Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At the Roomba i3+'s price point, I suspect a lot of buyers won't be first-time robot vac owners, but will be upgrading from earlier models like me, and know their way around them. So I won't spend time on basics. My own well-used Roomba 551 has been in use for over 6 years, and while it's still doing a good job, it's time to move up. So I'll be comparing the i3+ to it for illustration purposes: - The systematic cleaning pattern is my favorite. I've included a photo showing the i3+'s parallel cleaning pattern on my carpet, and for me that's far better than the random pattern of my 551 (and most other vacs). Nice! - A close second favorite is the self-emptying feature. I have to manually empty the 551's bin after each use, but this one takes care of itself. That's big! - The i3+ utilizes a pair of ribbed rubber rollers instead of the brush-and-roller system of my 551 (see photo). The 551's brush is bad about getting tangled up with pet hair, carpet fibers and other debris, so the rubber rollers should be an improvement. They seem to do as good a job of picking up dirt and combing my carpet as the 551's brush setup, so I'm happy with that. No more brush detangling! - The i3+ is very slightly taller than my 551 – maybe 1/8” or so (slightly exaggerated in my photo). If your earlier iRobot vac (or most competing vacs) got stuck under certain things, the i3+ probably will, too. - Sound level is important, and I can report the i3+ is slightly quieter than the 551. It measures 60 dB at 6” while running, while my 551 measures 65 dB. You will know when either one is running. And the empty process when the i3+ docks is really noisy, but fortunately it lasts only a few seconds. It peaks at a loud 79 dB (about the same as an average garbage disposal), and I've included a short video that shows the noise level difference between running and emptying. - Battery runtime is comparable to the 551, at about 60-70 minutes, but if the i3+ hasn't finished, and will recharge itself and go back to where it left off until the job is complete. The 551 merely quits and goes back to its dock when the battery runs low. Are there any negatives? Sure: - There is no separate remote, or controls on the vac, so you must use the app on your cell phone or tablet to program and control it. - The app doesn't currently allow for your choice of areas or rooms to clean, although that's supposedly in the works. - You can't steer the vac in real-time from the app, or specify special jobs like spot cleaning or edge cleaning, like you can with some competing vacs. That needs some work. - I wish the i3+ were a little slimmer (lower to the floor), again like some of the competition, so it could go under furniture more easily. - There are no “don't go” barriers included to make the vac avoid specific things or areas. The vac's built-in algorithms supposedly learn to avoid them, but it can't know all the things you don't want bumped or stuck on. - The docking station is large, due to its dirt collection/storage system, so it's going to be an obvious part of your 'decor'. - It's expensive. I'm still learning about the i3+, and in spite of a few minor shortcomings, I really like it. But those shortcomings, at this price level, are enough to make me deduct a star. More features in the software and more physical control of the vac itself are needed to make this a real standout machine. No robot vac is perfect, and the i3+ will do a great job of cleaning your floors, which is what it's designed to do. All things considered, it's hard to go wrong with the i3+ and I know you'll enjoy it. 60 DAYS Later ... I'm really impressed with this vac. It takes a few cycles for it to map your floors, but when it finally does, it does a very thorough job of cleaning. Just give it a while to learn where to go. If your house or apartment is like ours and has a fair amount of floorspace, you'll find that the vac needs to do part of it, then recharge, then do some more. It knows where it left off and will resume at that spot. It can get annoying when it needs most of the day to vacuum, recharge, and vacuum some more, but it does do a good job. If you get tired of it, you can always tell it to end the job, or pause it and restart it later. As I mentioned above, this model doesn't allow you to restrict it to certain areas, or make it avoid areas. It will attempt to vacuum the entire space, even if it takes 3 or 4 recharges before it gets it done. After I wrote the original review I learned that the next model up does allow you to specify areas to clean, but this one doesn't. I wish I could give it another half star, because it's that good. But the steep price and lack of ability to control where it cleans or avoids - or to even manually steer it from the app - is still worth deducting some points. But it's still become a valued member of our household. ;-) 90 days later ... I've changed my overall rating to a full 5 stars. I still wish this model would let me exclude certain areas, but the longer I use this vac the more I like it. It's thorough (I sometimes think too much, but it does a really good job). I say too thorough because it takes 3 complete cycles to do my house, so with recharging and emptying in between, it runs off and on for hours before deciding it's finished. Oh, and the bag inside the dock still isn't indicating it's full, but I'm changing it anyway. Overall, this is an fairly expensive device, but one that does an excellent job to justify its price. It's not a toy; it's a useful tool that will save you the hard work of vacuuming your floors every few days. Get one.