iRobot unveils first manual Roomba cleaner at $399

iRobot has unveiled its first manually operated Roomba, priced at $399.

The Roomba Electro Plus is billed as a 5-in-1 hard floor cleaner that can vacuum, mop, and disinfect, but you have to push it yourself. Designed exclusively for hard floors, the device marks a sharp turn for a company built on autonomous cleaning robots. The Electro Plus sits as a more traditional cleaning tool under the Roomba brand, bridging a gap between robotic vacuuming and the kind of wet-dry cleaners you guide with a handle. In an era when floor care tech has leaned heavily into automation, iRobot is testing a different lever of control with this product.

The device arrives in a market crowded with manual wet-dry options from Dreame and Roborock, which have long offered multipurpose floor cleaners that blend scrubbing, mopping, and some form of disinfecting. By entering this space, iRobot is extending the Roomba name into a product category that prizes hands-on control and immediate, visible results on hard surfaces. The Electro Plus is pitched as a compact, all-in-one alternative to carrying separate mop pads and buckets, aiming to appeal to households that want the convenience of multiple functions without the need for a battery-powered unit to roam the house.

Alongside the Electro Plus, iRobot also announced updates to its Roomba robot vacuums: five new models with higher suction power, smaller footprints, and lower prices. These new robots are designed to replace the previous lineup that arrived in 2025, signaling that iRobot remains committed to expanding automation in floor care even as it tests this manual, hands-on option. The company says the refreshed robot lineup aims to offer stronger cleaning performance in a more compact package, with pricing that could broaden access to automated cleaning.

From a consumer perspective, the catch is clear. The Electro Plus delivers a broader cleaning toolkit in a single, budget-friendly package, but it loses the core advantage iRobot’s customers expect from the Roomba brand: full automation. For households that want someone else to do the work, the Electro Plus requires effort and time instead of a scheduled, autonomous clean. But for households that want immediate, on-demand hard floor scrubbing and disinfecting without a separate device, it offers a compelling option at a midrange price point.

Two practitioner notes matter for buyers and industry watchers. First, this move underscores a broader trend in floor care toward hybrid solutions that blend automation with manual control. Consumers may increasingly crave devices that can quickly handle spot-cleaning tasks without committing to a full robotic system, especially on spaces that require precise attention. Second, iRobot’s dual-track strategy, improving robot vacuums and fielding a manual Roomba, highlights how incumbents test adjacent product categories to defend brand loyalty and capture broader purchase consideration. If Electro Plus gains traction, the company will need to balance the incremental value of this manual system against the customer’s appetite for more automation in the same brand family.

Looking ahead, investors and customers should watch how the Electro Plus performs in real households. Will the 5-in-1 capability on hard floors translate into meaningful time savings, or will the manual element feel like a compromise next to a fully autonomous Roomba? And as iRobot rolls out refreshed robotics models with stronger suction and lower price points, will the Electro Plus cannibalize demand for entry-level robot vacuums or complement them by expanding the Roomba ecosystem into more cleaning tasks?