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iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo: two-minute evaluation
The Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo seems like a missed alternative given iRobot’s latest restructuring and slew of recent upgraded ground bots. The distinctive mud compactor is an intriguing idea – the bot homes an outsized inside dustbin with a motorized paddle that compresses all particles, theoretically negating the necessity for a big self-emptying dustbin dock. Nonetheless, in observe it is messy to cope with and in the end impractical, particularly if in case you have shedding pets within the house.
Granted, the 205’s suction efficiency is suitable sufficient – though not up there with what you’d get with one of many best robot vacuum available on the market – its halfhearted mopping system is extraordinarily outdated and when the mop pad is fitted, it prevents the robotic from traversing rugs or carpet. The 205 can be a a lot noisier machine than every other robotic vacuum cleaner I’ve up to now reviewed. And whereas its newly-adopted LiDAR navigation is clearly higher than the corporate’s earlier V-SLAM camera-based incarnations, it additionally feels erratic and unsophisticated, at the very least when in comparison with different LiDAR techniques.
I was an enormous fan of iRobot merchandise however I am completely dumbfounded by how poorly its newest machines have behaved. The Roomba Combo 10 Max was largely disappointing however I truly suppose that the Roomba 205 is worse. It is simply so irritating to make use of and requires an excessive amount of intervention from the consumer. I want I might advocate this mannequin but it surely simply would not carry out as you’d anticipate for a robotic vacuum cleaner within the yr 2025.
Roomba 205 DustCompactor evaluation: worth & availability
- Record worth: $469.99 / £399
- Launch date: March 2025
- Availability: Broadly, together with US and UK
With an inventory worth of $469.99 within the US and £399 within the UK, the iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo sits in the direction of the highest of the mid-range worth bracket. Be aware that at time of writing, there is a $170 low cost within the US.
Given all of the peculiarities with this machine, when you do not thoughts making slightly more room for a easy, small-bodied, self-emptying dock in your house, I’d advocate doing a little analysis on different fashions in the identical worth vary. For example, the Roborock Q5 Pro+ has an inventory worth of $699.99 / £499.99 however can usually be picked up for the same worth to the Roomba 205, and gives way more dependable efficiency.
Alternatively, if a small dock is the precedence and you are not coping with big quantities of mud, it may very well be price contemplating a mannequin with out mud compression. There are a variety of cheaper choices on this class, for instance, the Dreame D9 Max Gen 2, which prices $299.99 / £219 at checklist worth and impressed our reviewer.
In the event you’re hellbent on going for the Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo merely due to its distinctive bin system, by all means go forward. However ensure that your private home is on the smaller facet and with no rugs or carpet to dam its path when the mopping pad is hooked up.
- Worth for cash rating: 2.5 out of 5
Roomba 205 DustCompactor specs
|
Max suction: |
Not acknowledged |
|
Robotic dimension: |
14 x 14.1in / 35.9 x 35.8cm |
|
Robotic top: |
4in / 10.1cm |
|
Dock dimensions (W x D x H): |
3.5 x 5.9 x 5.3in / 9 x 15 x 13.5cm |
|
Mud bin quantity (onboard): |
~ 1.5L |
|
Water tank quantity: |
0.25L |
|
Base sort: |
Cost solely |
|
Max noise degree: |
78dB at 5ft |
Roomba 205 DustCompactor evaluation: design
- Hybrid robotic vacuum and mop with inside mud compression
- Compact, charge-only dock that refuses to remain put
- Just one rubber curler quite than iRobot’s normal double rollers
Given the monetary troubles which have besieged US model iRobot in the course of the previous few years, it is good to see that the corporate has since restructured itself and developed a brand new vary of robotic vacs and mops solely from the bottom up. Nonetheless, in design phrases, I really feel that the Roomba 205 is a pale shadow of its forebears just like the Roomba ‘i’ and ‘j’ collection, and particularly the superb S9+ (for my cash, by far and away the very best robotic the corporate ever made).
The USP for the Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo I am reviewing right here is that it is outfitted with an additional giant onboard dustbin (about 1.5 liters) with an inside motorized plastic paddle that swings forwards and backwards to compact all detritus in the direction of the again of the bin, thereby creating more room for subsequent cleansing classes. Which means it could supply a big mud capability with out the necessity to create space for a big auto-empty dock.
iRobot states a interval of about 60 days earlier than the bin wants emptying however I can see it filling up with mud and hair inside per week or so if in case you have shedding pets within the house (this isn’t one to contemplate when you’re on the hunt for the best robot vacuum for pet hair). On the plus facet, you’ll by no means want to purchase any further mud luggage.
From an aesthetics viewpoint, the 205’s dock is nearly invisible in a room so I can see the enchantment of a back-to-basics method like this. Nonetheless, from my assessments I’ve discovered that emptying the bin myself has been fairly messy and never particularly nice (I am going to get into this extra within the Efficiency part).
Personally, I am undecided such an innovation is important, both. The are fashions available on the market which have petite, unobtrusive self-empty docks outfitted with giant dustbin luggage – I would fortunately sacrifice these few extra inches of floorspace for the relative ease of this setup.
One other downside of iRobot’s answer is that the 205’s titchy dock is so gentle in weight that it shifts round when the robotic is docking and this usually causes the robotic’s contacts to fail to attach with the dock. It is even worse when the dock is positioned on carpet – I attempted this the primary time I used the 205 and it did not dock in any respect; the charging base merely refused to remain put.
Let’s check out the unit itself. The Roomba 205 is roughly the identical width as most robotic vacs however a bit taller, which suggests it may not attain below some low furnishings.
Flip it over and you may discover that the 205 has just one rubber curler brush, which is a bit unusual contemplating that iRobot invented the dual curler brush that so many high-end robotic vacs use today. I am undecided why, however this curler brush tends to clatter throughout my arduous picket flooring and jitter over one in every of my Persian-style rugs as if it have been on a corrugated floor, which is distinctly annoying.
iRobot would not checklist any of its robots’ suction energy in Pascals so it is troublesome to inform how highly effective it’s compared to different bots available on the market. However, hey, you’ll be able to take it from iRobot that it is ‘70x the suction of the older 600 collection’, no matter meaning. By the way, you get three ranges of suction energy with this unit – Gentle, Regular and Deep.
The 205 additionally comes with the compulsory facet spinning brush for flinging wayward particles alongside edges into the trail of its suction. Nonetheless, in contrast to many more moderen (and maybe pricier) robovacs with facet brushes that routinely articulate outwards when touring alongside edges and in corners, the 205’s facet brush is firmly mounted in place.
The 205 DustCompactor’s mopping system contains a easy mop pad with its personal 250ml water container above it. The consumer takes cost of filling the tank and washing the pad – the dock will not assist with this, as is the case with some bots.
For mopping, the robotic will merely drag the pad alongside the ground. You may set the quantity of water that is allotted however simply do not anticipate any miracles, particularly in the case of deep stain elimination. This sort of primary mopping setup is not uncommon setup for an inexpensive robovac, and for common day-to-day ground cleansing it does go some muster.
Me? I’ve eliminated it solely as a result of I’ve since found that the robotic refuses to cross rugs or carpet if the mopping pad is hooked up, however extra on that within the Efficiency chapter.
Provided that iRobot has refused for years to incorporate LiDAR as a part of its navigation system, even when each different producer and their canine have, it is refreshing to notice that the corporate has ultimately seen match to incorporate LiDAR navigation on the 205.
Nonetheless, whereas most bots have their LiDAR turret in a raised puck their high floor, to permit a full 360-degree view, right here iRobot has hidden it behind a slender slot simply above the digital camera, thus proscribing the view to round 180 levels. Fortunately the digital camera gives backup, though it is not AI enabled like so many fashions today.
Setup
The iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo arrives in a small field containing the robotic, its tiny charging dock, a clip-on facet brush and rear mop mount. Preliminary setup was comparatively straightforward however solely as soon as I would found that the outdated iRobot Residence app is not appropriate with this mannequin, so I downloaded the newly upgraded Roomba Residence app as a substitute.
All went in line with plan till it related to my Wi-Fi after which proceeded to routinely obtain the newest firmware replace. That is regular, I assumed, however then a warning popped up saying that ‘Roomba is having some hassle updating and to ensure Rosie (Rosie?) is docked with an excellent Wi-Fi connection’.
‘Rosie’ was docked and the web was advantageous so I waited some time, then obtained impatient and restarted it. It sprang to life once more and appeared it was able to work, so I commanded it to and it proceeded to spin spherical on its dock for a few minute, entangling itself by itself energy cable.
I took it off the dock and positioned it on the ground, whereby it began spinning once more. At this level I assumed I would been handed a dud so I took it to a unique space downstairs, plugged it in and left it to totally cost. Lo and behold, after I launched the app once more, it confirmed the ‘begin mapping’ display screen which suggests it was updating all alongside, solely with none icons or progress bars to inform me so.
Anyway, I tapped the mapping button and it proceeded to map my complete ground plan effectively and – as a result of the curler brush was turned off – with out getting caught on any rugs. The upshot of all that is that when you resolve to purchase a Roomba 205, simply be affected person and let it absolutely cost and full its first firmware replace, even when it says it is having hassle connecting, earlier than attempting to request any cleansing.
iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo evaluation: efficiency
- First rate vacuuming however emptying is messy
- Woeful mopping and will not journey over carpet with mop hooked up
- Under common impediment avoidance
After a complicated setup, the 205 began behaving as anticipated and mapped my open-planned, four-room downstairs space surprisingly rapidly, even when it did create 9 totally different rooms that I needed to merge within the app. That is widespread with most robotic vacs when mapping open-plan environments although it has to stated that 9 divisions is a file for me.
Additionally, for a LiDAR-equipped robotic, the element of its mapping within the app is lamentable and method behind the likes of Roborock, which shows each nook and cranny as a substitute of only a primary overview of 1’s ground plan.
Since it has been operating, the 205’s LiDAR-based navigation has been largely okay although I’ve had one or two points the place it has both obtained caught whereas attempting to cross a free rug – a standard challenge with some fashions – or out of the blue stopped lifeless subsequent to a kitchen cabinet for no obvious cause. With most different robotic vacuum I’ve examined, I’ve discovered their working strategies to a point, however this mannequin’s navigation course of stays largely a thriller to me.
Impediment avoidance
As talked about above, the Roomba 205’s LiDAR is tucked below a slotted housing so it would not seem to present the robotic a full 360–diploma view. There’s a digital camera on the entrance, nonetheless, and this appears to assist with its impediment avoidance. In my check I positioned the same old assortment of canine toys in entrance of it, plus the compulsory cellphone cable. It rigorously averted the primary two giant toys however merely snow-ploughed all of the others. As anticipated, it additionally rode over the cellphone cable after which dragged it alongside behind it for some time.
Within the pantheon of impediment avoidance, the Roomba 205 is not the worst I’ve seen but it surely’s not that nice both, and clearly not a machine to have operating round if in case you have (for instance) a non-house educated pet within the house.
Vacuum efficiency
Let’s check out the vacuuming efficiency. There are few niggles to notice up high. Firstly, as famous above, the Roomba 205’s rubber curler made fairly a racket because it trundled throughout my picket arduous flooring. However maybe worse than that was the monotonous high-pitched sound of the suction motor, which was clearly audible from meters away. I measured the sound waves at a median 78dB from 5 ft away and at an annoyingly high-pitched frequency of 660Hz.
Apart from the noise points, the facet sweeping brush fell off twice throughout my assessments, regardless of being firmly related earlier than setting off.
To get an goal very best of this bot’s suction powers, I ran TechRadar’s normal vacuuming assessments. This concerned sprinkling particles of various sizes – particularly, flour, muesli and rice – on the ground and assessing how effectively the robotic picked it up. Right here, the Roomba 205 was fairly respectable, although it did depart traces of flour within the cracks.
Nonetheless, after I later went to the dock to seize a photograph of the robotic returning after a typical cleansing session, I observed a small scattering of rice and muesli that it had deposited in entrance of the dock from its earlier cleansing check, which suggests it by no means absolutely sucked all of the rice and muesli into its bin and as a substitute merely held a few of it in its brush housing. This anomaly hasn’t repeated itself on subsequent assessments, so hopefully it was only a glitch.
I then proceeded to run the identical assessments on carpet. This proved to be fairly a problem, as a result of though the app has a menu merchandise referred to as ‘furnishings and zones’ below the heading ‘routines’, nothing occurs whenever you faucet it. What it ought to do is present an editable sq. that may be expanded or contracted over a particular cleansing space.
Ultimately I opted to pick ‘spot clear’ which was equally difficult as a result of the map for every room may be very primary and can’t be expanded so it takes trial and error to search out the precise spot that pertains to a particular space. Anyway, I am happy – certainly stunned – to report that the 205 collected all proof of rice and muesli although, like different robots I’ve examined utilizing this technique, it did depart some flour marks behind.
Mud compactor efficiency
Transferring on to the weird bin system. Whereas the Compactor’s paddle does certainly push all detritus to the outer edges of the bin, I discovered that emptying it has been fairly messy and never particularly nice.
Firstly, the lid of the robotic’s bin would not open wherever close to vast sufficient, so I could not discover a sensible answer for emptying its dusty and bushy contents into my average-sized Brabantia kitchen bin with out a number of the contents spilling all around the ground. Worse, my mannequin has a sticky bin latch so I’ve needed to be doubly cautious when attempting to open the bin lest its contents find yourself all around the ground and my clothes.
iRobot states ‘as much as 60 days’ of cleansing earlier than the dustbin requires emptying however my check mannequin required emptying after simply eight days of vacuuming. I ought to add that I’ve two Labradors and two cats that recurrently shed hair and my house can be surrounded by woodland and farm fields so it is dustier than most city environments.
Mopping efficiency
Onto the mopping. First issues first: if in case you have any rugs or carpet dividing your arduous flooring, this can be the final hybrid robotic you need, as a result of it won’t traverse any rug or carpet when the mopping pad is fitted. I first thought that it was the small protruding lip on the backside of the mop mount that was catching on my rugs but it surely transpires that the unit has a carpet sensor on board that, in my case, refused to permit the robotic to proceed the second the entrance half of the robotic touched the rug.
It did do its darnedest to go over the rug en path to the arduous ground kitchen, however after 10 minutes of attempting at each conceivable angle, it will definitely introduced that it was unable to proceed cleansing earlier than returning to the dock, having not carried out the assigned mopping process. I am unable to consider that I am the one family on the planet with rugs scattered over arduous flooring however what I do know is that, for me, this mannequin has proved to be as ineffective as a chocolate teapot in the case of full family cleansing with none human interjection.
Anyway, having did not journey over my rugs, I resorted to carrying the bot to the kitchen so it might carry out a spot clear on a spill of milk. I needed to make a number of makes an attempt at this as a result of, as I had found for the carpet vacuuming check, the app’s map is so unrefined that it is nearly unimaginable to pick a particular cleansing spot. Anyway, I finally spilled some milk in its path and it duly soaked up the milk leaving no indicators of it. However then I anticipated that – very like I would anticipate a single swipe with a paper towel to do the identical factor.
In its favor, it did additionally mop the remainder of the realm fairly successfully, leaving solely a humid swathe that dried up rapidly. I then needed to decide the robotic up once more and place it close to its dock so it might get again to charging.
It is commonplace for a funds robotic vacuum to have this type of easy mopping setup (not together with the refusal to go over carpet – that’s very uncommon). Extra superior bots may have pads that vibrate, rotate or press right down to dislodge filth, however you would possibly have to pay slightly extra for this type of setup.
- Efficiency rating: 2.5 out of 5
iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo evaluation: app
- New app for this present vary of Roombas
- Very primary with incomplete menus and unrefined maps
- Irritating and gradual to make use of
The brand new iRobot Residence app was just lately launched as a alternative for the older app that is now been renamed iRobot (Traditional). Having used it extensively in the course of the previous week I can report that there is lots of work to be completed on making this app extra user-friendly. Firstly, it is gradual to ship instructions to the Roomba 205 and a few consumer inputs trigger a spinning cog wheel to pop up on display screen whereas it sends its sign.
Maybe I am too used to Roborock’s absolutely complete app however I discovered the iRobot Residence app to be too simplistic and, at occasions, very irritating to make use of. For example, the ground plan maps it creates are so primary it is troublesome to inform the place one room ends and one other begins. Additionally, its Spot Clear operate is nearly unimaginable to make use of since you’ll be able to’t increase the map on this menu and the little spot cleansing sq. it gives cannot be positioned precisely the place you want it.
Picture 1 of 2
Though the app permits you to create routines and normal cleansing schedules, and make changes to each vacuum energy and water quantity for mopping, you’ll be able to’t create any particular cleansing zones, like in entrance of the canine mattress or a particular rug. Bizarrely, there’s an possibility to pick ‘Furnishings and Zones’ however whenever you click on on this operate, nothing in any respect occurs. I am positive iRobot might be including enhancements to this app going ahead however, because it stands, it is woefully insufficient.
Must you purchase the iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo?
|
Attribute |
Notes |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Worth |
Mid-friendly worth, however efficiency points make it a poor funding. Different low cost bots work a lot better. |
2.5 / 5 |
|
Design |
Hybrid robotic vacuum and mop with inside mud compaction and a easy, small dock. An intriguing concept let down by a number of design flaws. |
2 / 5 |
|
Efficiency |
First rate vacuuming however mopping is primary, and navigation and impediment avoidance are mediocre at finest. Noisy and glitchy in use. |
2.5 / 5 |
|
App |
Overly simplistic, buggy and worsening to make use of, the brand new iRobot Residence app wants a critical overhaul. |
1.5 / 5 |
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
How I examined the iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo
As is the way in which with all TechRadar assessments, we reside with the product for so long as potential, observing its day-to-day capabilities and usually appraising it from afar. We then get right down to some critical testing whereas making copious notes on the product’s efficiency.
Within the case of the iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo, I had it put in at house for simply over per week whereas I noticed its navigation behaviour. I then proceeded with my vacuum, mopping assessments on each arduous ground and carpet utilizing a wide range of family components as a way to replicate a real-world state of affairs. I then examined its impediment avoidance system utilizing some canine toys and the compulsory cellphone cable.
I ought to add that this explicit evaluation took me so much longer to finish than normal as a result of the machine in query did not behave as I anticipated. Therefore, I needed to spend further time repeating assessments to ensure its earlier hiccups weren’t simply one-off glitches.
Learn extra about how we test robot vacuum cleaners