While not the case for every robot we tested, we found some models that were able to reach into nooks and crannies, and manoeuvre around furniture with ease – a task that many regular vacuums also struggle with. Depending on the model you are using, your robot cleaner can run a total of 60 to 120 minutes on a single charge. According to the company’s test lab, a unit with VSLM can clean up to 2,000 square feet on a 120-minute charge. Designs that offer a Boost or Turbo mode are ideal if you have thick-pile carpets or rugs as they ensure you can temporarily increase the suction power, ensuring no fur remains after cleaning. Robot vacuum cleaners can cost anything from between $200 / £150 for models such as the Eufy RoboVac 11S to well over $1000 / £1000 for models such as the iRobot Roomba S9+. We rate each robot vacuum on how easy it was to empty, how loud it was in use, and how long the battery lasted between charges.
Its cleaning prowess is largely unmatched thanks to the decades of experience iRobot has in this space, and it’s one of the easiest robot vacuums to use. The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. Plenty of models (including our picks) can reliably clean homes, both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout the home and making a map of where they have or haven’t been. Bots rarely miss patches or waste time recleaning areas that they’ve already visited. If their batteries run low before they can finish cleaning an entire level of a home, they’re smart enough to drive back to their dock, recharge for a few hours, and then pick up where they left off.
If you appreciate a few high-tech features or are looking for a robot vacuum with stellar cleaning abilities, this vacuum is also for you. We just love that you don’t have to enable smart features to get a great clean. We also added sand, dirt, hair, and pieces of cereal to the floor to determine how effective the vacuums were at picking up different types of debris. Finally, we had our testers take the best robot vacuums from our lab tests home with them, where they continued to use the devices in their daily lives for an entire month. They evaluated the vacuums based on their performance, design, ease of use, and more before assigning a weighted score.
Despite the extra suction, the X8 isn’t as loud as robot vacuums from Roomba. For example, we attached a tracking device to robotic vacuums we tested to rate their navigation skills, and we challenged them to clean up a mix of cereal, rice, and yellow peas to rate their cleaning capacity. To learn more about how we rate and test robot vacuums, consult our vacuum buying guide. On top of these calculations, we factor in the reliability and owner satisfaction score of robotic vacuums from surveys based on members’ experiences with more than 9,000 robot vacuums. As the robot vacuum was operating, we used a decibel reader to assess the noise level of each.
We also liked that it has two edge-sweeping tools to help pull dirt and hair into the path of the vacuum, ensuring that no debris is left behind. The object-avoidance features help it to navigate through your space without running into furniture or walls, and we found during our tests that it could even detect and avoid objects, like socks, in its way. Though the Eufy RoboVac doesn’t have mapping technology bissell crosswave cordless to memorize the layout of your house, it does come with two 6-foot boundary strips to block off certain areas of your home. This allows you to keep it away from rooms with toys, laundry, or cables on the floor that could potentially get sucked up. It also has an object sensor that allows it to avoid ramming into walls and furniture, so you’ll only need to keep small clutter out of this vacuum’s path.
The Shark produced a pretty accurate floorplan of my two-bedroom apartment, and I was happy to see a “re-explore” option that I could use if the map wasn’t up to my standards. That way, you can send the Shark to only the bedroom for more direct cleaning jobs, select “no-go” zones and more. The downside is that the charging / cleaning base is huge and unattractive. And while it is well-designed — it’s easy to fill the fresh water and empty the dirty water tank — it does get a bit smelly. You also need to clean the mopping station periodically, and there is no hot air drying.
Things are a little buried, and that might make the S7+ harder for robot-vacuum newbies to use. Vac-and-mop devices aren’t new, but they are new to iRobot’s lineup and the company made a great one in the Roomba j7+ Combo. This machine offers an elegant solution to what usually is a more manual process of instructing the robot vacuum where to mop and where to actually vacuum.
They save time and effort compared to regular vacuum cleaners and are ideal for a mid-week clean. Auto-emptying is a quick process but can be noisy, so we’d suggest not running them at night or during an important work meeting. For those without this feature, be aware that due to their size, the dust canister will need to bissell crosswave cordless be emptied more frequently than a regular vacuum cleaner. These small-scale vacs are ideal for cleaning up spilt food and keeping on top of dust in-between more thorough cleans. They navigate around your home using sensors to avoid bumping into furniture, or by detecting (provided) magnetic strips that mark no-go areas.