New Roomba flagship seals itself against carpet for deeper cleaning
iRobot unveiled its new flagship Roomba Max 875 Combo at IFA Berlin, featuring a carpet-sealing SealForce system, alongside a cheaper Roomba Plus 678 Combo model.
Robot vacuum maker iRobot is exhibiting at IFA in Berlin this week, its first major tech trade show appearance in years, now operating under new owner Picea Robotics, the contract manufacturer that bought the company out of bankruptcy in January.
The company's new flagship is the $1,199 Roomba Max 875 Combo, a combined vacuum and mop robot, launching alongside a cheaper $899 Roomba Plus 678 Combo. Both models are now available on irobot.com.
A new sealing system for carpets
The headline feature is SealForce, a skirt-like mechanism that lowers around the cleaning head when carpet is detected, directing airflow deeper into carpet fibers. Combined with a new blower motor moving 20 liters of air per second, iRobot says the system delivers three times deeper carpet cleaning compared to models without it.
The 875 offers 35,000 Pa of suction power, the highest figure iRobot has ever published. It uses a single rubber brush instead of the company's signature dual-roller design to better accommodate the carpet seal. Navigation relies on lidar and camera-based vision, and the robot can climb thresholds up to 3.5cm high.
The device also includes ThermaMist, a heated mist feature that pretreats stains ahead of mopping, plus a self-cleaning roller mop system. Its auto-empty dock washes the mop with hot water and dries it with hot air.
The more affordable 678 model offers 30,000 Pa suction and 18 L/s airflow but lacks ThermaMist. Instead, it uses a system called SprayForce, which presoaks stains with cleaning fluid before returning to mop them. Both models support Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts, and are undergoing Matter certification.
Similar carpet-sealing technology already appears in competitors' flagship models from Narwal and Dreame, though the approach remains relatively new to the robot vacuum industry as a whole.
