iRobot Roomba j7+ (7550) Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum –Identifies and avoids obstacles like pet waste & cords, Empties itself for 60 days, Smart Mapping, Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Roomba J7+

The main issues are with the robot not alerting us when it frequently tangles itself up in a carpet edge or stray kid clothing or throw rug, etc. -- we come indoors to find it is not running and not on charger. It has not sent an Android notification (although we certainly get less relevant notifications from them), and it is not beeping or otherwise letting us know where/what the problem is. So we begin the Easter Egg hunt. You can push LOCATE but sometimes it has run the battery all the way down, as when it hooked itself on a spiral stairway pedestal bolt/nut. The software mapping is impressive BUT it has no provision to show you where the robot last stranded itself. And when we wish to exclude specific areas to avoid further problems in the future, the mapping doesnt allow us to see where prior problems were or to extrapolate where they might be precisely on the map the device created, which would seem to be a programming shortfall. The device seems to spend too much time traveling over same areas while passing by dirty areas. It also has a bad habit, when picked up from a trouble spot, of dumping dirt on the floor , or right in front of charger when you place it on charger manually because battery was dead. Then it doesnt know to vac up that dump. No apparent way to tell it to go to a specific spot, without designating an entire room. It does work well with Alexa from what weve seen and it is impressively persistent (bullheaded) at trying to enter a room you have closed off for safety reasons, that it previously found to be open. It actually knocked a spring-latched door open, entered the room, traveled to another room, bumped that door closed, and then found itself trapped in the last room because, of course, it doesnt know how to OPEN the door that it bumped. So it has made a lot of progress, and to its credit, we have a lot of obstacles like book stacks, etc., but some basic programming needs are lacking and we have tried to indicate those in the frequent surveys it requests, but no personal feedback from the company.

Long story short I didnt so much have an issue with the Roomba j7+ itself it did its job at maintaining all of my carpets. As far as tile, laminate, and hardwood floors go it didnt do a very good job. With that said robot vacuums are not designed to clean carpets that are super dirty like a lot of people think they are. They are only designed for maintenance on carpets that are already clean an carpet that had major dirtiness in it the robit more than likely is not going to pick all of it up. If you have a large home I recommend getting more than one of these my home is nearly 3,400 sqft livable space it would take this poor little robot all day just to do a quarter of my home so this was actually my 4th one. Now the bad experience I particularly had was from buying it from Amazon I dont know how it happened but I was sent somebodys used Like new return even tho i payed full new price. Out of the box it wasnt obvious because whoever returned it did a really good job at cleaning it up so I didnt notice it at first until I tried to send it to Irobot for some service because it was having issues straight out the box that is when I was informed that the robot was out of warranty because it had been previously registered on someone elses account over 12 months ago and since it was out of warranty I would have to pay full price to iRobot for a replacement so I have returned it to Amazon instead and will be going elsewhere to repurchase it probably Best Buy since they have them in stock. So buyer beware there is a little round tape seal that is supposed to be on the main box lid for the product (See my attached Photo) if that seal is broken or is not there it has been opened and is probably somebodys return that Amazon is selling as new. iRobot informed me that is a common practice on Amazon for people to buy a new one and return their old one or buy a new one just to swap parts out which in my experience parts start breaking down on the little vacuum after about 6 months of use and it is easier to just order a new one from somewhere and swap it out and Amazon apparently does not check returns for wear and tear.

Got on Amazon sale for $599 then they had another sale month later for $499 thank you very much Amazon for the Fin. Any way the jury is still out with this unit. Battery doesnt last Im having to find it in the house dead and take back to dock. It does avoid objects like advertised but it doesnt avoid liquids. It does clean carpet as well but Ive noticed it wearing out the rollers quicker. liquids make a mess with it turns the dirt into well you know mud then sticks to rollers filter and the waste bin Now you has the clean everything and new filter. I glad I got it for $599 really would have liked $499 at this point not sure its worth the money . Also I had the E5 Roomba prior to this one it performed as well as this one only upgrades Dock station vac, obstacle avoidance and the picture mapping. And I only paid $300 for it. so are the upgrades worth it? Yes for maybe $200 more not the $300 I paid