Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are great for keeping your floors tidy however they aren't a replacement for the regular vacuum. Even the best robots aren't able to get deep into carpets and rugs and they can get tangled in cords and socks.

Your robot will last longer if it is maintained with regular maintenance. This includes replacing filters, removing hairs that are tangled from brushes, and emptying the dustbin.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums can manage just a few cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The runner-up in our top picks is the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is rated to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on one charge. This will suffice for most small homes with a mixture of hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes with rooms that are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life means that the robot can spend less time charging and can spend more time cleaning. You should choose one with an automatic emptying bin. These models are more efficient in collecting debris and then returning back to the dock to recharge. It's also important to empty or change the filter and clean sensors and cameras on a regular basis so they can clearly see your home.

Smart mapping technology can be a valuable feature, as 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. It's also helpful for ensuring your robot is able to get under and around sofas, beds and other furniture that is tall. A few robovacs that are cheap come with boundary strips that you can use to block off certain areas. Other models of higher quality rely on sensors and cameras.

Even the best robot vacuums aren't able to replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty, large-pile dirt and debris. It's best to keep an electric vacuum in your home for these chores and plan robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able to navigate around your home without getting stuck or crashing into objects like metal screws, loose pet hair, or sand. In our tests we used a tracking device used to follow the robot around the multi-room lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also look for how well it avoids obstacles, including power cords, furniture legs, and pet waste.

The most advanced robots can create different floors and identify landmarks, such as doors and Best Rated Robot Vacuum windows. The most advanced ones, like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, come with a dual-sensor navigation device that utilizes a LIDAR sensor to map out the room, and a light camera on the front of the robot to detect objects in real time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles, such as furniture legs and power cords and can store up to four different floor Best Rated Robot Vacuum maps within its internal memory.

Most affordable models rely on bump sensors which aren't as accurate. In my testing they cut right through cords, dog poop, and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The best buy robot vacuum value pick, the Dreametech D10+, is one exception to this. It is a great carpet and hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is close to perfect.

Another feature worth mentioning is a huge onboard dustbin that doesn't require manually emptied, and for the models that mop, a water tank which can store weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent illustration of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture but not too big that it cannot fit in the space between your toilet and tub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require an array of technologies to keep them up to date. There are many choices available in a market that is a mature. But even the best models require some interaction with their users - especially when automated cleaning schedules are being planned as well as establishing a home floor plan and setting up virtual barriers.

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

It's also worth keeping an eye out for a model that has zones or spot cleaning modes. They let you tell the robot vacuum to concentrate on a particular area like under the dining room table after an enormous family meal. You can typically do this using the app or by voice commands.

Avoidance of objects is a different feature that's available with several models. It allows the robot, when it sees something in its way such as a box shoe or a crate with dog toys, to guide itself around. This will keep it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause a jam.

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 weren't always able to avoid obstacles in my test homes.

Pet Hair

Find an upright vacuum cleaner designed to pick up pet hair. The best models will have the highest suction, a brush which stops tangling, and an automatic cleaning robot emptying mechanism. Certain models can detect dirt levels and alter the level of cleaning. They are able to detect objects that aren't a part of your home's flooring, such as furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, and much more.

Certain robot vacuums come with features that are pet-friendly, such as a small water dispenser that can be used for mopping floors, and a HEPA filter that helps reduce allergens, such as pet dust. They might also offer the option of a quieter operation, which will reduce the amount of noise that's produced during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have the ability to map are a great option for pet owners, as they're designed to evaluate your home and create a plan of attack based on the layout and the obstacles in every room. For example, the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an amazing ability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors that work in conjunction to learn the layout of your room.

Other models that are more advanced allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is expected to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding spots--by adjusting settings via an app. This feature is especially beneficial for families with a lot of activity because it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions and make adjustments without having be in the same space as the vacuum. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning that gives you the option to use the vacuum to clean a specific area that may be particularly filthy or full of pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want something tiny, choose a robot with a big bin or even a self-emptying trash bin. That's why we recommend opting for a model with a large bin, or perhaps a self-emptying dustbin. The one will let you keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to ensure its efficiency. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an internal container after every cleaning.

Look for models with 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 hinder their travel (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Find models with smart mapping capabilities that allow them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes, and ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables).

Some models provide spot cleaning. This allows you to manually target an area of your home for thorough cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests are able to remove fine particles such as baking soda and sand together with larger particles like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

According to the company the manufacturer, robots last for a long time and still perform well as long as they are maintained. For example cleaning hair tangled of brushes and emptying dust bins after each use and wiping cameras and sensors down when needed. The top robots are more adaptable. This allows you to replace or repair components like wheels and batteries when they get worn out.