One of the best innovations in the robot vacuum space in recent years has been the development of models that can empty their own dustbins. Beyond offering greater convenience than traditional models, they significantly limit your exposure to dust, a big plus if you suffer from allergies. Vacuums with this feature typically cost around $1,000, however, which is a lot more than most people are able or willing to spend. That makes the Roomba i3+ especially appealing, because at $599.99, it’s iRobot’s most affordable model with a self-emptying dustbin to date. It lacks the smart mapping abilities of its pricier counterparts, so you can’t send it to specific rooms to clean. But depending on your needs, the trade-off might be well worth it for the truly hands-free cleaning it provides.
Design and Key Features
The Roomba i3+ is iRobot’s third model with a self-emptying dustbin after the $949.99 Roomba i7+ and the $1,399.99 Roomba s9+. Like its predecessors, the i3+ comes with a Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal dock, which charges the robot and holds around 60 days worth of debris in its AllergenLock bag, depending on how often you vacuum and how dirty your home is. When the robot docks after cleaning, you can hear the Clean Base’s blower motor kick on as it sucks the contents of the dustbin into the bag.
The debris travels from the dustbin through an evacuation tube in the Clean Base before being deposited into the bag. The Clean Base comes with a bag preinstalled, and you get an extra in the box. When you run out, you can get a pack of three for $19.99. iRobot says the bag is constructed of four layers of allergen-blocking material, which allows it to trap 99 percent of pollen and mold.
The trade-off is that the Clean Base is a bit of an eyesore. At 19 by 12.2 by 15.1 inches (HWD), it’s much larger than a standard robot vacuum docking station. The i3+ itself measures 13.26 inches in diameter and 3.63 inches high, which is on the tall side compared with other models. If you’re looking for a short vacuum that can pass under low furniture, Eufy makes a few solid, sub-3-inch models, including the $220 RoboVac 11s, the $300 30C, and the $350 G30. None of those models can empty their own dustbin, however.
The i3+ has three buttons on the top: a large Clean/Power button in the middle, flanked by Home and Spot Clean buttons on either side. Around the Clean/Power button is a Light Ring Indicator, which stays off most of the time, but pulses white when the robot is charging, shines solid white when it’s fully charged, pulses red when the battery is low, shines blue when it’s looking for its Clean Base, and flashes blue when it’s in Dirt Detect mode (more on this below).
While some robot vacuums have shiny mirrored covers that show dust, the i3+ has a gray matte/textured finish on top that looks almost like fabric and minimizes fingerprints. It also has a Room Confinement (RCON) sensor on top that allows it to detect its Clean Base, and a Light Touch sensor on the front to detect walls and other obstacles.
On the bottom, it has two long multi-surface brushes that work together, and one edge-sweeping brush. It has four Cliff sensors to prevent it from falling down the stairs, and a Floor Tracking sensor to help it clean in neat rows instead of a bumper car-like fashion. In the dustbin, it has a high-efficiency filter, which iRobot says captures 99 percent of pollen, mold, dust mites, and cat and dog allergens. It comes with one filter preinstalled, and you get an extra one in the box.
Before sending your robot out to clean, iRobot recommends picking up cables, cords, and toys so the i3+ doesn’t get tangled or stuck on them. The company also advises you to open all interior doors before the robot’s first pass, so it can explore your home.
In the iRobot Home app for Android and iOS, you can start a new cleaning job, create a cleaning schedule, view a history of your robot’s cleaning, update its settings, get help if you’re having trouble. When creating a schedule, you can select which days of the week you want the Roomba to clean and at what time. It also supports IFTTT event-based automations, so you can, for instance, program it to automatically start cleaning when your August smart lock or MyQ-equipped garage door closes.
The i3+ cleans across the center of rooms first, then tackles the edges. When it finds an especially dirty area, it will automatically go into Dirt Detect mode and move over the offending spot multiple times until it’s sufficiently clean. When you tap the Spot clean button, the robot will spiral outward about three feet and then spiral inward to end where it started.
When its battery runs low, the i3+ will automatically return to its base recharge. If it doesn’t complete a job, it will return to where it left off on its next run.
Given its price, you can’t expect the i3+ to have all the same bells and whistles as the i7+ and s9+, and one the biggest one it lacks is Smart Maps. Its more expensive counterparts create a customizable floor map while vacuuming, and let you label each room so you can send the robot right where you want it to clean. They can even remember multiple floors if you have more than one level in your home.
For an extra $59.99, you can get a virtual wall barrier accessory that lets you block off certain rooms or areas, so the i3+ won’t clean there. It can block openings up to 10 feet, and has a Halo mode that creates a four-foot keep-out zone around fragile items. If you’re fine with the i3+ cleaning everywhere, or can block off certain rooms by simply closing the door, you probably don’t need to spend the extra money for a virtual wall barrier.
Setup
When you open the box, a Getting Started guide sitting on top walks you through the setup process. To start, place the charging station against the wall in a location near an outlet, with good Wi-Fi coverage, and at least 1.5 feet away from other objects. You then manually place the robot on the charging station, making sure to line up the metal charging contacts. After about a minute or so, you should hear a sound to let you know the robot is awake and changing.
From there, you’ll need to download the iRobot Home app, and create an account if you don’t already have one. When you first sign into the iRobot Home app, it asks for permission to find and connect to devices on your local network; press OK. It then takes you to the Add a Robot screen; here, select Roomba, and you can then name your robot or go with the default option.
The app then brings up a Wi-Fi screen where you must select the network you want to connect it to, and enter your password. After that, it instructs you to press the robot’s Home and Spot buttons simultaneously for two seconds until you hear a sound. When you hear the sound, check the box next to where it says “I pressed the buttons,” then tap Continue and it will start activating the robot. For me, the activation process only took a minute or so. Once activated, the app takes you through a quick tutorial on what your Roomba can do.
During the activation process, an Amazon Alexa notification automatically appeared on my phone saying it found the new robot, and my Echo speaker said I could control it by saying, “Turn on Roomba.”
Performance
Most companies in this space advertise their robot’s suction power in pascals (Pa), the metric unit of pressure. iRobot doesn’t make this information easy to find, but says the i3+ offers 10 times the suction power of the Roomba 600 series, just like the i7+. The expensive S9+ offers the deepest clean of any iRobot vacuum, with 40 times the suction power of the 600 series.
The i3+ works quickly and efficiently, but like other iRobot models, it can get a bit loud. When working over the carpet in my office, it made a disruptive, almost shrieking sound. If you’re sensitive to loud noises, like me, you might want to schedule the i3+ to clean when you’re out of the house.
In testing, it cleaned for almost 90 minutes before its battery ran low and it navigated back to its Clean Base. That’s better than the i7+ and s9+, both of which lasted just 60 minutes in testing, but it’s short of the Roomba 675, which ran for up to 104 minutes on a charge, as well as a number of other models we’ve tested that cross the 100-minute mark.
Though the i3+ doesn’t have the best battery life, its ability to return to where it left off is a nice feature. On one test run, it only cleaned for about an hour before returning to its base, and the app said it would pick up where it left off in about 77 minutes. Indeed, after recharging, the robot started back up and cleaned for another 24 minutes until the job was complete.
About 17 minutes into its first test run, the i3+ got stuck under one of my dining room chairs, an area that has also proven challenging for some other robot vacuums. If you have this issue, consider flipping your chairs upside down on your table like they do at restaurants, if possible, when running your vacuum. This will help prevent it from getting stuck and allow it to more easily collect the crumbs under your table. In my case, the iRobot Home app alerted me that the Roomba was stuck, so I set it free by hand and it finished the job without issue.
I have laminate, tile, and carpet in my home, and the i3+ had no problem passing over thresholds from one type of flooring to another. When its battery ran low, it successfully navigated back to its Clean Base.
After its first test run, my floors looked a lot cleaner. It left neat vacuum lines on my carpet, but a few visible specks of debris remained. After a second full test run, all visible dirt was gone.
The automatic dirt disposal feature worked perfectly, successfully sucking the contents of the robot’s dustbin into the AllergenLock bag. The robot automatically empties its bin after docking, but there’s also a button in the app that lets you do it any time. When it’s emptying the bin, the blower is pretty loud for 30 seconds or so—about the volume of an old-school standing vacuum. After several full test runs, I checked the bin and it was completely empty.
The scheduling feature also worked well in testing, and I had no problem controlling the robot with Alexa voice commands. When I said, “Alexa, ask Roomba to start vacuuming,” it got right to work. You can also say, “Alexa, ask Roomba to stop vacuuming,” and, “Alexa, ask Roomba to go home.”
In the History section of the app, you can view a list of the robot’s cleaning jobs, and click into each record to see how long it cleaned, how many square feet it covered, how many times Dirt Detect mode engaged, and a basic map of the cleaning area.
Several times over a two-week testing period, the robot lost its connection to the app, with the message, “The cloud cannot talk to Roomba. Try again later.” Each time, I was able to fix the problem fairly easily by rebooting the robot and the iRobot Home app, as recommended in the app’s Help section. When this occurred, I was running a beta version of iOS, which an iRobot spokesperson says may have caused the problem.
Maintenance
All floor-cleaning robots vacuums require some maintenance, but the i3+ isn’t as needy as most, thanks to its ability to empty its own dustbin. When the AllergenLock bag needs to be replaced, an LED indicator on the Clean Base will turn solid red.
iRobot also recommends cleaning the robot’s filter once a week (or twice a week if you have a pet), and fully replacing it every other month. To keep your robot running in tip-top shape, you’ll also want to clean the Full Bin sensor and front wheel every two weeks. About once a month, you’ll need to remove any hair that’s wrapped around the brushes, and wipe down all the other other sensors.
The app will let you know when the robot needs maintenance, and even show you how to remove the brushes and clean them, which makes the process simple.
Comparisons and Conclusions
At $600, the iRobot Roomba i3+ isn’t a budget-friendly robot vacuum by any means. And most other models in this price range feature customizable cleaning maps, which the i3+ lacks. But the i3+ makes up for it with the ability to empty its own dustbin, which significantly cuts down on maintenance and your exposure to dust.
If you don’t need smart mapping, the i3+ is an excellent alternative to the more expensive Roomba i7+, offering the same suction power and automatic-bin emptying abilities for significantly less money. It’s a particularly compelling option if you suffer from allergies, as it combines a self-emptying dustbin with a high-efficiency filter that captures allergens in the air as it cleans. It’s also a top choice for anyone looking to upgrade from a traditional robot vacuum that requires manual bin emptying to one that can do it automatically.
In this price range, it’s also worth checking out the $500 Proscenic M7 Pro, which can be purchased with an automatic dust collector accessory for the same price as the i3+, supports customizable cleaning maps, and does double duty as a mop for small spaces. That said, iRobot is one of the most trusted companies in the robot vacuum market for good reason—it consistently delivers high-quality products and adds value through feature-rich software updates. Ultimately, both are excellent options.
For an even deeper clean, check out the Roomba S9+, which costs $500 more than the i3+, but has a D shape design that allows it to get deeper into corners and align itself against walls while offering the strongest suction power of any iRobot model.
Finally, if you don’t have allergies and or you’re new to the world of robot vacuums, the $300 Roomba 675, iRobot’s most affordable model with Wi-Fi connectivity, might serve you just fine. It doesn’t feature a self-emptying dustbin, but it rarely gets stuck, automatically adjusts to different flooring, and supports scheduling and voice commands.
