Best Robot Vacuums 2023
Robot vacuums have alleviated a lot of stress in many homes. The need to employ a maid or do it yourself is now becoming a thing of the past. In this guide, we’ll review the best robot vacuum to choose from. As you read through, take note of each item and its features. This will aid you in selecting the best for you.
Buyer’s Guide For Robot Vacuums
- Start by surveying your home. Consider whether you mostly have hard floors or carpet. If you have carpet, how thick is it? Think about pets as well — will the robot vacuum have to pick up kitty litter or thick fur? These are all important aspects to consider before you start shopping for a robot vacuum.
- Decide on your budget. As mentioned earlier, robot vacuums with the latest features can cost over $1,000. Cheaper models are available for around $200, but be prepared to lose some of the premium features, such as WiFi connectivity or the self-emptying dustbin.
- Do you want an app with that? Some robot vacuums can be connected with dedicated apps. Apps are useful for monitoring your robot vacuum and scheduling cleaning sessions. These can also help with mapping out your home and creating no-go zones.
- Robot vacuums use varying methods of navigation. If you invest in a lower-end robot vacuum, it will likely move sporadically and bounce off walls and obstructions in the process. Whereas, some medium and high-end models use lasers and optical sensors to guide them.
- Some models clean better than others. Every robot vacuum performs differently. Some collect dust and debris more effectively than pet hair, while others might work better on hard floors rather than carpets.
Some Extra Features to look for
Stairs detection
This feature, now standard across almost all models, helps the robot sense when it has reached a ledge or step so it can back off and avoid a damaging tumble.
Virtual wall
An accessory is used to create an invisible barrier to block off open doorways or other areas you don’t want the robot to enter. Many robot vacuums will define the virtual wall using an app, but some use infrared towers to define barriers (these may cost extra).
Programmable times
This handy function will allow you to set times of the day or week to run the robot – for instance, you could set it to run only while you’re out of the house.
Automatic docking
When the battery charge is low the robot vacuum finds its way back to the charger and docks automatically. All the models in our test do this.
Running time
Battery life is important, especially if you have a large area to be cleaned. You’ll want a robot vacuum that cleans for long enough to cover your floor area before returning to the charging station. While we’re seeing battery life improving, we’ve noticed some models that keep running well after the motor has actually stopped ‘cleaning’. Essentially, these vacuums have a cleaning mode and a return to charging station mode. In these cases, we measure the running time to be until the motor stops running (i.e. cleaning has stopped).
Noise level
Robot vacuums are generally quieter than standard vacuums, but some have an annoying high-pitched whistle and others make a mechanical grinding noise.
This may be less important if the robot mainly runs while you’re out of the house, but these sounds may be loud enough to annoy neighbors or scare pets.
Mopping function
Some robot vacuums also have a mopping function, but these are best suited for light stains only. Usually, this involves putting a small amount of water into a tank which moistens a microfibre pad that’s attached to the vacuum’s base.
Self-emptying function
We’re seeing more high-end robots with an automatic dirt disposal unit on the charging base. Once the robot goes back to charge, the dust bin gets emptied which saves you from having to continually empty the tiny dust bin.
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Ecovacs Deebot X1 OMNI
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iRobot Roomba j7+ (7550) Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum
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Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE
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iRobot Roomba S9 Plus
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Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid
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Yeedi Mop Station Pro
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iLife V3s Pro
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Roborock S7
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Wyze Robot Vacuum
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Neato D9
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Best Robot Vacuum
Ecovacs Deebot X1 OMNI
With a self-emptying dustbin, a mop that cleans and dries itself, and a built-in voice assistant, the pricey Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni is the best two-in-one robot vacuum and mop you can buy.
The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni is the most expensive floor-cleaning robot we’ve reviewed, but it’s also the most advanced. It can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash and dry its own mop cloth, representing a major step forward in robotic floor cleaning. It even doubles as a roving home security camera with two-way audio and features a built-in voice assistant, dubbed Yiko, that allows for voice control without a separate smart speaker.
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iRobot Roomba j7+ (7550) Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum
iRobot’s Roomba j7+ robot vacuum has smarts to spare, with a guarantee to avoid pet waste and a self-emptying base that means you rarely have to lift a finger.
The iRobot Roomba j7+ might induce sticker shock, but it’s one of the smartest standalone robot vacuums you can buy. It uses a built-in camera and machine learning technology to recognize obstacles in its cleaning path in real-time, and automatically reroute itself around them. iRobot has trained its PrecisionVision Navigation machine learning algorithms to identify phone cords, power cables, headphones, pet waste, shoes, clothing, and towels on the floor using hundreds of millions of images crowdsourced from its customers who have opted in to contribute to its database.
When it encounters potential obstacles that aren’t in its database, the j7+ snaps photos and asks you whether it should avoid those areas in the future. It only takes about a minute to review the obstacle images, and doing so can prove extremely useful.
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Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE
The Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE vacuum holds up to a month’s worth of dust and debris in its base station and features a self-cleaning brush roll and lots of smart features for a truly low-maintenance experience.
These days, automatic dustbin emptying is becoming a standard robot vacuum feature. While most self-emptying robot vacuums transfer the contents of their bin into a bag, the Shark IQ Robot XL takes a different approach. It has two dustbins: one in the robot itself, and a larger one in the base station that only needs to be emptied about once a month. The advantage of Shark’s bagless auto-empty system is that you never have to worry about running out of bags.
The Shark IQ Robot XL also stands out for its self-cleaning brush roll, which in our testing successfully prevented hair from getting wrapped around it, a common problem with many robot vacuums. Moreover, it delivered strong suction power, effectively cleaning dust, debris, and pet hair from hard flooring and carpet, and it never got stuck. It offers a number of useful smart features, including home mapping for targeted room cleaning and virtual no-go zones.
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iRobot Roomba S9 Plus
The iRobot Roomba S9+ is the best robot vacuum you can buy right now, although, with such a hefty price tag, it will be out of the reach of some.
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.
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Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid
If you love the idea of a robot vacuum that can mop and vacuum, but you’re on a budget – this hybrid floor cleaner from Eufy is well worth considering. At just under half the price of the Ecovacs Robovacs that can mop as well – and often discounted – this certainly comes with a more affordable price tag.
On test, the Eufy G30 Hybrid collected fine dust, cookie crumbs, and larger debris – including cereal – with ease, even on the lowest power setting from hard floors, although like most robot vacuums, it struggled with ground-in dirt on carpets. The dust canister and water tank are smaller than the rival models. However, we think this is an acceptable compromise given the more affordable price tag.
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Yeedi Mop Station Pro
Yeedi’s 3-in-1 device is impressive. Its ability to mop efficiently with rotation mop heads that self-clean every ten minutes is amazing. It was also good at tackling debris on our floors, though it’s much more effective at cleaning central areas than it is at getting close to the baseboards.
Limitations in the app mean the Yeedi Mop Station Pro is best placed in a single room that requires more cleaning than you’re up for doing manually. This is because you can only store one-floor plan, and because of the bulk of the appliance’s docking station.
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iLife V3s Pro
The iLife V3s Pro is the best robot vacuum you can get for less than $200. Despite its low price, the V3s Pro consistently outperformed other robot vacuums that cost three times as much. It picked up nearly all of Fido’s fur in our lab tests — making it the best robot vacuum for pet hair — and was also good in our at-home tests, too. It was about average in terms of noise compared to the other robot vacuums on the test, with 64.1dB.
There are a few caveats when purchasing a robot vacuum this cheap, though. For starters, the iLife V3s Pro is slow, taking more than 90 minutes on average to clean our test space — others took less than 30 minutes. A
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Roborock S7
Until the Roborock S7, most of the hybrid robot vacuums/robot mops we’ve tested have been good, but not great, at either task. The S7 is the first such device we’d actually trust to vacuum and mop without close supervision. That’s because the S7 is smart enough to know when it’s on a rug, and can lift its mopping pad so that your carpet doesn’t get soaked.
As a vacuum, the S7 was pretty good — it’s not the best with pet hair — but it was fast and thorough, scoring a pickup average of 93. It works better on hard floors compared to carpets, but even on carpets, the performance was decent, scoring an average of just over 90. It also has niceties such as multi-floor mapping, no-go zones, and scheduling. If you’re looking for a robot vacuum that can also mop, the Roborock S7 is worth a look.
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Wyze Robot Vacuum
This new robot vacuum cleaner from Wyze makes our list because of its exceptional performance on hard floors. It picks up tiny dirt like cereal. Also, the Wyze app is easy to navigate and intuitive to use. It also comes with useful features, such as a location-based trigger.
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Neato D9
The Neato D9 provides a solid cleaning performance, scoring a respectable 92.79 overall on our tests. It picked up almost 93% of kitty litter carpet, which ranks it above the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, and its predecessor, the Neato D4. It’s a relatively quiet and fast operator as well, which makes it ideal to run even when you’re at home. We also like that the dustbin is concealed in the center of the robot, which makes it simple and convenient to access.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, robot vacuums are a must-have for your home, especially if every member of the house to too engaged. We have carefully handpicked some of the best robot vacuums. When selecting robot vacuums do make sure you read through the buyer’s guide above, then you can choose to choose according to the guide.
