For starters, let’s consider what a robot vacuum gives you and what features actually matter. IRobot has long been known for its high-quality vacuums, using smart technology to take the work out of vacuuming. However, with several models available, it can be hard to tell the difference, but we can help.
They save time and effort compared to regular vacuum cleaners and are ideal for a mid-week clean. Auto-emptying is a quick process but can be noisy, so we’d suggest not running them at night or during an important work meeting. For those without this feature, be aware that due to their size, the dust canister will need to shark cordless be emptied more frequently than a regular vacuum cleaner. These small-scale vacs are ideal for cleaning up spilt food and keeping on top of dust in-between more thorough cleans. They navigate around your home using sensors to avoid bumping into furniture, or by detecting (provided) magnetic strips that mark no-go areas.
Here’s how to set up a bot with Alexa voice control or Google Home voice control. A couple of manufacturers now also work with Siri Shortcuts, so you can use Apple’s Siri voice assistant to command your bot. If you want this, look for robots from iRobot or higher-end models from Roborock and Ecovacs. Robot vacuums are supposed to be part of Matter in the future, but who knows when that will happen.
Hild also recommends regularly wiping down the sensors at the bottom of your robot to ensure it can “see” correctly to avoid obstacles and staircases. The Roomba i3+ EVO is a great middle-of-the-line robot vacuum that has many of the same features as the s9+ and j7+ at a more affordable price point. This is a great choice if you want a robot that will learn your home—it creates “smart maps” to follow set cleaning patterns that can be scheduled in advance. However, unlike the j7+ and s9+, this model does not have a targeted clean function, which means you can’t ask it to clean specific areas and it won’t be able to find messes on its own.
IRobot also has robot vacuum deals and offers on their site if you’re looking to save. For this piece, I performed extensive research to understand the qualities of each Roomba model. I personally tested the Roomba 694 and the Roomba j7+, and I looked into the benefits of each product for use in the average home.
So, ideally you will still want to run your regular vacuum every so often, while the robot vacuum helps keep dust down in the interim. By keeping on top of the light debris, you won’t need to use your full-sized vacuum so often. Plus, keep in mind that robot vacuums are still improving with each new release, so over time, the necessity for your upright model will lessen. If you opt for a design which can mop as well, this too will likely replace the need for a mop and bucket in the future — but it’s not quite there yet. The first phase of our analysis starts with testing each robot vacuum to see how effective it is at picking up 20 grams of kitty litter, 20 grams of Cheerios, and two grams of dog hair on hardwood and a medium-pile carpet. We also time how long it takes each to complete each test, as well as how loud the vacuum is as it goes about its business.
If you appreciate a few high-tech features or are looking for a robot vacuum with stellar cleaning abilities, this vacuum is also for you. We just love that you don’t have to enable smart features to get a great clean. We also added sand, dirt, hair, and pieces of cereal to the floor to determine how effective the vacuums were at picking up different types of debris. Finally, we had our testers take the best robot vacuums from our lab tests home with them, where they continued to use the devices in their daily lives for an entire month. They evaluated the vacuums based on their performance, design, ease of use, and more before assigning a weighted score.
You’ll receive notifications of a new cleaning recommendation, when a particular space in the home needs more attention. Ultimately, self-emptying bases are more of a luxury feature, rather than a necessity and its worth comes shark cordless down to how much you value it. If you dread the task of emptying the on-board dustbin or suffer from allergies, it may be a worthwhile investment. But, if you’re tight on space and shopping on a budget, it may be one to skip.
Its cleaning prowess is largely unmatched thanks to the decades of experience iRobot has in this space, and it’s one of the easiest robot vacuums to use. The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. Plenty of models (including our picks) can reliably clean homes, both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout the home and making a map of where they have or haven’t been. Bots rarely miss patches or waste time recleaning areas that they’ve already visited. If their batteries run low before they can finish cleaning an entire level of a home, they’re smart enough to drive back to their dock, recharge for a few hours, and then pick up where they left off.
Although robot vacuums are weaker than traditional vacuums, they can reliably pick up most kinds of floor debris, and they work on most bare floors and carpets. Based on our testing, the Eufy RoboVac X8 seemed to be a fine laser-nav robot vacuum, but it’s relatively expensive and doesn’t offer meaningful improvements over the company’s cheaper models. Its defining feature is supposed to be its strong suction, with two turbines pulling 2,000 pascals each (whereas most laser-nav bots have a single turbine and less than 2,500 pascals of suction total). That’s fine, but it’s slightly less than what you get from the slightly more affordable Roborock Q5. The older Eufy RoboVac L70 is still available, as well, but its app is not capable of permanently remembering specific rooms in a home, which makes it substantially less convenient than most current laser-nav bots.