Hot on the heels of its July release of five robot vacuums, Roomba is back with another two dirt-sucking discs, the $1,200 Roomba Max 875 and the $900 Roomba Plus 678. Announced at IFA 2026, both feature high suction—35,000Pa and 30,000Pa, respectively—and a new “SealForce Vacuuming Technology” that the company says makes for three times deeper carpet cleaning than non-SealForce robovacs.
Now owned by Chinese robotics company Picea, iRobot’s latest Roombas sound a lot like all of the other robovacs from China. The Max 875 cleans and empties itself at its large dock, which washes its mop with 176-degree Fahrenheit water and automatically refills the robot with fresh mop water mixed with a cleaning solution before every clean. The Max 875 also has a mop roller that slides in and out of the chassis to get close to edges, and that automatically lifts and covers itself before driving over carpet—both features seen on devices like the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller.
As it cleans, the Max 875 sprays a continuous heated mist from its undercarriage, which iRobot says can help it clean crusty messes on hard flooring. It also has a hair-cutting main brush that keeps it from developing tangles. That’s somewhat unique compared to, say, the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone, which has front-mounted spray nozzles for wetting messes—whether it works any better, well, we’ll have to test that. I will say that roller-mopping robots tend to be superior to those with spinning mop pads for dealing with actual messes.
The Max 875 navigates with LiDAR and avoids obstacles using front cameras. It stands just under four inches high, which is svelte but still taller than something like the 3.12-inch-tall Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete.
As for the Roomba Plus 678, it’s very similar to the Max 875 in a few ways, differing only in height (it’s 0.03cm shorter) and in its use of a high-pressure spray rather than the heated mist of the Max 875. It also lacks the self-sealing mop roller, although its mop does also reach for edges like that of the Max 875.
Both of the new robot vacuums are priced lower than any of the costly options I’ve mentioned in this story, but they’re still expensive. My experience with robot vacuums packed with similar features to these new Roombas has taught me to be wary of them, and until we get to try one of this year’s iRobot crop (I’ll be testing the Roomba Max 775 this month), it’s a good idea to hold off on buying one until you’ve read some reviews and heard from other owners. If you can’t wait, though, both of the new Roombas are available now at the iRobot website.
