Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are fantastic to keep your floors clean but they cannot replace a traditional vacuum. Even the most powerful robots have trouble getting deep into carpets and rugs and they can become tangled with 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

Most bagless robot vacuum vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The runner-up in our overall picks is the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo, has a battery that is designed to last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on one charge. This is enough to clean the majority of smaller homes that have carpets that are hard and carpets with low pile or a bigger home in which the rooms are about the same size.

A longer battery life also means that the robot will spend more time cleaning, and less time charging on its dock. It's recommended to select an auto-emptying dust bin because these models are more efficient when it comes to cleaning up debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It is also essential to clean or replace the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors regularly so that they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to be looking for since it permits you to program your robot to clear certain rooms or areas that it's likely to crash into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also helpful for ensuring that your robot can reach under and around furniture like sofas, beds and other tall items. A few robovacs that are cheap come with boundary strips that you can use to block off specific areas. Other models of higher quality rely on cameras and sensors.

Even the best robot vacs can't replace a conventional vacuum for heavy-duty large-pile dirt and other debris. It is recommended to keep a power vacuum available for these chores and plan robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able to navigate around your home without getting stuck or running into things such as metal screws, loose pet hair, or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to follow the robot around the multi-Room Cleaning Robot lab. It then tracks its surroundings. We also check the way it manages to avoid obstacles like furniture legs, power cords and pet waste.

The best robots can identify several 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 the LIDAR to create a floor plan and a structured-light camera mounted on the front to spot objects in real-time. The S8 is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords and legs of furniture. It also has the capability to store up to four floor maps.

Most affordable models use bump sensors, which aren't as accurate. In my tests they were able detect dog poop through 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 robotic floor scrubber, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is near-perfect.

A large onboard dustbin, which doesn't have to be manually empty is another feature that's important. If you have models that mop the floor, this tank will provide enough water for several weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent example of this. It has a wide enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not so large that it is unable to fit into the space between your toilet and tub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are like upright vacuums, and it takes lots of technology to bring them up to speed. The result is a pretty mature market with plenty of options. However, even the most advanced models require interaction with their users - particularly when cleaning schedules are being planned as well as establishing a home automatic floor vacuum plan, and setting up virtual barriers.

To reduce the impact of this kind of interaction, look for a model that uses its own app to recognize the design of your home and save these 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.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with spot or zone cleaning modes. You can tell the robot automated vacuum cleaner cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a large family meal. You can choose to use the app or by voice commands.

The ability to avoid objects is another feature that's available with several models. It permits the robot, when it spots objects in its path such as a box of shoe or a crate with dog toys, to coach itself around. This will prevent it from hitting objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the most expensive models in our tests include this feature. They depend on bump sensor technology for this however they did not always avoid things in my test home.

Pet Hair

Look for an upright vacuum cleaner specifically designed to remove pet hair. The best models have powerful suction, a brush that avoids the tangling and an emptying mechanism that will automatically empty hair into the trash bin when needed. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity accordingly. They can also detect objects that aren't part of your home flooring, like furniture, toys, and food bowls.

Certain robot vacuums have additional features that are pet-friendly. They include a water dispenser that is used to mop floors and a HEPA filtering system that eliminates allergens such as pet dander. They could also feature a quieter mode of operation to minimize the amount of noise generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have the ability to map are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to evaluate your home and develop an attack plan based upon the layout of each room and obstacles. For example, the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum with an amazing ability to map rooms and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your home.

Apps allow you to set up no-go zones. These are areas that the robot should not be allowed, for instance, areas with fragile items or pet feeding areas. This feature is especially useful for a busy household, as it allows you to plan your cleaning schedule and make adjustments without having to be in the same space as the vacuum. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning, which gives you the option to direct 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 small, consider a robot with a big bin or even a self-emptying dustbin. We recommend choosing the one with a large bin, or even a dustbin that self-empties. The former will help you keep track of emptying the bin frequently enough to stay on top of its performance and the latter will save you time and hassle by automatically dumping its contents into an internal bin every few cleanings.

Whatever the size of your home, most robots can easily get up to and around furniture, and they can detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, loose cords, and dog urine. Consider models that have intelligent mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the layout of your home and design more efficient routes, and ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that could hinder their path (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).

Some models also offer spot cleaning, which lets you to manually target an area of your home for thorough cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests can take in fine particles such as baking soda and sand together with larger particles like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

According to the manufacturer the company, robots can last for years and Room Cleaning robot perform as well, so long as they are properly maintained. For instance cleaning hair that is tangled out of brushes, emptying dust bins after each use and wiping cameras and sensors down when needed. The most reliable robots are more flexible. This makes it easier to replace or repair parts such as wheels and batteries when they get worn out.