The big Amazon takeover may have fallen through but that hasn’t stopped iRobot in its tracks. The OG robot vacuum cleaner brand has just unveiled its latest flagship: the iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max.
Taking a lot from last years top dog – the Roomba Combo j9+ – the 10 Max adds a couple of the key missing features from that to the mix.
Most notably, it can clean and dry its own mop thanks to the new Auto Wash Dock; which iRobot has dubbed the brand’s first-ever multifunction dock.
There’s no hot air or hot water for cleaning, as per a raft of Chinese-based rivals, but we’re assured that the airflow on the new dock will be enough to dry the mopping pad and stop it from stinking up the joint.
Like the j9+, the new Roomba Combo 10 Max uses the Auto-Retract Mopping System arm, designed to make sure that your carpets stay dry.
High-end rivals such as the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra and the Eufy X10 Pro Omni lift up their mopping units a few millimetres in order to keep a distance from your carpets and rugs but the Combo 10 Max goes full Robot Wars in its quest to maintain carpet dryness.
The result is a simplified cleaning cycle – one that doesn’t involve you manually separating the vacuuming and mopping portions.
Another big addition to the Roomba mix is that the 10 Max is Matter compatible. Not that that really means a great deal right now.
Despite Matter 1.2 adding robot vacuum cleaners to the mix back in October last year, there’s still no little support for it from the main players driving the Matter smart home standard. In fact, it’s only Samsung’s SmartThings that has officially rolled out Matter 1.2 support so far.
iOS 18 will add Matter support for robo cleaners when it goes live later this year.
Powered by iRobot OS, the big new addition to 10 Max in terms of software is Enhanced Dirt Detect, which uses the device’s camera to pinpoint dirt on the floor and prioritize rooms that require the most cleaning.
iRobot OS is also capable of recognizing more than 80 objects including cat litter boxes, toilet bowls, dishwashers, cables, clothes, shoes, backpacks, pet bowls and pet toys. Backed by iRobot’s P.O.O.P promise, the Roomba 10 Max also avoids pet poop.
Like iRobot machines that have come before, the 10 Max is compatible with the holy trinity of voice assistants: Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri.
Priced at $1,399 Stateside and £1,499 in the UK, pre-orders are open now. If you like in the UK, iRobot are offering £200 off for anyone pre-ordering this month, using the code INTRO10MAX.
