Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are excellent at keeping your floors clean but they aren't able to replace a full-size automated vacuum cleaner. Even the most powerful robots struggle to get into carpets and rugs. They also often get tangled in socks and cords.

Maintaining a regular schedule of maintenance (replacing filters cutting hair tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin) will help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums can handle just a few cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The runner-up in our top picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is capable of lasting up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This amount of runtime will suffice for the majority of small homes with a mixture of hard flooring and carpets with low pile or larger homes where the rooms are similar in size.

A longer battery lifespan also means that the robot will spend more time cleaning and less charging on its dock. It's a good idea to choose a model with a self-emptying dust bin because those models are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It is also essential to clean or replace the filter and clean cameras and sensors on a regular basis so they can see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a useful feature to look out for because it allows you to program your robot to clean certain rooms or avoid areas where it's more likely to hit furniture or other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot is able to go under and around sofas, beds and other furniture that is tall. Some cheap robovacs come with boundary strips that you can use to block off specific areas. Other high-end models rely on cameras and sensors.

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

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigating your home without being caught or running into objects like metal screws, pet hair or sand. In our tests we used a tracking device used to track the robot through a multi-room lab. It then maps its surroundings. We also check how well the robot is able to avoid obstacles like power cords, furniture leg, and pet waste.

The most advanced robots are able to map out multiple floors and can recognize landmarks such as windows and doors. The most advanced ones, like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, have a dual-sensor navigation system which uses the LIDAR sensor to map out the room cleaning robot, and a lighting camera in front of the robot to detect objects in real-time. The S8 can evade obstacles like power cords and legs of furniture. It also has the capability to store up to four floor maps.

The most affordable models rely on bump sensors which are not as accurate. In my tests they were able to detect dog poop and cords, as well as a pair shoes placed in the middle. The best value pick Dreametech D10+, is one exception to this. It has excellent carpet as well as a hard floor, tangle, and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.

A large dust bin onboard, which doesn't have to be emptying manually is another feature that's important. For models that sweep the floor, this water tank can hold enough water for several weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great illustration of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture but not so big that it is unable to fit into the nook between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require lots of technology to keep them current. There are many choices available in a market that is a mature. Even the most advanced models require interaction from their customers, especially when it comes time to plan cleaning schedules, design a floor plan for your home and install virtual barriers.

To reduce the impact of this interaction, consider looking for a model that uses its own app to identify the location of your home, and save those settings for the future. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off on subsequent runs, instead of having to start the mapping process every time.

You should also look for models that provide zones or spot cleaning. These allow you to tell the robot vacuum to concentrate on a specific area like under the dining table after the family's big meal. You can typically do this using the app or voice commands.

Object avoidance is another option that is available on numerous models. It lets the robot detect objects 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 things that might damage its sensors or cause jams.

This feature is available on a few of the more expensive models we tested. However, they tend to rely on bump sensors for this and didn't always manage to avoid things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

Look for a vacuum cleaner that is specifically designed to collect hair from pets. The most effective models will feature the highest suction, a brush which prevents tangling and an automatic vacuum cleaners emptying mechanism. Some can also detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity accordingly. They are able to detect objects that aren't a part of your flooring like furniture and toys, food bowls, cords, and more.

Some robot vacuums come with extra pet-friendly features. These include a water dispenser which is used to mop floors, and a HEPA filtration system that reduces allergens such as pet dust. They could also provide a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of sound generated during cleaning sessions.

robot vacuum cleaner best vacuums that have the ability to map are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to assess your home and develop an strategy based on the layout of each room as well as obstacles. For example the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an impressive capability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions using accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your home.

Other models that are more advanced allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is expected to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings via an app. This feature is particularly useful for households with busy schedules, as you can schedule cleaning times without needing to be in the room in which the vacuum is. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning which allows you to use the vacuum to clean an area that is particularly filthy or full of pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you're not searching for something small You should pick an item that can hold at least a large bag of garbage from one cleaning session. We suggest choosing the one with an enormous bin, or even a dustbin that automatically emptys. The former will help you keep up with emptying the bin often enough to ensure you are on top of its performance and the latter will save you time and effort by automatically emptying its contents into an internal container after every few cleans.

Look for models that have smart mapping capabilities that enable them to "learn" the layout of your home and plan more efficient routes. They also detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Make sure you choose models with smart mapping capabilities. This allows them to "learn the structure of your home and plan more efficient route.

Some models provide spot cleaning. This lets you choose a specific area of your house for thorough 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 like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws, and pet hair.

The brand you choose will determine the longevity of the robot. the majority of robots last for a long time and continue to perform well as long as you are on top of maintenance tasks, such as cleaning tangled hair from brushes and emptying the dust bin after each use and wiping down sensors and cameras whenever required. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular and therefore easier and cheaper to repair or replace components like batteries and wheels when they get worn out.