The iRobot Roomba Combo 2 Essential has 2x the suction, auto emptying and it can recharge and resume
Robot vacuum cleaners have come a long way in the last few years. They aren’t just better at cleaning, but they also empty themselves now, some can mop too and they are significantly cheaper than they once were.
The latest iRobot launch is therefore actually quite exciting, pulling all of these feats into one product. The company has announced the Roomba Combo 2 Essential, which is the first in iRobot’s more affordable range that automatically empties itself. It also vacuums and mops and has two times the cleaning power of the original Essential robot.
The iRobot Essentials range arrived earlier this year, but the Roomba Comba 2 Essential offers several worthy improvements, including an enhanced bumper design for better navigation and the ability to recharge and resume cleaning where it left off. The AutoEmpty dock is the biggest improvement however, as it means you can go off to work and run the Roomba Comba 2 Essential, coming back to a clean home rather than a full bin.
There is a four-stage cleaning system that includes a Multi-Surface Bristle Brush, an Edge-Sweeping Brush, and a special textured, reusable microfibre mop pad. Like all the company’s products, the Roomba Comba 2 Essential connects to the iRobot app which is nice and simple to use, and offers features like scheduling, a Clean Map to show where the robot has cleaned, and ‘Clean While I’m Away’ that sees the robot start cleaning when you leave home. The Roomba Comba 2 Essential is also compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa so you can ask either to start cleaning.
There are four levels of suction power when vacuuming and three levels of mopping water, and while you can’t mop-only, you can vacuum only should you only want to give your home a spruce up rather than full mop and vacuum treatment. The iRobot Roomba Combo 2 Essential will clean for up to 120 minutes on single charge according to the company, and when the battery runs low, the robot will return to its charging base, recharge and then continue cleaning.
The AutoEmpty bin can hold up to 60 days of dirt and debris so in theory, you can let this robot vac get to work and not have to touch it for two months, unless it gets stuck of course, which is a common occurrence with these home-cleaning wizards.
The iRobot Roomba Combo 2 Essential is available in EMEA now and costs £399. It’s worth mentioning that at the time of writing, the more expensive iRobot Roomba J7 is £495 for Prime Big Deal Days instead of £599, while the iRobot J7+ is £807 instead of £895.
