iRobot has introduced the Roomba Electro Plus, a cordless, human-operated 5-in-1 hard floor cleaner that marks the company's first non-robotic product line. The announcement came July 7, 2026, alongside a new generation of Roomba robot vacuums Engadget.

The Electro Plus vacuums, mops, and disinfects in a single pass. Its headline feature is an onboard electrolysis process that converts ordinary tap water into hypochlorous acid using an electrical current, requiring no added cleaning chemicals Engadget. iRobot claims the resulting solution kills 99.99 percent of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and germs on hard flooring Engadget, a figure that echoes disinfectant efficacy language more commonly seen on EPA-registered cleaning products than on floor-care appliances.

Mechanically, the device borrows directly from iRobot's robot vacuum lineage. It uses the same PowerSpin Roller Mop and DirtDetect sensing system found in current Roomba robots, and it can lay completely flat to reach under furniture and low-clearance obstacles — a form factor that upright cleaners have historically struggled with Engadget. Runtime is rated at up to 35 minutes cordless, sufficient by iRobot's account to cover up to 1,292 square feet on a single charge Engadget.

Maintenance is handled by a companion ThermaClean dock, which automatically washes, dries, and sanitizes the mop head between uses Engadget — the same self-cleaning philosophy iRobot has applied to its robot vacuum bases for several product cycles, now extended to a manually operated device. The Roomba Electro Plus 5-in-1 Disinfecting Hard Floor Cleaner is listed on iRobot's site under SKU H115020 and sits within a newly created "Disinfecting Floor Cleaner" landing page on the company's US storefront iRobot. It launched at $400 and was available for purchase the same day it was announced Engadget.

Adam Pope, iRobot's chief engineer and vice president, is named as the company's spokesperson on the launch CNET.

Alongside the Electro Plus, iRobot unveiled updated robot models, including the Roomba Max 775 Combo Robot with AutoWash Dock, priced at $1,000 Engadget. The dual announcement positions iRobot as competing simultaneously in autonomous and manual floor care, two categories it previously treated as separate market segments entirely.

The launch follows a difficult stretch for the company. iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 15, 2025, with a lender agreeing to acquire the Roomba maker and take it private as part of the restructuring Reuters. That filing came after years of pressure on iRobot's core robot vacuum business, including a collapsed acquisition attempt by Amazon and intensifying competition from Chinese manufacturers such as Roborock and Ecovacs, which have undercut iRobot on price while matching or exceeding it on navigation and mapping features.

Diversifying into human-operated hard floor cleaning is a logical hedge for a company whose brand equity was built entirely on autonomy. It puts iRobot into direct contention with established manual wet-dry vacuum makers like Tineco and Bissell, both of which already sell self-cleaning cordless mops in a similar price band, though neither currently markets an electrolysis-based disinfection system as a core differentiator. Whether "Roomba" as a brand name carries meaning to consumers once it's attached to a product with no autonomous navigation at all is an open question — the name has been synonymous with robotic cleaning for nearly a quarter century.

The chemical-free disinfection angle is likely to draw the most scrutiny from a technical audience. Hypochlorous acid generated via electrolysis is a well-understood chemistry, used for years in commercial sanitation and increasingly in consumer air and surface cleaning devices, and it degrades relatively quickly after generation compared to bottled bleach-based solutions. Whether iRobot's 99.99 percent efficacy claim holds up under independent third-party testing, and against which specific pathogens, has not yet been verified outside the company's own marketing materials.

For a company emerging from Chapter 11 under new private ownership, launching a genuinely new product category rather than simply iterating on robot vacuums is a notable signal of intent. It suggests iRobot's post-bankruptcy leadership sees more room to expand within the floor-care category broadly than to keep fighting an increasingly commoditized robot vacuum price war on its own turf.