Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuums are great for keeping your floors tidy but they are not a substitute for the regular vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to get into carpets and rugs. They also often get tangled in socks and cords.
Being on top of routine maintenance (replacing filters cutting hair tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin) will help your robot last longer.
Battery Life
Most robot vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The runner-up of our top picks is the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo comes with a battery rated to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This amount of runtime will suffice for the majority of small homes with the combination of hard floors and carpets with low pile or larger homes with rooms that are about the same size.
A longer battery life means the robot can spend less time charging and more time cleaning. It's recommended to select a model with a self-emptying dust bin, as they are more efficient when it comes to picking up debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It's also important to clean or replace the filter and wipe down cameras and sensors on a regular basis so they can clearly see your home.
Smart mapping technology is a useful feature to look out for because it allows you to program your robot to only clean certain rooms or avoid areas where it's likely to crash into furniture or other obstacles. It's also beneficial for ensuring your robot can get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture that is tall. Some cheap robovacs offer boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off areas while others utilize sensors and cameras to achieve this goal.
Even the most powerful robot vacuums can't replace a conventional vac for heavy-duty dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep an electric vacuum in your home for these tasks and 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 objects like metal screws, pet hair or sand. In our tests, we employ an instrument to track the robot as it goes through a multiroom lab. It maps out its surroundings. We also check the way it manages to avoid obstacles like furniture legs, power cords and pet waste.
The most advanced robots are able to map out multiple floors and recognize landmarks like doors and windows. The most advanced ones such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, feature a dual-sensor navigation system that utilizes a LIDAR sensor to map out the space and a structured lighting camera in front of the bot to detect objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles like power cords and furniture legs and can also store up to four floor maps within its internal memory.
Cheaper models don't come with this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as accurate. In budget robot vacuum were able to detect dog poop and cords, as well as a pair shoes placed in the middle. The most affordable choice Dreametech D10+, is one exception to this. It is a great carpet, hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.
A large onboard dustbin, which does not need to be manually empty, is also a aspect that's crucial. For models that sweep the floor, this water tank will hold enough water to last for several weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent illustration of this. It has a wide enough footprint to fit under furniture but not so big that it cannot fit in the nook between your toilet and bathtub.
Apps
Robot vacuums are like their upright counterparts and require a lot of technology to keep them up-to-date. There are plenty of choices available in a market that is maturing. Even the best models require interaction from their customers especially when it comes time to schedule cleaning, make a a floor plan for your home and install virtual barriers.
Think about a model that has its own app that can determine the layout of your house and save these settings for later use. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off in subsequent runs, without having to restart the mapping process each time.
Also, look for models that offer spot or zone cleaning. They let you tell the robot vacuum to focus on a specific spot, such as under the dining table after an enormous family meal. You can choose to do this by using the app or by voice commands.
Avoidance of objects is a different option that is available on several models. It permits the robot, when it comes across something in its way such as a box of shoes or a crate filled with dog toys, to coach itself around. This prevents it from crashing into objects which could harm its sensors or cause jams.
Some of the most expensive models we've tested include this feature. However, they typically rely on bump sensors for this and weren't always able to avoid things in my test homes.
Pet Hair
When you're looking to remove pet hair, choose one that is specifically designed to handle this type of debris. The top models feature powerful suction and a brush that prevents getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that will automatically dump hair into the bin when it is needed. Certain models can detect dirt levels to alter the level of cleaning. They are also able to detect items that aren't a part of your home flooring, like furniture, toys, and food bowls.
Some robot vacuums come with additional pet-friendly features. These include the water dispenser that can be used to clean floors, and an HEPA filtering system that helps to reduce allergens such as pet dander. They might also offer a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of noise that's produced during cleaning sessions.
Robot vacuums that have maps are an excellent option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home and devise an strategy based on the layout of each room and obstacles. For budget robot vacuum , the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has the impressive capability to map rooms and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your space.
Other models that are more advanced allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is meant to stay clear of, such as fragile items or pet feeding spots. You can adjust these settings via an app. This feature is particularly useful for a busy household, as it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions and make adjustments without having to be in the same room with the vacuum. Spot cleaning is an additional great feature. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to clean a space that is particularly filthy or filled with pet hair.
Dust Bin
Unless you're looking for something small it is recommended to select one that can carry at least a full bag of garbage from one cleaning session. We recommend choosing the one with an enormous bin, or even a dustbin that automatically emptys. The former will allow you to keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to ensure its efficiency. The second will save you time and effort by automatically emptying the contents into an internal container each time you clean it.
No matter the size of your home the majority of robots are able to move around and up to furniture, and they are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, loose cords and dog puke. Look for models with smart mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the structure of your home and devise more efficient routes, and models that detect and avoid objects that may hinder their path (like shoelaces or the tangled charging cables).
Some models also offer spot cleaning, which allows users to select a particular area of your house for intensive cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the best models can take out small particles like baking soda, sand, orzo, screws made of metal and pet hair, as well heavier debris like oatmeal orzo, and screws made of metal.
Based on the manufacturer, most robots can last for years and will continue to perform in the event that you keep up with maintenance tasks, such as cleaning hair that has become tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin after every use and cleaning cameras and sensors whenever required. The most reliable robots are more adaptable. This makes it easier to replace or repair components such as wheels and batteries as they wear out.