Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums can be great to keep your floors clean however they aren't a replacement for a regular vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to penetrate carpets or rugs, and can often get caught in socks and cords.
Maintaining a regular schedule of maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes, and emptying the dust bin) will make your robot last longer.
Battery Life
The majority of robot vacuums are able to handle a few cleaning sessions without having to be charged. The runner-up in our overall picks is the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is that is designed to last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This will suffice for homes that have a mixture of hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes where the rooms are similar in size.
A longer battery life means that the robot will spend more time cleaning and less time charging its dock. You should select a model that has a self-emptying bin. These models are more efficient at cleaning up debris and bringing it back to the dock to recharge. It's also important to empty or replace the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors regularly so that they can see your home clearly.
Smart mapping technology is a great feature to look out for, as it allows you to program your robot to clean certain rooms or avoid areas that it's likely to crash into furniture or other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot is able to get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. A few robovacs that are cheap come with boundary strips you can use to block off certain areas. Other models of higher quality rely on cameras and sensors.
Even the best robot vacuums aren't able to substitute a traditional vac when it comes to heavy-duty dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep a conventional power vac on standby for those tasks, and to schedule robot vacs regularly for light cleaning throughout the week.
Navigation
A robot should be capable of navigating your home without getting caught or running into objects like metal screws or pet hair, or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to track the robot through the multi-room lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also look for the way it manages to avoid obstacles like power cords, furniture legs, and pet waste.
The best robots are able to create multiple floors and identify landmarks, like doors and windows. The most advanced robots, such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system which uses a LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera on the front to spot objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to stay clear of common obstacles such as power cords and furniture legs and can store up to four different floor maps within its internal memory.
The majority of the models that are affordable depend on bump sensors that aren't as accurate. In my tests, they plowed 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 one exception to this. It has excellent carpet as well as a hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.
Another feature that is important is a large dust bin that doesn't need to be manually emptied, and for those models that mop, a tank of water that can hold weeks worth of mopping. The Karcher RCV 5 comes with this and a big enough footprint that it can be tucked away under furniture, but not so large that it won't fit in the space between your bathtub and toilet.
Apps
Robot vacuums are a lot like their upright counterparts, and it takes lots of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a mature market full of options. But even the top models require interaction with their users, particularly when it comes to scheduling cleanings, establishing a home floor plan and setting up virtual barriers.
To help reduce this interaction, consider looking for a model that has its own app to identify the location of your home, and save these settings for the future. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it left off on subsequent runs rather than having the mapping process restarted each time.
It is also recommended to look for models that offer zones or spot cleaning. They allow you to instruct the robot vacuum to focus on a particular area for example, like under the dining table after a big family meal. You can usually choose to use the app or via voice commands.
Object avoidance is another feature that's available with several models. It permits the robot, when it comes across something in its way such as a box shoes or a crate containing dog toys, to coach itself around. This will stop it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.
Some of the most expensive models in our tests include this feature. However, they usually rely on bump sensors for this and didn't always manage to avoid things in my test homes.
Pet Hair
When you're looking to remove pet hair, choose the right model designed to handle this type of debris. The top models feature powerful suction capabilities and a brush that is free of getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that can automatically empty hair into the dust bin when it is needed. Some models can also determine dirt levels and adjust the intensity of cleaning accordingly. They can also detect objects that aren't part your home flooring, like furniture, toys and food bowls.
Certain robot vacuums come with pet-friendly features, such as a water dispenser that can be used to mop floors and an HEPA filter that helps reduce allergens, such as pet dust. They might also have a quieter mode of operation to reduce the amount noise produced during cleaning sessions.
Robot vacuums that have the ability to map are a great option for pet owners since they're designed to evaluate your home and create plans of attack based on the layout and obstacles in each room. For example, the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an impressive capability to map the room and navigate around furniture and other obstacles using accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors that work in conjunction to learn the layout of your home.
Apps let you set up no-go zones. These are areas that the robot shouldn't be allowed, for instance, areas with fragile objects or pet feeding areas. 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 room as the vacuum. Spot cleaning is an additional excellent feature. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to clean an area that is especially dirty or stuffed with pet hair.
Dust Bin
Unless you're looking for something small You should pick an item capable of holding at least a complete bag of garbage from one cleaning session. We recommend choosing the one with a large bin, or even a dustbin that self-empties. The former will allow you to keep track of emptying the bin often enough to ensure you are on top of its performance, while the latter will help you save time and effort by automatically dumping its contents into an internal container every few cleanings.
Look for robotic vacuum cleaner on sale that have smart mapping capabilities, which enable them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes. They also 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 plan more efficient routes, as well as ones that can sense and avoid objects that may block their paths (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).
Some models offer spot cleaning. This allows you to select an area of your home for intensive cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the top models can take out small particles like baking soda, sand orzo, metal screws, and pet hair, in addition to heavier debris such as oatmeal, orzo, and screws made of metal.
The brand you choose will determine the longevity of the robot. most robots can last for years and will remain in good working order in the event that you maintain them with regular maintenance, such as cleaning tangled hair from brushes and emptying the dust bin after each use, and wiping down sensors and cameras whenever required. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular and therefore easier and cheaper to replace or repair parts such as batteries and wheels as they wear out.