Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are fantastic at keeping your floors clean, they can't substitute for a larger vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to penetrate carpets or rugs and often get tangled in socks and cords.

Your robot vacuum cleaner will last longer if you carry out routine maintenance. This includes replacing filters, cutting the tangled hairs from brushes, and emptying the dust bin.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without having to be charged. The runner-up of our overall picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is rated to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on one charge. This should suffice for homes that have a mixture of hard flooring and carpets with low pile or larger homes with rooms that are about the same size.

A longer battery life means that the robot will be able to spend less time charging and spend more time cleaning. It's worth opting for a model with a self-emptying dust bin, since they are more efficient when it comes to picking up debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It's also important to empty or replace the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors on a regular basis to ensure they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to look for because it allows you to program your robot to clear certain rooms or areas where it's more 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, Best Rated Robot Vacuum sofas and other tall items. Some cheap robovacs come with boundary strips you can use to block certain areas. Other high-end models depend on sensors and cameras.

Even the best robovac robot vacuums aren't able to replace a conventional vac when it comes to heavy-duty dirt and debris. It's best to keep a power vacuum available for these chores and plan robot vacs for light cleanings throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate your home without getting stuck or crashing into objects such as metal screws, loose pet hair, or sand. In our tests, we use a tracking device to follow the robot as it travels through a multiroom lab and maps out its surroundings. We also check the way it manages to avoid obstacles, including furniture legs, power cords and pet waste.

The top robots can map out several floors, and recognize landmarks like doors and windows. The most advanced robots such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system that uses a LIDAR to map out a room and a structured-light camera on the front to spot objects in real-time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles like furniture legs and power cords, and it can store up to four floor maps in its internal memory.

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 of shoes placed in the middle. The Dreametech D10+ is the best value choice. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, excellent hair and tangle pickup, and an auto empty score.

Another feature that is important is a large onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually emptied, and for the models that mop, a water tank which can store weeks of mopping sessions. The Karcher RCV 5 comes with this and a big enough footprint that it can be tucked away under furniture however, it's not so huge that it won't fit in the space between your toilet and bathtub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are like their upright counterparts and require a lot of technology to keep them current. There are plenty of alternatives available in a marketplace that is maturing. Even the top models require interaction from their customers particularly when it comes time to schedule cleanings, create the floor plan of your home and install virtual barriers.

To lessen the chance of this interaction, consider looking for a model that has its own app to recognize the location of your home, and save the settings for the future. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it began on subsequent runs rather than having the mapping process restarted every time.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning modes. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to focus on a specific area, for example, under the table after a big family meal. You can use the app or by voice commands.

Avoidance of objects is a different feature that's included in many models. It allows the robot to detect objects in its path, like the shoe box or a crate filled with dog toys, and then guide itself around it. This prevents it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

This feature is available on some of the more expensive models we test. However, they usually rely on bump sensors for this, and they weren't always able to stay clear of things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

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

Some robot vacuums include additional pet-friendly features. These include a water dispenser that is used to clean floors, and a HEPA filtering system that helps to reduce allergens like pet dander. They might also offer a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of noise generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums with maps are an excellent option for pet owners. They're designed to evaluate your home and devise an attack plan based on the arrangement of each room and obstacles. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can create a map of a room cleaning robot, and navigate through furniture, and over other obstacles using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors.

Other advanced models allow you to define no-go zones that are areas that the robot is supposed to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings using an app. This feature is especially useful for a busy household because it allows you to plan your cleaning schedule and make adjustments without having be in the same space as the vacuum. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning which lets you control the vacuum to clean a particular area that may be particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something tiny, choose a robot sweeper with a big bin or even a self-emptying bin. We suggest choosing one with a large bin, or even a dustbin that automatically emptys. The first will let you keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to maintain its performance. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an inside container each time you clean it.

No matter the size of your home the majority of robots are able to move around and up to furniture, and most can detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, loose cords and dog urine. Find models with intelligent mapping capabilities. This lets them "learn the layout of your house and devise a more efficient routes.

Some models also offer spot cleaning, which allows users to select an area of your home for thorough cleaning. We've found that most of the top performers in our tests are able to pick up fine particles like baking soda and sand, as well as heavier debris such as oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

According to the manufacturer the company, robots can last for years and continue to perform well as long as they are maintained. For instance cleaning hair that is tangled out of brushes, emptying dust bins after each use and wiping cameras and sensors down as required. The best-performing robots also tend to be more modular, which makes them easier and less costly to replace or repair parts like batteries and wheels as they wear out.