The main thing you’re sacrificing for the lower price of this bot is less effective vacuuming. The Q Revo uses one rubber brush compared to the S8’s dual roller brushes and requires multiple passes to get everything up compared to just one or two with the S8 or J7. The Q Revo uses the Roborock app, which is easy to use and mostly reliable. I’ve only needed to rebuild my map once while using it in the last year, and there’s now a backup option to restore maps. You can set no-go zones, clean per room, and create specific zones to clean.
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. Roborock pioneered the “VibraRise’’ feature that lifts the mop a few millimeters when it senses carpet, meaning you don’t get a damp rag dragged over your living room rug.
But there’s no AI-powered obstacle avoidance, so you have to clean up your clutter, and its single roller brush isn’t as effective as the double ones on the j7 and S8. Another nice-to-have feature, AI obstacle avoidance helps your robot “intelligently” avoid clutter (and a potential poop apocalypse if it encounters pet waste). These models use cameras (worth noting) to see objects in their path and decide how to approach them. Robot vacuums with AI avoidance are less likely to get stuck when cleaning, meaning you’re more likely to come home to a clean floor rather than a beached bot.
However, some robot vacuums, specifically mop-vacuum hybrids struggle with floor type transition. Often, the mop attachment, which slides on bare floors well, will drag on carpet. The Sweeva 6500 has a self-emptying feature, satisfactory floor cleaning skills, and functional smart features that you can access via your TCL smart TV. If you already own a TCL TV and are thinking about getting a robot vacuum, you might do well to check out the Sweeva 6500.
You can get it with an auto-empty dock for a list price of $550 (i.e., probably lower). The physical design is also very similar to the j7 under the hood, with two multi-surface rubber roller brushes to get more dirt up. These rubber brushes don’t get tangled by long hair the way bristle brushes can. If you are looking for the best clean for your buck and want to avoid the possibility that the robot won’t finish its run because of stray clutter, the Roomba j7 is the one to go with. 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.
All the other models make you get down on your hands and knees and scrub in there to get the gunk out (it gets nasty in there quickly, so you need to do this weekly). As a mop, the Q Revo is almost as good as its S8 sibling, deploying spinning oscillating mops rather than the wide flat pad. The S8’s downward pressure does a slightly better job of getting out the ground-in dirt, but the Q Revo’s oscillating action tackled my ketchup test admirably. The Q Revo also washes and air dries its mops, so you don’t have to mess with that.
If you’re looking to trade up, but want to stay in the Eufy ecosystem, this is the one to get. This robot vacuum features a small basin for water, app controls, and an auto-empty docking station that removes debris and dust for you. Over the years, we’ve consistently noted that robot vacuums that use laser-guided lidar navigation tend to be very good at mapping their environment and finding their way around. Meanwhile, 3D-mapping cameras with object recognition smarts can give robot vacuums an extra ability to identify and adapt to obstacles in their path.
If you want a robot mop and a robot vacuum, but don’t want to purchase two different devices, you should check out a robot vacuum-mop hybrid. These floor cleaners typically have a smaller dust bin to accommodate a water tank that wets the mop pad. To find the best bots for your buck, we’ve spent the last several years torture-testing the top robotic vacuums in our lab and in our homes. While the Roomba j7 is the best bot if you want all the bells and whistles, the Roomba i3 Evo is the best pick for a more affordable robot vacuum.
This combination of good cleaning performance and quiet operation make the Robovac 11S our favorite affordable robot vacuum. When we ran our tests, this Eufy robot vacuum picked up around 11.6 grams of dirt per run, more than what most iRobot models manage. The j7+’s excellent navigation allows it to get near-total floor coverage. During testing, our best robot vacuum picked up 9.35 grams of dirt per run, allowing it to keep up with a full-sized vacuum over the course of a week.
However, you want at least 120 minutes of runtime (180 is the best). Noisy robots that are constantly running will get shut off by annoyed family members. In my testing, the brush is the big factor in how well a robot will clean your bissell crosswave cordless floors. A large rubber roller brush is much better than a small bristle brush at picking up debris. Save when you bundle robot vacuums and mops that automatically work in perfect sequence, giving your floors a comprehensive clean.