Keurig MINI Plus VS iRobot Roomba j7
Verdict DROP IT DROP IT
The Reality CPSC's December 2014 recall notice documents a real burn hazard: water inside the MINI Plus (model K10, previously B31) could overheat during brewing and spray out, burning consumers -- a risk Keurig itself said was more likely when brewing more than two cups in quick succession, an entirely normal use pattern. Keurig received about 200 reports of hot liquid escaping the brewer, with 90 of those resulting in reported burn injuries. Roughly 6.6 million units were recalled in the US (plus 564,000 in Canada), covering brewers produced between December 2009 and July 2014. MIT Technology Review's December 2022 investigation found that images captured by development versions of the Roomba J7 series -- gathered during a 2019-2022 data-collection program with paid testers -- ended up leaking publicly. In one 2020 case, gig workers in Venezuela hired by contractor Scale AI to label objects in the images (used to train the object-recognition feature) posted at least 15 of those images to closed social-media groups, including a photo of a minor and a photo of a woman sitting on a toilet. Nearly a dozen program participants came forward after the investigation was published, saying they felt misled about how their images would be handled and viewed by outside contractors. iRobot's position is that these images came from development units under separate testing consent agreements, not from a consumer's purchased Roomba operating normally.
SHORT ANSWER
Keurig MINI Plus: CPSC's 2014 recall of 6.6 million Keurig MINI Plus brewers found that water could overheat and spray out during normal use -- especially when brewing more than two cups in a row -- resulting in 90 reported burn injuries among roughly 200 incident reports.
iRobot Roomba j7: MIT Technology Review's 2022 investigation found images from Roomba J7 development units -- including a photo of a woman on a toilet and a minor -- were leaked to social media by workers at an overseas data-labeling contractor, though iRobot says these came from testing units, not consumers' purchased Roombas.