iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review

iRobot is the original maker of robotic vacuums – to the point where the term “Roomba” has almost become synonymous with the robotic vacuum in general. The Roomba Combo 10 Max is one of two models at the top of the Roomba lineup, offering iRobot’s four-stage cleaning system mopping, and auto-emptying and mop-cleaning features. A strong name, however, isn’t enough to make for a great product. Is the iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max one of the best robot vacuums, or should you spend that cash on a competitor?

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Price and availability

The iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max is available right now from the iRobot website, or participating retailers like Amazon. The vacuum has a list price of $1,399.99, however at the time of this writing it was available for $999.99.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Design

The overall design of the Roomba Combo 10 Max isn’t necessarily that unique or different from others, but it’s still a good-looking unit, with some unique design touches. Most of the unit is as you would expect. The AutoWash dock has a little door on the front that opens up to reveal the clean water tank, dirty water tank, and main dustbit. The tanks are a little smaller than some others, though. The clean water tank holds around 2L of water – compared to the Roborock Qrevo Curv which holds 2.4L. Not a huge deal, but it still means you’re likely to have to refill the Roomba’s tank more often.

I do like the matte black color-scheme on offer by the dock, though. It’s still made mostly from plastic, but it looks a little more premium than the glossy plastic docks that come with others, plus it blends in a little better.

The vacuum itself is relatively slim, which should help it clean under furniture. To help even more, there’s no LiDAR scanner on the top, unlike vacuums from other brands. This helps slim down the robot, but there’s a major tradeoff – the vacuum instead has to rely on the camera, coupled with an LED headlight, to detect obstacles and other items. It also means that it’ll take longer to map your floor – as it can’t necessarily gauge distance just from the camera, like a LiDAR-based system can.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the design of the vacuum is the mop, which is lowered by two arms from the top of the vacuum, rather than being raised or lowered a few centimeters from the bottom. This design was first introduced in the Roomba j9+, and is an interesting way to avoid the mop pad still dragging along taller carpet, though it won’t really have much of an impact for those who have shorter carpet or no carpet.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Performance and test results

Overall test results

Overall, the iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max’s cleaning performance was good, picking up most of the dirt in a room — though we did find that it would often leave behind dust in what should have been an easy clean. It was also quite loud – way too loud to watch TV while it was cleaning, unlike many other modern vacuums that are able to remain relatively quiet. For example, I measured a volume of 65dB from six feet away in normal suction mode, and 66dB in at high suction. The Roborock Qrevo Curv, by comparison, measured 54dB at medium suction, and 61dB at high suction.

Part of the issue related to vacuuming performance also seems to have to do with the brush design, especially when it comes to larger, light objects, like Cheerios. Instead of the brush pushing objects into the dustbin, the vacuum often simply flung them across the floor. I now have at least a few Cheerios under my fridge, and when cleaning on the rug, the result was a number of Cheerios simply catapulted off the rug, where the vacuum wasn’t told to clean, or to an area that had already been cleaned.

One way to partially get around this is to choose the option for two cleaning passes, instead of one – but that takes twice as long with an already slow product. The Cheerios that it did pick up clogged the vacuum’s dustbin – so I had to manually clear the dustbin of debris before the vacuum would do anything else. That was annoying – debris the size of Cheerios isn’t abnormal, and I’ve never had any other vacuum clog up with Cheerios.

The vacuum performed relatively well in a pet hair test, though. It was able to clean up 100% of the pet hair on a hard floor, which is obviously excellent. It also cleaned 95% of the hair on carpet, which is also very good – though not quite as good as some others, like the Roomba s9+, which is still our top pick among the best robot vacuums for pet hair.

Combined cleaning performance scores

The iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max can be used in vacuum-only mode, mop mode, or a combined mode. You can choose from three suction modes for the vacuum, and three liquid amounts for mopping – plus the vacuum has the SmartScrub mode that’s aimed at better cleaning floors while mopping.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Mopping performance

While at first glance it seems like the Roomba Combo 10 Max offers efficient and effective mopping, ultimately its mopping performance is not as effective as the best robot mops. It can handle basic day-to-day mopping and cleaning perfectly fine, but when faced with actual messes, it falters. That's despite the vacuum's so-called SmartScrub mode, which involves the RoboVac rocking back and forth on messes to clean them better.

The main issue involves even smaller sticky spills like BBQ sauce. Just a few drops of BBQ sauce resulted in the vacuum dragging sticky water across the kitchen floor. The kitchen looked clean, but as soon as I walked on it, I noticed my shoes sticking to the ground.

On top of the mopping not being very effective, it also takes quite a while, especially when you use Smart Scrub mode. I don't necessarily mind when robotic vacuums take a long time to clean, as I usually schedule them when I'm going to be gone for a while or at night if they're quiet enough. But if they do take a long time, I certainly expect the cleaning to be effective.

Again, for basic scheduled mopping, like the kind of mopping you might want to do once per week just to freshen up the floors, the vacuum handles things perfectly fine. However, for more challenging mopping scenarios, you'll likely want to stick with manual mopping or simply buy another robotic vacuum.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Setup, app, and mapping

The vacuum, with the included dock, arrives in a relatively heavy box. Thankfully, everything is more or less assembled – something to note, as you might assume you have to insert filters and brushes when you first unbox everything. Those floating filters and brushes, thankfully, are spare, though that wasn’t made very clear.

To set everything up, you’ll plug the dock into a power outlet, attach the dock’s ramp to the front of the dock, and simply push the vacuum into place in the dock. You’ll then open up the app, and either create an account or sign into your existing one. Follow the on-screen instructions to add a new product, and you should be good to go. I did encounter a few bugs during the setup process though. For example, the app failed to load nearby Wi-Fi networks – so I had to force-close the app and start the setup process again. The second time around, it found nearby networks and I was able to connect it to my network.

After the vacuum was set up, its first order of business was to create a map. It did so relatively quietly, however it was much less careful than the Roborock Qrevo Curv. The Roborock vacuum certainly ran into obstacles during mapping, but it slowed down on approach and recognized obstacles as obstacles. The Roomba did no such thing, running full speed into obstacles multiple times, and getting itself stuck on the foot of a bar stool – something that the Qrevo Curv didn’t do. If you have any priceless decorations placed precariously on a table or stool, you may want to move them before mapping – this vacuum is simply clumsy.

The lack of LiDAR system also meant that the vacuum was very slow in mapping even a smaller space. It took 30 minutes to map just my living room and kitchen, and I by no means have a huge living room or kitchen.

After the mapping process was complete, however, I was pleasantly surprised with the map it created. It was able to recognize the living room and kitchen separately and label them as such, and identify where carpet was located as opposed to hard floors.

The app in general is well-designed, and I prefer it to the Roborock app that I use most of the time in my day-to-day life. That’s largely because of the “My Products” screen, which is the main screen that you’ll use and shows a solid selection of information about the vacuum, like battery level, clean water level, and dirty water level, individually for the dock and the vacuum itself. You can also set up “Favorite” routines, which can be to clean certain areas of your home, and using certain settings. And, you can set cleaning schedules.

From this main screen, you can also jump straight into your map, where you can tweak the map to include “keep out zones,” divide rooms, and so on. And, you can tap the “new job” button for a quick clean of a specific room, or the entire floor. While I did have to get used to where everything was coming from using the Roborock app, I got there relatively quickly and I like how much information, and how many controls, are packed into one screen, without getting confusing.

The vacuum supports Google Home and Amazon Alexa, though only with basic settings and voice controls. It also supports Siri Shortcuts, though you won’t be able to use it with Apple HomeKit.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max review: Verdict

The iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max isn’t necessarily a bad product, but it has tough competition in its price range – competition that really offers better value. It did a decent job at most vacuuming tasks, however it also left behind dirt when other vacuums wouldn’t have. Additionally, the vacuum is slower and clumsier than others I’ve tested, largely due to its camera approach instead of a LiDAR system.

Instead of the Roomba Combo 10 Max, those looking for among the best robotic vacuums out there should go for the Shark Power Detect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum. Alternatively, it's also worth considering the Roborock Qrevo Curv for excellent mopping performance, though that model is a little more expensive. Ironically, after each test with the Roomba Combo 10 Max, the Qrevo Curv is the vacuum I sent in to clean up everything that the Roomba couldn’t handle – and it took care of those tasks excellently.