It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. Here’s a guide to all the models—plus case recommendations and hidden software tricks to try.
Though it doesn’t alert you when the bin is full, it’s easy to access the dustbin from the top of the unit, right under the cover . The Eufy is smart enough to keep itself from getting into trouble — in our testing, it had no trouble detecting stairs with a combination of infrared sensors and anti-drop sensors. And at just 2.8 inches tall, the Eufy 11S is almost a full inch shorter than the slightly more expensive Roborock S4, allowing it to get under more furniture like console tables and kids’ beds. To reset a Roomba i and 900 series, press and hold the “clean” button on the robot for 10 to 20 seconds depending on the model.
The Eufy RoboVac 25C’s sand performance across low-pile (53.5%) and medium-pile (52.2%) carpets was decent as well. What sets the Eufy 11S above the budget competition is the ability to change the power level while the unit is cleaning. This is the only unit we tested that lets you change the power and suction level while the vacuum is operating.
Often the machine would push the piece of fake poop from one end of our test pen to the other. Depending on the size of your house, a robot vacuum can save you anywhere from minutes to hours of your time every week by taking care of a pretty thankless chore. The Proscenic M7 Pro is a smart, powerful robot vacuum that can also mop small spaces. With Imprint® Link Technology, your Roomba® j7/j7+ Robot Vacuum and Braava jet® m6 Robot Mop shark cordless can team up to vacuum and then mop in perfect sequence, giving your floors a comprehensive clean without any effort from you. The vacuum uses LiDAR to map and navigate along with infrared drop sensors to detect stairs, but it kept mistaking the base of my cat condo for stairs and asked to be moved away from it. Though it claims a whopping 180 minutes of runtime, it ran down at 110 minutes and died before it made it back to its base.
The biggest problem with the RoboVac series is that they don’t last as long as Roombas do, and they can’t be fixed when they break. About a year after the 11S was released, we started to hear from owners whose bots had already died, and the complaints have kept on coming. It’s shark cordless not uncommon to hear about Eufy bots that break within 18 months, but it’s rare to hear about Roomba 600 series models failing so quickly. The Eufy 11S doesn’t have Wi-Fi or any smart-home connectivity, but you can still set a daily cleaning schedule with the remote control.
It does still get stuck on common robot traps such as phone charging cables, cat toys, and, in my house, the skinny feet of a lounger chair. You do need to tidy up a bit before you set it free, but it does better with large cables and rug tassels than many other robots. (iRobot has an anti-tangle tech that makes the bot reverse course if it starts to get tangled.) This works pretty well for bigger items but, sadly, not phone charging cords. As you can see, robot vacuums are an amazing, and some would consider essential, quality-of-life investment for your home.
When everything is labelled, you can then start a new job in the top right corner of the app and select ‘clean everywhere’ or tick the rooms you want the J7+ to clean. The top-end Braava m6 provides more adjustments, custom mapping and can even integrate with certain Roomba models so the two can clean in tandem. Roombas are driven by two independently-operating side wheels, which can drive the Roomba forwards and backwards as well as perform turns of any radius, including 360° turns in place. Rotary encoders on the wheels can detect the rate at which the wheels are spinning so it can determine if they’re slipping or stuck, and drop sensors detect if a wheel is too low . An undriven swivel caster (located at the front of most models, and at the back of the D-shaped S series) is used not for steering, as is often believed, but as an additional sensor.
Kyvol’s E20 Robot Vacuum is one of the best entry-level robot vacuums, with many of the high-end features some of the more expensive robots on the market boast. We were blown away when it ran for 150 minutes at its lowest setting and 114 minutes in its default power mode. The dustbin does not automatically empty into the charging base like other options, but our experts found emptying the dustbin easy and noted that its larger dustbin means less frequent emptying too. The Roomba 960 is a solid mid-level offering in iRobot’s 900 series of robotic vacuum cleaners.