According to Engadget, iRobot unveiled the cordless Roomba Electro Plus, a manual hard-floor cleaner that vacuums, mops, and disinfects without detergent. The device uses an electrical process to convert tap water into hypochlorous acid, claiming to kill 99.99% of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and germs.
iRobot built its empire on removing chores from your hands. Now it's selling a tool for the jobs robots still botch: sticky residue, wet cleaning, and spot treatment that require human judgment. Autonomous floor cleaning has hit a wall. The company is admitting it by reaching for a manual cleaner.
The disinfection chemistry is the real pitch. Electrolysis-powered cleaning without added detergent gives iRobot a cleaner marketing story and a differentiation angle in a crowded aisle of indistinguishable wet-dry gadgets. It's a narrow moat, but it's something.
This is what a category ceiling looks like. Home robotics promised labor-saving magic, but the money is still in selling people better handles, better batteries, and one sharper trick they can trust on the kitchen floor tonight. If iRobot is reaching for a manual cleaner in 2026, that says less about a side quest than about where the easy growth in consumer robotics ran out.
Filed to the Technology desk · Jul 7