Roomba vs. Roborock: Which to Buy in 2026, and Will Your Roomba Still Work?

Choose the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow if most of your floors are hardwood, tile or vinyl, you mop the kitchen often and you want a model whose cleaning several independent reviewers have already checked.

Choose the Roomba Plus 678 Combo if you have a lot of carpet or area rugs, low furniture the taller Roborock can’t get under, raised thresholds between rooms, or you want the dock to dose cleaning concentrate for you. You’re betting on iRobot’s spec sheet and on its new owner.

Keep the Roomba you already own if it still cleans well. iRobot said the restructuring would not disrupt app functionality, both of its apps are still offered, and its parts store still lists filters, brushes and bags for older series.

Yes. Here is what happened, with dates, from iRobot’s SEC filings and its own announcements:

• December 14, 2025: iRobot and two affiliates filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 case in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, under a deal for Shenzhen PICEA Robotics and Santrum Hong Kong (together, Picea), its secured lender and main contract manufacturer, to take 100% of the company. iRobot said it expected no disruption to app functionality, customer programs or ongoing product support during the process.
• December 15, 2025: iRobot disclosed that Nasdaq would delist its shares, with trading suspended from December 22, 2025.
• January 22, 2026: the court confirmed the restructuring plan.
• January 23, 2026: the plan took effect. Existing shares were canceled, Picea became the sole owner, and iRobot left Chapter 11 as a private company headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. It also created a separate US subsidiary, iRobot Safe, governed by an independent board of US citizens, to protect US customer data.
• July 7 and September 2, 2026: iRobot launched new Roomba models for North America, including the Plus 678 Combo in this duel.

In short, iRobot isn’t going out of business: it changed hands, stopped being a public company and kept selling and supporting Roombas. One thing did change for buyers. iRobot filed to deregister its shares with the SEC on January 26, 2026, which ended its public financial reporting, so there is less outside visibility into its health than before.

• App: Roomba 100, 200, Plus 400 and Plus 500 series robots sold after March 2025, and 2026 models such as the Plus 678 Combo and Max 875 Combo, use the Roomba Home app. Other models use the iRobot Home (Classic) app. Both were offered on iRobot’s US site on November 1, 2026, and we found no announced end-of-support date for either.
• What depends on the app: maps, schedules, room selection and voice control run through the app and iRobot’s servers. Most Roombas can still start a run from the button on the robot.
• Parts: iRobot’s US accessories store lists filters, brushes, bags and replenishment kits by series, from the new Max 875 and Plus 678 back to the i, j, s, e and 600 series and the older 400 to 900 series. A listing isn’t a stock promise, so a spare filter and brush set for an older robot is cheap insurance.
• Warranty: iRobot says eligible products include a limited one-year manufacturer’s warranty. Keep your proof of purchase.
• Data: iRobot says US customer data is handled by iRobot Safe, kept separate from its non-US owner. That is a company commitment we can report, not one we can audit.

1. Carpet versus hard floors. The Roomba is built around carpet: iRobot rates it at 30,000 Pa of suction and adds SealForce, which seals the brush area against carpet; iRobot claims 3x deeper carpet cleaning than vacuuming without it. The Roborock is rated at 20,000 Pa, and Wired’s reviewer found it isn’t optimized for lots of carpet and that it occasionally mopped carpeted rooms it had failed to classify as carpet.

2. How each one mops. Both scrub with a self-cleaning roller pressed down at 15 N, which is why this is a fair match. The Roomba adds a pressurized pre-treatment spray for dried-on spills and scrubs with 140°F (60°C) water. The Roborock’s roller slides out toward walls; reviewers praised how deep it cleans but found results along walls and in corners uneven, and Tom’s Guide saw streaks at the default water setting until it turned the flow up.

3. Clearance and thresholds. The Roomba is 3.9 inches tall and rated for thresholds up to 1.4 inches (3.5 cm). The Roborock is 4.7 inches tall, and Roborock’s page doesn’t list a threshold height. Measure under your sofa and bed before you choose.

• Roomba AutoWash dock: soaks the roller in 176°F (80°C) water, dries it with 131°F (55°C) air, refills the robot with water mixed with StayClean concentrate and empties debris into a sealed bag, for up to 90 days of hands-free maintenance by iRobot’s count. iRobot asks you to wipe the bin, rinse the dock tanks and replace the filter, brushes and mop roller every 3 to 6 months.
• Roborock dock: washes the roller with 167°F (75°C) water, dries it with 131°F (55°C) air and empties the robot into a disposable dust bag; Roborock says the interval depends on use. There’s no separate detergent tank, so you add the solution to the clean-water tank yourself. Android Authority (May 29, 2026) found the drying cycle runs about three hours, even in eco mode.
• Ongoing costs: dock bags, filters, brushes, mop rollers and each brand’s own cleaning solution. Use the solution the maker lists for your robot to avoid clogs.

• Wired, January 23, 2026 (Roborock): excellent mopping and navigation that reliably reached every room and returned to the dock; the weak spots were carpet-heavy homes, objects smaller than about 2 inches wide and 1.2 inches tall, and dog hair clumping in the dock’s chute.
• Tom’s Guide, February 23, 2026 (Roborock): in its standardized pickup tests it did very well on cereal and cat litter and less well on cat hair; mopping streaked at the default low water flow until it was turned up.
• Gizmodo, April 19, 2026 (Roborock): the most powerful mopping the reviewer had seen on a robot, but inconsistent near walls and in corners, and nearly three hours to recharge.
• Roomba Plus 678 Combo: on sale since September 2, 2026. Vacuum Wars said it had not evaluated it yet (article updated October 2, 2026), and we found no published independent results as of November 1, 2026. We’ll update this page when results appear.

The same question for simpler self-emptying robots that mop with a pad and have no mop washing:

• Roborock Q7 M5+: 10,000 Pa of suction, PreciSense LiDAR, anti-tangle main and side brushes, and a 2.7 L dock bag that Roborock rates for up to 7 weeks.
• Roomba 105 Combo Robot + AutoEmpty Dock: ClearView LiDAR, a micro-pump that keeps the mop pad damp and a dock iRobot rates for up to 75 days of debris; iRobot quotes 70x the suction of its old 600 series rather than a Pa figure.

On published specs the Roborock is the clearer buy here too, mainly because Roborock states its suction and anti-tangle design and iRobot doesn’t.

No. A working Roomba keeps cleaning, and iRobot still offers its apps and lists parts for older series. Replace it when it fails out of warranty and the repair isn’t worth it, or when you want something it can’t do, such as a dock that washes and dries a mop. If you do upgrade, the choice above holds: Roborock for mostly hard floors, Roomba for carpet and low furniture.