iRobot’s Roomba Max 875 Combo targets stick-vacuum suction with a sealing skirt and heated-mist mopping

The useful part

This Robot Vacuum Aims to Compete With the Suction Power of a Stick Vacuum. Robot vacuums are a great way to do some general cleaning, but most lack the power of a dedicated vacuum cleaner because you can't pack enough suction into a small design. "With SealForce, we're able to seal the chassis against the carpet fibers, so the airflow, which has the greatest impact on pickup performance, has somewhere to go instead of escaping around the edges.

How it works

• It works in the demo, but I'll need to use it myself and test it in the lab to see how it performs in real life.
• Other capabilities are pretty similar, including automatic mop lifting (without the protector), antitangle and hair-cutting brushes, edge cleaning, lidar navigation and AI obstacle avoidance as well as a...
• In the case of the Max 875, rather than pressing down, the robot vacuum's chassis lowers a "skirt" that forms a tight seal against carpet fibers.
• Essentially, rather than just boosting suction power, the robot vac is making its suction more targeted and efficient on the surfaces it cleans.
• In our testing, we've generally found that cordless vacuums have better suction than robot vacuums, but this type of tech could help robots catch up.

What to take from it

The company claims that all this gives the robot vacuum twice the stain removal, 3.75 times deeper scrubbing and 1.2 times wider coverage per pass. iRobot may have an interesting solution for that with its new Roomba Max 875 Combo, which it describes as the "most powerful robot ever" because it uses a proprietary vacuum seal technology that concentrates suction power on the floor. While iRobot didn't demo the two models live at IFA, I was able to see them in person, and the tech behind them was demonstrated through a neat display iRobot has where you press a button to engage different features, like the skirt.

Example or evidence

• Pope told me that the new roller mop is also the industry's largest, has 300 rotations per minute and 18 newtons of downward pressure.
• iRobot The Roomba Max 875 Combo will cost $1,199 and launch alongside the $899 Roomba Plus 678 Combo.
• The 678 Combo falls more into a midrange price segment, but it has plenty going for it.

Details worth keeping

If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Once the seal is established, it can use 35,000 pascals of suction to clean the floor, which iRobot describes as "tornado-like airflow." The company also says that it has three times deeper carpet cleaning and the best pickup performance to date among its models. There's also some other interesting cleaning technology under the hood.

Related coverage

• Zdnet: Pro is a midrange robot vacuum and mop with a hands-free cleaning experience.
• Cnet: Improved mopping, stain removing spray and a physical privacy shutter build on Ecovac's previous model.
• Cnet: Smarter AI chops and triangular brushes may clean your floors better.
• Ubergizmo: At IFA 2026 in Berlin, Eufy has unveiled the Robot Vacuum Omni E35, an advanced automated floor cleaner engineered with an emphasis on deep hygiene, allergen reduction, and high-performance debris extraction.