iRobot Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robot Vacuum Mop with AutoWash Dock - Extending Spinning Mop Pads Self-Empties Pad

We have a very large house, 60/40 tile and carpet. Needed something for routine cleaning. Didn’t think the Roomba 505 would even be able to map the house. To our surprise it did it very quickly. Be sure to open all doors and clear as much of the floor of obstacles as possible for the best mapping. The mopping system works really well (I know lots of Chinese models have had similar features for awhile), but I didn’t want to deal with those companies and waited for iRobot to create a model with these features. The 505 does a great job on tile; with first use it filled the out-water tank with blacken water after double pass mopping over what looked like a generally clean tile floor. Couldn’t have been happier. I have returned to update this review to express how happy we are with its tile mopping. Its impressive how much dirt it picks up on a routine basis. I also have deep cleaned the mop pads in my Samsung drawer washer with great results. The dirty tank gets some grime built up in it, but its easy to clean. The vacuum works pretty well, I understand the double brush vacuums do better, but for general use it picks up the stuff I see typically around the house. I use a Mikita duster to blow out the Roomba's dust bin and filter after a couple of weeks, quick and easy. Keep your station maintained and the whole product should perform well. Its easy to do. The iRobot Home app on my iPhone/iPad still needs improvements. It just got its first update today. My house layout is larger than the software developers probably anticipated. It hard to pick rooms by label, without having to zoom in, as the labels overlap on screen during the room selection process. Note: the map can be zoomed in when doing this once you touch some part of the floor plan first. Sadly, there is no simple list view. Setting up different zones, or correcting missed mapping areas is challenging and cumbersome. iRobot needs to continue focusing on UI and usability improvements to this app. It may frustrate some, and lessen the enthusiasm for Roomba and the dock. NOTE: A great feature would be to direct the Roomba to a mis-mapped area, or changed environment and just have it scan and update that part of the map. Especially so for large houses like mine. We have patterned tile floors and Roomba overcleans some areas "thinking" its some stain or mess. Would be nice to be able to mark these questionable areas as "normal". If you interrupt the cleaning with the app or the battery is low on the Roomba, sometimes the Roomba is left in an odd state. For instance, it won't clean the mop when you expect it should. You can manually force the cleaning routines, but only when a minimum level of battery power is available. Just a few things the app has overlooked and hopefully will eventually be addressed. The user experience and quality robotic system is what will make a "premium" product for iRobot. The mechanical units (Roomba and waste dock work well). The water tanks could be twice the size for my house… but most likely designed for a typically sized house. I am surely planning to keep the Roomba 505, as I expect improvements to the app as iRobot gets more feedback on this newly designed combo vac/mop. There are already articles describing and even better (yet more expensive) 705 combo model on the way. If its better than the 505... it most likely will be worth the extra money. Very happy with this purchase after a few weeks of serious use. Will update if that feeling changes. Summary, I recommend this product at its new price point. A few more weeks have passed, the iPhone app as been updated twice. The app could have a few more nice features added, but it works. We have tile floors that have random patterns, there are a few spots the Roomba mistakes as spills and works very hard to clean them up. This is understandable, and wastes time with extra unnecessary trips back to the dock to clean pads. The app needs a feature to mark and ignore these situations. The Roomba itself has been doing a great job. Its been awhile now and the Roomba is used every day for general cleaning. I works very well, with proper care and feeding. I am impressed the tile floors that typically look clean still manage to brown the empty tank with dirt, kudos Roomba. Do pay attention to the removal and cleaning of the water filter in the bottom to the docking station. I didn't realize it was a plastic removal filter that needed periodic cleaning. Be sure to watch some online videos for the care and cleaning of the robot and docking station. There weren't any real instructions for doing most of this sorta stuff in the box. I do machine was the mop pads (in a Samsung drawer washer) and rinse out the dust filters to extend their use. Don't use any fabric softener with the microfiber pads. Try not to over dry the pads in the dryer, best to exchange pads and let them dry normally. Be careful of the slim clear plastic door in Roomba's dust bin, easy to wash out without noticing. I still really find this Roomba extremely useful and continue to recommend it to those that will take time to use and maintain it properly. The iOS apps gets updates, it still needs a few features to make it of "high quality", but for now its useable enough. Lastly, cleaning the "beater brush" would be far easier if the ends slide out and would allow the tangled hair on the ends to be just easily pulled out. Seems like such a simple and obvious solution, it is a pain to have to pull apart and remove the bound hairs when doing general maintenance. This is something iRobot could fix and improve the user experience a great deal since this is a user serviceable part that needs replacing periodically. I suppose this is my biggest complaint. But, far from a deal breaker. More of a WTF, why didn't you just let the ends of the roller brush pull out just make plucking the hair out super easy? For now my wife just makes me do it, actually I do all of it. :-) Read more

This new model from iRobot has proven to be a major step up from my previous unit from another brand in the same price range. It does a fantastic job cleaning up my apartment while I'm stuck worrying about other busy life things. It's truly a set it and forget it type device and that's what I need most. I have a two bedroom apartment with 2 small dogs. Most of our floors are either deep piley carpets or smooth white tiles, with a few area rugs here and there. This unit handles them all... thanks to it's mapping features which know when to transition from it's powerful but not offensively loud vacuum to it's really cool dual mop feature to leave my tile floors squeaky clean as to where I'd feel comfortable eating a piece of dropped sushi without worrying about the 5 second rule. (don't tell the wife I did that). The extendable mop pad feature is also very cool - a really innovative idea that makes sure the corners of the room as just as clean, something my other unit did not succeed at. The obstacle detection/camera system seems to work great as well. Long gone are the days of having to prep my room by picking things up off the floor and balancing them on my couches or counters. Avoiding things like wires and my latest amazon deliveries really helps alleviate the burden of having to clean before cleaning. I do still recommend you do a generally good job of organizing your room if you want it to be able to get into certain corners and areas, but it's smart enough to figure out whatever setup you have and this just boils down to good ol' feng shui decluttering. The all in one dock is also a major upgrade. It is quite tall, which works perfectly for our setup as the smaller footprint fits better in my room then previous short and stubby versions and the large refill bins allow me to set it and forget it for a far longer amount of time in between actually having to interact with the unit. Overall, I am super happy with this unit and look forward to many more years of coming home to a clean house before I go mess it all up again. Read more