The Roomba 675 comes equipped with the most essential Roomba upgrades of the last several years, like a longer 90-minute runtime with a lithium-ion battery, Wi-Fi connectivity, and automatic recharging. These features fix some of the frustrations expressed by earlier owners of budget Roomba vacuums. The Roomba is able to accomplish more with the 90-minute cleaning cycle and you can monitor its cleaning progress or schedule cleaning sessions within the app, thanks to its built-in Wi-Fi. And instead of finding your Roomba drained and out of battery juice in the middle of a room, the 675 can dock itself to recharge. Mediocre suction capability, random navigation and difficulty finding its base made this a nonstarter for us.
Unlike many traditional vacuums, most of the robots included here don’t use bags to hold the dust, hair, and other debris they suck up. Instead, they use an easy-to-remove dustbin you can simply eject and empty into the nearest garbage can. The Neabot NoMo N1 Smart Robot Vacuum offers excellent dyson robot vacuum cleaning performance, long battery life, and automatic bin-emptying so you don’t have to come into contact with dust. The relatively affordable Eufy RoboVac G30 robot vacuum has a compact design, strong suction power for its size, and smarter navigation than its predecessors.
We see regular robot vacuum deals cutting the price on this model as well, so you’ll find it available on sale regularly. After researching which robot vacuums to test, we settled on 11 models with a wide variety of features and price points. We set up each vacuum, downloading apps and creating accounts where necessary. We ran each vacuum multiple times through an approximately 1,500-square-foot dyson robot vacuum home with two cats, hardwood floors and mostly low-pile carpeting. As for cleaning, we’ve found over and over again that basic Eufy bots are capable of picking up all the most common types of debris off bare floors and low-pile rugs. It’s actually kind of surprising how effective they are, since the advertised suction is so modest, and the single brush roll is small.
Besides, most good robots at all prices are pretty good at avoiding bot-trapping obstacles. And bot owners tend to get in the habit of picking up the kinds of floor-bound clutter that can create a problem—toys, shoes, laundry, even certain lightweight floor mats—so that the robot can work effectively. When you add up all those little optimizations, the S4 Max saves a noticeable amount of time compared with other bots. I found that the S4 Max could clean my kitchen, dining room, and living room in 30 minutes, which is about 15 minutes quicker than the Roomba i7 . Tired of constantly sweeping up or vacuuming dust, crumbs, and other debris from your floors?
This is an app-controlled vacuum with a low profile that didn’t perform well enough in our testing to compete with others in the same price range. It can be controlled via a remote, app or voice assistant but has no mapping or room-specific scheduling capability, and the random navigation, in our testing, never quite completed a run of the house. More advanced models require you to set up a map and define the zones of your house you’ll want them to clean or stay away from, and even the best vacuum can get stuck and need human intervention. Some of the most advanced robot vacuums, such as the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, feature artificial intelligence technology to automatically identify and avoid obstacles like shoes and toys. Premium models may also feature a camera, letting you view live video of your home from wherever you are. Just pick a robot-accessible spot for the charging dock, and the bot will return on its own before it runs out of juice.
Infrared sensors keep it off the stairs, though like other bump bots, it can’t avoid obstacles like lamp cords. The iRobot j7+ is the best robot vacuum you can buy right now, with simpler mapping, more cleaning power and smarter features than anything else we tested. Robot vacuums are designed to make your life easier, cleaning the floors so you don’t have to. They’re particularly great for keeping up with pet hair but can also keep your house tidy when you’re just too busy (and they’ll do it better because they don’t mind vacuuming every day). The Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI is a pricey 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop with excellent battery life, the ability to identify and avoid obstacles, and a unique home monitoring feature. The Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE vacuum holds up to a months’ worth of dust and debris in its base station, and features a self-cleaning brushroll and lots of smart features for a truly low-maintenance experience.
The placement requirements for different makes and models will vary, of course; but generally speaking, you’ll need to place the base station somewhat in the open. Tuck the base out of the way and your robot might have trouble finding it so it can dock and recharge its battery. Also, don’t forget that the charging station needs to be reasonably close to a power outlet.