iRobot Roomba j9+

At $899.99, the Roomba j9+ slots in at the top of iRobot’s standalone robot vacuum lineup, combining the camera vision-powered navigation of its predecessor, the j7+, with the strong suction power of its previous standard bearer, the s9+. With increased battery life from last generation and new smarts to prioritize dirty areas, plus self-emptying functionality and class-leading obstacle avoidance, it's the best vacuum-only Roomba yet. Though expensive for a floor cleaner without mopping capabilities, the Roomba j9+ is a reliable performer with a robust feature set and our Editors' Choice for high-end robot vacuums.

Design and Features

While more and more top-of-the-line robot cleaners, including models from iRobot itself, can both vacuum and mop, the $899.99 iRobot Roomba j9+ maintains a singular focus on suction. iRobot also sells the $1,399.99 Roomba Combo j9+, which adds mopping functionality but is otherwise the same as the standard j9+ featured in this review.

The robot has a standard shape and size, with a round body measuring 13.7 inches in diameter and 3.4 inches tall. The top features a simple yet attractive design with a chrome and silver color scheme and a centered logo.

At 13.3 by 12.2 by 15.8 inches (HWD), the base station is quite a bit smaller than the j9+ Combo’s dock (16.3 by 15.8 by 16.4 inches) as it doesn’t need to fit in a water reservoir, but a touch bigger than the j7+'s base (13.0 by 12.5 by 15.0 inches).

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

The ribbed front of the base accents an otherwise plain black exterior. A brown leather handle juts out from the pop-open top. Lift it to reveal one installed dust bag and a spare. Each bag can hold approximately 60 days of debris according to iRobot. You can buy a three-pack of extras for $19.99. The lower front of the base has charging contacts and a ramp to guide the robot into place.

A lone button on the top of the robot lets you start, pause, or resume a job with a single press. Press and hold the button for five seconds to cancel a job and send the robot back to its base station. A circular indicator light surrounding the button spins white while the robot is charging, pulses white when it's fully charged, shines blue when the robot is seeking the base station, or shines red when something is wrong. If you see a red light, you can tap the vacuum's bumper or button for an audible message indicating the issue.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

The bottom of the robot houses the dual multi-surface rubber brush rolls. Charging contacts bookend the front caster wheel. A single edge-sweeping brush sits in the corner with the bristles jutting past the side. Cliff sensors circle the perimeter. For maintenance, almost everything is removable. The edge-sweeping brush is held in place with a simple screw. A latch releases the brush rolls if you want to remove them and wipe them down. On the side of the robot, a button frees the dustbin if you want to empty it yourself.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

On the front of the robot, nestled into the otherwise smooth black bumper, sits the PrecisionVision camera that enables the best feature of the j9+. Using that camera, the j9+ can not only learn your place over time and navigate efficiently, it can also recognize and avoid obstacles such as cords, socks, shoes, towels, pet waste, and more. Its predecessor was the first to integrate this advanced camera-based obstacle avoidance, and like that model, the Roomba j9+ comes with a Pet Owners Official Promise (yes, the POOP acronym is intentional) that guarantees it will successfully avoid pet waste for a full year after purchase or you’ll get your money back.

Setup and App

When unpacking the Roomba j9+ from its box, you’ll find the robot itself, the base with its dust bags, a power cord, a quick start guide, other assorted paperwork, an extra filter, and an extra side brush.

Before the first run, you’ll need to find a spot near an outlet for your Roomba and its base station to reside. iRobot recommends four feet of clearance in front so the robot can easily come and go, as well as 1.5 feet of clearance on each side and four feet of clearance between the base and any staircase.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Once the base is in place and plugged in, put the robot on it while lining up the charging contacts to wake it up. Be patient with this step, as the robot takes more than a minute before it finishes booting up and plays a pleasing jingle to let you know it’s ready.

At this point, you can connect the Roomba j9+ to the iRobot app (for Android and iOS). If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to create an iRobot account before you can add your device. The app will walk you through the process of syncing the robot to your home’s Wi-Fi network and giving it a name.

Next, the app will prompt you to send the robot on a mapping run. This step is optional, as the Roomba j9+ can learn your home over time while it cleans, but a dedicated mapping run speeds up the process. I recommend it if you have the time, as the Roomba j9+ is a much more competent machine once it knows your place.

On its first attempt to map my place, the Roomba j9+ didn’t do well. I was surprised when it completed the task in 16 minutes, as the Combo j9+ initially spent 39 minutes exploring the same space. Sure enough, the map was incomplete. The Roomba j9+ had missed roughly half of my two-bedroom apartment. I deleted the map it created and tried again.

On its second try, it took a full 52 minutes. The j9+ felt its way along walls and bumped into furniture. It seemed like it was mapping my place by feel, and ended with numerous scuff marks lining its side. Thankfully, after that extra-long process, the resulting map turned out well.

While slow at mapping (the Ecovacs X2 Omni took 10 minutes and the Dreame X30 Ultra took 12 minutes to map the same space), it’s efficient at cleaning. It vacuumed my 1,500-square-foot apartment in 73 minutes (versus 82 minutes for the X2 Omni and 91 minutes for the X30 Ultra).

Features in the app become available once the map is created, as you can’t create any kind of zones or cleaning plans without one. On the app's main page, you can start a cleaning run, create a schedule, see a history of the robot's cleaning jobs, and access advanced settings to fine-tune its behaviors to your liking. Tap the map icon to create or edit boundaries between rooms, label rooms, and set up Keep Out Zones that your vacuum will avoid in the future or Clean Zones to give an area extra attention.

(Credit: iRobot)

After a run, the app will show pictures of obstacles it detected and give you the option to create a Keep Out Zone in the spot or let the robot know that the obstacle was temporary. In the case of the latter, you can even send the robot back to that spot for a touch-up cleaning if you’ve moved the offending object out of the way. Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about furniture or chair legs, as the Roomba j9+ nimbly circled around them in all of my test runs.

On the main app page, tap the options menu in the upper right to sync your robot with other smart home devices and services. It works with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant, and you can send it to clean specific rooms or start whole home runs with simple voice commands.

Cleaning Up: Expert Navigation

Give it a run or two, and Roomba j9+ starts to navigate in a self-assured manner. It cleans along edges instead of bumping into them, and systematically moves up and down the middle of the floor like a Zamboni. While it works, the robot will automatically detect dirty spots and increase suction levels accordingly, a feature called Dirt Detect that's available on even the base-level Roomba 600-series. The Roomba j9+ goes a step further with the ability to learn which spots tend to be dirty and prioritize them first in cleaning runs.

The other big upgrades of the Roomba j9+ over its predecessor are increased battery life and suction power. In testing, the Roomba j9+ lasted 113 minutes before needing a recharge, completing nearly two full runs of my 1,500-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment. That time beats the 86-minute tested runtime of the Roomba j7+ by nearly 30 minutes.

I evaluate obstacle avoidance using cat toys and pet food bowls of a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Every high-end vacuum I’ve tested has successfully avoided a large, crinkly ball and my cats’ water bowl with its tall reservoir. Most run over my cats’ short metal food bowl on initial runs, but the Roomba j9+ recognized the obstacle and suggested a Keep Out Zone.

Every non-Roomba model also runs over my cat’s small, white plastic mouse that somewhat blends in with the carpet, but the Roomba j9+ pivots around it every time. In testing, the Roomba j9+ avoided obstacles better than the $1,499.99 Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni and the $1,699.99 Dreame X30 Ultra. If you have a cluttered home or live with an accident-prone pet, the Roomba j9+ is worth it for its standout obstacle avoidance abilities.

To test cleaning performance, I spread a measured quantity of dirt over a controlled area and weigh the robot's dustbin before and after each run for precise particle pickup data. Check out our full rundown of how we test robot vacuums for more details.

The Roomba j9+ series held up reasonably well to the intense testing process. In our large particle pickup tests (using long grain white rice), it collected an average of 95.8% of the debris on carpet and 88.4% on hardwood. In our small particle pickup tests (using sand), it collected 38.5% of the debris on carpet and 54.3% on hardwood. Given that sand on carpet is a stress test, it fared reasonably well.

Check out the chart above for details. In both rice tests, it fell just short of the high-end hybrid competition. It lagged further behind with sand on hardwood, and finished in the middle of the pack with sand on carpet. Keep in mind that these results indicate pickup performance for a single cleaning run, so you can expect more thorough debris removal with multiple runs.

On whole-home runs, the j9+ thoroughly traversed every room, did a good job of getting into corners, and avoided flinging small particles on hard flooring. I have two cats and medium-length hair, and it cleaned up after all of us without any tangles or leftover hairballs.

A Top Standalone Robot Vacuum

The $899.99 Roomba j9+ takes the solid foundation laid by the j7+ with its advanced camera-based obstacle avoidance and adds better battery life and suction power. It’s expensive for a standalone robot vacuum, but it learns your floor plan well over time and has a wealth of features to help you get the dirtiest spots in your home cleaned thoroughly and efficiently. If you don’t care about mopping capabilities and are willing to pay a premium for a top-of-the-line robot vacuum, the Roomba j9+ is our Editors’ Choice winner. If you're in search of a high-end robot floor cleaner that does double duty, the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni is our top 2-in-1 pick for its strong suction power, hygienic mopping system, and excellent self-maintenance features.