all irrelevant.
The singular goal of a smart robot vacuum cleaner must always be effectiveness at cleaning floors first, smart robot stuff second.
The iRobot Roomba j7 + absolutely, categorically gets the job done on both fronts.
It cleaned my carpets to such an impressive level I actually thought, hey, maybe I really won't have to do the vacuuming ever again. That's quite a thing.
On the second point (how smart is it?), well, it's smart all right. Once it establishes the lay of the land upstairs and downstairs, I've had several weeks now to observe the hungry little gizmo motoring around my house and by the time he's returned to his docking station and I've finished my work day, I'm looking at carpets with a really nice glowing feeling. This guy HAS cleaned my carpets and he HAS done a great job.
I inspect his work thoroughly. I want to find areas where he's fallen short so I can at least say he's got some work to improve on. But the truth is, I can't.
Stairs aside (I have some windy, spirally, 270 year old stairs in my home), the iRobot Roomba j7 + does clean all of my floors, hard and carpeted. He does a great job on both surfaces and he does it all in an automated way that is, dare I say it, a little bit life changing?
The iRobot Roomba j7 + has been able to cope with the hair of four pets and because I've set the schedule to put the little guy to work every day, I've ended up in a rather miraculous situation where my house is cleaner for longer and I haven't done ANY of the vacuuming (stairs aside, which takes me no more than 3 minutes).
Summary iRobot Roomba j7 + review (is it any good & does it cope with pet hair?)
I feel like if you're here you really want to know just three things about the iRobot Roomba j7 +.
- Is it easy to use
- Does it really tackle homes with a lot of pet hair?
- Is it worth the money?
I can answer, categorically, yes to each.
I received the iRobot Roomba j7 + four weeks ago. So I've had a full month of use.
It is easy to set up and once you've got your schedule programmed in, you really can pretty much set and forget (obviously you need to empty its bin).
Does it tackle pet hair well? Yes. In fact, it does an equally good job as some of the super powerful, corded vacuums we've tested over the years.
Is it worth the money? Well, it's not cheap by any means. But the time savings of having a robot vacuum that really can clean your house properly? In my case, I would have no hesitation whatsoever in saying it's worth every penny.
Summary: The iRobot Roomba j7 + comes highly recommended with the K9 Magazine seal of approval. If you're on the fence about getting one, dive in and give it a go. You'll be thrilled if, like me, you've gone a full month without worrying about vacuuming cleaning and you get that nice little moment where your house looks cleaner and you haven't even lifted a finger.
The future is here.
See Latest Prices »iRobot Roomba j7 + Technical specifications
Capacity 0.35 litres
Height 89mm
Width 340mm
Depth 340mm
Docking station included (yes)
Docking station depth 384mm
Docking station height 483mm
Max threshold 18mm
App available (yes)
Scheduled cleaning (yes)
As ever, please bookmark this page as we always like to come back to our reviews after we've used a product for a significantly longer period of time. We'll be able to keep you up to date on how well the iRobot Roomba j7 + stands up after a sustained period of use.
