This little vacuum robot is great but it can only be used by pressing the start button on it (ie; manually starting it) and not via the app unless you have a very specific configuration. If your wifi router does not let you create a separate SSID for 2.4GHz band then there is no way to connect to it via the app because this robot ONLY connects to 2.4 GHz and ONLY if your phone is also connected to a 2.4 GHz band network. If your router has one SSID (the wifi network name) and automatically sets the GHz band for each device connection, then a lot of this robot's features are off-limits. This is because iOS and Android do not let you select which band to prefer for a given SSID. Your device just automatically connects to the highest band, which means 5 GHz if you have a router made in the last several years. This is really disappointing because a couple times the Roomba has stopped, given an error chime, and told me to check the app for more information. Well, there's no way to check the app for more information unless you have a very outdated router OR a router that lets you configure a separate network name for 2.4 GHz only traffic. If you have an smart router like Nest Wifi, you won't be able to connect the app to the Roomba. Luckily, the robot generally works with the manual start/stop button which is why I give it 3 stars. I would strongly recommend NOT buying this Roomba unless you have a separate SSID for 2.4 GHz, though.

The Irobot i3 has good suction and picks up dirt very well, in this regard I am happy. But unfortunately, that's where it ends. For the price, I feel there are much better value machines out there for far less.So we got the i3 a bit over a month ago when our old (basic version EcoVac) robot died. We wanted an upgrade, that picked up a bit better and more reliably got to all the areas. Now the i3 does pick up better, but for almost twice the price it doesn't improve the cleaning that much. When it comes to cleaning everywhere, our old vacuum robot would bounce (seemingly) randomly and after an hour it went home. I don't see any difference in the total area of floor covered, in fact, the supposed methodical vacuuming in lines using a map of the i3 is worse. It misses areas regularly and doesn't seem to work as methodically as is claimed.Mapping: The mapping is basically useless without any control of the vacuum. When I say no control I mean there is start cleaning, timed cleaning, and return home, that's it. You have no ability to direct it to an area or concentrate on an area, nothing, it only starts and stops. I find this shocking as having at least remote control is common on basic models from other brands that are half the price. I honestly feel the information for this product is misleading in regards to its mapping functionality. To make clear, the i3 goes up and down bumping into things or sensing walls, it turns, and goes the other way, it builds a map. That map CAN NOT be used to send the robot to that area, block areas off, etc. I believe those functions are reserved for the more expensive models.The bin is too small and seems to 'fill' before it's full. I will get an alert on my phone from the app. (which is nice), the bin is full, I'll go check it and when removing the bin, a bunch of 'stuff' falls out of the bin as it hasn't gone fully in and there is also patch where dirt isn't picked up under the robot, in fact, this patch slowly builds up each time the robot returns to home. The bin however is not full, it is just that the sensor on the i3 sees all the fluffy dirt sticking out of the bin that for some reason will not enter properly.I don't normally write negative reviews, and I try to be positive, the main problem of the Roomba i3 is that for its price I feel there are better, it's marketed as having a special form of mapping but it's not clear it is not the smart mapping of the i7 and i9, it does not cover the cleaning area much better, and problems with the bin are annoying especially as its a cleaning robot. That apart it picks up dirt well.

TLDR, if it’s on sale and you want mapping and don’t have thick carpet. Does great with pet hair on hard floorsThe first one I had was dumb aka no mapping but it did a fantastic job with the actual vacuuming but if I wanted just one or two rooms done I had to close the door for 15 minutes and of course it would never find home base. It very rarely got stuck and if it did it would stop after 30 seconds or so, this one goes until it’s so stuck the battery runs down. The mapping is great, I send it to the bedroom, it meanders there like a drunk, goes about 5 minutes, turns the vacuum off and wanders back towards home base wasting 15+ minutes of battery but then goes back and finishes. So for the 800sqft of my high traffic areas, it takes 1.5 hours, charges for another hour than runs for another hour. That’s sometimes 4 hours that doesn’t include guest rooms, bathrooms, office etc. It doesn’t do near as good of a job vacuuming and really the only thing keeping me from sending it back is the mapping. It only rubber brushes so I really doubt it’s doing anything but putting lines in the carpet vs the old one has brushes so if you have thick carpet I’d look elsewhere but probably fine for rugs. The dust bin port is very narrow compared and it always says full because it bottle necks and I’m sure gets less efficient.I paid $200 refurb, I would be happy with $150 but I’m content enough to not bother sending back.

I have been using the roomba i3 for 2 months. It does navigates quite well in the house. It is specially good with hair. It works by mapping the place and then runs in parallel lines.You can define zones in the map and name those (kitchen, dining room, etc).BAD: The side brush stopped turning after 3 weeks. Even after cleaning the unit often for stuck hair and dirt. That does impact its performance a lot. That brush its important.CONS:It have a hard time going over transitioning strips (when the floating floor ends and ceramic floor starts), so it can get stuck or get trap in an area.The mapping feature does NOT work very well. I have made it map the house about 10 times, figuring out what are the difficult parts and trying to making things easier. But the unit can't make a good and correct map. And the App does not allow you to edit or make corrections on the map, which is a pity.Because of the map has errors, and it relies on it, at those places the unit becomes confused and can get lost going where it was not assigned.It tends to go futher than the zone assigned, so if you want to make a "no go zone", you have to make it unnecessarily big.I am disappointed with the app. At some point i wanted to remap the house again, and it told me that this would delete the previous map, i was ok with this. But after 2 hours mapping it failed to update the map. It does work if you delete the existing map first. But its a silly bug for product of this quality. Also the imposibility of editing the map.If the brush had not stoped working and the mapping worked better or allowed editing, this would be and excellent product.

I was really excited to find a robot vacuum in my (higher) price range, so I gave it a shot. I REALLY REALLY WANTED A ROBOT VACUUM. I named her Roberta!!! But here's my experience:PROS:- Super helpful for maintenance; set a schedule, and you won't have to remember to sweep up your dusty hard wood floors ALL THE TIME- Actually pretty good at not getting jammed with hair.- Very easy to clean out!- It didn't jump off a stair :)CONS:- It's wraps the hairs round the edge of the rollers, just like a regular vacuum, it doesn't suck them into the waste bin. Maybe as expected, but it's surprisingly hard to see the hair in the edge of the rollers, so you might not know to clean it out until it's too late.- This generation (i2) does NOT have individual room mapping, which I realize now is kind of vital for a robot. It makes more sense to concentrate daily cleaning on high-traffic areas and not the extra bedroom no one has entered in the last 3 months- It started spinning in circles in the middle of an empty room. I googled it, and it said you need to clean the wheels.... the wheels were spotless, no debris, it had finished cleaning and was on the way to its home so it was very weird. Made me think the software was buggy.- It would just stop moving or vacuuming multiple times during cleaning, and just stand still (like it turned off). It was just 4-5 seconds, but it's very often. Seemed like it was processing? Or confused maybe?- It doesn't seem to remember its own map, because it would frequently bump up against things that have NOT moved, not even an inch, as if it didn't expect it to be there. Maybe by moving my trash can 5 inches to the left, that threw its calibrations off?- It cleans the same strips and areas over, and over, and over. I was fascinated by it when I first got it, so I would watch it work..... then I realized it was obsessed with my rug, and the room I keep it in which have very little traffic.- The opening of the dust bin is not even partially sealed, and there are lots of nooks where particles can get stuck in the bottom, so if you flip over the Roomba or tilt it, then dust and debris just slide right out on to the floor again. An example is a little bit of cat litter; really messy when it drops all over the floor when you're trying to clean the machine.OPINION:- It is kinda loud. Scares the crap out of my cat.- It uses its bumpers A LOT, which makes me feel like it's not a very efficient mapper, and will break quickly with how many times it runs into things- It really was good for maintenance, it just doesn't behave efficiently. I feel like it would wear itself down quickly, with how it operates.Overall, I wish it worked a little better (smarter software, better dirt storage) to be worth the SALE price tag of $199. I would not pay $300+ for this version....

Needed to up grade so we purchased the i3...1st: dislike that there is no handle! My old roomba had a handle and I pick it up with one hand and move to another room or to pick it up to clean. This has no handle and you have to pick up the whole unit with both hands 2nd: The clean button has to be pushed at least 3x to get it going, and there is no icon showing its connected to the wifi. 3rd: After 2wks of use it gives a brushes needed cleaning error...fair enough we have alot of animal hair. (I do like the brushes) after cleaning I kept getting the clean brushes error...worked on this for over 30mins...hubby looked at it and said the dark green brushes wasn't rotating...he doctored on end that has the little metal connector and got it rotating again and it seems to be working per usual. 4th: the filter and bin is smaller, filer is like a 3 inch sq, the bin is smaller but easy to empty and put back into place. I will have to update review the filter after more use. So far..I like the i3 just it needs the features of the my old 600 series.

First of all this is exactly same as Roomba i3 EVO with two exceptions. It has a 20% bigger battery. 2210mAh instead of 1800mAh for i3 EVO. Includes a virtual wall device and 2 extra filters. Virtual wall can be used to block Roomba from going to certain places.PROS:1. The vacuum part of the robot is pretty good. It’s dual roller design does a great job at vacuuming both carpets and hardwood floors. Prevents hair tangling to the roller. The hair get collected to the side of the roller. So it doesn’t reduce its performance. You also regularly need to clean the rollers. This is the main reason I am still keeping it.2. Genuine Parts are readily available. Albeit a bit expensive.3. Build quality is really good.4. Manages to get the job done most of the time.CONS:1. Phone app needs improvement. 1.1 Clean Maps don’t load in cleaning history mode. Sometimes for the same job, they work and other times they don’t load. This shows that the maps are stored on the servers and they have issue in loading them. This has been a known issue for a long time and hopefully will get fixed. 1.2. There is no way to cancel a job in the App once it is started. You can only pause it. When you do that the Roomba just stops in place. There is no way to tell it to just go back home. You have either hit the physical home button on the robot or manual carry it to it’s base station. 1.3. You can’t save multiple maps in Smart Maps section. If you have a multi level house the mapping feature is useless.2. Small battery compared to competitors. It has 2210mAh battery. Which gives a roughly 100 min runtime when new. If you have a large house it has to charge in the middle if cleaning run. It can take couple of hours to charge. This can significantly increase the time to finish a job. Combine that with a very inefficient navigation algorithm and it’s a double whammy.3. Small dust filter. It clogs up quickly and you need to tap it or vacuum the filter using a regular home vacuum to extend its life. The filters are expensive at $10 each.4. Inefficient navigation. IRobot doesn’t use LiDAR to map the room. This particular model just bumps around the room to feed it’s mapping and Navigation software. No matter how smart their software is, lack of laser sensors makes very inefficient. Even after it creates the map it just bumps and bangs everything to find its way. This also means it takes longer to complete the job than a robot with LiDAR sensors. Even on their higher end models they just rely of cheap cameras to help with navigation. All the Chinese brands have LiDAR and do a much better at navigation and mapping.Some of these issues are just software restrictions or bugs and can be resolved. Others are fundamental design issues.It’s sad to see the pioneer of robovacs over taken by the competitors. If iRobot doesn’t get their act together quickly they will be out of business.

So I had a Roborock S4 Max that died after 13.5 months. Left wheel error. Impossible to get a new wheel in a reasonable time from China, wheels in the US would cost 1/3 of a new robot. Out of warranty repair (thanks for nothing!) is $95. A decision was made to buy a new robot as it would come with new everything and a warranty AND is an iRobot device. We previously had a 600 series and it went through a flood, vacuuming cat pee, numerous disassembly and deep cleanings, it was a tank.Enter the i3, the robot that is sold as a robot that maps and can do room by room cleaning. Except it doesn't until 3 days later when it decides to update the software to the version that enables that. I opened a ticket with iRobot asking when this was going to be pushed to the robot; I got the software before an answer from them. Not really great customer service so far but lucky me, Roombas pretty much always work as expected so having customer service isn't critical.IT IS LOUD. If you have tile or hard floors, it is LOUD. Carpet is significantly quieter, it muffles the noise. There is no customizing anything except single pass or two passes per room. You can't increase or decrease the suction but most of the noise is the brush rolls smashing around.You have to be very conscious of the i3's dock location. It must be very accessible because the robot has no idea where it is until it catches the beacon light. So if you have a table and chairs in between the dock and your robot, it will wander aimlessly to and fro, left and right, about-face for a few feet, repeat, unable to get beyond this "object" that blocks the light - yet the robot can see it! Unable to think enough to say, "wow, what if I went a few feet to the left or right." The "dumb" navigation of the i3 vs the older dumb ones like the 600 series is not improved. I don't think iRobot did ANYTHING to make this smarter aside from the internal map it uses to do straight lines because it can't figure out where it is unless it is within 10 feet of the dock.So it's mapping and smashing into things as it maps and after an hour and a half it got a reasonable picture of my floorplan. I divided the rooms to my preference and named them. Let me say as negative as I have been, it maps and runs decently. In a weird shaped room like a hallway or around furniture legs, it is ponderous and feels like it runs over the same spot again and again. In a big room it makes neat, straight, long lines.For a robot that only knows where it has been by using a tiny sensor on the bottom and the front bumper, it performs remarkably well. Not nearly as well as a LIDAR or camera robot but my wife has privacy concerns about having a live camera in the house so we aren't buying any more intelligent of a Roomba. If you start it from the dock, let it run, and let it come back home it will make it without major problems.You can't set any keep-away zones, virtual walls, going to a spot, etc. It doesn't do that because it doesn't know exactly where it is in space. But you can buy some virtual walls and they will work just fine.The map only works for one floor but you can just take it elsewhere and push the Clean button and it will do it's thing without affecting the saved map. We have an inaccessible room and that was the one thing that the Roborock did NOT do well was to "just clean a room" it had to be a second floor and a whole thing to make it work.So I don't really hate this but I don't like it a lot either. It is a very smart Roomba 690 but it it still a dumb robot at heart with the ability to know exactly where it is and to act accordingly. But it is a really good deal for a robot that does room by room cleaning and actually has a "proper" supply chain and parts availability.

The media could not be loaded.  We have had this robot since Christmas 2020. This was my first robot vacuum and I can say that it has convinced me never to go without one. I also know thanks to this unit what features I want and that smart enough isn't always smart enough. i3 did get an upgrade where you can map and specify what rooms to clean but after trying a dozen times and dedicating many hours to the mapping run (which only maps not cleans) I had to settle for the map that most closely got our floor plan, it missed half of our living room and totally missed my room although there is no clutter and the door was wide open. Most other robots use lidar, this Roomba uses gyroscopes. Top-of-the-line Roombas use top-mounted cameras and still don't give as good a result as lidar. Go with lidar.After careful, constant maintenance our robot needs a new battery- its already slow work of our house has become so long with charge times that we almost always cancel the cycle before it can complete the house, that is if it hasn't gotten stuck or just run out of battery. Instead of this repair, I am getting the Roborock Q Revo. This is a major step up with all the bells and whistles, mopping, self empty, refilling, etc. without going top of the line (Roborock s7 or s8 max ultra, Dreametech l10s) but not everyone needs or wants those features. What I would recommend instead of Roomba is a Roborock as their app allows mapping features- targeted clean/keep out zones, or something like the Eufy G30 which did an excellent clean, had comparable app features (plus live view), and included boundary strips. There are tons of robots out there at the same price point that will offer more features at the same price point or below. All this isn't to say this is a bad robot but think about whether you want to be settling down to Netflix and chill only for your robot to finish topping up a charge and to loudly bust into the room. It is in my opinion too loud to run overnight so that option is out for us. Leaving the house and expecting it to do the full job is out because it gets stuck. Roomba j7 without the mop is the only one worth looking at but again for the price, there are some really impressive features on other vacuums out there.Pros-it cleans carpet very wellit recharges and resumes a job where it left offnavigation is better than a bounce-around early-model roboteasy to maintain, fix and find parts forCons-loud- I got my parents a Eufy G30 edge for Christmas in 2021 and ran these side by side, on carpet Eufy was much quieternavigation doesn't always make sensecan't block out zones or problem areas without the separate purchase of physical battery-powered boundary cubestakes between 6 hours (new) -11 hours (2-year-old battery) to complete our 2000 sq. ft single level even though we close many doors to just get the main living areasgets stuck almost every run on or under furnitureSCREENSHOT of log is from 2021, most runs are stuck, low battery or cancelled due to the long run time

So on the plus side, the Roomba is clleaning better than other robo vacs I've had in the past including a wyze model. Its also much sturdier feeling and easier to clean. The negative is this vacuum feels incredibly dumb compared to cheaper alternatives. It has a battery life of about 30 mins and takes over 8 hours consistently to clean about 2500 square feet, meaning it goes back to recharge constantly and resumes its job, which takes all day. I've looked at the maps it generates of the house and they are hilariously wrong.