Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are excellent at keeping your floors clean, they can't replace a large-sized vacuum. Even the most powerful robots have difficulty getting deep into carpets and rugs, and they can get tangled in cords and socks.

Maintaining a regular schedule of maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes, and emptying the dust bin) can help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is a close second in our top picks. It comes with batteries that last 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 self-cleaning robot vacuums will be able to spend less time charging and can spend more time Automatic cleaning robot. It's a good idea to choose an auto-emptying dust bin, as those models are more efficient in picking up 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 can clearly see your home.

Smart mapping technology is a great feature to be looking for because it allows you to program your robot to clean specific rooms or areas where it's more likely to hit furniture or other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot is able to go under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. Some cheap robovacs come with boundary strips you can use to block certain areas. Other models of higher quality rely on cameras and sensors.

Even the most powerful robot vacuums aren't able to replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty large-pile dirt and debris. It's wise to keep a conventional power vac in reserve for those tasks, and to schedule robot vacs regularly for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate your home without getting stuck or crashing into objects like screws made of metal, loose pet hair, or sand. In our tests, we employ a tracking device to track the robot as it moves through a multiroom lab. It maps out its surroundings. We also test how the robot can avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture leg and pet waste.

The best self cleaning vacuum robots are able to create different floors and identify landmarks, like windows and doors. The most advanced robots like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system which uses the LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera mounted on the front to spot objects in real-time. The S8 can avoid obstacles such as cables for power and legs of furniture. It can also store up to four floor maps.

The majority of the models that are affordable rely on bump sensors which aren't as precise. In my tests they cut right through cords, dog poop and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The best value pick the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, excellent tangle and hair pickup, and an almost perfect auto empty score.

Another important feature is a large onboard dustbin that doesn't need to be manually empty, and for those models that mop, a tank of water that can hold weeks worth of mopping. The Karcher RCV 5 has this and a big enough footprint to be tucked away under furniture but not so big that it won't fit in the nook between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot similar to upright models, and it takes lots of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a pretty mature market that is brimming with options. However, even the most advanced models require interaction with their users, particularly when cleaning schedules are being planned, establishing a home floor plan, and setting up virtual barriers.

To help reduce the impact of this interaction, you should look for a model that has its own app to identify the design of your home and save those settings for the future. This will let the robot vacuum start where it left off on subsequent runs, rather than having to start the mapping process each time.

It's worth looking out for a model that has zones or spot cleaning modes. These allow you to tell the robot vacuum to focus on a specific area like under the dining table after a big family meal. You can choose to use the app or by voice commands.

The ability to avoid objects is another feature that's included in several models. It allows the robot to observe something in its path, for instance the shoe box or a crate full of dog toys, and guide itself around it. This will keep it from running into things that could damage its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the more expensive models in our tests include this feature. However, they typically 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 removing pet hair, choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this type of debris. The top models feature high suction power, a brush that avoids the tangling and an emptying mechanism that will automatically empty hair into the bin when needed. Some can also detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity accordingly. They also can detect objects that aren't part of your flooring at home, such as toys, furniture and food bowls.

Certain robot vacuums have extra pet-friendly features. They include a water dispenser which is used to mop floors, and a HEPA filtration system that reduces allergens like pet dander. They could also provide an operation that is quieter, which can reduce the amount of noise that's produced during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums with the ability to map are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to evaluate your home and devise an attack plan based on the layout of each room as well as obstacles. For example, 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 using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your space.

Other models that are more advanced let you create no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is expected to avoid, such as items that are fragile or pet feeding areas--by altering settings via an app. This feature is especially beneficial for families with busy schedules, since it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions without having to be present in the space in which the automated vacuum cleaner is. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning which lets you control the vacuum to clean an area that is filthy or full of pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want something small, go for a model with a big bin or even a self-emptying bin. We recommend choosing a model that has a large bin, or even a dustbin that self-empties. The former will allow you to keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to maintain its performance. The second will save you time and effort by automatically emptying the contents into an internal container every few cleanings.

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

Some models provide spot cleaning. This lets you choose a specific area of your house for intensive cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the best robot vacuum for vinyl plank floors models can take out small particles like baking soda, sand, orzo, screws made of metal and pet hair, as well as heavier debris such as oatmeal, orzo, and metal screws.

According to the company, robots can last years and perform well as long as they are maintained. For instance cleaning hair tangled of brushes, emptying dust bins after each use, and wiping cameras and sensors down as required. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular, which makes them easier and less expensive to repair or replace components like batteries and wheels when they get worn out.