Should you buy a Roomba on Black Friday 2025? I test vacuums for a living, and I say no.

A lot of robot vacuum buyers may default to Roombas this Black Friday based on brand recognition alone. But as a professional robot vacuum reviewer, I would urge everyone to think twice about buying a Roomba this year.

It’s not that I don’t think Black Friday Roomba deals won’t be good — I’m sure most of the main Roombas will hit new record-low prices on Amazon. But recent reports indicate that Roombas aren’t exactly selling well this year, and the poor fortunes of iRobot are worrying for future buyers. I have serious doubts about the Roomba’s longevity at this point.

“But aren’t Roombas the robot vacuums of all robot vacuums? Isn’t Black Friday prime time to find one on sale and bring home the Roomba street cred?” The thing is: Roombas don’t have much street credibility anymore. iRobot is in deep water after its stock dropped drastically on October 27. This happened right after it was revealed that there are no other buyers officially in the race to acquire iRobot. (iRobot had been struggling to find a buyer since its Amazon acquisition failed in January 2024.)

Now is not the time to invest in a Roomba.
Credit: Leah Stoddart/Mashable

Remember when iRobot randomly overhauled the entire Roomba lineup in March? It looks like the revenue from those new Roombas isn’t enough to attract any buyers. That’s not great, given that iRobot essentially gave itself 12 months from March to find a way to avoid ruin. Will this be the last Black Friday when Roombas are up for grabs? Either way, this is not a wise time to gamble on the Roomba.

First, a technical concern: If iRobot goes out of business, does that mean the app will no longer receive updates? The new Roomba Home app, which iRobot insisted we all switch to, is already clunky compared to the original iRobot app. For anyone who has a Roomba, if iRobot no longer has a team to send out bug fixes, the app may become unusable. I have similar questions about customer service.

My second concern is one I’ve had for about a year: Roombas are no longer competitive robot vacuums. While iRobot was once a pioneer of fancy new robot vacuum features, the 2025 Roombas coming on sale for Black Friday aren’t innovative at all. We’ve seen many other practically priced robot vacuums from brands like Roborock, Dreamy, Narwhal, and Eufy with all their core features, like small obstacle avoidance and self-washing and drying mop pads. And the suction power of these new Roombas is great compared to what other brands offer.

Some hopeful robot vacuum buyers also seem to be unhappy with the latest iRobot vacuum. A November 5 query in the r/RobotVacuums subreddit asked the same question Reddit asks every year: “What robot does everyone want to buy on Black Friday?” Not a single one of the 50+ comments mentioned the desire for a Roomba.

Some other robot vacuums on the Reddit wish list to do Get matched with the vacancies I would recommend. Both the Dream Aqua10 Ultra Roller and the Roborock Saros 10R performed well, making it the best robot vacuum mop combo I’ve tested in 2025. I’m expecting the price to drop to $999.99 each this Black Friday. Their closest Roomba counterpart in price, the Roomba Max 705 Combo, is already priced at $899.99 as of Black Friday. IMO, it’s not cheap enough to be worth it – it has significantly weaker suction power than the Aqua10 Ultra Roller and the Saros 10R, and it doesn’t have a livestream pet camera.

Some of the other Roborock, Dreamy, Eufy, and Mowa robot vacuums were mentioned more than once. The features of all these are better than their nearest Roombas in terms of price.

If you don’t want to ditch the iRobot just yet, the Roomba 105, Roomba Plus 405 Combo, and Roomba Plus 505 Combo vacuums would be my recommendations. I tested all three in my apartment for a few weeks and had a good time with all of them. Still why compromise? There are better cheap robot vacuums than the Roomba 105 and better (much quieter) mid-range robot vacuums than the Roomba 405 and 505 series. And their The parent companies are not on the verge of bankruptcy.