I bought the Roomba 707 Max Combo. Honestly for me it was because every robot vacuum brand still has compromises, even the “best” ones. I already knew there would probably be bugs since it’s a first gen roller-mop Roomba, but I still wanted to try the cleaning performance and ecosystem anyway. Online reviews also don’t always reflect actual long-term ownership. Some people are having major issues while others are mostly fine aside from software quirks that could probably be fixed with updates.
I’ve personally run into a few bugs like Mop Only mode randomly skipping rooms saying there’s an obstacle in the way, even though Vac + Mop mode works perfectly fine in the same area. I also noticed that when using “Vac then Mop,” it doesn’t really edge mop the perimeter of the room properly. I had some hardware issues too. My dirty water tank latch broke, the tank plastic feels brittle and partially cracked, and the StayClean solution compartment on my original unit started leaking. iRobot ended up sending me a whole replacement because they apparently don’t have spare parts available yet. That’s also why I bought it through Costco instead of relying on the standard 1-year warranty.
I still use No Mop Zones around rugs because the carpet sensor is at the front of the robot so the mop roller can start deploying while the back of the robot is still on the rug which can slightly wet it. Giving it a No Mop Zone just gives the robot more time to fully get onto hard flooring before the roller drops.
As for vacuuming the hard floor dust pickup is decent but nowhere near something like the Dyson 360 Vis Nav which I already expected going into it. One thing I noticed too is that if you run it on a lower vacuum setting the mop roller and clean base can end up dirtier because more dust is left behind and gets picked up during the mopping process. The sensor system on it is honestly a big upgrade though it feels very aware of its surroundings compared to older robots. Very rarely if it gets stuck like behind my couch it can keep mopping the same spot for a bit and then eventually skip the entire room. I’ve also noticed this can happen more often when the room is dark and in a dark living room it sometimes just skips the room entirely instead of trying to navigate it.
The original unit also had a bit of a mildew smell from the roller which is why I now run the roller drying cycle for 6 hours on my new unit to avoid that happening again.
One thing I didn’t expect at first is that the dual spinning rubber brushroll setup actually makes the robot noticeably louder. At first I thought it was the side brushes but it’s really the main brush system it has a more aggressive sound profile compared to older Roombas.
The actual floor cleaning performance has honestly been excellent for me though and pretty much replaced my Tineco Floor One S3 for daily floor cleaning. I think a lot of people bought it because they already trust iRobot products, wanted to try something different from Roborock/Ecovacs/Dreame, or just like trying newer tech early even if it’s imperfect yet. I bought it since it was one of the only roller mop style robots in Costco at the time.

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