Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums can be great to keep your floors clean but they are not a substitute for the regular robotic vacuum cleaner. Even the most powerful robots struggle to get deep into carpets and rugs. They also often get caught in cords and socks.

Your robot will last longer if you perform routine maintenance. This includes replacing filters, cutting hairs that are tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin.

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums can handle just a few cleaning sessions before needing to recharge. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is the second-best robot vacuum of our overall selections. It comes with a battery that can last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square foot) on one charge. This will be more than enough for most small homes with carpets, hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes where the rooms are similar in size.

A longer battery life means that the robot will spend more time cleaning and less time charging on its dock. It's worth opting for an auto-emptying dust bin, since they are more efficient in collecting debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It's also important to clean or replace the filter and wipe down sensors and cameras on a regular basis so they can clearly see your home.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to look out for, as it allows you to program your robot to only clean specific rooms or areas where it's likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also useful for ensuring that your robot is able to get under and around furniture, such as beds, sofas and other large objects. Some robovacs that are inexpensive have boundary strips you can place on the floor to block off areas while other high-end models utilize sensors and cameras for this purpose.

Even the best robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty dirt and debris. It's recommended to have a power vacuum available to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacs to do light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able of traveling around your home and not getting caught or crashing into things like metal screws pet hair, sand or. In our tests, we use a tracking device to track the robot as it goes through a multiroom lab and shows its surroundings. We also check how well it avoids obstacles, including furniture legs, power cords and pet waste.

The most advanced robots are able to map out multiple floors, and recognize landmarks such as doors and windows. The most advanced robots, such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system, that uses an LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera on the front to identify objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to stay clear of common obstacles, such as power cords and furniture legs and can store up to four different floor maps within its internal memory.

The more affordable models don't have this type of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as precise. In my testing they cut right through dog poop, cords, and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The most cost-effective choice, the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It is a great carpet and hard floor pickup, great hair and tangle pickup, and a near perfect auto empty score.

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

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot like upright vacuums, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to get them up to speed. There are many choices available in a market that is maturing. Even the best models require interaction from their users particularly when it comes time to plan cleaning schedules, design an outline of your home and set up virtual barriers.

To help reduce the impact of this interaction, you should look for a model that uses its own app to identify the design of your home and save those settings for future use. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off in subsequent runs, without having to start the mapping process each time.

It's important to look out for a model that has spot or zone cleaning modes. You can tell the robot vacuum cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a big family meal. You can do this by using the app or by voice commands.

A lot of models also offer object avoidance. It allows the robot when it spots something that is in its path, like a box of shoe or a crate with dog toys, to instruct itself around. This prevents it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the most expensive models we tested have this feature. However, they tend to rely on bump sensors for this and didn't always manage to avoid obstacles in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When it comes to removing pet hair, you should choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this kind of debris. The most effective models come with high suction power and a brush that prevents getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that can automatically dump hair into the bin when needed. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity according to the amount of dirt. They also can detect items that aren't a part of your home flooring, like toys, furniture and food bowls.

Some robot vacuums include features that are pet-friendly, such as a small water dispenser that can be used to mop floors and an HEPA filter that can reduce allergens, such as pet dander. They might also have a quieter mode of operation to reduce the amount noise that is generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums with mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to assess your home, and create an attack plan based upon the arrangement of each room and obstacles. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can map a room, navigate around furniture and other obstacles using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors.

Other advanced models let you create no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is expected to stay clear of, such as fragile items or pet feeding spots. You can adjust these settings through an app. This feature is especially useful for households with busy schedules, as it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions without needing to be in the space where the robotic vacuum cleaner comparison is. Another great feature is spot cleaning, which lets you direct the vacuum to clean a specific 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 large bin or even a self-emptying dustbin. We recommend going for a model that has an enormous bin or self-emptying garbage bin. The one will let you keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to ensure its efficiency. The latter will save time and effort by automatically emptying the contents into an internal container each time you clean it.

Whatever the size of your home Most robots are able to climb up and around furniture, and most are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, cords that are loose and dog poop. Look for models that have smart mapping capabilities. This allows them to "learn the layout of your house and plan more efficient routes.

Some models also provide spot cleaning, which allows you to choose specific areas of your home for intense cleaning. In our tests, we found that the top models are able to take out small particles like baking soda, sand orzo, metal screws and pet hair, in addition to heavier debris like oatmeal orzo, and metal screws.

Based on the manufacturer, the majority of robots last for years and will continue to perform well as long as you are on top of maintenance, like cleaning out hair that has become tangled from brushes and dust bins, emptying them after each use, and cleaning cameras and sensors as required. The top robots are more modular. This allows you to repair or replace parts like wheels and batteries as they wear out.