Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are fantastic for keeping your floors clean but they are not a substitute for a traditional vacuum. Even the best robots have trouble getting deep into rugs and carpets, and they can get tangled up in cords and socks.

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

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are capable of handling one or two cleaning sessions before needing a charge. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is the second-best of our top picks. It has batteries that last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square foot) on a single charge. This will suffice for the majority of small homes with 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 spend more time cleaning. It's recommended to select models that have a self-emptying dust bin, since these models are more efficient in cleaning up debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It's important to clean or replace the filters and wipe down sensors and the camera regularly so they can be seen clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a great feature to look out for since it permits you to program your robot to clean certain rooms or avoid areas that it's likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. It's also useful for ensuring that your robot can get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture that is tall. A few robovacs are cheap and have boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off certain areas, while others utilize sensors and cameras to accomplish this.

Even the best robot vacuums can't replace a conventional vacuum for heavy-duty, large-pile dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep a power vacuum available for these chores and plan 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 or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to track the robot's movements through a multi-room lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also examine how well it avoids obstacles like power cords, furniture legs, and pet waste.

The best robots can map out several floors, and recognize landmarks like windows and doors. The most advanced models such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, feature a dual-sensor navigation system that utilizes a LIDAR sensor to map out the space and a structured light camera at the front of the robot to detect objects in real time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles such as furniture legs and power cords, and it can store up to four floor maps within its internal memory.

The more affordable models don't have this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as precise. In my testing they were able to rip through dog poop, cords, and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The Dreametech D10+ is the best value pick. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, great hair and tangle pickup, and an almost perfect auto empty score.

Another important feature is a huge onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually empty, and for those models that mop, a tank of water which can store weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture but not so large that it can't fit into the space between your toilet and bathtub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to upright models, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a mature market full of options. Even the most advanced models require input from their users, especially when it comes to plan cleaning schedules, design the floor plan of your home and set up virtual barriers.

To reduce the impact of this kind of interaction, look for a model that uses its own app to determine the layout of your home and save those settings for future use. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off in subsequent runs, rather than having to restart the mapping process each time.

It's worth looking out for a model that offers zones or spot cleaning options. You can instruct the robot vacuum cleaner to focus on a specific area, such as under the table after a huge family meal. You can do this using the app or by voice commands.

Many models also provide objects-avoidance. It allows the robot when it sees something that is in its path such as a box of shoe or a crate with dog toys, to coach itself around. This will stop it from running into objects that could damage its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the more expensive models we tested have this feature. However, they tend to rely on bump sensors to accomplish this and weren't always able to avoid things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When it comes to picking up pet hair, you should choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this kind of debris. The most effective models will feature a high suction, a brush that stops tangling, and an automatic emptying mechanism. Some models can detect dirt levels to adjust the intensity of cleaning. They are able to detect items that aren't part of the flooring in your home, such as furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, robotvacuummops and much more.

Certain robot vacuums have extra pet-friendly features. These include the water dispenser that can be used to mop floors, and an HEPA filtering system that helps to reduce allergens such as pet dander. They could also provide the option of a quieter operation, which will reduce the amount of noise that's produced during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums with maps are an excellent option for pet owners. They're designed to evaluate your home and develop an strategy based on the layout of each room as well as obstacles. For instance, the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has the impressive capability to map rooms and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors that work together to learn the layout of your home.

Other advanced models allow you to define no-go zones that are areas that the robot is meant to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings through an app. This feature is particularly useful for households with busy schedules because it allows you to plan your cleaning schedule and adjust settings without having to be in the same room with the vacuum. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning, which lets you direct the vacuum to clean an area that may be particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want anything small, go for a model with a large bin, or even a self-emptying bin. We recommend picking the one with a large bin or a trash bin that self-empties. The former will allow you to keep up with the process of emptying your bin regularly enough to ensure its efficiency. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an inside container after every cleaning.

Look for models that have smart mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the layout of your home and plan more efficient routes. They also can detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Look for models that have smart mapping capabilities. This allows them to "learn the layout of your house and design a an efficient route.

Some models also offer spot cleaning. This lets you manually target an area of your home to be targeted for intensive cleaning. We've observed that the majority of the top performers in our tests can take in fine particles such as sand and baking soda, as well as heavier particles like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

Based on the manufacturer, most robots can last for years and will continue to perform well so long as you maintain them with regular maintenance, like cleaning out hair that has become tangled from brushes and dust bins, emptying them after each use, and wiping down sensors and cameras when needed. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular, which makes them easier and less expensive to replace or repair parts such as batteries and wheels when they wear out.