Your Family Will Thank You For Having This Best Rated Robot Vacuum

Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums can be great for keeping your floors tidy but they cannot replace a traditional vacuum. Even the most advanced robots aren't able to get deep into rugs and carpets, and they can become tangled in cords and socks.

Maintaining a regular schedule of maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes and emptying the dust bin) will help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are capable of handling a few cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The runner-up in our top picks is the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is highest rated robot vacuum (like it) to last up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This amount of runtime will be more than enough for most small homes with the combination of hard flooring and carpets with low pile or larger homes with rooms that are similar in size.

A longer battery lifespan also means that the robot will spend more time cleaning and less time charging on its dock. You should choose a model that has a self-emptying bin. These models are more efficient at cleaning up debris and bringing it back to the dock to recharge. It is important to clean or replace the filters and clean the sensors and the camera regularly so they can see clearly.

Smart mapping technology can be a valuable feature, since you can program your robot to ensure it only cleans certain rooms or stays clear of areas where it's likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also helpful for ensuring that your robot is able to reach under and around furniture, such as beds, sofas and other high-height items. A few robovacs that are cheap come with boundary strips you can use to block off certain areas. Other models of higher quality rely on cameras and sensors.

Even the best robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum when it comes heavy-duty dirt and debris. It's wise to keep a conventional power vac in reserve to handle these chores, and to schedule robot vacs regularly for light cleanups throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able to navigate you home without getting stuck or crashing into objects like metal screws or pet hair that is loose, or sand. In our tests, we use an instrument to track the robot as it moves through a multiroom lab and maps out its surroundings. We also test how the robot is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

The best robots can map out multiple floors and can recognize landmarks like doors and Windows. The most advanced robots such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system which uses the LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera on the front to spot objects in real-time. The S8 can evade obstacles like cables for power and furniture legs. It also has the capability to store up to four floor robot maps.

Cheaper models don't come with this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as accurate. In my tests they cut right through cords, dog poop and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The best value pick the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor pickup, good hair and tangle pickup and an almost perfect auto vacuum empty score.

A large dust bin onboard, which doesn't have to be empty manually is another feature that is essential. For models that mop the floor, this tank will hold enough water for several weeks of cleaning. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a wide enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not too big that it cannot fit in the nook between your toilet and bathtub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to upright models, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to get them up and running at speed. The result is a pretty mature market full of options. Even the top models require interaction from their customers particularly when it comes to schedule cleanings, create a floor plan for your home and install virtual barriers.

To lessen the chance of this interaction, consider looking for a model with its own app to determine the layout of your home and save those settings for the future. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it began on subsequent runs rather than having the mapping process restarted each time.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning options. They allow you to instruct the robot vacuum to concentrate on a particular area for example, like under the dining table following an enormous family meal. You can usually choose to use the app or voice commands.

Avoidance of objects is a different feature that's available with several models. It permits the robot, when it spots something in its way such as a box shoe or a crate with dog toys, to guide itself around. This will keep it from running into things that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

This feature is available on a few of the more expensive models we test. They depend on bump sensor technology for this however they weren't always able to stay clear of things I tested at home.

Pet Hair

Find a vacuum cleaner that is specifically designed to collect pet hair. The best automatic vacuum models have high suction power and a brush that prevents tangling, and an emptying mechanism that will automatically dump hair into the trash bin when necessary. Some models can also determine dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity in line with the level of dirt. They also can detect items that aren't a part of your flooring in your home, such as furniture, toys, and food bowls.

Some robot vacuums include features that are pet-friendly, such as a small water dispenser that can be used for mopping floors and an HEPA filter that helps reduce allergens like pet dust. They might also have an operation that is quieter to cut down on the amount of noise that is generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums that have the ability to map are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to assess your home and devise an attack plan based on the layout of each room and obstacles. For instance the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot automatic vacuum cleaner is a smart vacuum with an impressive capability to map the room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with gyroscope and accelerometer smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your room.

Other advanced models allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is meant to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings through an app. This feature is especially useful for households with busy schedules as it permits you to schedule cleaning sessions and make adjustments without having be in the same space as the vacuum. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning, which lets you use the vacuum to clean a specific area that is particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something tiny, choose a robot with a large bin, or even a self-emptying bin. That's why we recommend opting for a model with a large bin, or perhaps self-emptying bins. The former will enable you to keep track of emptying the bin often enough to stay on top of its performance and the latter will save you time and effort by automatically dumping the contents into an internal container after every few cleans.

Regardless of the size of your house the majority of robots are able to move around and up to furniture, and most are able to detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, cords that are loose and dog urine. Look for models with intelligent mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the structure of your home and design more efficient routes, as well as ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that may block their paths (like shoelaces or the tangled charging cables).

Some models also offer spot cleaning, which allows you to choose a particular area of your house for intensive cleaning. We've found that most of the top performers in our tests can pick up fine particles like sand and baking soda, as well as heavier debris like oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

Based on the manufacturer, most robots will last for years and will continue to perform well so long as you are on top of maintenance, like cleaning out hair that is tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin after each use and wiping down sensors and cameras as needed. The best inexpensive robot vacuum robots are also more modular. This allows you to replace or repair parts like batteries and wheels, as they wear out.