This isn’t the robot vacuum to get if you want the most polished experience – and you may very well want that if you’re dropping $1,000 on one – but it remains a powerful vac-and-mop machine with a handful of extra perks. The key criteria I look for in a robot vac are good battery life, a big bin (or bissell crosswave cordless an auto-empty option), a large rubber roller brush (less prone to getting tangled up than bristles), the ability to map your home, and an easy-to-use app. Many other features on top of these will make your life even easier (check out my list at the end of this guide), but these are the essentials.
So it’s safe to say you need some space if you want to invest in this beast. The hefty charging base isn’t just for show though — it comes with the expected self-emptying capabilities (it can hold up to 7 weeks worth of dust), plus it contains two water tanks, one each for clean and dirty water. With this set-up, it can essentially wash its own mop cloth when necessary, which is quite a useful feature. A small bristle brush will scrub the cloth once the robot docks and fresh water is applied while the dirty water is extracted.
The simplest robot vacuums navigate back and forth, in long Z-shaped rows, avoiding obstacles as needed. However, the newest generation of robot vacuums feature on-board cameras or LiDAR laser mapping, which they use to construct a map of your home for guided cleanings. Today, the best robot vacuums offer a full suite shark cordless of cleaning tools and assorted bells and whistles. This article was written by Erin Johnson, a commerce editor at The Spruce focusing on appliances, cleaning, and organization. She has hands-on experience testing upright, cordless, handheld, and robot vacuums and mops and has developed and led tests in The Lab.
We’ve also tested some cheap bump bots that are slightly different from the standard-issue Eufy, including the Eureka Groove. That bot was basically fine, but it couldn’t match the agility of the Eufy model (and its endless clones) or the durability of the Roomba bots we’ve tested. Wirecutter’s Liam McCabe wrote the previous versions of this guide, evaluating some 200 robots and testing close to 50 models since 2012. It also has built-in sensors to help it avoid small objects in its path, so you can feel more comfortable running it without supervision. During testing, we found that it avoided all the objects we placed in front of it—including socks, power cords, and pet messes. The Roomba i8+, which is smaller and slightly more advanced than the i4+, can create personalized Smart Maps of your home and be programmed to only clean designated Clean Zones and avoid Keep Out Zones.
The 3-stage Cleaning system is included with a self-charging feature, so you do not have to worry about fussing with the dock; it can find its way home to charge. Did you participate in data collection efforts by iRobot or other robot vacuum companies? The earliest model, the Swedish-made Electrolux Trilobite, came to market in 2001. It used ultrasonic sensors to locate walls and plot cleaning patterns; additional bump sensors on its sides and cliff sensors at the bottom helped it avoid running into objects or falling off stairs. But these sensors were glitchy, leading the robot to miss certain areas or repeat others.
Despite their many joys, the best robot vacuums can be quite pricey – although prices are definitely coming down. So to ensure you get the most cleaning bang for your bucks, we’ve tested eight of the leading models in our own homes to really put them through their paces. We’ve put all their key features dyson robot vacuum to the test – runtime, suction power, mapping and automation capabilities and more – to help you find the best robot vacuum for you and your home. To find the best bots for your buck, we’ve spent the last several years torture-testing the top robotic vacuums in our lab and in our homes.