Robot vacuums can help you dispose of dust, pet hair, and other debris in your home without requiring you to lift a finger. With the ability to empty its own dustbin and wash its own mop, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is one of the most self-sufficient two-in-one robot floor cleaners we’ve tested. Robot vacuums are more capable and affordable than ever, and we’ve bissell crosswave cordless rounded up the best models we’ve tested to help you pick the perfect one for your home. In most homes, we think a bot will stay in good shape if you do about 15 minutes of maintenance per month, maybe a little more if the bot has a heavy workload. On that note, there is still a place in the world for cheaper robots that rely on semi-random navigation.
Read on for our top picks, as well as all the factors you should consider when buying a robot vacuum. The affordable Wyze Robot Vacuum methodically zips around your home sucking up dust and pet hair from hard flooring and carpet thanks to top-notch laser mapping and efficient route planning. The relatively affordable Eufy RoboVac G30 robot vacuum has a compact design, strong suction power for its size, and smarter navigation than its predecessors. The Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE vacuum holds up to a months’ worth of dust and debris in its base station, and features a self-cleaning brushroll and lots of smart features for a truly low-maintenance experience. This is important because if you set your bot to clean while you’re out of the house, but it gets stuck under your dining room table within the first 10 minutes, you’ll still have dirty floors when you get home.
The robot makes 60 decisions every second, navigating under furniture and around clutter to thoroughly clean your floors. The G20 has a 600-milliliter capacity, which is at the higher end for Eufy vacuums, and uses smart-mapping technology that allows it to tackle large spaces in a series of smaller zones. If the battery does get low, the vacuum will stop, take itself back to the charging station, and when fully charged can resume where it left off. It also has a voice — and will announce if it has run into any problems while cleaning.
The ability of the rubber main brush to float to meet uneven surfaces sets this robot vacuum apart from the competition. Similar to other cordless vacuums, the best robot vacuums have varying runtimes that depend on the battery life. The battery life will generally range from 60 minutes with more basic versions to about 120 minutes at the higher end. Those who want their Roomba to cover more square footage may prefer a model with a longer battery life, or perhaps two robots to cover different zones or floors.
More expensive models have auto-emptying docking stations, which only require emptying the dock — not the vacuum — after several weeks. You may or may not have to buy disposable bags for such a dock, but even if so, the convenience may be worth it. Here’s what you need to know about robot vacuums, and which ones you should buy. If you have predominantly hard floors, you should also consider sonething from our best robot mops list. The sensors and navigational aids the robot vacuum uses to move and assess floor surfaces and condition.
If the dock is in a cluttered area or under a piece of furniture, there’s a good chance the bot will not re-dock. Before you start a cleaning session, you should pick up any laundry, charging cables, or lightweight mats—most bots will get stuck on them. And you should expect a few hiccups during the first handful of sessions. But then you’ll figure out the pain points and get into a routine, and it won’t seem like a big deal. But we’ve put the current AI bots to the test in the real world, and they aren’t that good yet. Certain models are pretty good at avoiding certain obstacles, but none of them reliably avoid every kind of common floor-clutter, and some models just don’t deliver on their promises at all.
Then, you pair it with a companion app (either Xiaomi Home or Roborock’s own app—their features vary slightly, and we find the latter to be simpler). It’ll take some time to get used to the icons and sub-menus, while the imperfect border-drawing tool means you’ll be doing a little trial and error to get some of your zoned cleaning really dialed in. For a lot of people, the app’s robust controls are worth the fiddling and occasional frustration.
The robot itself feels relatively flimsy, but we have no clue what to expect in terms of durability, and our analysis of user reviews didn’t turn up any unusual complaints. The main reason we don’t recommend the Wyze is that the app can’t currently remember maps for multiple floors of a home. It learns one level, whereas Roborock bots can remember up to four levels. bissell crosswave cordless According to the Wyze customer support forums, a beta version of the Wyze app supports multiple maps, and it’s supposed to be released widely at some point. If that doesn’t matter to you, or you’re willing to believe that they’ll actually release the multi-level update soon (I wouldn’t, but I’ve been wrong before), the Wyze seems like a decent-enough option.
On its strongest suction setting , the S4 Max has enough oomph to suck up almost anything from a bare floor, but even the Balanced suction setting is fine for common debris like crumbs or pet hair. Its single brush can pick up surface-level debris from most types of carpets, but it won’t dig up hair like a dual-brush Roomba can. Most robot vacuums will get snagged on charging cables, which jam the brush roll or sometimes pull the bots off course. It is powerful and does a great job of cleaning both carpets and hard floors. This is important, clearly, because iRobot wants its customers to replace their conventional vacuum with a Roomba.