But the dream is possible—and even if it isn’t fully realized in your home, it’s still super-convenient to not deal with a messy dustbin every time you use your robot vacuum. Shark’s non-laser robots are reasonably priced and look great on paper, but are just okay in the real world. We’ve tested a couple iterations of the Shark IQ RV1000 series since 2019 (with self-emptying docks), as well as the new Shark AI VacMop hybrid, and found they’re much more prone to app glitches and stupid navigation than the best brands. They’re also pretty loud on bare floors, sort of like a two-stroke lawn mower puttering in the distance.
Allergens are swiftly swept up and locked away with this Roomba’s smart mapping model. We sent them on a normal run of the house cleaning run as well as runs with handfuls of cat litter on the bissell crosswave cordless floor and carpeting. But for staying ahead of dust and dirt buildup, they’re solid investments that will save you time, and as part of an overall cleaning schedule they make a lot of sense.
If you’re looking for a vacuum with all of Roomba’s best features , go for the s9. It’s about as technologically advanced as Roombas get, featuring Wi-Fi and app integration, learned mapping and navigation, and compatibility with both Alexa and Google Assistant. But, where this model shines is in its ability to clean—and we mean really clean—the entirety of your home. But just because you’re not spending a lot of money on a smart unit doesn’t mean you’re not going to get a clean house. In our testing, we found there are some models that clean really well and can do almost as good a job as a higher-priced option.
The makers of our current picks don’t sell data for now, but privacy policies are always changing. Otherwise, our main concern is that the little amount of sensitive data on a vacuum, like your Wi-Fi network password, is stored securely (if it’s stored online at all), in case there are data leaks or breaches in the future. If you’re annoyed or creeped out by the whole thing, you can either buy a non-connected bot or just never set up the Wi-Fi—these bots all still clean your house automatically even if you don’t connect them to the internet. But you won’t be able to use interactive mapping features without an internet connection. If you decide to sell or give away a Wi-Fi robot, be sure to factory reset it to remove Wi-Fi credentials. If you want one, we’d recommend getting one of the self-emptying versions of one of our picks, though we’d steer you toward a Roomba instead of a Roborock.
We also fully disassembled some popular bots to get a sense for the build quality and how straightforward they might be to repair. If you have thicker rugs, or you just feel like owning a stronger bot, then go ahead and spend a little more on a bot with better brushes or stronger suction. The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. It just informed us in the app, after the session was over and the Nutella smeared everywhere, that there were many objects on our floor and that we should pick them up.
As for the Roborock S6 MaxV, it failed the crucial dog-turd avoidance test multiple times when we first tested it in 2020, and was just okay at avoiding other kinds of obstacles. We tested it again in late 2021, and it either improved due to a software update (they’ve issued several since our last round of testing) or irobot vacuum cleaner some other variable in our testing changed. We’re not confident that you can count on the bot’s AI to avoid a doo-doo catastrophe but if you were thinking about getting a Roborock anyway and are curious about the AI, it’s not a bad option. IRobot doesn’t claim that the Roomba j7 can avoid most kinds of obstacles yet.
In addition to how long a model will hold its charge and how much dirt it can hold onboard, also take into account whether it has a self-emptying feature, which may need to be purchased separately. Unlike some of the latest models of Roomba vacuums, the Roomba 675 uses a pair of bristle brush bissell crosswave cordless rollers to conquer dirt and debris. So, while the bristles do an excellent job of gathering hair, it occasionally becomes caught around the brush itself and requires extraction. Just make sure to empty it of hair regularly and it will repay you with consistent trouble-free operation.