It has consistently been one of the lowest-priced models of its ilk (around $100 cheaper than the Roborock Q5). The robot itself felt relatively flimsy, but we have no clue what to expect in terms of durability, and our analysis of owner reviews shark cordless didn’t turn up any unusual complaints. The main reason we don’t recommend the Wyze bot 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.
Because robot vacuums are designed to clean, most of us forget that these too need regular maintenance. They have surprisingly small bins (some less than 400ml) and so, unless you’re lucky enough to own a self-emptying model, these will need emptying after each run. On top of this, it’s good practice to cut free any hairs which have tangled in the rotating brush as well as clean the filters. Some brands such as Eufy, iLife and Roborock will provide a cleaning tool which can help with these tasks.
In fact, a full bin will result in it dragging any mess around the floors rather than picking it up. The images that result show us light trails that reveal the robot’s path as it navigates the room and cleans around our mock furniture. The GIF above shows you a quick succession of three of these images for our top splurge pick, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. As you can clearly see, it’s incredibly thorough and consistent from run to run, and an expert at running circles around the legs of our test furniture.
This small-but-mighty robot vacuum wowed our testers in the lab by picking up tiny grains of sand, clumps of hair, and pieces of cereal with equal ease. It has three different brushes underneath it to help the vacuum pick up a wide path of dirt on every pass, and a strong suction system helps to remove even large pieces of debris from your hardwood floors. If you’re looking for a particularly high-tech robot vacuum with features like object detection, automatic dirt disposal, or smart mapping, you’ll likely find the Roomba 694 to be a little low-tech. It doesn’t offer any of the fancy features a more expensive robot vacuum may possess, but we found this to be an incredibly reliable and effective tool for hands-free cleaning on multiple floor types.
It’s not a cheap investment either, but it’s good-looking and we can’t complain about the range of features. It achieved an almost perfect score when set to the task of picking up Cheerios and performed admirably when collecting kitty litter (95.73 on average). However, its streak suffered when it came to collecting dog hair from the carpet — it picked up just 58%. That’s the lowest score we’ve seen compared with similar models; the Roomba j7+ is the closest at 72.5%, but even that’s a sizeable gap. That being said, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra offers a quality performance otherwise and the technology is very impressive.
It proved simple to use during testing, and the S9+ impressed us when it came to sucking everything from fine dust and biscuit crumbs to cereal on hard floors. However, its pick-up on carpets wasn’t quite as thorough – although our existing cordless vacuum also struggled to suck up some of the remaining fine dust, suggesting this is deeply embedded into the pile. Recognizing that most homes have a combination of carpeting and bare floors, iRobot just launched its first 2-in-1 robot vacuum-and-mop combo in September, said WIlliams. The Roomba irobot vacuum cleaner Combo j7+ offers all the same features as the j7+, including the iRobot’s Pet Owner Official Promise, but it also mops and vacuums bare floors at the same time. According to the brand, this is the only robot vacuum-and-mop combination that can easily transition from carpet to bare floors because it has an automatic, fully retractable mop that prevents wet carpet messes. It you want to drop even more cash, the s9+ can also talk with the company’s Braava jet m6 robot mop, with the two working as a team, vacuuming floors, followed by a mop.
From there, we base our final rating on its price, cleaning ability, functionality and ease of use relative to similar models. The all new i3+ remembers your routines and automatically schedules around your life. It also knows to empty itself, so you don’t have to think about vacuuming for months. True informed consent dyson robot vacuum means “that the person fully understands the procedure, they fully understand the risks … how those risks will be mitigated, and … what their rights are,” she explains. But this rarely happens in a comprehensive way—especially when companies market adorable robot helpers promising clean floors at the click of a button.