Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock Review – Automation At Its Finest

This year has been a great year for home cleaning automation. Many manufacturers have showcased their latest and greatest robot vacuums with new sensors, intuitive apps, and many other smart features to make your life easier and cleaner.

The Roomba Combo 10 Max robot + AutoWash dock by iRobot is their most powerful cleaning robot yet and it’s a great product to close the year. Roomba Combo 10 Max can both vacuum and mop, self-empty its bin, wash and dry its own mop, and even has intelligent features to know which areas usually get dirty and detect obstacles smartly.

Packagin Contents and Unboxing

Setup

Setting up is pretty easy with the app and only takes a few minutes. It pairs itself with the app and then connects to your home network. The docking station comes with separate dirty and clean water tanks, though note that the clean water tank will need to be refilled more frequently compared to similar robot vacuum + mop combinations I’ve reviewed (due to the smaller tank size).

When you first set it all up, the bot requires a good mapping of your home before you can start cleaning. It mapped the home where I use for testing perfectly and even automatically identified different rooms (Living Room, Two Bedrooms, and a Bathroom). Your experience may vary, especially if you live in a bigger house with many different rooms like a Study or Entertainment Area. It takes a while to map but the wait is worth it and you only need to do this once anyway.

These rooms can easily be edited/renamed and you can adjust the dividers to ensure accuracy. Setting these correctly makes it easier when you want to clean specific rooms in the future.

As you can see from the map, the bot is also sophisticated enough to be able to differentiate between carpeted and non-carpeted area.

Design and Features

To start cleaning, you can use either the app or your favourite voice assistant like Apple Siri. The app offers extensive control options: clean room by room, multiple rooms, or the whole house. You can choose between vacuum-only, mop-only, or both functions. Each room’s settings can be customised with specific suction power, liquid amount, and cleaning passes.

You can then schedule the job or mark it as a favourite for the future. The amount of configurations make it really customisable so you can make your own decisions on what to clean, when, and where. But if you don’t like the hassle, you can just set it to clean everything and that is fine too.

The robot’s enhanced camera recognition and DirtDetect technology help it identify dirt effectively. When it detects especially dirty areas, it automatically repeats cleaning passes. While iRobot claims it can detect pet waste, I noticed during testing that smaller obstacles like books or dangling cables can sometimes be missed (a common issue with most robot vacuums). My son’s Monster Truck got pushed as well even though I’ve set the Careful Drive on (it never bangs on a wall or furniture though).

What’s interesting is how the robot reports obstacles after each cleaning session. Through the app, you can review all the obstacles it encountered and decide whether they’re temporary or should be permanently avoided. This learning process makes the bot increasingly smarter over time. Don’t worry about privacy – the robot requires explicit permission before taking any snapshots.

The mopping function performs well on floor tiles, using an adjustable amount of water through the app settings. The SmartScrub feature is particularly impressive, making the bot move forward and backward multiple times over messier spots, similar to human mopping patterns.

What sets the Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot apart is its ability to lift its mop when it detects carpet. Unlike other vacuum robots that can only lift their mops to certain heights, this one works with carpets of any thickness.

Here’s how it all works.

The cleaning process is quite clever: in vacuum and mop mode, it first vacuums all carpets and rugs in a room, then moves to hard floor spaces where it lowers its mopping pad to simultaneously vacuum and mop. Between rooms, it automatically lifts the mopping pad. The Dirt Detective feature learns from previous cleaning runs to prioritise rooms that typically need more attention.

I tested its intelligence by intentionally asking it to mop bedroom areas that only contained carpet. The robot went out of the dock, waited for a bit, and then decided to return to the dock. The app notification mentioned that the “Roomba Combo ended its job but wasn’t able to clean everywhere you asked it to”. While the error message could be more specific, it’s reassuring that the robot won’t attempt to mop carpeted areas.

After completing its tasks, the robot returns to the docking station where it:

• Has its mops dried while charging for the next session
• Empties its internal bin (note: this process is quite loud, similar to other self-emptying robots)
• Gets its mop washed, with dirty water transferred to the dock’s tank
• Replenishes cleaning liquid from the clean water tank

Also note that should the bin in the robot gets full or need to charge, it will go back by itself to the dock and then continue the session after. Automation at its finest here.

iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock Review Conclusion

The Roomba Combo 10 Max represents a significant step forward in robot vacuum technology. Its ability to handle both vacuuming and mopping effectively, combined with intelligent features like carpet detection and obstacle avoidance, makes it a standout choice for automated home cleaning. While the water tank capacity could be larger and some error messages could be clearer, these are minor issues compared to its overall impressive performance and convenience. Not to mention that the Roomba Combo 10 Max will work on all kinds of carpets of any size and thickness.

The smart mapping, customisable cleaning options, and self-maintaining features make this an excellent choice for busy households looking for effective, hands-off floor cleaning. Despite being on the premium end of the market, its performance and features might justify the investment for those seeking a truly automated cleaning solution. The Roomba Combo 10 Max is available at shopirobot.com.au at A$2,199 RRP.

Disclosure: Roomba Combo 10 Max review sample was supplied for reviewing by iRobot