Roomba Max 775 Combo review: It’s all about the looks

The Roomba Max 775 Combo isn’t the worst robot vacuum I’ve ever tested, but I can’t recommend it as one of the best robot vacuums. There’s a lot to love about it, but unfortunately the bad outweighs the good.

The vacuum’s design is incredibly stylish and will suit the interior of most homes. There’s decent performance on hardwood floors, and the user-friendly app gives a whole lot of control. There’s a plastic cover that extends over the mop to protect your carpets from getting wet, and the docking station can maintain the robovac for up to 90 days.

Unfortunately, the side-sweeping brushes push debris away from the vacuum and make a lot of noise. Mopping also leaves residue, and if you have low-set furniture, the robovac may not be able to get underneath since it’s so tall. To find out more, you can keep reading this full Roomba Max 775 Combo review.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Specs

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Price & availability

The Roomba Max 775 Combo robot vacuum is available in black or white for $999 at Amazon U.S. and for £799 at Amazon U.K. This is a pretty affordable price for a robovac that can also mop your floors and self-clean with heated functions.

The Roborock Qrevo 2 Pro is around the same size as the Roomba for $799. The Roborock also has mopping and self-cleaning features, and honestly, I’d recommend siding with the cheaper option as it has better vacuuming performance.

If you want something even cheaper, you can look at the Dreame D10 Plus Gen 2 for $299. Since it’s so much cheaper, the suction power is naturally a lot lower, just 6,000Pa to be exact, and you’ll have to clean the mops yourself. The Roomba is certainly the more convenient, user-friendly option here. But for something that takes better care of itself and has round mops, the Robrock Qrevo Curv for $699 is a great choice.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Design

I was struck when I first laid eyes on the Roomba Max 775 Combo. Wow. It really is a beauty. Clearly a lot of consideration has gone into the design here, which is lovely to see since a robot vacuum automatically becomes part of your home decor. The wood paneling finish on the front of the dock makes it look expensive. The docking station doesn’t take up too much space and measures 18.0 x 17.0 x 16.6 inches.

The base houses a clean and dirty water tank and a dust bag. There’s a slot to store a spare dust bag and a slot at the top of the lid with a dual-ended brush and cutter to remove trapped debris or tangles. It’s great to have these accessories stored neatly away instead of floating around the house and getting lost.

The vacuum itself is quite chunky and measures 6.8 x 14.4 x 4.1 inches. It’s a lot taller than the Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete, which is 1.5 inches tall, and the Dreame D10 Plus Gen 2, which is 3.8 inches tall, so if you need it to get under low-set furniture, the Roomba won’t be the best choice for you.

On the underside of the vacuum, there are two rubber rollers that help with directing debris toward the suction and a mop roller. The design of the heated mop roller is great, as it has a retractable cover to prevent it from getting any of your carpets wet.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: App

The Roomba Max 775 Combo uses the Roomba Home app. This is the smoothest app setup I’ve experienced of all the brands I’ve tested, including Shark, Roborock, Dreame and many others. The process was intuitive, and it automatically detected the vacuum — everything was ready to connect in seconds.

Until now, my favorite app has been Roborock for its easily digestible layout, but I think Roomba has it beat. Online, a few users mention that the app can be buggy, but I didn’t experience this at all. In fact, everything ran extremely smoothly throughout all my testing.

I was able to easily change the settings of the robot, like cleaning schedules, keep-out zones, and water flow or suction power. It felt like I was taking charge of the cleaning, even though the Roomba took care of all the hard work.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Mapping

Mapping was very quick with the Roomba Max 775 Combo. It skirted the edges of the room and created a map that I could adjust and rename in the app easily.

The mapping looked accurate on my phone screen, and even featured pictures of my sofas. But despite the accurate-looking map, the Roomba bumped into the edges of the room. I suppose it’s good to know it’s getting to the edges at least, and it has a buffer on the front to bounce back, but this much contact can’t be good for the robot or my walls. I don’t have this issue with the Roborock Qrevo Pro 2.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Cleaning

The Roomba Max 775 Combo isn’t the best robot vacuum you’ll ever use. It’s far from it. But it still does a pretty decent job of picking up noticeable debris from floors.

The most concerning thing about this vacuum is the noise it makes. Most robot vacuums I’ve tested have been a lot quieter than a handheld vacuum cleaner, but not the Roomba. It’s virtually screaming at you as it cleans. And it’s not just the sound of the suction — which I would be able to accept — it’s the wheels and the side-sweeping brushes that make all the racket. But if you leave the room and leave the robovac to do its thing, you can probably accept the noise.

Vacuuming

Rather than drawing debris towards the vacuum, the side-sweeping brushes were actually pushing pieces of debris and fluff away. After chasing it down, the Roomba did eventually catch them, but it was annoying. I noticed that more often than not, after cleaning sessions in my home, there was always something left behind on the floor. I get far better results with the Roborock Qrevo Pro 2, and it has a lower suction power of 25,000Pa.

Hardwood floor:

On hardwood floors, the Roomba’s performance was pretty good, apart from when it needed to pick up hair, because the side sweepers were pushing it around the floor. It also became tangled in the rollers.

The wheels did a lot of crushing, as they’re quite chunky, so I had a Rice Krispies massacre on my hands, but the Roomba picked up the majority of what was on the floor. It did a great job with seeds, although, again, the side-sweeping arms spent a lot of time pushing them around the room before sucking them up in the end.

Carpet:

The carpet performance was a little worse. Only about half of the debris on the floor was picked up, and it particularly struggled with smaller seeds.

Since the wheels were crushing the Krispies, they became trodden into the carpet. This one is better suited to hard floors.

Mopping

To test how the Roomba Max 775 Combo handles mopping, I put a little soy sauce, mayonnaise, and mud on my kitchen floor. This is my usual test, and usually vacuum mops can pass with flying colors, but I wasn’t giddy about the results here. There was a slight residue left on the floor, and at first, it looked like the Roomba was doing the robovac equivalent of finger painting with the condiments.

I much prefer the circular mop style you get with the Roborock Saros 20, as I think this is more reliable. The Roomba’s mopping is also 167ºF heated, so I was expecting something a little more thorough.

The Roomba has a cover that flips over the mop when moving over carpet, so the wet mop doesn’t drip any water. I love this feature as there’s nothing worse than a damp carpet.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Storage & maintenance

The Roomba Max 775 Combo doesn’t take up too much space and is also very short. As long as it’s set up near a power outlet so there’s no outstretched cord, it shouldn't get in your way.

It’s also very easy to maintain. The vacuum is self-emptying, and the dustbag in the dock can store debris for up to 90 days. This is at the top end of how long a robot vacuum can sustain itself and puts it in step with the Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 ThermaCharged NeverTouch, which is a lot more expensive. The water tanks of the Roomba will need to be refilled and emptied as needed, but the cleaning solution auto-dispenses so there’s always the right amount.

The mop has a self-cleaning cycle in the dock, which uses hot 167ºF water and is then dried by hot air in the dock. This means less handling of gross mops, making the Roomba feel like it’s actually helping out around the house, rather than just another thing to maintain.

Roomba Max 775 Combo review: Verdict

The Roomba Max 775 is hard to recommend outright, although it will be a decent-enough choice if you only have hard floors throughout your home. The design is very stylish, and it feels almost like home decor, so you won’t want to hide it away in a corner. The app is very easy to get on with too. The docking station can maintain the robot for 90 days, and the mop cover for the roller is very convenient.

Unfortunately, the side-sweeping brushes caused me big problems. Not only are they loud, but they also push all of the debris away from the vacuum, meaning a lot of mess gets left behind. Mopping isn’t the best either, with a little residue left behind afterward, which undermines its vacuuming performance on hard floors. The bulky build makes it problematic for anyone with low furniture too.

Ultimately, it’s not the worst robot vacuum we’ve tested, but you can get way better for your money elsewhere.