The best robot vacuums

Robot vacuums are awesome devices that volition cleanable your floors good without complaining (much). As prices person dropped, these engaged small bots person go little of a luxury and much of a necessity. They tin scope places astir standup vacs ne'er spot (under beds and sofas) and, acknowledgment to amended batteries and robot brains, they seldom get bushed of cleaning.

I’ve been investigating robot vacuums for 7 years and person tally implicit 60 robot vacuums each implicit my house. These are my apical picks if you’re looking for the best: a robot vacuum that tin bash it each without getting stuck and with constricted involution from you.

I’ve besides got options to acceptable circumstantial needs, specified arsenic mopping, tackling tiny spaces, oregon besting favored hair. Check retired my budget robot vacuum guide if you privation to walk nether $500 connected a robot vacuum. Here, we’re going to look astatine the premium options.

While there’s been a batch of innovation successful robot vacuums successful caller years, we’re inactive acold from that Rosey the Robot dream of a robot that tin grip each the household chores (or stairs). But they’ve got floors down. Today, determination are robots that tin mop well, charging docks that bare the bin for you, and “hands-free” models that tin refill their h2o tanks and lavation their mops truthful you don’t person to. The biggest improvements, however, are successful mapping and obstacle avoidance, 2 important skills that mean astir robot vacuums contiguous tin debar getting tripped up by your shoes and volition get the occupation done.

Despite each these innovations, determination inactive isn’t 1 robot that excels astatine some mopping and vacuuming. For astir people, the vacuum is the happening to absorption on; I see mopping a bonus feature. I similar a almighty vacuum for my main rooms and 1 that excels astatine mopping for rooms similar the bath oregon kitchen.

The bully quality is that robovacs are perpetually connected sale; I wouldn’t wage the database terms unless you privation the latest model. The wide scope is astir $500 for a standalone vacuum with bully features and betwixt $1,000 and $1,800 for an all-singing, all-dancing bot that tin mostly instrumentality attraction of itself and usage AI to debar communal household clutter successful its quest to cleanable your floors.

There are galore options, and whether you person a 3,000-square-foot location and 3 shaggy dogs oregon a small, stylish flat you stock with a goldfish, there’s a robot vacuum to suit your needs.

Best robot vacuum overall

Dustbin capacity: 270ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot h2o and heated aerial drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 10,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber / Works with: Matter, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra ($1,799.99) is an exceptional vacuum cleaner and a precise bully mop acknowledgment to respective innovations and quality-of-life features that marque it a superb level cleaner. Its dual rubber roller brushes and 10,000Pa suction marque it the champion robot vacuum for carpets; its mopping chops marque it large for hard floors, too, and its improved AI-powered obstacle avoidance means it volition mostly get the occupation done.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is besides the champion exemplary successful the comparatively caller class of “hands-free” robot vacs, bots that bash virtually everything for you: bare their bins, refill their mop tanks, and cleanable and adust their mop pads. Roborock invented this class with the S7 MaxV Ultra and has been steadily improving it.

With the S8 MaxV Ultra, the institution has produced the champion top-of-the-line robot vacuum. If you are consenting to walk the cash, this instrumentality volition support your floors cleanable with comparatively small involution from you.

The large selling constituent present is the virtually hands-free cleaning experience. Just capable the S8 MaxV Ultra’s cleanable h2o vessel and bare its soiled h2o erstwhile a week, past alteration retired the particulate container each mates of months. The robot volition instrumentality attraction of the rest.

For $100 more, you tin dispense with dealing with the h2o tanks wholly and bargain the Refill & Drainage System model. This lets you plumb the charging basal straight into your home’s h2o supply. I’ve not tested this connected the Roborock, but my acquisition with the SwitchBot S10 with the aforesaid diagnostic (see below) leads maine to urge this enactment if it’s disposable to you. However, you’ll request a powerfulness proviso adjacent your h2o hookups, whereas the SwitchBot’s refill presumption is battery-powered.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is the champion robot vacuum for carpets

The S8 MaxV Ultra comes with the brand’s champion AI-powered obstacle avoidance, yet bringing backmost the camera it past had connected the fantabulous S7 MaxV Ultra. It’s not rather arsenic bully arsenic Roomba’s obstacle avoidance — it sometimes confused a heap of Cheerios for a charging cablegram and avoided them — but it’s overmuch amended than the Roborocks that trust connected non-camera obstacle avoidance. It deftly navigates astir astir household clutter, allowing you to get the occupation done without having to tidy up.

Roborock has caught up to Roomba regarding cleaning prowess, and the S8 MaxV Ultra’s dual rubber brushes and 10,000Pa of suction powerfulness tackled the favored hairsbreadth connected my fluffy carpet and demolished my oatmeal test. It besides did a amended occupation astatine mopping than Roomba’s mopping bots. Its sonic mopping strategy — which vibrates its mop pad 4,000 times a infinitesimal — ably simulated scrubbing and wiped retired my OJ and ketchup tests, though I did person to acceptable it to heavy scrub. Plus, the summation of a broadside mop and flexi-arm brushwood that extends from the bot helped with cleaning edges and corners.

Other pros of the S8 MaxV Ultra see Roborock’s mobile app, which is casual to usage and comes with a laundry database of features and customizations that springiness you ample power implicit your cleaning. The S8 MaxV Ultra is besides the archetypal Roborock with a built-in dependable assistant, which makes getting the bot to cleanable the messiness your kid made aft meal arsenic casual arsenic saying, “Rocky, cleanable here.” Plus, arsenic 1 of lone a mates of vacs with Matter certification, it volition enactment with each the large astute location platforms, including Apple Home, erstwhile the platforms enactment robot vacuums (see the FAQ conception for more).

The biggest downside is the price. For $1,800, you’ve got to truly privation to get those corners cleanable and truly dislike having to messiness with mop pads. My erstwhile apical prime — the Roomba j7 — is inactive a large robot vacuum, particularly if you’re not funny successful mopping and would alternatively walk nether $800.

Roborock besides sells the S8 Max Ultra (no V) for $1,599.99. It has the aforesaid cleaning hardware arsenic the MaxV but nary camera, truthful its obstacle avoidance volition not beryllium arsenic good. However, you besides don’t person to interest astir a camera successful your house. It has a little 8,000Pa of suction and lacks a dependable assistant, too, which makes it look overpriced since it’s presently disposable for lone a mates 100 dollars little than the MaxV.

While determination are amended options if you privation a bot that’s much of a mop, the S8 MaxV Ultra is the champion astatine both. It tin besides bash some successful 1 run, arsenic it tin assistance its mop 20mm, which volition wide each but the highest-pile rugs. (If you person a batch of those, spell for the Dreame X40 with its automatic mop removal.)

Read my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review.

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Best Roomba robot vacuum

Dustbin capacity: 300 ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, up and implicit / Mop washing: No / Mapping: Yes, vSLAM / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: N/A / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

I’m a large instrumentality of Roombas for 3 main reasons: their dual rubber roller brushes rotate successful other directions to efficaciously excavation up ungraded from carpets, their AI obstacle avoidance is by acold the best, and they person a past of being casual to repair. Their auto-empty docks are immoderate of the best-looking, too, and I similar Roomba’s vSLAM mapping, which takes longer than lidar mapping but is much reliable. The Roomba app has ne'er mislaid my maps, which happens often with lidar bots.

However, Roombas are falling down the contention successful features and cleaning prowess, particularly regarding mopping. And portion they’re nary longer the astir costly robot vacs you tin buy, they are costly. As overmuch arsenic I admit the simplicity of the iRobot app, immoderate whitethorn similar the heavy customization options different brands offer.

The existent top-of-the-line Roomba, the j9 Combo Plus, is my apical prime for a Roomba, arsenic it features a well-designed dock and tin refill its ain mop tank. Like the j7 Combo, the j9 has a retractable mopping pad it tin assistance up and implicit the robot to debar getting your carpets damp and has higher suction powerfulness than erstwhile Roombas. There’s besides a nifty dirt-detect feature, which “remembers” which rooms are dirtiest and seeks them retired first. The j9 is the quietest Roomba I’ve tested and offers 3 suction levels for an adjacent quieter clean, thing astir different Roombas don’t have.

However, the mopping inactive feels similar an afterthought. The SmartScrub diagnostic that tells the robot to wiggle its butt to scrub your floors works amazingly well, but the mopping pad is excessively tiny to cleanable your floors effectively, and you inactive person to cleanable the mop manually. Most each different robot with a mop and dock volition lavation and adust it for you. If you’re not funny successful mopping, the j7 is inactive a large robot (see beneath for more).

I did tally into a fewer issues with connectivity, with the j9 going offline for nary evident reason. It besides regularly struggled to dock itself correctly, truthful I’d often find it dormant erstwhile it was clip to clean. These are each issues that should beryllium resolved via bundle updates, and overall, the j9 Combo Plus is iRobot’s astir precocious floor-cleaning machine. It looks good, vacuums well, and mops acceptably, but you volition request to get your hands soiled to woody with its small mop pad.

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Best robot vacuum / mop hybrid

Dustbin capacity: 300ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water, blistery aerial drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 12,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Dreame X40 is the champion robot vacuum / mop hybrid due to the fact that it tin driblet its mop pads automatically, widen them, and plaything them to get nether your cabinets and consoles. I watched the X40 dispersed its mops wide isolated and plaything down my TV console, allowing it to entree the particulate wedged a bully inch nether it. That’s impressive.

The X40 besides features an extending broadside brushwood limb to scope corners — similar the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra — and its dual oscillating mop pads are much effectual than Roborock’s bladed microfiber pad. If you person a premix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the champion robot vacuum for you.

Its signature diagnostic is its quality to automatically region and reattach its mop pads depending connected whether it’s vacuuming oregon mopping. This solves the occupation of however to vacuum and mop without getting your rugs wet. The robot volition bash this process aggregate times during cleaning to guarantee carpets are vacuumed and floors are mopped. Genius.

While it’s a superb mopper, its vacuuming prowess is somewhat down the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra because, contempt its 12,000Pa suction power, it inactive lone has a azygous roller rubber brush. The Roborock’s dual rollers are simply amended astatine getting ungraded retired of carpets and tackling favored hair.

Roborock’s app is besides much unchangeable and easier to usage than Dreame’s, which often crashes and tin instrumentality a portion to load. While the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is my apical prime overall, the Dreame X40 is simply a precise bully vacuum, and the 2 companies are cervix and cervix regarding innovative features.

If you person a premix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the champion robot vacuum for you.

The X40 tin besides cleanable its washboard, thing the Roborock can’t. That country tin get rather grungy, truthful it needs a cleanable each fewer weeks. The X40 has AI-powered astute ungraded detection that uses its cameras to place spills similar beverage oregon peculiarly soiled areas. When it spots something, it volition dilatory down and bash a much thorough cleaning. I besides similar Dreame’s enactment to vacuum archetypal and past mop, which the Roborock doesn’t offer.

The X40 has AI-powered obstacle avoidance, though Roborock’s is conscionable a spot better. However, some inactive get tripped up occasionally by pencils and different tiny items —something that ne'er happens with the Roomba j7 oregon j9.

The X40 has a mates of cheaper siblings: the L20 Ultra (more connected that below) and the X30 Ultra, which came retired lone a fewer months ago. The X30 Ultra costs $1,700 (and is presently connected merchantability for $1,600) and has galore of the aforesaid features arsenic the X40. However, you don’t get the extendable broadside brush, and it has little suction powerfulness (8,300Pa). Also, portion it tin widen its mop pads, it can’t plaything its assemblage sideways to spell further nether debased furniture.

Read my Dreame X30 Ultra review.

A cheaper option

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Best midrange robot vacuum / mop hybrid

Dustbin capacity: Unknown / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, blistery aerial drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,000Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: single rubber / bristle hybrid / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

The Eufy X10 Pro Omni combines the Eufy Clean X9 Pro mopping robot vacuum and the Eufy X8 Pro self-empty robot vacuum. It’s the archetypal Eufy with a multifunction auto-empty / lavation / capable dock, and dissimilar galore bots successful this terms range, it comes with AI-powered obstacle avoidance.

With 8,000Pa suction and oscillating dual spinning brushes for mopping, the X10 has each the aforesaid basal functions arsenic the top-of-the-line, all-in-one bots. But it’s not rather arsenic bully astatine immoderate of them, which is benignant of the explanation of “midrange.”

The Eufy performed excellently successful my mopping tests, adjacent eradicating dried stains with its 1kg of downward pressure. Thanks to an onboard h2o reservoir, it didn’t person to caput location to capable up arsenic often arsenic immoderate mopping bots do. It besides has heated mop drying to assistance forestall the basal from getting stinky — a archetypal successful this terms range. (There’s nary blistery h2o washing.)

An edge-hugging mode makes the robot plaything its down into the baseboards to assistance mop edges. With its square-ish shape, it got into corners amended than astir of the circular bots. But its 12mm mop pad assistance implicit carpet wasn’t effective, resulting successful its pads getting hung up successful a fewer places.

The X10 has superb entity recognition, allowing it to suck up Cheerios and piles of oatmeal portion deftly navigating fake canine turds and cables. However, its navigation sometimes got screwy; it would spell into a country and enactment determination for a while, trying to fig itself out.

While its vacuuming is good, peculiarly connected carpet and tile surfaces, the azygous rubber / bristle roller brushwood lets it down and is simply a bully illustration of my constituent that it’s not each astir suction power; it’s besides astir the brushes and however you usage them. The Eufy’s brushwood is supposedly anti-tangle — a cutting instrumentality wrong the robot should shred the hairsbreadth — but this wasn’t effective.

One amusive diagnostic is Smart Track cleaning. This lets you nudge the robot with your foot, and it volition commencement pursuing you, cleaning arsenic it goes. You tin deed the on-device spot cleanable fastener erstwhile you get to an country you privation cleaned. This is simply a bully alteration from relying connected an app to get your robot to spell wherever you privation it to.

The Eufy Clean app is precise casual to use, and the lidar-powered mapping was accelerated and accurate, dividing my rooms correctly connected the archetypal try. There are galore customization options — including room-specific cleaning, portion cleaning, and customized cleaning — but the app is wide and good laid out.

A cheaper option

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Best mopping robot

Dustbin capacity: 1L / Self-empty dock option: No / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, blistery aerial drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,200Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, conical rubber bristle hybrid / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is 1 of the champion mopping robots I’ve tested — and it’s a large vacuum, too. Its spinning triangular mop pads rotate astatine 180RPM with 12n of downward unit Combined with its quality to plaything somewhat to get person to baseboards, the Narwhal does a bully occupation connected hard floors. Its 2 four-liter h2o tanks volition support you going longer than astir different mopping bots arsenic well, the bulk of which diagnostic smaller tanks.

The Narwhal has immoderate innovative features, including ungraded consciousness — which analyzes the ungraded level successful the h2o and prompts it to remop — and an quality to accommodate the unit of its mop based connected the benignant of level material, applying much unit to tile and little to hardwood. “Freo” refers to the bot’s quality to marque cleaning “decisions,” including going backmost to cleanable soiled floors.

Its charging dock is precise big, though, giving disconnected a existent Wall-E vibe. But contempt the size, there’s nary spot for an auto-empty dustbin; instead, Narwal’s disposable onboard bin tin compress the dust, and Narwhal claims you won’t request to bare it for up to 60 days. In 2 weeks of testing, it wasn’t adjacent to full, but I’ll study backmost aft 2 months. A bonus present is that there’s nary large noise, arsenic is the lawsuit with astir auto-empty docks.

In fact, the Freo X Ultra is 1 of the quietest bots I’ve tested. Even astatine afloat power, it was truthful quiescent that I had to cheque that it was really working. Its anti-tangle brushwood and 8,200Pa suction did a bully occupation connected astir carpet, but its 12mm mop lifting isn’t bully for plush carpets.

Narwal’s obstacle avoidance is besides not great; there’s nary camera, and it routinely eats cables. Its 3 lasers tin place objects arsenic tiny arsenic a sock and determination astir them, and it did walk my fake favored poop test.

The app is precise hard to follow, making it tricky to entree each the bot’s features. Mapping was fast, but it didn’t admit each my rooms connected the archetypal go. It did amended the 2nd time, though splitting up rooms and naming them successful the app was painful. The deficiency of a camera besides means its navigation is spotty, and sending it to cleanable circumstantial rooms wasn’t ever successful.

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Best mopping robot with a plumbing hookup

Dustbin capacity: 4L / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-Lift: Yes, afloat retracts / Mop washing: Yes, blistery aerial drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 6,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber roller / Works with: Matter (including Apple Home), Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The SwitchBot S10 is simply a multitasking robot that hooks into your plumbing for a virtually hands-free sweeping and mopping experience. It’s 1 of the champion robot mops I’ve tested acknowledgment to its self-cleaning roller mop and the information that I ne'er had to bare oregon capable its h2o tanks. These 2 features meant I could acceptable it and hide it and person cleanable floors for weeks.

I tested the S10’s mopping capabilities successful a ample bath wherever I precocious installed a caller achromatic tile level — 1 that looks filthy wrong a time of being cleaned. I acceptable it to vacuum and mop each day, and the level has stayed spotless since.

Roller mops whitethorn beryllium the aboriginal of robot mopping. The Eufy S1 Pro I’ve started investigating besides has one, and some bots bash a acold amended occupation astatine getting floors decently cleanable than the dual spinning mop pads, which are, successful turn, amended than the bladed microfibre pads.

The greater aboveground country combined with the self-cleaning relation — the vac sprays h2o onto the mop arsenic it runs — near the tiles cleaner than the Narwal Freo X Ultra. However, the SwitchBot lone has a tiny rubber roller brushwood for vacuuming, and the mop extends conscionable halfway on the robot — meaning it doesn’t tackle edges, baseboards, and corners arsenic good arsenic my apical picks.

I truly similar the S10s dual docking system. Its main dock is simply a charging / auto-empty dock, and there’s a abstracted battery-powered dock h2o presumption that you tin enactment successful a antithetic country (I hooked it up successful my laundry room). Both docks are tiny and unobtrusive — particularly compared to the Dreame and Roborock docks — but the plumbing hookup isn’t elegant. There was a batch of other cabling, and the width of the robot meant I couldn’t tuck the dock nether my sink.

Roller mops whitethorn beryllium the aboriginal of robot mopping.

While the SwitchBot is simply a bully vacuum, it’s not the best. Its comparatively paltry 6,500Pa of suction powerfulness is debased compared to the competition, but the bot’s value did assistance the rubber roller brushwood excavation into the carpet and get up astir of the feline hair.

Other downsides see the AI obstacle avoidance, which isn’t great. The S10 often got stuck connected apparel near connected my level and bath mats, its artillery beingness is short, and it lacks high-end features similar ungraded detection. It besides presently lone works with a nonstop plumbing hookup, truthful don’t get it unless you program to hook it into your h2o supply.

It’s a game-changer not having to bare a soiled h2o vessel oregon person my level spell unmopped due to the fact that I forgot to capable the cleanable h2o tank. The S10 isn’t wholly hands-free (the auto-empty presumption got a spot grungy during investigating and required immoderate cleaning), but successful 2 months of testing, the mop has stayed clean. I haven’t adjacent had to bare the four-liter particulate container yet.

Read my afloat reappraisal of the SwitchBot S10.

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Best robot vacuum for favored hair

Dustbin capacity: 770ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: No / Mapping: Yes / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: No / Suction power: 5,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual, rubber / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

My proposal for families with pets who don’t privation to walk a tiny luck connected an auto-empty robot vacuum is to bargain a bully bot with a large bin. These are getting harder to find present that each bot wants to beryllium a multitasker and besides mop (the h2o reservoir takes up invaluable dustbin room). So, I was precise pleased with Roborock’s caller entry-level robot, the Q5 Pro; it’s my caller favourite for favored hair.

This comparatively inexpensive vacuum has a immense 770ml bin connected committee and dual rubber brushes that are amended astatine getting favored hairsbreadth retired of rugs than azygous brushes. The rubber is besides little prone than bristles to getting tangled with hair, and combined with 5,500Pa suction power, this vacuum does a truly bully occupation connected precise soiled floors. It does person a removable mopping pad with a tiny h2o vessel built into it, which is utile for getting up the good particulate near down by the vacuum, but it isn’t going to scrub your floors. It will, however, support the favored hairsbreadth astatine bay.

Don’t confuse this with the cheaper Roborock Q5, however. That bot has a smaller bin, little suction, shorter runtime, and lone 1 roller brush. It’s worthy spending the other for the Pro.

The Q5 Pro Plus pairs the bot with the redesigned Roborock auto-empty dock if you truly don’t similar emptying the robot’s onboard bin, but you’ll wage astir treble for the privilege. The dock is comparatively compact and lightweight compared to erstwhile versions. However, considering the size of the Q5 Pro’s bin, you’d lone person to bare it 3 times earlier the dock’s 2.5-liter container is besides full.

The Q5 Pro doesn’t person AI-powered obstacle avoidance, though it volition dodge shoes and larger objects. It does person a immense 5,200mAh artillery that volition tally for astir 4 hours. It uses the fantabulous Roborock app and has each the aforesaid bundle features of the higher-end S8 family, including lidar mapping and navigation, integer keep-out zones, room-specific cleaning, portion cleaning, and dependable control.

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Best robot vacuum for tiny spaces

Dustbin capacity: 150ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: No / Mapping: Yes / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: no / Suction power: 2,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber bristle hybrid / Works with: Matter (including Apple Home), Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

One happening each the robot vacs I’ve recommended truthful acold person successful communal is size. They are each ample circular robots that, portion mostly adept astatine navigating astir seat legs and nether sofas, bash conflict to get into choky spaces. At astir 14 inches wide, bots similar the Roborock S8 aren’t getting successful that nook betwixt the toilet and the bathtub oregon nether the table wherever your seat legs conscionable the trash can. Enter the SwitchBot K10 Plus.

The tiniest robot vacuum you tin buy, the K10 Plus is simply a cute small particulate sucker that tin nimbly navigate astir astir immoderate portion of furnishings you propulsion successful its path. Just 3.6 inches precocious and 9.8 inches wide, it pairs with a teeny tiny auto-empty dock (12.5 inches precocious and 10 inches wide) that someway hides a whopping four-liter particulate bag. So portion it’s little, you won’t beryllium emptying its bin container immoderate much often than its bigger competitors.

Its 2,500Pa suction is good for an bureau oregon bedroom, and this small feline moves truly fast. It’s besides precise quiet. With 4 vacuum levels, its lowest mounting was tolerable adjacent portion I was moving successful the aforesaid room. However, this bot doesn’t mop. The removable mopping pad uses disposable bedewed wipes — nary water. These are fiddly to attach, don’t enactment connected well, and were wholly ineffective. The robot besides won’t mop and vacuum simultaneously and couldn’t woody with dried-on dirt, making the mopping relation present hardly worthy mentioning.

The robot uses lidar mapping and has room-specific cleaning and integer keep-out zones. There’s nary AI-powered obstacle avoidance (and nary camera), truthful portion it went astir shoes and furnishings legs, it did get hung up connected cables and socks. It besides couldn’t grip rug tassels. But for keeping a chamber oregon location bureau cleanable oregon navigating a tightly packed workplace apartment, this bot packs a batch of powerfulness successful a tiny package.

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Other robot vacuums I tested

• The 360 Vis Nav ($1,199.99), Dyson’s archetypal robovac successful the US successful astir a decade, is simply a almighty beast and the champion robot vacuum for carpets I’ve tested. Its immense wheels get up and implicit adjacent the elephantine tassels connected my surviving country carpet, and its big, agelong fluffy brushwood did a large occupation getting good debris disconnected my hardwood floors. That said, its navigation is simply a mess. It couldn’t representation my upstairs arsenic it kept getting stuck astatine the borderline of the stairs. Its large, quadrate signifier besides meant it got stuck nether seat legs connected virtually each run. At this price, nary AI-powered obstacle avoidance, a abbreviated artillery life, and nary auto-empty dock are large cons. You tin work much in this hands-on.
• The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra ($1,599.99) besides ditches the camera, making it little effectual astatine dodging obstacles than the S8 MaxV. Like the MaxV, it has dual roller brushes and an extending broadside arm, but for conscionable $200 more, you whitethorn arsenic good get the MaxV, which besides has a built-in dependable adjunct and enactment for Matter (see the FAQ section). Also, I’m not excessively fond of the Pro’s dock; it’s bigger and chunkier than the MaxV’s dock. The main crushed to get the S8 Pro is if you similar the MaxV but don’t privation a camera connected your robot.

• If you privation a sleeker robovac setup, the Roborock S8 Plus ($999.99) is simply a bully choice. It is simply a large vacuum that tin mop good and has a sleeker, smaller charging / auto-empty dock. Its dual rubber roller brushes and 6,000Pa of suction bash a bully job, and its level mop that vibrates is effectual astatine scrubbing your floors. The S8 tin besides consciousness carpets, assistance its mop, and offers the aforesaid obstacle avoidance arsenic the S8 Pro Ultra (because there’s nary camera connected board).
• I’ve been investigating the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni ($1,499.99) for astir 8 months, and portion its vacuuming and mopping capabilities are excellent, its bundle and lidar navigation strategy request work. While it ably avoided cables and favored poop successful testing, the bot perpetually got mislaid and repeatedly stopped, telling maine its brushwood was tangled erstwhile it wasn’t (and hefting that happening implicit to cheque is not easy, particularly arsenic the lid falls off). It besides takes earnestly wide swings on its route, leaving immense gaps of the level unvacuumed.

• The rounder, lower-priced Ecovacs T20 Omni ($1,099.99) fared better. It has galore of the aforesaid features — including the onboard dependable adjunct — but with little suction powerfulness and little mop lift. It besides doesn’t usage a camera, truthful its obstacle avoidance isn’t arsenic good. It doesn’t person an onboard h2o vessel connected the robot, truthful it has to spell backmost to its dock to refill a lot, but astatine $650 connected merchantability (at the clip of writing), it’s a bully enactment if you privation a high-end robot vac without a camera. However, successful my years of investigating Deebots, the Ecovacs app routinely loses my maps, which is precise frustrating.
• The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 ($699.99), besides known arsenic the Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1, was my erstwhile runner-up prime for a midrange enactment that self-empties its bin, vacuums, and mops. It mops precise well, doing a swingy, scrubbing question with its rear extremity erstwhile successful “Matrix mode.” However, you person to manually capable and connect the mop reservoir and bare the bin erstwhile it mops, arsenic it lone self-empties successful vacuum mode and tin lone debar larger objects.
• The Roborock Q8 Max Plus ($599.99) is the bigger member to the Q5 Pro (my prime for favored hair), adding amended obstacle avoidance (still nary camera) and amended mopping. However, it has a smaller bin to marque mode for a overmuch bigger h2o reservoir for mopping (350ml). If you similar the thought of the Q5 Pro but privation amended mopping, this is simply a bully option. That said, you’ll astir apt privation to put successful the auto-empty bin, making the smaller 470ml dustbin easier to manage.

What’s coming next

• We’re presently investigating Roborock’s Saros 10 — the upgrade to the S8 MaxV Ultra — and the 10R, some of which started shipping successful aboriginal February for $1,599.99. Both tin automatically region their mop pads erstwhile not needed and diagnostic an AdaptLift chassis, truthful they tin ascent precocious country transitions. However, the 10R features somewhat little suction power, StarSight 2.0 navigation, and oscillating mops. The Saros 10, meanwhile, offers lidar navigation and introduces a level mopping pad that vibrates 4,000 times a minute to simulate scrubbing; it tin besides soak adust stains earlier trying to get escaped of them.
• The $1,699.99 Dreame X50 Ultra started shipping connected February 14th. It comes with a “motorized plaything arm” that acts similar a leg, allowing the robovac to ascent steps up to 6cm successful height. The robot besides features oscillating mopping pads, precocious obstacle designation and lidar navigation, and a multifunction charging dock that’s susceptible of emptying its bin and washing its ain mops with blistery h2o and heated air.
• The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni features an anti-tangle brushwood system, an awesome 18,000Pa of suction power, and an extendable roller mop that cleans itself utilizing 16 h2o nozzles arsenic it patrols your home. It besides leverages Ecovacs’ caller “TrueEdge” 3D sensor, which supposedly helps it accommodate to the assorted baseboards and edges passim your home. It’s presently receiving its archetypal discount directly from Ecovacs, wherever you tin prime it up for $1,169.99 ($130 off).
• The Switchbot K10 Plus Pro Combo is an upgrade to the K10 Plus, 1 you tin currently drawback for $599 ($200 off). Not lone does the compact robot vacuum supply amended obstacle avoidance and 3,000Pa of suction power, but it besides incorporates a manual instrumentality vacuum that empties into the included basal station.
• The Switchbot S20 Pro robot vacuum / mop hybrid, the successor to 1 of our favourite mopping vacuums, is scheduled to motorboat successful May oregon June. It features an extendable roller mop and broadside brushwood and 15,000Pa of suction power, which is much than doubly that of the anterior model, the S10. It’s besides acceptable to enactment Matter implicit Wi-Fi and comes with 1 of 2 auto-empty basal stations, 1 of which hooks into your plumbing.
• SharkNinja has a caller PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 robot vacuum / mop ($999.99) that’s designed to assistance itself up supra rugs by up to 20mm with minimal quality intervention. Its cleaning presumption doesn’t necessitate bags, either, and it tin automatically refill the bot’s h2o vessel arsenic good arsenic lavation / adust its mop pad.
• The quality to assistance 20mm sounds nice, but Roborock’s caller Qrevo Curv ($1,599.99) tin rise itself to wide thresholds up to 40mm. The svelte-looking bot gets its sanction from a curved FlexiArm Arc broadside brush, which helps forestall hairsbreadth from tangling arsenic much.
• The caller Roomba Combo 10 Max hybrid ($1,399.99) ships with Matter enactment and a self-washing mop. It’s iRobot’s archetypal robovac with a multifunction charging dock that cleans and dries the robot’s mop; it tin besides bare its ain bin and refill its ain h2o tank.
• Narwal’s Freo Z Ultra ($1,499.99) features dual cameras and dual AI chips for seeing and identifying objects, which should assistance with obstacle avoidance and vacuuming methods.
• The Eufy S1 Pro ($1,499), chiefly a mopping bot, takes a antithetic attack with its tall, slender auto-empty / refill dock. The futuristic-looking hybrid has a agelong roller mop that self-cleans arsenic it mops and features a square-ish plan that allows it to get into corners much easily. A azygous rubber roller brush, 8,000Pa of suction, and 3D-powered obstacle avoidance tackle the vacuuming.
• The Matic is simply a $995 robot vacuum that doesn’t request a unreality transportation and uses cameras to navigate, allowing it to roam much “naturally.” It’s the archetypal robovac mop I’ve seen that tin suck up bedewed spills arsenic good arsenic dry, and the institution says it volition soon person motion detection — truthful you tin constituent to wherever you privation it to vacuum. I got an aboriginal look astatine CES 2024 — here’s immoderate video of it successful action.

How I trial robot vacuums

For our latest update, I tested six caller robot vacuums portion continuing to trial our erstwhile picks. I ran each successful my location for astatine slightest a week — astir for longer — to justice however good they handled household grime and mundane life.

I enactment each done a gauntlet of “tests”: telephone chargers, socks, a pencil, and fake favored poop to trial obstacle avoidance. I threw successful Cheerios to spot if they knew to vacuum them up alternatively than debar them, and I besides scattered oatmeal and flour to spot however good they dealt with picking up good debris.

I ran each implicit some heavy and low-pile carpets and watched to spot however they handled rug tassels, skinny seat legs, and country transitions.

For mopping prowess, I tested them connected hardwood floors with dried milk, caller OJ, and ketchup. I monitored however rapidly they filled up their bin / auto-empty dock and however efficiently they utilized h2o and cleaned their mop pads (where applicable).

To trial the apps and bundle features, I acceptable schedules, hooked them up to dependable assistants, and played with immoderate precocious features successful the app. I besides evaluated their mapping skills, tested them connected aggregate floors, and tried retired immoderate unsocial features (such arsenic location information camera capabilities, AI-cleaning programs, and auto-mop removal).

Robot vacuum cleaner FAQs

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Update, February 21st: Adjusted to bespeak existent pricing / availability and emblem respective caller robovacs we’re presently testing. Sheena Vasani besides contributed to this post.