【Mike Horner Archives】

Save $250: As of Feb. 27,Mike Horner Archives the Roomba Combo i5+ is on sale for $299.99 as Best Buy's Drop of the day. The limited-time record-low price is only available in the Best Buy app.

Opens in a new window Credit: iRobot iRobot Roomba Combo i5+ $549.99

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The Roomba Combo i5+ on sale for $349.99 at Amazon and iRobot's own website wouldbe a noteworthy price drop... if the same Roomba wasn't also featured as a Best Buy Drop for $299.99 on the same day.

Before Feb. 27, the Combo i5+ had never dropped below $348.99 according to Amazon price tracker Camelcamelcamel, and a dip that low has only been seen sporadically since Black Friday. The Drop feature's whole thing is to beat those records, though — they're exclusive to Best Buy's mobile app, and will disappear sometime on Drop day depending on how fast other customers hit "add to cart."

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If you've been meaning to find a budget-friendly 2-in-1 robot vacuum, $250 off this hybrid Roomba should make your choice easy.

If you've been meaning to find a budget-friendly 2-in-1 robot vacuum, $250 off this hybrid Roomba should make your choice easy.

The Roomba Combo i5+ is the most affordable Roomba that mops and self-empties. (Worth noting, the only mopping Roomba that is even more affordable is the version of the i5 that doesn't self-empty, the regular Combo i5). The older i5+ got this much-needed refresh in Sept. 2023, when iRobot released a handful of new vacs months before CES.

SEE ALSO: Roomba models, explained: The 2024 guide to deciding which Roomba to buy

While the gray woven design of the Combo i5 itself is nearly identical to that of the older i5, the important change lies subtly underneath in the detachable water tank. When you want to mop, the Combo i5 needs to have that tank and mopping pad clicked on, and to send the Combo i5 back out to vacuum the carpets it skipped while mopping, you can simply pop the tank off. The two-part cleaning runs are made easier by the fact that the Roomba i5 series has smart mapping and can clean certain rooms based on what you've queued up in the app.

The difference between the Combo i5 and the Combo j5 is that the j5 series Roombas have small obstacle avoidance technology, meaning they can sense and avoid pesky items on the floor like charging cords or pet waste. The Combo j5, which is on sale for $499.99, still requires the water tank to be manually swapped on and off between sessions.

Topics Robot Vacuums

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