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Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are great for keeping your floors tidy but they are not a substitute for the regular vacuum. Even the most powerful robots have difficulty getting deep into rugs and carpets, and they can get tangled up in cords and socks.

Your robot will last longer if you perform regular maintenance. This includes replacing filters, cutting the tangled hairs from brushes and emptying the dustbin.

Battery Life

Most robot vacuums are able to handle a couple of cleaning sessions without having to be charged. The runner-up of our overall picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo comes with a battery capable of lasting up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This will be more than enough for homes that have carpets, hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes with rooms that are similar in size.

A longer battery life also means that the robot is able to spend more time cleaning and less charging on its dock. It's recommended to select models that have a self-emptying dust bin, since those models are more efficient in collecting debris and returning to the dock for charging. It's important to clean or replace the filters and clean the sensors and camera on a regular schedule so they can be seen clearly.

smart robot vacuums mapping technology can be a useful feature, as it allows you to program your robot so that it only cleans certain rooms or avoids areas where it's likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. It's also useful for ensuring that your robot is able to go under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. Some robovacs that are inexpensive have boundary strips you can place on the floor to block off areas, while other high-end models make use of sensors and cameras to accomplish this.

Even the most powerful robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum when it comes to heavy-duty large-pile dirt and other debris. It's best robot vacuum under 200 to keep an electric vacuum in your home to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate your home without getting stuck or crashing into objects such as metal screws or loose pet hair or sand. In our tests, a tracking device is used to follow the robot around the multi-room lab. It then tracks its surroundings. We also test how the robot is able to avoid obstacles such as power cords, furniture leg and pet waste.

The best robots can map out several floors and can recognize landmarks such as doors and windows. The most advanced ones such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, have a dual-sensor navigation system that uses the LIDAR sensor to map the room, and a light camera on the front of the bot to detect objects in real time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles, such as power cords and furniture legs, and it can store up to four different floor maps in its internal memory.

More affordable models don't have this type of object detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as accurate. In my testing they cut right through cords, dog poop and even a pair of shoes placed in the middle of the room. The best value pick Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It has excellent carpet as well as a hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto empty score that is close to perfect.

Another feature worth mentioning is a large onboard dustbin that doesn't require manually emptied, and for the models that mop, a tank of water that can hold weeks worth of mopping. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent 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 bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require a lot of technology to keep them current. The result is a pretty mature market full of options. Even the best auto vacuum models require interaction from their users, especially when it comes time to schedule cleaning, make a a floor plan for your home and install virtual barriers.

You might consider a model with its own app that can recognize the layout of your house and save these settings for later use. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it started in subsequent runs, rather than having the mapping process restarted every time.

It's worth looking out for a model that offers zones or spot cleaning options. You can instruct the vacuum cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a big family meal. You can do this using the app or voice commands.

A lot of models also offer objects avoidance. It lets the robot observe something in its path, such as a box of shoes or a crate filled with dog toys, and guide itself around it. This will keep it from crashing into objects that could harm its sensors or cause a jam.

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

Pet Hair

Choose a vacuum cleaner that is specifically designed to remove pet hair. The most effective models will feature the highest suction, a brush that prevents tangling and an automatic emptying mechanism. Some models are able to detect dirt levels to adjust the intensity of cleaning. They can also detect objects that aren't a part of the flooring in your home like furniture toys, food bowls, toys cords, and so on.

Some robot vacuums come with additional features that are pet-friendly. They include a water dispenser that is used to clean floors, and a HEPA filtration system that reduces allergens such as pet dander. They may also offer an operation that is quieter, which can minimize the amount of noise generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have maps are a great option for pet owners since they're engineered to assess your home and devise a plan of attack in accordance with the layout and obstructions in every room. For instance the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum that has an amazing ability to map a room and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors that work in conjunction to learn the layout of your room.

Apps let you set up zones that are not allowed. These are areas where the robot shouldn't be allowed, such as fragile objects or pet feeding areas. This feature is especially beneficial for busy households, as you can schedule cleaning times without having to be present in the space where the vacuum is. Another feature that is extremely useful is spot cleaning, which gives you the option to use the vacuum to clean a particular area that is dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

Unless you're looking for something small, you'll want to choose an item capable of holding at least a complete bag of garbage from a single cleaning session. We recommend choosing the one with a large bin or a bin that automatically emptys. The former will enable you to keep up with cleaning the bin regularly enough to keep track of its performance and the latter will help you save time and hassle by automatically emptying its contents into an internal container after every few cleans.

Find models that have smart mapping capabilities that permit them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes. They can also sense and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Find models with intelligent mapping capabilities. This allows them to "learn the patterns of your house and plan an efficient route.

Certain models also offer spot cleaning, which lets you to choose specific areas of your home for thorough cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests can remove fine particles such as sand and baking soda, together with larger debris like oatmeal orzo pasta screws, and pet hair.

Depending on the brand, most robots will last for years and will continue to perform in the event that you maintain them with regular maintenance tasks, such as cleaning tangled hair from brushes, emptying the dust bin after every use and cleaning cameras and sensors when needed. The best-performing robots also tend to be more modular, which makes them easier and cheaper to replace or repair parts such as batteries and wheels when they wear out.