Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner
While robot vacuums are great in keeping your floors clean, they can't substitute for a larger vacuum. Even the most powerful robots struggle to get into carpets and rugs. They also often get caught in socks and cords.
Maintaining a regular schedule of maintenance (replacing filters cutting hair that is tangled from brushes, and emptying the dust bin) will make your robot last longer.
Battery Life
Most robot vacuums are capable of handling just a few cleaning sessions before needing a charge. The second-placed model in our top picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo, has a battery rated to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This amount of runtime will suffice for homes that have the combination of hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes where 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 its dock. It's recommended to select a model with a self-emptying dust bin because these models are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It's also important to empty or change the filter and clean sensors and cameras on a regular basis to ensure they are able to see your home clearly.
Smart mapping technology can be a useful feature, as it allows you to program your robot to ensure it only cleans specific rooms or avoids areas where it's likely to bump into furniture and other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot is able to get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. Some robovacs that are inexpensive have boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off certain areas, while other high-end models utilize sensors and cameras to achieve this goal.
Even the top robot vacuums can't replace a conventional vac when it comes heavy-duty dirt and debris. It's advisable to keep a standard power vac on standby for those tasks, and to schedule robot vacuums regularly for light cleanups throughout the week.
Navigation
A robot should be able of moving around your home without being caught or running into things such as metal screws or pet hair, or sand. In our tests, we employ a tracking device to follow the robot as it goes through a multiroom lab. It determine its surroundings. We also check the extent to which it can avoid obstacles like furniture legs, power cords, and pet waste.
The best robots can map out several floors and can 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 an LIDAR to map out a room and a structured-light camera at the front to detect objects in real-time. The S8 can avoid obstacles such as cables for power and furniture legs. It also has the ability to store up to four floor maps.
More affordable models don't have this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors which aren't as precise. In my tests, they were able to detect dog poop and cords, as well as a pair shoes placed in the middle. The best value pick, the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.
Another important feature is a large onboard dustbin that doesn't need to be manually emptied, and for models that mop, a tank of water that can last for weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great illustration of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture but not so large that it is unable to fit into the space between your toilet and bathtub.
Apps
Robot vacuums are similar to upright models and require a lot of tech to bring them up to speed. There are many alternatives available in a marketplace that is mature. But even the best models still require some interaction with their users - particularly when it comes to scheduling cleanings as well as establishing a home floor plan, and setting up virtual barriers.
To reduce the impact of this interaction, consider looking for a model with its own app to recognize the location 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 also worth keeping an eye out for a vacuum that comes with 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 choose to do this by using the app or by voice commands.
Avoidance of objects is a different option that is available on many models. It allows the robot to observe something in its path, like the shoe box or a crate full of dog toys, and coach itself around it. This prevents it from crashing into objects that might damage its sensors or cause jams.
Some of the more expensive models we've tested include this feature. They rely on bump sensor technology to do this, but they didn't always keep things out of my test home.
Pet Hair
When you're looking to remove pet hair, you should choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this kind of debris. The best models have high suction power and a brush that is free of the tangling and an emptying mechanism that can automatically empty hair into the bin when needed. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust the cleaning intensity accordingly. They are able to detect items that aren't part of the flooring in your home like furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, and much more.
Some robot vacuums include additional features that are pet-friendly. They 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 a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of sound that's produced during cleaning sessions.
Robot vacuums that have mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to assess your home, and create an strategy based on the layout of each room and obstacles. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can create a map of a room, and navigate through furniture, and over other obstacles using accelerometer and Gyroscope smart sensors.
Other models that are more advanced let you define no-go zones that are areas that the robot is expected to avoid, such as items that are fragile or pet feeding areas--by altering settings through an app. This feature is especially beneficial for households with busy schedules, as it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions without needing to be in the space where the vacuum is. Spot cleaning is an additional fantastic feature. You can use the vacuum cleaner to clean an area that is especially dirty or stuffed with pet hair.
robotvacuummops
If you don't need something tiny, choose a robot with a large bin, or even a self-emptying bin. We recommend choosing one with a large bin, or even a dustbin that automatically emptys. The former will allow you to keep up with emptying the bin often enough to keep track of its performance, while the latter will save you time and hassle by automatically dumping its contents into an internal container after every few cleanings.
Regardless of the size of your house, most robots can easily move around and up to furniture, and they are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, cords that are loose, and dog puke. Look for models with intelligent mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the patterns of your house and devise more efficient routes, as well as ones that can sense and avoid objects that may block their paths (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).
Some models provide spot cleaning. This allows you to select an area of your home to be targeted for intensive cleaning. We've observed that the majority of the top performers in our tests are able to take in fine particles such as baking soda and sand together with larger debris like oatmeal orzo pasta screws and pet hair.
Based on the manufacturer, the majority of robots last for years and will continue to perform as long as you keep up with maintenance, like cleaning out tangled hair from brushes and emptying the dust bin after each use, and wiping down sensors and cameras whenever required. The best robots are also more adaptable. This allows you to replace or repair parts like batteries and wheels, as they wear out.