10 Best Rated Robot Vacuum Tricks All Experts Recommend

Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are great for keeping your floors tidy but they cannot replace a regular vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to penetrate carpets and rugs. They also often get caught in socks and cords.

Staying on top of routine maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes and emptying the dust bin) will make 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 top choices. It has a battery that can last up to 180 minute (3,230 square feet) on a single charge. This will be more than enough for the majority of small homes with the combination of hard flooring and carpets with low pile or larger homes with rooms that are about the same size.

A longer battery life means that the robot is able to spend more time cleaning and less charging its dock. It's a good idea to choose models that have a self-emptying dust bin because those models are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It is important to clean or replace the filters and wipe down sensors and camera regularly so they can see clearly.

Smart mapping technology is a beneficial feature, since you can program your robot to ensure that it only cleans specific rooms or stays clear of areas where it is likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also useful to ensure that your robot can reach under and around furniture like beds, sofas and other high-height items. Some robovacs are inexpensive and have boundary strips that you can use to block certain areas. Other models of higher quality depend on sensors and cameras.

Even the best automatic vacuum robot vacs can't replace a conventional vacuum for heavy-duty large-pile dirt and other debris. It is recommended to keep an electric vacuum in your home for these tasks and schedule robot vacuum reviews vacs for light cleanings throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able of traveling around your home and not being caught or running into things like metal screws pet hair, sand or. In our tests, we employ a tracking device to follow the robot as it goes through a multiroom lab and maps out its surroundings. We also examine how the robot is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture leg, and pet waste.

The most advanced robots are able to map out multiple floors and identify landmarks, like doors and windows. The most advanced robots, such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system which utilizes a LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera mounted on the front to spot objects in real-time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles such as furniture legs and power cords, and it can store up to four floor maps within its internal memory.

Cheaper models don't come with this kind of detection and rely on bump sensors which aren't as accurate. In my tests, they were able to detect dog poop through cords as well as a pair of shoes placed in the middle. The best self cleaning robot vacuum value pick the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It is a great carpet, hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has a near-perfect auto empty score.

Another feature that is important is a huge onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually empty, and for models that mop, a tank of water which can store weeks of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not so large that it is unable to fit into the space between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to upright models and require lots of technology to get them up to speed. There are many alternatives available in a marketplace that is maturing. But even the top models require interaction with their users - especially when it comes to scheduling cleanings, establishing a home floor plan and establishing virtual barriers.

To lessen the chance of the impact of this interaction, you should look for a model that uses its own app to determine the layout of your home and save the settings for the future. This will let the robot vacuum begin where it left off in subsequent runs, rather than having to start the mapping process each time.

It's worth looking out for a model that has zones or spot cleaning options. These allow you to tell the robot vacuum to concentrate on a particular area, such as under the dining table following a big family meal. You can do this using the app or voice commands.

A lot of models also offer object avoidance. It permits the robot, when it sees something that is in its path such as a box shoe or a crate with dog toys, to guide itself around. This prevents it from running into things that could damage its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the most expensive models in our tests include this feature. However, they typically rely on bump sensors for this and weren't always able to avoid obstacles in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When it comes to picking up pet hair, choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this type of debris. The top models feature high suction power, a brush that avoids getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that will automatically empty hair into the dust bin when needed. Some models can detect dirt levels and adjust cleaning intensity. They can even spot objects that aren't a part of your home's flooring like furniture, toys, food bowls cords, and so on.

Certain robot vacuums have extra pet-friendly features. These include a water dispenser which is used to mop floors and an HEPA filtering system that eliminates allergens, such as pet dust. They may also offer an operation that is quieter, which can minimize the amount of noise generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have mapping capabilities are an excellent option for pet owners, since they're engineered to assess your home and devise an action plan in accordance with the layout and the obstacles in each room. Shark Matrix Plus is a two-in-one robot vacuum that can map a room, navigate through furniture, and over other obstacles using accelerometer and gyroscope smart sensors.

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 spots. You can adjust these settings via an app. This feature is especially useful for busy households, as you can schedule cleaning sessions without having to be present in the room where the robotic vacuum cleaner best is. Spot cleaning is another fantastic feature. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to clean a spot that is particularly dirty or is brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something small, consider a robot with a big bin or even a self-emptying dustbin. We recommend choosing a model that has a large bin, or even a dustbin that self-empties. The former will allow you to keep track of emptying the bin often enough to ensure you are on top of its performance while the latter will help you save time and hassle by automatically dumping the contents into an internal bin every few cleanings.

Whatever the size of your home the majority of robots are able to get up to and around furniture, and they can recognize and navigate around household obstacles such as shoes, loose cords, and dog poop. Look for models with intelligent mapping capabilities, which permit them to "learn" the patterns of your house and devise more efficient routes, and models that detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables).

Some models offer spot cleaning. This lets you manually target an 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, along with heavier particles like oatmeal, orzo pasta, metal screws, and pet hair.

According to the brand the company, robots can last for years and perform as well, so long as they are maintained. For instance cleaning hair that is tangled out of brushes and emptying dust bins after each use, and wiping cameras and sensors down when needed. The most efficient robots tend to be more modular which makes them simpler and less expensive to repair or replace parts like batteries and wheels when they get worn out.