But the Roomba bot can easily pay off in the long run because it’ll last longer. In fact, several Wirecutter staff members have owned Roomba 600-series bots for several years and have found them to be sturdy and reliable. Siri Shortcuts worked a little better in our tests since we could customize the wording of our voice commands, but their overall functionality is limited. For example, you can’t use Siri to set up Automations as you can with Alexa and Google Assistant—though to be fair, Automations on those two platforms are pretty limited, as well. Using Alexa, Rachel was able to create an automated Routine that would tell the Roomba i3 EVO to start vacuuming whenever Rachel and her smartphone left her house.
This was the case for all of the machines I tried that came with clean bases; they’re all quite loud, but the Roomba j7+ was the loudest of them all. The whooshing sounds last for only five to 10 seconds, but it was shocking the first time it happened. Just keep that in mind if you ever decide to run your self emptying robot vacuum at night when others are sleeping. Every Wi-Fi-connected robot vacuum worth its salt today works with Alexa or Google smart speakers for voice control. However, some are limited to stop / start and pause, whereas others can be told to go clean specific areas.
And with the inevitable dust and mess of daily life, cleaning can be quite the challenge for anyone. What comes in handy to ease the cleaning woes, is the right vacuum cleaner. From upright vacuum cleaners and bagless vacuum cleaners to self-propelled and robotic vacuum cleaners, there’s a lot of choose from. The RoboVac and iRobot Roomba are popular robot vacuum cleaners with a sleek design and superior cleaning. Find easy-to-use cord-free and backpack vacuum cleaners for wall-to-wall cleaning, and DuoClean vacuums with two brushrolls and better suction power for hardwood floors and carpets. The popular and powerful Lift-Away with great suction is a canister vacuum for households with pet hair, bare floors, carpets and area rugs.
Some models come with docking stations that double as a disposal unit too, automatically empty their canisters when they return to the docking station. This will dramatically reduce how often you’ll need to clear it – our two top-scorers, for example, claim the container can house up to 60 days’ worth of dust before it needs disposing of. The Roomba 675 is the exact same as the Roomba 614, just with the addition of Wi-Fi features, says the brand.
To find out, we use dry, uncooked black rice as a stand-in for the crumbs, and sand as an analogue for finer particles. The Eufy 11S is the most basic and one of the few still available that doesn’t connect to the internet. Other Eufy variants, including the 30C, 35C, and 15C Max, do have WiFi connectivity, which allows you to use a companion app to turn the appliance on or off, steer it, and set a cleaning schedule. The mop cleaning and drying process is efficient, and in theory, you don’t need to remove the pad after every run. But I recommend throwing it in the washing machine when emptying the dirty water tank. We bought one of the Goovi models, and lo and behold, we found that it was functionally identical to the 11S, with many of the same components and even the same beep and boop sounds.
Make sure you have a space in mind for your robot vacuum’s dock before you make a purchase, otherwise you might have to move some furniture around. Robot vacuums have improved tenfold since they were first introduced, both in terms of navigation and pickup. And while the gap between these devices and upright models is indeed closing, there is still admittedly a gap. Robot vacuums do not offer as strong a performance as upright vacuum cleaners, particularly corded ones. It’s for this reason that we don’t recommend throwing away the best vacuum cleaner even if you decide to invest in one of these strong contenders. Testing every model to this extent took time, but as a result we can say with confidence that the below list accurately reflects the best you can buy.
With built-in Wi-Fi, it supports voice-activated cleaning via Alexa or the Google Assistant. It also has smart mapping, so you can tell it to clean or avoid specific rooms. But unlike most of its competitors, the Roomba i3 EVO is actually a sturdy, repairable appliance—and although longevity is never guaranteed, you can reasonably expect to own and use bissell crosswave cordless it regularly for years. It’s also better at cleaning rugs than most other bots, and hair doesn’t get tangled in its brushes as quickly. With the companion app and a Wi-Fi connection, you can remotely turn the robot on or off and optionally set an automatic cleaning schedule. The downside is that it doesn’t work quite as fast as some competing models.