You can easily schedule the Roomba to remove dirt, dust, and debris with the iRobot HOME app or your voice assistant. Roomba works with Google Home and Alexa enabled devices for total control, simply using your voice! Not only that, but Roomba learns your cleaning habits and offers personalized schedules to fit your daily needs. “[If you’re a pet owner], check to make sure the robot’s filters are capable of capturing dog and cat dander—especially if you suffer from pet allergies,” Hild says. “Effective brushes and rollers are also important in making sure the robot vacuum can actually handle picking up short and long pet hair alike.”
As with all products that CR tests, the ratings robotic vacuums earn across our series of tests and our surveys inform the overall score for each model. We provide a detailed analysis of each of these vacuums in our reviews, and you can see our vacuum product guide for the latest models. If you specifically want to stick with the iRobot brand, we also have a roundup of the best Roombas. When you find the right one for you, be sure to read up on our simple robot vacuum tips. Self-emptying or not, most robot vacuums also equip small HEPA filters that capture allergens as they run.
We were particularly impressed by how well this vacuum removed sand from deep within the fibers of the rug, leaving behind no trace of the initial mess after it passed through. You can also download the Lefant app to pair the Wi-Fi-enabled vac with your smartphone or device to better control the device remotely. According to Consumer Reports, HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters can’t hurt – and they can help.
Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well without complaining (much). As prices have dropped, these busy little bots have become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. They can reach places most standup vacs never see (under beds and sofas) and, thanks to better batteries and robot brains, rarely get tired of cleaning. Liam McCabe is a former senior staff writer for Wirecutter, and has covered the wild world of appliances since 2011. After testing dozens of robot vacuums, he is neither worried about AI nor holding his breath for self-driving cars.
It is a model that works best on the carpet, lifting and separating dirt and grime while benefiting from object avoidance, so it vacuums only what you want it to. Simply set the unit to run, and its smart technology will begin to learn just how you like your home vacuumed. This model also carries the P.O.O.P. guarantee that will replace your unit should it run through a pet accident. When it encounters potential obstacles that aren’t in its database, the j7+ snaps photos and asks you whether it should avoid those areas in the future. It only takes about a minute to review the obstacle images, and doing so can prove extremely useful.
This model also included a newer version of the navigation software, now called iAdapt. Data security was commendable but in the analysis by our digital labs, digital privacy was only so-so. That’s a trade-off that you may or may not want to make for the convenience of a mostly hands-off vacuum. In our digital labs, data security was so-so and data privacy was even worse. It’s something to be aware of if you use the WiFi connectivity to get frequent software updates. But our members find Eufy to be a reliable brand, and it checks all the boxes for owner satisfaction.
It’s also cheaper, and it’s smaller and shorter, so it will fit under lower furniture better. So the first order of business for any successful robot vacuum is to avoid or at least escape from potential bot traps and hazards. This is important because if you set your bot to clean while you’re out of the house, but it gets stuck, say, under the dining room table within the first 10 minutes, you’ll still have dirty floors when you get home.
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk. Introduced in September 2002, the first-generation Roomba had three buttons for room size. The first-generation units comprised the original silver-colored Roomba, the blue Roomba Pro, and the maroon Roomba Pro Elite.
If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here’s the list of all our robot vacuum reviews, ranked by pet hair performance. While no vacuum is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them. The expensive machine has a longer setup process because its clean base comes in two pieces. You must attach the bottom of the base, where the robo-vac charges, to the garbage-bin upper portion using a few screws and a tool that attaches to the bottom of the base. Roborock provides everything you need to do this in the box, so while it takes a bit more time, it’s still an easy process. It’s also louder than the j7 when it’s cleaning, but not irritatingly so, and I noticed a deeper clean in my carpets thanks to the extra suction.
On the other hand, one staffer has had the 11S for four years, and it’s still going strong. We dismantled an older Eufy RoboVac 30 and found that doing major repairs was impossible without breaking parts dyson robot vacuum of the robot. The Roomba 694, on the other hand, was easy for us to strip down and then reassemble with just a screwdriver. Another surprisingly useful upside to the basic Eufy bots is their short body.