Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are fantastic in keeping your floors spotless, they can't replace a full-size vacuum. Even the most powerful robots have trouble getting deep into carpets and rugs and they can get tangled up in cords and socks.

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

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are able to handle a few cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is a close second in our top choices. It has batteries that last up to 180 minute (3,230 square feet) on a single charge. The runtime is more than enough to clean most smaller homes with carpets that are hard and carpets with low pile or a larger house where the rooms are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life also means that the robot is able to spend more time cleaning, and less time charging on its dock. It's a good idea to choose an auto-emptying dust bin because those models are more efficient when it comes to cleaning up debris and returning to the dock to recharge. It's also important to empty or change the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors on a regular basis to ensure they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a beneficial feature, since you can program your robot to ensure that it only cleans certain rooms or avoids areas where it's likely to crash into furniture and other obstacles. This feature is also beneficial to ensure that your robot is able to get under and around furniture, such as sofas, beds and other high-height items. Some cheap robovacs offer boundaries that 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 aren't able to replace a traditional vacuum for heavy-duty large-pile dirt and debris. It's advisable to keep a traditional power vac in reserve for those tasks, and to schedule robot vacuums regularly for light cleanups throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot vacuum cleaner review should be capable of moving around your home without getting caught or running into things like metal screws, pet hair or sand. In our tests we used a tracking device used to track the robot through the multi-room lab. It then maps its surroundings. We also examine the way it manages to avoid obstacles like furniture legs, power cords and pet waste.

The best robots can identify different floors and recognize landmarks like windows and doors. The most advanced robots, such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system which uses the LIDAR to create a floor plan and a structured-light camera at the front to spot objects in real-time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles such as power cords and furniture legs and can also store up to four floor maps in its internal memory.

The most affordable models use bump sensors, which aren't as precise. In my tests they were able to detect dog poop and cords as well as a pair of shoes placed in the middle. The Dreametech D10+ is the most value-for-money option. It is a great carpet as well as a hard floor, tangle, and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.

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

Apps

Robot vacuums are a lot like their upright counterparts and require lots of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a pretty mature market full of options. Even the best rated robot vacuum models require interaction from their customers especially when it comes to schedule cleaning, make a an outline of your home, and set up virtual barriers.

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

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning modes. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a huge family meal. You can choose to do this by using the app or by voice commands.

Many models also offer objects-avoidance. It lets the robot observe something in its path, such as a box of shoes or a crate of dog toys, and then guide itself around it. This prevents it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

This feature is available on a few of the more expensive models we test. However, they tend to rely on bump sensors for this and didn't always manage to stay clear of things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When it comes to removing pet hair, look for one that is specifically designed to handle this type of debris. The best rated robot vacuum models will have an extremely high suction, a brush that keeps hair from tangling and an automated emptying mechanism. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity according to the amount of dirt. They can also detect objects that aren't part of your flooring, such as furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, and much more.

Certain robot vacuums have additional features that are pet-friendly. They include the water dispenser that can be used to clean floors, and a HEPA filtering system that eliminates allergens, such as pet dander. They could also feature an operation that is quieter to cut down on the amount of noise that is generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums that include mapping capabilities are an excellent option for pet owners, as they're engineered to assess your home and create plans of attack in accordance with the layout and obstacles in each room. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can create a map of a room, and navigate around furniture and other obstacles using accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors.

Other advanced models let you create no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is supposed to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings through an app. This feature is especially useful for busy households, as you can schedule cleaning sessions without having to be in the room where the vacuum is. Spot cleaning is a fantastic feature. You can use the vacuum cleaner to clean a spot that is particularly filthy or stuffed with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something small, go for a model with a big bin or even a self-emptying bin. We recommend choosing the one with a large bin or a trash bin that automatically emptys. The former will allow you to keep up with emptying your bin often enough to maintain its performance. The latter will save time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an inner container each time you clean it.

Look for models that have smart mapping capabilities, which enable them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes. They also can detect and avoid objects that may block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Find models with smart mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the patterns of your house and devise more efficient routes, and ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that may hinder their path (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).

Some models provide spot cleaning. This lets you choose a specific area of your home to be targeted for thorough cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the top models are able to remove fine particles such as sand, baking soda, orzo, metal screws and pet hair, as well as heavier debris like oatmeal orzo, and metal screws.

Based on the manufacturer, most robots can last for a long time and continue to perform well as long as you keep up with maintenance, such as cleaning hair that has become tangled from brushes and dust bins, emptying them after each use, and wiping down sensors and cameras when required. The top robots are more flexible. This makes it easier to replace or repair components like batteries and wheels, when they wear out.