Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums can be great for keeping your floors tidy but they are not a substitute for a traditional vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to get into carpets or rugs, and can often get tangled in socks and cords.
Your robot will last longer if it is maintained with regular maintenance. This includes replacing filters, removing the tangled hairs from brushes and emptying the dust bin.
Battery Life
Most robot vacuums are capable of handling just a few cleaning sessions before needing a charge. The runner-up of our overall selections, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is rated to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. That amount of runtime is more than enough time to clean most smaller homes with carpets that are hard and carpets with low pile or a bigger home with rooms that are roughly the same size.
A longer battery life means that the robot can spend less time charging and spend more time cleaning. It is recommended to choose the model with a self-emptying bin. These models are more efficient at collecting debris and then returning to docks to recharge. It is important to clean or replace filters and clean the sensors and the camera on a regular schedule so they can see clearly.
Smart mapping technology is a useful feature to look for since it permits you to program your robot to only clean certain rooms or avoid areas that it's likely to crash into furniture or other obstacles. It's also helpful for ensuring your robot is able to get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture that is tall. A few robovacs are cheap robot vacuum cleaner and have boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off certain areas, and other models with higher-end features utilize sensors and cameras to accomplish this.
Even the best robot vacuums aren't able to substitute a traditional vac for heavy-duty dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep an electric vacuum in your home to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacs for light cleanings throughout the week.
Navigation
A robot should be able of traveling around your home and not getting caught or running into things such as metal screws or pet hair, or sand. In our tests, we use a tracking device to follow the robot as it goes through a multi-room lab and maps out its surroundings. We also check how well the robot is able to avoid obstacles like power cords, furniture leg, and pet waste.
The top robots can map out several floors and can recognize landmarks such as doors and Windows. The most advanced robots, like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system, which uses a LIDAR to create a floor plan and a structured-light camera mounted on the front to detect objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles, such as furniture legs and power cords and can also store up to four different floor maps within its internal memory.
More affordable models don't have this kind of 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 of shoes placed in the middle. The Dreametech D10+ is the best value pick. It is a great carpet, hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is near-perfect.
Another feature that is important is a huge onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually emptied, and for the models that mop, a water tank that can last for weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is a good example of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture but not so big that it cannot fit in the nook between your toilet and tub.
Apps
Robot vacuums are like their upright counterparts and require lots of technology to keep them current. The result is a pretty mature market with plenty of options. However, even the most advanced models require some interaction with their users - especially when it comes to scheduling cleanings as well as 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 uses its own app to recognize the location of your home, and save the settings for the future. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off on subsequent runs, rather than having to start the mapping process every time.
It is also recommended to look for models that provide zone or spot cleaning. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to focus on a specific area, such as under the table after a large family meal. You can choose to do this using the app or by voice commands.
Object avoidance is another feature that's included in several models. It allows the robot to see something in its path, like shoes, a crate of dog toys or a crate of dog toys, and guide itself around it. This will stop it from crashing into objects which could harm its sensors or cause jams.
Some of the most expensive models we've tested come with 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
Choose an upright vacuum cleaner specifically designed to remove pet hair. The best models will have a high suction, a brush that keeps hair from tangling and an automated emptying mechanism. Some can also detect dirt levels and adjust the intensity of cleaning according to the amount of dirt. They are able to detect objects that aren't part of the flooring in your home, such as furniture and toys, food bowls cords, and so on.
Certain robot vacuums have additional pet-friendly features. They include a water dispenser that is used to mop floors, and an HEPA filtering system that eliminates allergens like pet dander. They could also provide the option of a quieter operation, which will reduce the amount of sound generated during cleaning sessions.
Robot vacuums that include the ability to map are a great option for pet owners, since they're engineered to assess your home and create plans of attack according to the layout and obstructions in each room. For example the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has the impressive ability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions using gyroscope and accelerometer smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your home.
Apps let you establish no-go zones. These are areas where the robot shouldn't be allowed, such as delicate objects or pet feeding areas. This feature is especially beneficial for busy households, as you can schedule cleaning sessions without having to be in the room where the automatic vacuum cleaner is. Spot cleaning is another excellent feature. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to clean an area that is particularly filthy or is brimming with pet hair.
Dust Bin
If you don't want something small, consider a robot with a large bin, or even a self-emptying bin. We recommend going for a model with a large bin, or perhaps self-emptying garbage bin. The former will enable you to keep track of cleaning the bin regularly enough to stay on top rated robot vacuum of its performance while the latter will help you save time and hassle by automatically dumping its contents into an internal container after every few cleans.
No matter the size of your house Most robots are able to move around and up to furniture, and almost all can recognize and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, loose cords, and dog urine. Find models with smart mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the patterns of your house cleaning robot (Read the Full Guide) and design more efficient routes, and ones that can sense and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).
Some models offer spot cleaning. This allows you to manually target an area of your home for thorough cleaning. We've observed that the majority of the top robot vacuum performers in our tests are able to take in fine particles such as sand and baking soda, along with heavier particles like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.
According to the brand the manufacturer, robots last for a long time and continue to perform well as long as they are maintained. For example cleaning hair tangled of brushes cleaning dust bins after each use and wiping sensors and cameras down when needed. The best-performing robots also tend to be more modular which makes them simpler and less costly to repair or replace parts such as batteries and wheels when they get worn out.