Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums can be great for keeping your floors tidy but they cannot replace a traditional vacuum. Even the most powerful robots struggle to get into carpets or rugs, and can often get tangled in cords and socks.

Staying on top of routine maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes, and emptying the dust bin) can help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is the runner-up of our top selections. It comes with an energy-efficient battery that can last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square foot) on a single charge. This amount of runtime will be more than enough for homes that have the combination of hard flooring and carpets with low pile or larger homes where the rooms are similar in size.

A longer battery life means that the robot will spend less time charging and can spend more time cleaning. You should select a model that has an auto-emptying bin. These models are more efficient in cleaning up debris and bringing it to docks to recharge. It's important to clean or replace filters and wipe down the sensors and the camera on a regular schedule so they can see clearly.

Smart mapping technology can be a valuable feature, as you can program your robot to ensure that it only cleans certain rooms or stays clear of areas where it is likely to bump into furniture and other obstacles. This feature is also helpful for ensuring that your robot vacuum cleaner black friday is able to reach under and around furniture such as sofas, beds and other high-height items. A few robovacs are cheap and have boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off certain areas, and other models with higher-end features utilize sensors and cameras to achieve this goal.

Even the best robot vacuums can't replace a conventional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty, large-pile dirt and debris. It's recommended to have a power vacuum on hand for these chores and plan robot vacs for light cleanings throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate around your home without getting stuck or crashing into things such as metal screws or loose pet hair or sand. In our tests the tracking device is used to track the robot vacuum hoover through an entire lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also check how well the robot can avoid obstacles like power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

The Best Robot Vacuum robots can map out multiple floors, and recognize landmarks like windows and doors. The most advanced robots like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system, that uses an LIDAR to map out a room and a structured-light camera at the front to spot objects in real-time. The S8 is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords and furniture legs. It also has the ability to store up to four floor maps.

The most affordable robot vacuum models depend on bump sensors that aren't as accurate. In my testing, they plowed right through cords, dog poop and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The Dreametech D10+ is the best value choice. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, good hair and tangle pickup and an auto empty score.

Another important feature is a large onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually emptied, and for models that mop, a tank of water which can store weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a big enough footprint to be able to be placed under furniture, but not so big that it is unable to fit into the nook between your toilet and bathtub.

Apps

robot vac vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require a lot of technology to keep them up to date. The result is a mature market with plenty of options. But even the best models still require some interaction with their users, particularly when it comes to scheduling cleanings, establishing a home floor plan, and setting up virtual barriers.

To help reduce this kind of interaction, look for a model with its own app to recognize the design of your home and save the settings for the future. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off in subsequent runs, without having to restart the mapping process every time.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning modes. You can tell the robot vacuum cleaner to concentrate on a specific area, for example, under the table after a big family meal. You can typically do this using the app or by voice commands.

Many models also offer objects-avoidance. It allows the robot to observe something in its path, like a box of shoes or a crate filled with dog toys, and coach itself around it. This will keep it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause a jam.

This feature is available on a few of the more expensive models we tested. They rely on bump sensor technology to do this however they did not always stay clear of things I tested at home.

Pet Hair

When you're looking to remove pet hair, look for a model that's designed specifically to handle this type of debris. The best models have powerful suction capabilities and a brush that prevents tangling, and an emptying mechanism that can automatically dump hair into the dust bin when needed. Some models can also determine dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity according to the amount of dirt. They are able to detect items that aren't part of your flooring, such as furniture and toys, food bowls, cords, and more.

Some robot vacuums include pet-friendly features, like a small water dispenser that can be used for mopping floors and a HEPA filter that can help reduce allergens like pet dust. They may also offer the option of a quieter operation, which will reduce the amount of sound generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums with mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home, and create an attack plan based upon the layout of each room as well as obstacles. For example, the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an amazing ability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions using gyroscope and accelerometer smart sensors that work together to learn the layout of your home.

Other models that are more advanced let you set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is supposed to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding spots--by adjusting settings using an app. This feature is especially useful for families with busy schedules, since you can schedule cleaning sessions without having to be present in the space in which the vacuum is. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning that allows you to control the vacuum to clean a particular area that is particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want anything small, consider a robot with a large bin, or even a self-emptying dustbin. We recommend choosing one with an enormous bin or a trash bin that self-empties. The former will allow you to keep track of cleaning the bin regularly enough to stay on top of its performance while the latter will help you save time and effort by automatically dumping the contents into an internal container after every few cleans.

No matter the size of your home, most robots can easily get up to and around furniture, and most are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, cords that are loose and dog puke. Find models with smart mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the layout of your home and design more efficient routes, and ones that can sense and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or the tangled charging cables).

Some models also offer spot cleaning, which lets you to manually target an area of your home for intense cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests are able to take in fine particles such as baking soda and sand along with heavier debris such as oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws, and pet hair.

Based on the manufacturer, most robots can last for years and will continue to perform well in the event that you maintain them with regular maintenance, such as cleaning tangled hair from brushes, emptying the dust bin after each use and cleaning cameras and sensors whenever required. The top robots are more modular. This allows you to replace or repair parts like batteries and wheels, when they wear out.