Several excellent options, including the iRobot Roomba i3+ and Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL, are now available for less than $600. The iLife A9 robot vacuum cleans hard floors and low-pile carpet with aplomb, supports app and voice control, and won’t break the bank. Many of these robot vacuums can also pair with a smartphone app, which lets you command the bot to clean specific rooms or sections of a room, while ignoring other areas. This “smart mapping” tech is incredibly convenient, and one of the most compelling reasons to spend a little extra on a robot. Some high-end robot vacuums now include advanced obstacle recognition in their nav systems. In theory, these systems should help the robots simply drive around any floor clutter they find, and even avoid hazards like dog turds.
The main downside to smart mapping is that, like anything that increases the complexity of a system, it adds more opportunities for something to go wrong and disappoint you. Browse the user reviews for any bot with smart maps, and you’ll find stories about problems shark cordless with setting up the map, the map being inaccurate, the bot ignoring the zones on the map, or weird changes happening to the map over time. With the best models, it doesn’t happen often, but it will eventually happen to everyone who owns one of these bots.
To empty it, you simply detach the bin and empty it manually over the trash. This can get messy as dust flies around, but you save money buying replacement bags. The V3S Pro uses a small suction opening to scoop up debris, much like a regular vacuum, instead of the spinning roller brush on the bottom used by most robots. While the suction isn’t the strongest I’ve seen on devices in this price range, it avoids having hair and carpet threads build up and get stuck in a brush, and therefore helps it pick up more hair and dirt. Two side brushes with three bristles each push hair and dirt into the robot’s path, and do a great job.
We keep finding deals on bots from no-name brands like Coredy, Goovi, Onson, and Amarey, all of which have product dimensions that are barely distinguishable from those of the Eufy RoboVac 11S that we recommend. The Eufy 11S doesn’t have Wi-Fi or any smart-home connectivity, but you can still set a daily cleaning schedule with the remote control. The Roborock S4 Max has a single, relatively small brush roll , so it’s not as effective on carpets as Roomba’s dual-roll design.
Plenty of models can reliably clean homes both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout your home, and making a map of where it has or hasn’t been. They rarely miss patches or waste time re-cleaning areas that they’ve already visited. If their batteries run low before they can finish cleaning an entire level of a home, they’re smart enough to drive right back to their dock, recharge for a few hours, and pick up where they left off. Many of today’s robot vacuums are great at thoroughly cleaning every room in a home without getting lost or stuck. Also, we’re not convinced that obstacle avoidance is really the holy grail of robot-vacuum technology. One of the reasons robot vacuums help your home feel so tidy is because they force you to pick stuff up off the floor.
In our experience, it can be useful in spaces as large as 1,000 square feet, as long as you run it most days of the week as a habit and can forgive that it might not thoroughly clean every room every time that it runs. But some people don’t want to deal with the unpredictable coverage, and that’s understandable. If you want a smarter robot, take a look at our top two picks, the Roomba i3 and Roborock S4 Max. If you only need to vacuum a few rooms at a time, and you’re looking to save a few bucks, consider the Roomba 694, or really any model from the 600 series. This affordable robot vacuum is quieter and fits under more furniture than any other model we’ve tested. While it works best in small spaces, it rarely gets stuck and does a good job on bare floors and short-pile rugs.