Aja Angwin

Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are great in keeping your floors spotless, they can't replace a full-size vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to penetrate carpets or rugs, and can often get caught in cords and socks.

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

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums can manage just a few cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The runner-up of our top picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo comes with a battery capable of lasting up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This will suffice for homes that have carpets, hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes where the rooms are about the same size.

A longer battery life also means the robot can spend more time cleaning and less time charging its dock. It's a good idea to choose models that have a self-emptying dust bin, as they are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for charging. It is also essential to clean or replace the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors regularly so that they can see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology can be a valuable feature, as it allows you to program your robot to ensure that it only cleans specific rooms or areas it's likely to bump into furniture and other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot is able to get under and around sofas, beds and other furniture that is tall. A few robovacs that are cheap have boundary strips that you can use to block off certain areas. Other high-end models rely on cameras and sensors.

Even the top robot vacuums cannot substitute a traditional vac when it comes to heavy-duty dirt and debris. It's recommended to have an electric vacuum in your home for these tasks and schedule robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able to navigate you home without getting stuck or crashing into things like screws made of metal, loose pet hair, or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to track the robot through an entire lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also test how the robot avoids obstacles like power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

The most advanced robots can identify 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 which utilizes a LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera mounted on the front to identify objects in real-time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles like power cords and furniture legs and can also store up to four floor maps in its internal memory.

The more affordable models don't have this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as precise. In my testing they were able to rip through cords, dog poop and even shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The best value pick the Dreametech D10+, is one exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor, tangle, and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is near-perfect.

Another feature worth mentioning is a large dust bin which doesn't have to be manually emptied, and for those models that mop, a water tank that can last for weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent illustration of this. It has a wide enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not so large that it can't fit into the space between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot like upright vacuums and require a lot of tech to get them up and running at speed. The result is a pretty mature market full of options. But even the top models require some interaction with their users - particularly when it comes to scheduling cleanings and establishing a floor plan and establishing virtual barriers.

To help reduce the impact of this interaction, you should look for a model with its own app to determine the layout of your home and save those settings for future use. This will let the robot vacuum start where it left off on subsequent runs, without having to start the mapping process every time.

It's worth looking out for a model that has zones or spot cleaning options. You can tell the robot vacuum cleaner to concentrate on a specific area, for example, under the table after a huge family meal. You can choose to use the app or by voice commands.

The ability to avoid objects is another option that is available on several models. It allows the robot to observe something in its path, such as shoes, a crate of dog toys or a crate full of dog toys, and guide itself around it. This will stop it from running into objects that could damage its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the more expensive models in our tests have this feature. They rely on the technology of bump sensors for this however they weren't always able to stay clear of things I tested at home.

Pet Hair

Look for a vacuum cleaner that is specifically designed to remove pet hair. The most effective models come with powerful suction and a brush that prevents the tangling and an emptying mechanism that can automatically empty hair into the trash bin when needed. Some models can also determine dirt levels and adjust the cleaning intensity in line with the level of dirt. They can also detect items that aren't part of your flooring, such as furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, and so on.

Some robot vacuums come with additional pet-friendly features. These include a water dispenser which is used to mop floors and a HEPA filtration system that reduces allergens like pet dander. They could also feature a quieter mode of operation to minimize the amount of noise that is generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums with mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home and develop an attack plan based upon the arrangement of each room and obstacles. For instance the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum with an impressive ability to map rooms and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors that work in conjunction to learn the layout of your room.

Other models that are more advanced let you define no-go zones that are areas that the robot vacuum black friday is supposed to stay clear of, such as fragile items or pet feeding spots. You can adjust these settings via an app. This feature can be especially useful for households with busy schedules as it permits you to schedule cleaning sessions and adjust settings without having to be in the same space as the vacuum. Another great feature is spot cleaning which gives you the option to remote control vacuum cleaner the vacuum to clean a specific area that may be particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something small, go for a model with a large bin, or even a self-emptying trash bin. This is why we suggest opting for a model that has an enormous bin or self-emptying bins. The one will let you keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to ensure its efficiency. The latter will help you save time and effort by automatically dumping the contents into an inside container each time you clean smart robot it.

Whatever the size of your house, most robots can easily move around and up to furniture, and almost all can detect and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, loose cords, and dog poop. Look for models with smart mapping capabilities that enable them to "learn" the patterns of your house and plan more efficient routes, and ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables).

Some models also offer spot cleaning. This allows you to select an area of your house for thorough cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the top models are able to take out small particles like baking soda, sand, orzo, screws made of metal and pet hair, as well heavier debris such as oatmeal, orzo, and metal screws.

Based on the manufacturer, most robots can last for years and will remain in good working order so long as you are on top of maintenance, like cleaning out hair that has become tangled from brushes, emptying the dust bin after every use and wiping down sensors and cameras whenever required. The best combo vacuum robots are also more modular. This makes it easier to repair or replace parts like wheels and batteries when they wear out.