The Roomba Max 875 Combo is iRobot’s latest attempt to close the gap between robot vacuums and dedicated cordless cleaners. Described by the company as its “most powerful robot ever”, the new model relies on a proprietary vacuum seal technology designed to concentrate suction power directly on the floor rather than letting airflow escape around the edges.
Robot vacuums are convenient for general cleaning, but they typically lack the power of a stick vacuum because it is difficult to pack enough suction into a compact design. iRobot aims to address that limitation by changing how suction is applied to carpets, not simply by increasing the raw figures.
How SealForce Technology Works
The SealForce system works in a way that iRobot compares to pressing a traditional vacuum harder against the carpet to focus suction on a single spot. Instead of pressing down, the Max 875’s chassis lowers a “skirt” that forms a tight seal against carpet fibres. According to the company, sealing the chassis against the fibres gives the airflow, which has the greatest impact on pickup performance, somewhere to go rather than escaping around the edges.
Once the seal is established, the robot can apply 35,000 pascals of suction, which iRobot describes as “tornado-like airflow”. The company says this delivers three times deeper carpet cleaning and its best pickup performance to date across its range. Cordless vacuums have generally offered stronger suction than robot vacuums, and this approach is intended to help robots catch up.
Mopping and Navigation Features
To tackle dried-on stains on hard floors, the Max 875 Combo continuously sprays heated mist as it mops, loosening and softening older marks so the mop roller can remove them. iRobot says the new roller mop is the largest in the industry, running at 300 rotations per minute with 18 newtons of downward pressure. The company claims this gives twice the stain removal, 3.75 times deeper scrubbing and 1.2 times wider coverage per pass.
The 875 Combo also includes an AI-powered carpet-detection feature that automatically raises the mop when it detects carpet and lowers a protective shield to prevent dripping. Additional flagship features include antitangle and hair-cutting main brushes, side brushes, lidar navigation and AI object recognition for more than 300 household objects.
iRobot is showing the Roomba Max 875 Combo at IFA Berlin 2026.
