iRobot - i3+ Series

I bought a roomba i3 in 2020, and it's still working fine Every part is easily replaced, and there is lifetime support that I use once to replace the battery Although that was before it was bought by Amazon, I don't know if it's still the same

Oh! I didn't know It's still robust and serviceable, but yeah, parts might be hard to find soon

I have a Roomba that I picked up from Costco. It can be controlled via app and it has a self emptying base.

I’ve had a Roomba for over 10 years now. It’s 100% worth it. I got it when I was a single cat lady in my 20s working long hours. Now I’m married and we have 2 kids, a cat and a dog. We upgraded to the Roomba that maps the house and empties itself in the docking station. It vacuums the whole house 3x a week and does the high traffic areas 5 nights a week after the kids go to bed. I do wish the mop version (Brava) worked better. I have not gotten that damn thing to properly map my house to mop for me and the solution that they sell for it makes all of our house shoes squeak for days.

I was surprised there is no mention of Roomba here. We have had the i3 for a few years and have been happy with it, but we have all wood floors. It's done well and we have a Corgi that sheds all the time. The only complaint I have is that the sensors can get dirty which causes it to misbehave once in a while so you have to be sure to clean them.

Just got mine for 85$ a couple weeks ago. It was pretty beatup. But I cleaned it up, replaced rollers, filters, and tires. Also took apart the base and cleaned it up. The thing is a beast. I had a i3 for a while so maybe that why it feels like such an upgrade. U could tell they definitely went all out on it

I know everyone 💩's on this Roomba, and when I found it for $450 on Ebay I thought I scored, but was super scared to use it. But for real, it blows my J7+ (+ Braava) out of the water. It vacuums and mops at the same time, doesn't need to redock and charge its battery, and has the power to drive over a gap with tile into our kitchen (Braava could never) and vacuum/mop that area. It picked up so much pet hair on its first pass (despite the J7 having ran that week) that it got clogged docking (the only time that has happened ever) because there was just so much. As much as I read about everyone having issues with this model, it's been my best robot vacuum ever. Just wanted to post something against the grain.

All the i and j7 and below series vacuums have the same motor. Only the s9 and j9 have more suction, the s9 is actually better suction. On hard floors any of them will pick up the hair. The s9 will do very well on the area rugs. Not worth buying the combo models.

I have the Roborock Qrevo Plus, and it has been amazing! I have light colored floors and a black Dane and black Cocker. The robot runs every night and every morning we have clean floors. I have a 8 month old baby who is crawling so am also on the floor a lot and I’m always amazed by how spotless they are! Mapping was quick and painless, and I hardly ever have to intervene or rescue it. I also have a iRobot i3 and it’s a night and day difference. App is easy to use, and we have had it for just about a year and have had no problems. Refill clean water and dump dirty mop water once a week. Obstacle avoidance seems to work pretty well too, no incidents yet!

Adding my experience... I ordered the day it was available for purchase and received it at the end of August. It worked as advertised, and I still think the Roomba object recognition is the best. I don't have to worry about it running over anything left on the floor, and I have kids leaving stuff all over the house. It works very well. The mopping is not as good as the braava line, but the braava robots haven't any new developments with this new mapping and vision technology and those robots are as dumb as bricks, constantly getting lost. So in this case, reliability and convenience of self washing trumps superior mopping. My main issue is the drying. My first base at some point stopped drying properly. The fan seemed to have failed, so customer service sent me a whole new complete set. This new unit and base seemed to dry with high fan speed for one time, and then now it seems like it has lowered the fan speed. By the end of the drying cycle, the pad is nowhere near dry. I do not know what the intent of the drying function is, but at low fan speeds it is not sufficient. The problem is, I don't know if this base unit is also defective (it doesn't seem to be blowing much air, or as much air as I expect), or if this is actually by design to be quieter. I'll update as I work with customer service on this problem. I find it highly unlikely that I got 2 bases with the same drying fan problem.

I have a Roomba i3+, and what you described with it leaving the base and returning means the charging contacts are dirty. Either on the base station or Roomba, or both. Also, if it's escaping and falling down stairs, the sensors are dirty.

I have a Roomba i3+, but a change in layout has confused it beyond belief. Any vac only with self empty with decent mapping/ navigation (such as not banging itself into the wall for 40 minutes)?

They \*could\* but I doubt very much that they do; it would cost a lot. The biggest privacy risk is revealing a map of the layout of your home if your online account is hacked. I have an iRobot Roomba that empties its own bag into a base. Love it. Love not having to vacuum under beds and sofas. It took some prep to make my home ready for it--furniture needs to be high enough (and legs wide enough apart) for it to run up under. Lamp cords need to be secured. Don't run it automatically or when you're not home. Do clean the hair out of it after it runs (takes only a couple minutes). I run it once a week. I spend 3-4 minutes putting things like litter baskets and chairs up off the floor so it has a better reach, then schedule it to run 3x. Then turn the schedule off again and return loose items to the floor. Spend about a minute getting hair out of its rollers. I've had several good looks inside my Roomba and didn't see anything like microphones or cameras. Its bump sensors are not cameras. It does have an internet connection and so can be voice-controlled if you connect to Alexa or Google Home. But that is optional. If you only operate it with the app or onboard buttons, it cannot be voice controlled.

I have the Roomba i3 with tower, I think that’s around $500. It is the second unit through warranty and the new unit has had two chassis replacements. Cleans well but damn the maintenance on it has been crazy.

I have an IRobot Roomba self emptying one! It literally just got done vacuuming. Genuinely LIFE CHANGING. I got mine as a Christmas gift and it’s great but I’d probably go with the Shark 2 in 1 self emptying robot mop/vacuum when my Roomba dies. I run mine at least 2 times a day and I think it helps keep it where hairballs don’t build up and get stuck in it.

It clogged docking because it was moist from the mopping it was doing at the same time. Some users started doing dry vacuuming and mopping on the slowest suction because the brushes and ducting getting dirty with wet dirt. It's so sad irobot won't allow mop-only run.

Two huskies here. We have a self emptying Roomba. We run it 5 days a week. I have to keep up with the replacement parts, or it starts just wadding up hair and leaving it in chunks. But even that cuts manual cleaning time, because I can just take the hand vac to the chunks. We've had it since 2021.

Our irobot i3+ lasted 25 months. Wasn't great when it worked either tbh

There’s actually a roomba that does both vacuuming and light mopping (think of it like roomba swiffer). It has a reservoir of the liquid at the charging station and a bag dispenser for the dust as well. I never felt older than when I got genuinely excited for a roomba like I would for a console when I was younger. That’s my “treat yourself” buy when I get my next bonus lol

So I got mine too yesterday and it the drying portion was very loud. I let it run before shutting it off and the pad still hadn’t dried. I called support today and they are sending me a new base. Not sure if any of you have tested the drying out. If so, let me know your thoughts.

So true! They are sending me a new one after sending support a video of the dock and the drying noise. They said it would be a low hum. I’m like that is not a low hum!

Avoid that, it's a generic (ODM) model based on the same platform as the Xiaomi E10/12, which if I remember correctly is from 3irobotix or SilverStar. Look up some reviews of those Xiaomi models on Amazon and you'll understand how much of a poor product it is. Get a "real" Roomba, they're much better than that. Some examples are the i3/i5, or if you need the mop, the Combo i5 or Combo j5. If you can spend a bit more, the j7 is another good one.

J9+ Combo is on Amazon for $800 right now 46% off! Great choice though many mixed reviews. The Combo Max 10 is on Amazon for $800 but I’d choose the J9+ Combo because self cleaning bases don’t actually “wash” the pads. The j9’s brown design is better than the all black in my option and the j9 has a wood top to put small plant on top for design. The j9 you can just quickly remove the pad and put in the washer I have an i3+ and Brava m6 that I’ve had for 4 years now and always worked well but I’m thinking of upgrading to a combo j9+

iRobot i3+. Literally a tank. Ran it three times a week for over three years. Over 1000 hours and 300,000 sqft of cleaned area. Replaced the battery for $50 and was still running fine… until it ate poop. Twice. Finally decided it was time to upgrade to a S1 Pro. Might clean up the i3 and retire it to garage duty.

iRobot Roomba combo and Braava are really just automated swiffer mops that do not suck up the dirty solution off the floor. They spray the floor and drag an absorbent pad over it instead. If you have a handheld swiffer with the solution sprayer, you will find that the Roomba mop models work almost identically. These will do a general clean but do not scrub the floor and cannot clean up spilled food or drinks. Some other companies have spinning mops with a wet vac dirty water tank that do a much better job on spilled food and drinks.

Our irobot roomba gobbles pet hair and it's a basic i3 model. You have a roborock budget though and reddit is going to steer you towards that or just tell you to get a Miele vacuum.

I have an irobot i3 and it runs every day without issues. The replacement rollers and filters are available cheap on Amazon. It collects plenty of debris and cat hair, mix of carpets and hard floors.

Hi, i have one german shepard and one labrador, both of them have long hair and a lot of shredding almost half of year. I recently bought my first robot vacuum and after researching a lot i went with an iRobot Roomba i3+. I am very satisfied with it but i will give you some points to have in mind first: - For pet hair rollers must not have brushes because its problematic. - You will need to pass it every day to avoid big bricks of pet hair. - Self emptying dock is a must if you have pets. - You should do quick maintenace (no more than 5-15 min) to the robot at least one day per week. Knowing that, i am very happy with the Roomba because it goes great with all of that. Beside of that, some things that i really liked about this brand is that: - All the parts that will have tangled hair (like rollers, empty bin, rotating brushes, and wheels) are extremely easy to remove and clean, almost with no tools needed. I literally take only ten minutes to remove every dog hair inside the system. - Also, all that parts are removable and replaceable, so if one of them brokes, you can easily buy one and change it. - Dust bag in dock compresses very hard the hair, so every bag will last you like a month. - They have tons of video tutorials in their official youtube channel for cleaning and maintaing every single model of their brand. - App is simply great, it haves a nice user interface and user experience. This Roomba i3 doesnt have extremly powerful suction, but it is more than sufficient for pets hair. Sometimes for other things (for example some heavy food crumbs) it doesnt catch them. But if you go for higher series (5,7,9) i understand that they have better suction. I have not tested other brands so i cant tell you if there are any better, but i am really satisfied with this Roomba. This is my honest review and i hope it can help you to pick a Robot Vacuum. I picked mine reading tons of comments from this subreddit. Happy new year for everyone and sorry for my bad english, i am Argentinian! 👍

Hi! The i3 still doing it excellent. I definitly recommend this model. I am not really sure what is going on with iRobot company, i read a few days ago that they have made bad decisions on their lastest models and they are close to bankrupcy or something like that haha, but i keep reading comments of people with classic models (like series I/J) and they still happy with them. The app keeps nice and without errors (at least for my use).

You don’t appreciate how quiet other robo vacs are until you have a Roomba. I received my Roomba Combo 10 Max this week to tide me over while I wait for the two Matic robots that should begin to ship this year. I have a love hate with the Roomba, overall. The Dreame X40 Ultra I had was a beautiful machine but I wasn’t ready to commit just yet before the return period expired. What I’ve learned so far about the Roomba Combo 10 Max is that you are best off having it create a new map of the space and not retrieve a previously saved map from another, older Roomba. I was impressed by the accuracy of the map the Combo 10 Max created with no intervention required. I only needed to adjust a couple of the room dividers on the 2,500 square foot map. Carpets were also perfectly detected and added to the map. Name labels were also almost perfectly identified. Being in a house with 5 furry cats, a continued annoyance of the Combo 10 Max that was found on my previous Roomba j9+ is that the front recessed camera housing is the perfect design to trap cat fur, causing constant unknown object detection alerts during the photo review after a cleaning session. Other robo vac cameras aren’t as deeply recessed so this is a non issue. I would really love to see this issue resolved. The side spinning brush is as loud as it was on the j9+. Too bad iRobot didn’t use a quieter motor which would have really helped the overall noise level of the machine. The clean base needs a separate cleaning mechanism just to remove fur from the spinning brush. I didn’t realize the 10 Max had active wash pad drying and was a bonus surprise. I haven’t paid attention to how long the total drying session takes just yet or how good of a job it does. I’ve always liked the retractable design of the mop and believe it’s a cleaver feature that best avoids carpets. Let’s be honest, every single machine with bottom mounted raising mop pads still touch the carpet depending on the carpet thickness and angle of approach from hard surfaces. Only the Dreame with detachable mop pads and iRobot have this figured out from my experience. Overall, mopping set to Standard completely saturates the mop and does a great job of covering the floor with no streaks. I would, however, like the ability to identify the direction of the hardwood for mopping, similar to Dreame. This was a great feature that ensured a reduction of mopping marks when flooring is laid in the opposite direction of the mopping. I’ve always appreciated the iRobot app for its usability. While the Dreame app offers options beyond what I would ever need, the iRobot app has a great feature set that just works and makes sense for the North American user. I look forward to continuing to use the 10 Max for now. Only time will tell how long it will take for it to plow through the random undetected cat barf on the floor… the real reason I am ultimately holding out for Matic with its visual space/object recognition and ability to suction both wet and dry debris into a disposable bag.

We have an i3+ cleaning up after a Pyrenees (very heavy shed 24/7) and it does the worlds okayest job. I definitely still have to sweep or vac piles in corners and I feel like I spend more time cleaning the roomba of the dog hair than it spends running. I definitely appreciate daily effort tho.

iRobot already did that with their first generation iRobot Combo (R11xx). The Roomba Essential was also not made by iRobot. Now it seems none of them will be. I just don't understand the end game for iRobot. Are they just gonna be riding on the brand name from now on and slowly disappear into nothingness because why would OEM give 3rd party better tech and design than they use in their own robots? iRobot, as much as they've been weird and stubborn with some things, I still love their core design of robots since introduction of E series and later i. I loved how they ALL had identical main roller brushes, identical side brushes, identical filters, identical dust bins, identical almost everything. Not only it's cheaper for them to supply 1 type of each part, it's easier for users, for regular maintenance and repairs. I work in this part of the industry and I can't stress enough how many times customers/consumers have no clue what device they have, be it robot vacuum or a regular vacuum. If you just need to tell "I have a roomba" and that's all it's needed to know which part you supply. So many Chinese robots as well as ones from other well known brands like Electrolux, Philips and Rowenta have different parts for almost every model and it's soooooooooooo annoying.

I have i3+ and it works well on my combo hardwood floors with low pile area rugs. Make sure to get one that auto empties to a bin because the robot fills up quick.

I have a really cheap I3 iRobot, and a medium priced Eureka S20, and I can say don't buy the I3 unless you live in an empty room. The Eureka is actually pretty decent, and doing a good job of keeping my house dog hair free (I have 4 longer haired dogs), but the mopping isn't doing a great job of even keeping things relatively clean. Not sure what changed though as it WAS mopping really well for the first few days we had it.

It's hard for people to recommend since few people would test their vacuums with this much fur. Picking up hair from hard floors is easy for any robot vacuums, even on low suction settings. I think the challenge will be keeping the bin from filling or the dock from clogging. iRobot roomba i+ and j+ series are suited for this as they have sensors that detect debris building up in the vacuum path and send the bot to the dock to auto-empty and resume. Whatever you get, you will likely need to run regularly and maybe one room at a time.

I have been getting a lot of these robot vacuum/mopping things in my RFY. So far Ive ordered like 6 of them, different brands. I found that the Mova 10 ($1,099 when I ordered, now $699) does a way better job than my Roomba 10 Combo Max, which I paid $1,500 for. In fact, the new Roomba model coming out it’s the same design and style as the less know Mova, but in black instead of white, and at a premium of $1000….pretty shitty of them. Most recent one I ordered from Vine comes with a detachable top part that can be used to groom your pets; I have a separate similar device and it rocks, so having it integrated is amazing!

I have an older Roomba i3+ and just got an e25 and it's soooooooo much better! I had been planning to keep the Roomba for upstairs cleaning, but it's such a night and day difference that IDK if I can keep it lol I brought the Eufy upstairs today and it's running and cleaning while I'm sitting up there and it's not bothering me at all. It's so quiet. I don't even want to be home when my roomba is running. I've had the Roomba for longer though. More like 5 years? IDK

I have an old Roomba i3+ and a new eufy e25. Build quality was never an issue for Roomba but the eufy feels great and the app is better and it cleans much more efficiently. I’m still using the i3+ upstairs and its lack of lidar or any type of cameras makes it wedge itself under my furniture almost every time it runs. It gets stuck almost every day. I’m actually considering a new one for upstairs because it’s so bad by comparison. Maybe the e20 with the stick vacuum. That would be handy to have anyway. I’ll wait for Black Friday or something

Yeah that’s about my experience too. I was hoping I had a dud. But…

I had a Rooma i3 until super recently (downsized and moved, it still works great). It's able to be repaired and cleaned regularly which is key to making sure it lasts a long time. Not sure if this applies to the robot vacuums but Sharks are easy to repair and have five year warranties.

Returned an Irobot i4 +evo and got the eufy S1 pro, glad I did. I have also owned two other robo vacs before this and dont notice the vacuum function issues mentioned but I dont doubt them, just dont worry about that. The hard floors shine, I do notice that. Paid $1010 plus tax after waiting on the Amazon sale in October.