The best robot floor cleaner Shark Robot Vacuum

Shark's robo vac checks off most of the boxes that you would expect from a machine of this price range. It provides reliable cleaning capability and an easy to use mobile application. It also creates accurate home maps.

It also features Matrix Clean Navigation, a system that does two passes back and forth, before moving to the side for complete coverage. Its base is bagless unlike many other robot vacuums.

1. Roborock S4

This is a great robot vacuum for flooring that is not in use that comes with a huge dirt container and is able to pick up debris. The app lets you manage cleaning and docking. Its Smart Vacuum pathing feature is highly efficient. The app also provides a convenient cleaning overview including an image of where the S4 has been cleaned, cleaning time and battery life.

Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is high enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals that of some full-sized vacuums. The S4's side brush and combo brush are closer to the front of the machine than other Roborock models. This could be to reduce clogging.

The S4's advanced navigation system is able to digitally map your home up to four levels. It will remember the areas that it has vacuumed, making it easy to establish cleaning schedules without the need to manually move the robot between rooms. You can also mark zones that are not allowed to enter, which will stop the S4 from entering these areas during a cleaning cycle.

It was able to clean an entire floor of our home with ease and was extremely efficient on bare floors. However, it struggled with picking up dog hair, which is a typical problem for a lot of robotic vacuums. It only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was captured in the dustbin, and much of the rest was clumped up around the suction inlet and brushes.

The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This increases its maneuverability. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles which slow down other robots. The low-profile design also allows it to be placed under furniture. It has improved climbability for navigating flooring transitions and different flooring levels. It can even reach the bottom of the stairs, and is an excellent choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you set a schedule and also includes a manual control for vacuuming. It is also able to return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It comes with a massive 5200 mAh battery that is designed to last for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet of space between charges in normal mode.

2. Shark EZ Robot Self Emptying

This Shark robot vacuum is an excellent choice for pet owners who need a smart, easy-to-use machine. The self-emptying bagless base is a wonderful benefit, particularly when compared with other vacuums that utilize disposable dirtbags in their bases. It is possible to empty the bin in the trashcan by removing it. It's messy, but you save money on bags to replace.

The bin itself is quite large, which means the EZ Robot is capable of handling a good amount of debris. It also performs very well on floors with no carpet. However, it has a difficult time with dirt that is embedded in low-pile carpet. It also has decent navigation capabilities and a small dock footprint.

The EZ Robot may not be as effective as the Roborock S4, but it is still a great option for those who are looking for a machine that can perform well and is reasonably priced. It's built well, comes with a wide range of automation options, and offers impressive cleaning capabilities on carpet and floors with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are very high and its ongoing expenses are very high.

Another great feature of this Shark robot is its capacity to recharge and resume automatically where it was when it returns to its docking station following the full cleaning. This is an excellent feature, particularly when your home is big.

The IQ XL also comes with many other useful features. It is possible to schedule your entire home cleaning remotely and review cleaning reports through the SharkClean App. You can also use voice commands through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to begin or stop cleaning sessions. The row-by-row cleaning mode of the robot is a major benefit, too - it will clean your entire home in neat rows, not a back-and-forth snake pattern like many other robots.

The biggest drawback of the IQ XL is its inability to scale obstacles like power cords, Smart Vacuum which it might detect as solid barriers to avoid climbing over. It is also less effective or efficient in navigating space if it's stuffed with pet hair. This can tangle the brushes and slow it down.

3. Shark AI Robot

This is a great robotic vacuum from Shark that comes with a variety of features. It comes with a self-emptying base that can store up to 30 days of debris. It it combines the power of both the robot vacuum and mop. It comes with a matrix grid cleaning mode, and it is equipped with advanced smart home integration that works with Alexa and Google Assistant. It is possible to schedule it to clean, turn on it on demand, or set virtual boundaries to block the robot from entering rooms with rug or other items that are fragile.

The Shark AI Robot does a good job cleaning bare floors. It can pick up dirt easily, such as rice. It has a hard time removing large, bulky particles from carpets with low pile and is unable to maneuver around furniture with large dimensions. It is in a"do not disturb" mode which allows you to use it at home without interrupting your daily routine.

It also makes use of LiDAR to identify your home. This allows it to identify and navigate obstacles more precisely than devices that rely solely upon gyroscopes or infrared sensors. This makes it less likely to collide with fragile objects and optimize dirt pickup on various surface types. The LiDAR system is also faster than gyroscopes that can cause the robots to slow down or lose control when they encounter uneven surfaces.

It has a fair number of other features, including the ability to control mopping with a remote, an automatic system, and multiple vacuum modes. It is able to charge and recharge itself while it is in use. Its biggest flaw is that it only maps only one floor. If you have two floors it's going to need to be manually transported to those areas, and then programed to repeat.

Another issue is that it could be a little loud, especially during mopping mode. It also has a number of components that must be replaced or cleaned regularly, which adds to its recurring costs. Fortunately, the self-empty feature cuts down on the costs associated with these items and is compatible with bags-free filters, which reduces the annual cost.

4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series

The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series is a complete package that meets all the criteria you'd expect from a midrange robot vacuum, including solid cleaning performance and a great mobile app that can create accurate maps of your home. The bagless base eliminates the need to purchase dust bags to replace every year. In our test of cleaning it was able to remove 97.8% debris from hardwood and low-pile floors, but it was not as efficient with high-pile. Its maneuverability makes it easy to navigate through furniture and even climb onto high-pile flooring. It is also able to traverse over objects like rug fringes and electrical cords without getting stuck.

Its helix-pattern high-tensile bristles are strong enough to handle and untangle long hair strings, other fibers and the like The brushroll also has an edge that retracts and can be used when it encounters obstacles. Its slim design permits it to glide over furniture, and proximity sensors allow it to adapt and assess the presence of obstacles. The app allows you to schedule cleanings and Smart vacuum activate the machine with one button press. Its noise levels are average however, it can be quieted down by using a do not disturb mode or a custom scheduling.

The RV700 is a bit more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba j7+. This is to be anticipated from the fact that it does not self-empty. It's nonetheless more durable and easy to maintain. It is faster in charging and gets rid of more debris from both high-pile and bare floors. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries, recognize obstacles and avoid them, and also create virtual borders. This makes it the best choice for robotic cleaners you can "set and forget".

The RV700 Series doesn't have a cliff sensor that prevents it from falling down stairs, which may be a concern for those living in homes that are taller. It can't mop and vacuum at the same time and you'll need to change between modes in the app. The RV700 Series offers a cheaper alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot robots that come with self-emptying features and cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while docked in its base, which makes it an ideal choice for those who do not want to go through the inconvenience of emptying the dustbin each time they use it.