Quick Answer: The Roomba i3+ EVO is iRobot’s mid-range mapping robot, and the only thing separating it from the cheaper i3 EVO is self-emptying — both share identical “10X Power-Lifting Suction” hardware and Imprint Smart Mapping per iRobot’s own spec pages, but only the ”+” model pairs with a Clean Base dock that empties its bin for up to 60 days. List price has been seen as high as $395-399 and as low as $284-299 across Walmart, Slickdeals, and January 2026 deal trackers — treat any single number as a starting point. Buy it for dependable room mapping and iRobot’s app ecosystem; skip it if raw suction or carpet deep-cleaning is your priority, since Vacuum Wars measured a Shark AI Ultra beating it on both power and navigation efficiency in direct testing.
Three of our own reviews already lean on the Roomba i3+ EVO as a yardstick: our Shark Matrix review cites Vacuum Wars clocking it mapping a 334 sq ft room over five times slower than the Matrix, our Roborock vs. Shark comparison uses the same benchmark, and our Roomba 694 review points to it as the step-up pick for buyers who want real mapping instead of bump-and-go. Despite all that, the i3+ EVO itself never got a dedicated page — so here’s what the ”+” and the “EVO” actually mean, and where the site’s own sourcing disagrees on basic specs.
Roomba i3+ EVO by the numbers
- 5.8 CFM (0.2 m³/min) max head airflow and 0.1 inH₂O (0.03 kPa) max head suction, per RTINGS’ bench testing of the shared i3-line hardware — low next to flagship competitors, even though iRobot markets “10X” suction versus its own decade-old 600 series.
- ~0.4-0.5 liter onboard dustbin, per iRobot’s own spec page — small, and separate from the Clean Base dock’s 60-day, ~1.7-liter disposal bag.
- Runtime cited anywhere from 75 to 96 minutes depending on the source (iRobot’s own spec vs. BestReviews vs. hands-on testing) — genuine disagreement, not a typo.
- 5.8 sq ft/min navigation efficiency, per Vacuum Wars’ head-to-head against the Shark AI Ultra’s 6.8 sq ft/min, and roughly 820 sq ft covered per charge against the Shark’s ~1,019 sq ft.
- Price seen from $284 to $399 across Walmart, Slickdeals, and seasonal deal roundups in 2026 — a wide enough spread that “list price” isn’t a reliable anchor for this model.
What the ”+” and “EVO” actually change
iRobot has sold this core platform under several near-identical names, and the differences are easy to miss on a retail shelf. The EVO suffix marks the current-generation refresh of the i3 line — both the i3 EVO and i3+ EVO carry the same Imprint Smart Mapping and the same unpublished-but-identical suction spec. The ”+” is the only thing that changes: it’s shorthand for “pairs with a Clean Base,” the self-emptying dock that lets the robot run multiple cleaning sessions before you touch the bin. Buy the plain i3 EVO without the dock and you’re emptying that small ~0.4-0.5 liter bin by hand after every run — identical cleaning performance, just more manual maintenance. That’s a meaningfully different ownership experience hiding behind one character in the model name.
iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO
- Imprint Smart Mapping learns your home's layout for room-by-room scheduling and cleaning, per iRobot.
- Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal empties the robot's bin into a ~1.7-liter bag for up to 60 days, per iRobot.
- Dual multi-surface rubber brushes resist hair wrap better than bristle brushes, consistent with iRobot's pet-hair-focused models.
- Wi-Fi, iRobot app, and Alexa/Google Assistant control; no camera-based obstacle avoidance (that's reserved for the j-series).
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Model comparison
| Model | Self-empty | Mapping | Suction hardware | Typical price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roomba 694 (budget) | No | No | 3-Stage, lower class | ~$159-$275 |
| Roomba i3 EVO | No | Yes (Imprint) | "10X" vs 600-series | Lower than i3+ |
| Roomba i3+ EVO | Yes (60 days) | Yes (Imprint) | "10X" vs 600-series (identical to i3 EVO) | ~$284-$399 |
| Roomba i5+ (step-up) | Yes (60 days) | Yes (Imprint) | Higher-tier, per iRobot | ~$350 |
The i3 → i3+ jump is purely about the dock. The bigger functional jump is to the i5+ or the camera-equipped j-series (see our Roomba j7+ review), where you actually gain obstacle avoidance or stronger documented performance, not just automation of the same hardware.
Who should buy the Roomba i3+ EVO
- Buy it if you want real room-by-room mapping and hands-off emptying without paying flagship prices — this is the entry point into iRobot’s self-emptying, mapped lineup.
- Buy it if you’re comparing it against the Roomba 694: the mapping and bigger effective capacity (via the dock) are worth the jump for most multi-room homes.
- Skip it if raw suction or deep carpet cleaning matters most — Vacuum Wars measured a Shark AI Ultra outperforming it on both power and navigation efficiency at a similar price.
- Skip it if you have pets or cluttered floors and want obstacle avoidance — the i3+ EVO has no front-facing camera; step up to the j-series for that.
- Consider the plain i3 EVO instead if you don’t mind hand-emptying a small bin — it’s mechanically identical and meaningfully cheaper.
How it compares
Against Shark’s current lineup, our Shark Matrix review found the Matrix mapped a 334 sq ft room in 5 minutes against the i3+ EVO’s 26 minutes in the same Vacuum Wars test — a real speed gap, though the Matrix line trades that for zero camera-based obstacle avoidance, while the i3+ EVO’s sensor-and-map approach is at least predictable around light clutter. Against Roborock, our Roborock vs. Shark comparison notes the Shark Matrix “out-mapped a Roomba i3+ EVO five-to-one on speed” — useful context if you’re cross-shopping outside the iRobot ecosystem entirely. Within iRobot’s own lineup, our Roomba 694 review treats the i3+ EVO as the natural step-up for buyers who outgrow bump-and-go navigation.
The bottom line
The Roomba i3+ EVO earns its spot as this site’s most-cited benchmark robot for a reason: real mapping, dependable self-emptying, and iRobot’s well-reviewed app, at a price that’s swung anywhere from $284 to $399 depending on where and when you look. What it doesn’t have is raw power — RTINGS’ bench numbers and Vacuum Wars’ head-to-head testing both put it behind flagship-tier suction and navigation efficiency. If you already know you want an iRobot and don’t need camera-based obstacle avoidance, this is the right mid-tier pick; just confirm with the listing whether you’re getting the self-emptying ”+” model or the cheaper dock-less i3 EVO before you check out.