iRobot says its new Roomba Max 875 Combo has 5x more suction and scrubs 3.75x deeper. The suction figure compares it with the Roomba Plus 505 Combo, a spinning-pad model from the cheaper Plus range, and not with the Max 775 that sits directly below it. Only the mopping claims use the Max 775 as their baseline, and one of those does not agree with iRobot’s own roller speeds. The 875 lists at $1,199.99 on iRobot’s US store, $200 more than the 775, with delivery quoted at about two weeks.
Three multipliers, three baselines
The launch release of September 2 and the product page carry five comparative claims between them, and the footnotes point each one at a different reference.
| Claim | Compared with |
|---|---|
| 5x more suction | Roomba Plus 505 Combo |
| 3x deeper carpet cleaning | Carpet vacuuming without SealForce |
| 2x better stain removal | Mopping without ThermaMist |
| 2.5x faster roller, 3.75x deeper scrubbing | Roomba Max 775 Combo |
| 44% larger roller | Standard PowerSpin roller mop |
The suction multiplier works out exactly. The 875 is rated at 35,000 Pa, and the Plus 505 is sold with a 7,000 Pa rating. Neither figure says anything about the Max 775, because iRobot has never published a pascal rating for it. The 775’s own page claims “4X more power-lifting suction” against yet another model, the entry-level Roomba 105.
Two of the remaining claims compare the 875 with itself, with a feature switched off. They describe what SealForce and ThermaMist add, and nothing about how the robot ranks against a rival.
The roller speed does not add up
iRobot’s Max 775 page describes “200 RPM scrubbing”. The Max 875 spins its roller at 300 RPM. That is 1.5 times as fast, yet the footnoted claim against the 775 is 2.5 times.
A larger roller could close part of the gap, since its surface travels further on each turn. iRobot says the new PowerSpin Max roller is 44% larger than the standard one, without saying whether that means diameter, length or area. Even if every bit of it were diameter, 1.5 times 1.44 comes to about 2.2, still short of 2.5. iRobot has not explained what its “faster” measures, and the 3.75x scrubbing claim carries the same footnote.
Downforce you can compare
The pressure, at least, can be checked. iRobot rates the 875’s roller at 18 newtons of downward force, about 1.84 kg pressing on the floor. The cheaper Plus 678 Combo, announced the same day, is rated at 15 N, about 1.53 kg.
That puts the 875 above the eufy Omni E35 on paper. Eufy lists 1.6 kg of pressure and a 220 RPM roller at the same 35,000 Pa, and our explainer on robot vacuum mop pressure covers why a dried spill responds to pressure more than to suction. iRobot publishes no pressure figure for the Max 775, which is why its 3.75x claim cannot be tested from the outside.
What the extra $200 buys
SealForce is the new part for carpets. The robot lowers a skirt that seals against the carpet pile so that the 20 L/s of airflow has to pass through the fibers. The only published result for it is the 3x figure against the same robot with the skirt raised.
Mopping changes more. ThermaMist sprays heated mist at 140°F ahead of the roller to soften dried spills, the roller itself is washed with 140°F water while it works, and the dock washes it at 176°F and dries it with 131°F air. The Roomba Max 775 washes at 75°C, about 167°F, and already retracts a cover over its roller on carpet. On the 875 that job goes to DriLift, which raises the mop and lowers a shield once the robot detects carpet.
The rest is smaller. The 875 is 9.98 cm tall, climbs thresholds up to 3.5 cm and adds a hair-cutting main brush. Its dock holds up to 90 days of debris, and on iRobot’s store the price includes two years of protection, which iRobot values at $239.
Before you order
At list price the 875 is the better-documented robot, with a published suction rating, roller speed and downforce where the 775 has only multipliers against older Roombas. For $200 with the extended protection included, buy the 875 new, unless your home is almost all hard floor and you find the 775 discounted well below $999.99.
Nobody has published independent carpet or stain tests of the 875 yet. iRobot’s store offers a 60-day home trial with free returns on robots, so run it on your own worst rug and dried kitchen spill in the first weeks, while sending it back is still free.
