10 Best Rated Robot Vacuum Tricks All Experts Recommend

Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are fantastic in keeping your floors spotless, they can't replace a full-size vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to get deep into carpets or rugs and often get caught in socks and cords.

Staying on top of routine maintenance (replacing filters cutting hair that is tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin) can help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are able to handle a few cleaning sessions without needing to be charged. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is a close second in our overall picks. It comes with an energy-efficient battery that can last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) on one charge. That amount of runtime is more than enough to clean most smaller homes with a mix of hard floors and low-pile carpets, or a larger home in which the rooms are about the same size.

A longer battery life means the robot will be able to spend less time charging and can spend more time cleaning. It is recommended to choose one with an auto-emptying bin. These models are more efficient in picking up debris and returning back to the dock to recharge. It is important to clean or replace the filters and wipe down sensors and camera regularly so that they can be seen clearly.

Smart mapping technology can be a useful feature, as it allows you to program your robot so that it only cleans specific rooms or areas it's likely to crash into furniture and other obstacles. It's also helpful for ensuring your robot is able to go under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. A few robovacs that are cheap robot vacuum cleaner come with boundary strips that you can use to block off specific areas. Other high-end models rely on sensors and cameras.

Even the best robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty, large-pile dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep a traditional power vac on standby for these tasks, and to schedule robot vacs regularly for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate around your home without getting stuck or crashing into objects like metal screws or loose pet hair or sand. In our tests, we employ an instrument to track the robot as it travels through a multiroom lab and determine its surroundings. We also examine how the robot is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture legs, and pet waste.

The top robots can map out multiple floors, and recognize landmarks such as doors and windows. The most advanced models, like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, have a dual-sensor navigation system which uses an LIDAR sensor to map out the room and a structured lighting camera in front of the robot to identify objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to stay clear of common obstacles such as furniture legs and power cords, and it can store up to four different floor maps within its internal memory.

The most affordable models rely on bump sensors which aren't as precise. In my testing, they plowed right through cords, dog poop and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The most cost-effective choice, the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It has excellent carpet and hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is near-perfect.

A large onboard dustbin, that doesn't need to be manually empty is another feature that's important. For models that mop the floor, this water tank can provide enough water for several weeks of cleaning sessions. The Karcher RCV 5 has this, and a large enough footprint that it can be placed under furniture but not so big that it won't fit in the nook between your toilet and bathtub.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require lots of technology to keep them up-to-date. There are plenty of options in a market that is a mature. But even the top models require interaction with their users - particularly when cleaning schedules are being planned as well as establishing a home floor plan, and setting up virtual barriers.

Consider a model with its own app that can recognize the layout of your home and save these settings for later use. This will allow the bagless robot vacuum vacuum to continue where it began on subsequent runs rather than having the mapping process restarted every time.

It's worth looking out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning options. These allow you to tell the robot vacuum to focus on a particular area, such as under the dining table after the family's big meal. You can use the app or voice commands.

Many models also provide objects avoidance. It allows the robot to see something in its path, such as a box of shoes or a crate of dog toys, and then guide itself around it. This prevents it from crashing into objects that might damage its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the most expensive models we tested have this feature. However, they usually rely on bump sensors to accomplish this and weren't always able to stay clear of things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When you're looking to remove pet hair, choose one that is specifically designed to handle this type of debris. The most effective models will feature a high suction, a brush which keeps hair from tangling and an automated vacuum cleaner emptying mechanism. Some can also detect dirt levels and adjust the cleaning intensity in line with the level of dirt. They are also able to detect items that aren't a part of your home flooring, like furniture, toys, and food bowls.

Certain robot vacuums come with pet-friendly features, such as a water dispenser that can be used to mop floors, and a HEPA filter that can reduce allergens, such as pet dander. They may also have a quieter mode of operation to reduce the amount noise produced during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums with mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They're designed to evaluate your home and devise an attack plan based on the layout of each room as well as obstacles. Shark Matrix Plus is a two-in-one robot vacuum that can create a map of a room, and navigate around furniture, and other obstacles using accelerometer and Gyroscope smart sensors.

Other models that are more advanced allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is supposed to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding spots--by adjusting settings using an app. This feature is particularly useful for families with busy schedules, since you can schedule cleaning times without having to be present in the room where the vacuum is. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning which gives you the option to direct the vacuum to clean a particular area that is dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want something tiny, choose a robot with a big bin or even a self-emptying trash bin. We recommend picking a model that has an enormous bin or a bin that automatically emptys. The former will allow you to keep up with the process of emptying your bin regularly enough to ensure its efficiency. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dropping the contents into an inner container each time you clean it.

Find models that have smart robot mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes. They can also sense and avoid objects that may hinder their travel (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Find models with intelligent mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise 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 lets users to select an area of your home for intense cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests can pick up fine particles like sand and baking soda, together with larger debris such as oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws, and pet hair.

According to the company, robots can last years and perform well, as long as they are properly maintained. For example cleaning hair that is tangled out of brushes, emptying dust bins after each use and wiping sensors and cameras down as needed. The best robot vacuum-performing robots also tend to be more modular which makes them simpler and less costly to repair or replace components like batteries and wheels when they get worn out.