Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums can be great for keeping your floors tidy however they aren't a replacement for a traditional vacuum. Even the Best Auto vacuum robots can struggle to get deep into carpets or rugs and often get tangled in cords and socks.

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

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are equipped to handle a few cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is a close second in our overall selections. It comes with a battery that can last up to 180 minute (3,230 square foot) on one charge. This should be more than enough for homes that have a mixture of hard floors and carpets with low pile or larger homes where the rooms are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life means that the robot can spend less time charging and can spend more time cleaning. It's a good idea to choose a model with a self-emptying dust bin, as they are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It is also essential to empty or change the filter and clean smart robot sensors and cameras on a regular basis to ensure they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a beneficial feature, since you can program your robot to ensure that it only cleans specific rooms or avoids areas where it's likely to crash into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also useful to ensure that your robot is able to reach under and around furniture such as beds, sofas and other tall items. Some cheap robovacs offer boundaries that you can put on the floor vacuum robot to block off areas, while other high-end models make use of sensors and cameras to achieve this goal.

Even the most powerful robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum for 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 vacs to do light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to traveling around your home and not getting caught or crashing into things like metal screws, pet hair or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to follow the robot around the multi-room lab. It then tracks 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 can create multiple floors and recognize landmarks like doors and windows. The most advanced ones such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, have a dual-sensor navigation system that uses the LIDAR sensor to map the room and a structured lighting camera in front of the bot cleaner to detect objects in real-time. The S8 is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords and furniture legs. It also has the capability to store up to four floor maps.

The most affordable models depend on bump sensors that aren't as precise. In my tests they were able see through dog poop and cords, as well as a pair of shoes placed in the middle. The Dreametech D10+ is the most value-for-money option. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, excellent hair and tangle pickup, and an auto empty score.

Another feature worth mentioning 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 good illustration of this. It has a big enough footprint to be able to be placed under furniture, but not so big that it can't fit into the nook between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot similar to upright models, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a pretty mature market full of options. However, even the most advanced models require interaction with their users - especially when it comes to scheduling cleanings and establishing a floor plan and establishing virtual barriers.

Consider a model with its own app that can determine the layout of your home and save the settings for future use. This will let the robot vacuum start where it left off in subsequent runs, without having to restart the mapping process each time.

You should also consider models that offer zone or spot cleaning. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a huge family meal. You can do this using the app or voice commands.

Object avoidance is another feature that's available with numerous models. It permits the robot, when it comes across something in its way such as a box of shoe or a crate with dog toys, to instruct itself around. This prevents it from crashing into things that might damage its sensors or cause jams.

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

Pet Hair

Find an upright vacuum cleaner designed to pick up pet hair. The most effective models will feature a high suction, a brush that stops tangling, and an automatic emptying mechanism. Some models are able to detect levels of dirt and adjust cleaning intensity. They can also detect objects that aren't part your flooring at home, such as furniture, toys, and food bowls.

Some robot vacuums include pet-friendly features, like a water dispenser that can be used to mop floors and a HEPA filter that can reduce allergens like pet dust. They may also offer a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of sound that's produced during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums with maps are a great option for pet owners since they're engineered to assess your home and devise plans of attack in accordance with the layout and the obstacles in every room. Shark Matrix Plus is a 2-in-1 robot vacuum that can map a room, and navigate around furniture, and other obstacles with the help of accelerometers and Gyroscope smart sensors.

Other advanced models let you define no-go zones that are areas that the robot is meant to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding spots. You can adjust these settings using an app. This feature is especially useful for households with busy schedules, as it allows you to schedule cleaning time and make adjustments without having to be in the same space as the vacuum. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning, which lets you direct the vacuum to clean a particular area that is particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want something small, consider a robot with a large bin or even a self-emptying dustbin. That's why we recommend opting for a model that has a large bin, or perhaps self cleaning vacuum-emptying bins. The former will allow you to keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to keep it functioning. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an internal container every few cleanings.

Regardless of the size of your house Most robots are able to get up to and around furniture, and most can recognize and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, cords that are loose, and dog poop. Find models with smart mapping capabilities that enable them to "learn" the patterns of your house and design more efficient routes, as well as models that detect and avoid objects that could hinder their routes (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).

Some models also provide spot cleaning, which lets users to select an area of your home for thorough cleaning. We've found that most of the top performers in our tests can remove fine particles such as baking soda and sand, together with larger debris like oatmeal, orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

According to the brand the manufacturer, robots last for a long time and perform well, as long as they're maintained. For example cleaning hair tangled of brushes, emptying dust bins after each use, and wiping sensors and cameras down as needed. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular which makes them simpler and less expensive to repair or replace parts such as batteries and wheels when they get worn out.