Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are fantastic to keep your floors clean but they are not a substitute for a traditional vacuum. Even the best value robot vacuum robots can struggle to get into carpets or rugs and often get tangled in cords and socks.

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

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums can handle a few cleaning sessions before needing a charge. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is the second-best automatic floor cleaner of our top choices. It has an energy-efficient battery that can last up to 180 minute (3,230 square foot) on a single charge. That amount of runtime is more than enough to clean the majority of smaller homes that have a mix of hard floors and low-pile carpets or a larger house where the rooms are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life 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, since they are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It is important to clean or replace the filters and wipe down sensors and camera regularly so that they can be seen clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a useful feature to be looking for because it allows you to program your robot to only clean certain rooms or avoid areas where it's likely to hit furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also helpful for ensuring that your robot is able to reach under and around furniture, such as beds, sofas and other large objects. Some cheap robovacs have boundary strips that you can use to block off specific areas. Other models of higher quality rely on sensors and cameras.

Even the best robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty large-pile dirt and other debris. It is recommended to keep a power vacuum available to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able to navigate your home without getting stuck or running into things such as metal screws or loose pet hair or sand. In our tests, we employ an instrument to track the robot as it moves through a multi-room lab and shows its surroundings. We also check how well the robot can avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

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

The majority of the models that are affordable depend on bump sensors that aren't as precise. In my tests, they plowed right through dog poop, cords, and even a pair of shoes placed in the middle of the room. The most cost-effective choice Dreametech D10+, is one exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, excellent tangle and hair pickup, and an auto empty score.

Another feature worth mentioning is a huge onboard dustbin that doesn't require manually empty, and for models that mop, a tank of water that can last for weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a wide enough footprint to be able to be placed under furniture, but not so big that it can't fit into the nook between your toilet and tub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot like upright vacuums, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to get them up and running at speed. There are many alternatives available in a marketplace that is maturing. Even the best models require input from their users particularly when it comes to schedule cleaning, make a an outline of your home, and set up virtual barriers.

You might consider a model with its own app that can recognize the layout of your house and save the settings for future use. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it left off when it runs again, instead of having the mapping process restarted every time.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with spot or zone cleaning modes. They let you tell the robot vacuum to focus on a specific spot like under the dining table following the family's big meal. You can do this using the app or voice commands.

Many models also provide object avoidance. It lets the robot vac detect objects in its path, for instance a box of shoes or a crate full of dog toys, and coach itself around it. This prevents it from hitting objects that could damage its sensors or cause jams.

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

Pet Hair

Find an upright vacuum cleaner specifically designed to collect hair from pets. The most effective models come with powerful suction capabilities and a brush that is free of getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that can automatically dump hair into the dust bin when necessary. Some models are able to detect levels of dirt and adjust the intensity of cleaning. They can also detect objects that aren't part your flooring at home, such as furniture, toys and food bowls.

Certain robot vacuums have extra pet-friendly features. They include a water dispenser which is used to clean floors, and a HEPA filtering system that helps to reduce allergens such as pet dander. They could also provide a quieter operation that can minimize the amount of noise generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have maps are an excellent option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home, and create an attack plan based on the layout of each room and obstacles. For instance the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an impressive ability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstacles using gyroscope and accelerometer smart sensors that work together to learn the layout of your home.

Apps allow you to establish no-go zones. These are areas that the robot should not be allowed, for instance, areas with delicate objects or pet feeding areas. This feature is especially useful for busy households, as you can schedule cleaning times without having to be present in the room where the vacuum is. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning which lets you use the vacuum to clean a specific area that may be particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you're not searching for something small You should pick an item capable of holding at least a large bag of garbage from one cleaning session. We recommend going for a model with a large bin or even self-emptying garbage bin. The former will enable you to keep up with cleaning the bin regularly enough to stay on top of its performance and the latter will help you save time and hassle by automatically emptying its contents into an internal bin every few cleans.

Regardless of the size of your house Most robots are able to move around and up to furniture, and most are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, loose cords and dog puke. Find models with smart mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the layout of your home and plan more efficient routes, and models that detect and avoid objects that could hinder their path (like shoelaces or the tangled charging cables).

Certain models also offer spot cleaning, which lets you to manually target a particular area of your home for intense cleaning. We've observed that the majority of the top performers in our tests are able to remove fine particles such as baking soda and sand, as well as heavier debris like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws, and pet hair.

According to the company the manufacturer, robots last for a long time and still perform as well, so long as they're maintained. For instance, cleaning tangled hair out of brushes cleaning dust bins after each use, as well as wiping cameras and sensors down as needed. The most reliable robots are more flexible. This allows you to replace or repair components such as wheels and batteries as they wear out.