Roomba 505 Plus Combo Review
I think back to the Sharper Image store, it was the first time I saw an iRobot Roomba. The technology was new and exciting, even if the robot was effectively a ping pong machine that inspired to clean all your floors. Of course, I still had to have one and it was my first taste of what a robot future might envision.
Everyone raved about thew first Roomba and it gave iRobot what appeared to be a bright future. The erratic behaviour lead way to more sensors, cameras, and software improvements that created a more thoughtful approach to cleaning your floors. I owned the last generation i5 vacuum cleaner and it was quite effective in cleaning. However, I was missing one thing, could a robot also mop my floors?
Roomba had released a separate mopping robot which required a separate dock. It also released a combo vacuum robot that required manually filling its built-in water tank.
The Roomba 505 Plus Combo solved these problems by creating a dock that not only would store debris and dust for the vacuum but also a fresh and dirty water tank. It also used LiDAR to map your space, which is more accurate than the previous camera based systems.
So has iRobot created the perfect floor cleaning robot? Competitors have jumped into this space. They claims they have better robots at better price points. iRobot has seen sales drop as consumers have been happy with the robots already in their home. Alternatives were also available that added LiDAR before iRobot could match that features.
Roomba 505 Plus Combo
Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Released: 23 March 2025
The Roomba 505 Plus Combo is the answer to those competitors and as a loyal consumer, it did answer what I was looking for in terms of features that would make me consider upgrading.
It does excel in the added mopping features. It will avoid carpets and you can map mop only zones which works reliably due to the new LiDAR. Roomba even has a new app that lets you follow your robot in real time, no more waiting for its cleaning report be uploaded. The robot will vacuum in clean straight overlapping lines and when it mops it will do a y shaped cleaning pattern that helps it scrub.
However, it does have its drawbacks. The LiDAR seems like a quick add-on stuck on top of the robot which makes it taller. As such, it won’t go under my coffee table like my previous i5. iRobot has now announced a 515 Plus Combo that is shorter and solves this concern. Even worse though, iRobot thought is necessary to removed a feature was a standard part of its excellent carpet cleaning abilities. It’s been in every generation until now, the dual brushes that rolled in opposite directions to help fling debris into the bin. The 505 has a single rubber brush that actively struggles with debris. While it does pick up the debris, it tends to get stuck in the brush assembly rather than binning the debris. This wouldn’t be noticed except for the excessive noice of cat food debris grinding the assembly and causing me to manually clean a robot that should be automated.
Conclusion
In so many ways the iRobot Roomba 505 Plus Combo is an upgrade over my previous i5 robot vacuum cleaner. I can now have my floors mopped in addition to my previous scheduled vacuuming that kept my floors reasonably clean. The mopping isn’t perfect and won’t clean up stubborn messes but will keep your floors fresh. I like that I don’t need to consistently add clean water, just like how my i5 was my first vacuum with a dock that allowed the robot to empty its bin. However, iRobot did remove features such as the dual brushes found in every prior generation and the higher end 705. In addition while the LiDAR is amazing, the added height is a negative. The overall results is that instead of an excellent upgrade it is a mixed upgrade. The next generation 515 will solve some of these concerns but it looks like the dual brushes are gone for good, for shame.
