10 Best Robot Vacuum Cleaners

Robot vacuums vary in terms of battery power. This means that each robot can clean around your home for a specific time before it must return to its dock to recharge. Some robots last 3 hours on max mode, while others last longer. Most robot vacuums can return to their dock automatically when their battery is low so they can recharge.

Some robot vacuums, on the other hand, may return to their dock to recharge and then resume cleaning where they left off once the charging is complete. This is particularly helpful if you live in a larger house or if you don’t want to manually direct your robot to the place it should go after recharging.

The graph below shows how the runtime is distributed among the robot vacuum cleaners. Keep in mind, that this is the maximum runtime for the robot vacuum cleaners on eco-mode. The runtime will be shorter on higher settings.

When it comes to cleaning there are a lot of things to consider:

Cleaning area

A robot vacuum’s cleaning area is the area it can cover in one cleaning cycle. If you have a big house, you might want to opt for a robot vacuum that can cover a bigger cleaning area or you will have to wait in between cleaning cycles while your robot recharges.

If you want your vacuum to clean more than one room, you need to pick a device that is equipped with the appropriate features.

Suction power

If you have carpets, you’ll want a robot vacuum that will be able to do some deep cleaning on those carpets. Some robots even have a carpet boost, meaning that the suction power will automatically increase only when it senses a carpet. This enables the robot vacuum to save up on energy when it is cleaning other surfaces.

Here are the 5 robot vacuum cleaners with the highest suction power.

The following graph shows how the maximum suction power is distributed among the robot vacuum cleaners.

Self-emptying dust bin

When robot vacuums collect the dust, dirt, and debris, they store it in the little dust bins located inside the robot itself. Nevertheless, if your place is full of dirt, that dust bin can fill up pretty quickly, requiring you to empty it from time to time. The more expensive robots, however, come with a self-emptying dust bin that allows them to empty the dust and dirt they have collected, so you don’t have to do it yourself. This allows for a more uninterrupted, less supervised cleaning. You can read more about robot vacuum cleaners with self-emptying dust bins in our article here.

Filter

Not all vacuum filters are created equal, although most of them do their job really well. If you or someone in your household has asthma or allergies, it’s best to get a robot vacuum with a HEPA-grade filter to avoid releasing the allergens back into the air. You can read more about vacuum cleaner filters here.

Mopping

Some robot vacuums come with a mopping feature. Some of the robot vacuums that have this feature require you to attach a water tank in place of the dust bin. Other robot vacuums, on the other hand, suction and mop simultaneously. You can read more about robot vacuum cleaners with a mop in our article here.

These are the 3 best robot vacuum cleaners with a mop:

Rank	Image	Robot vacuum	Score	Verdict	Price
1		Roborock S7	95	Very good	$650
2		Roborock S5 Max	95	Very good	$550
3		Roborock S6 Pure	95	Very good	$460

Do you want to be able to control your robot no matter where you are? A lot of robot vacuums these days make cleaning more efficient with the use of smartphones and smart home devices. Some robot vacuums come with an app that you can download and use to track your robot vacuum’s whereabouts and even to control it manually. Some robot vacuums can be connected to Amazon Alexa and/or Google Home Assistant.
Through these app and voice control settings, you can control your robot vacuum easily, even if you are in another part of the house or away from home. Alternatively, some robot vacuums come with a remote control that lets you access all the robot’s functions, while others have all three of them.

How robot vacuum cleaners navigate around your home depends on the navigation system in them. Some robot vacuums come with laser navigation which allows them to create and save a whole map of your home so they can determine their path as they clean your home. Robot vacuums with laser navigation can often avoid bumping into your furniture as they can sense their surroundings.

Other navigation systems include gyroscope navigation, camera-based mapping, and the use of various sensors to help the robot vacuum determine where it is going. They are not as accurate as a robot with laser navigation, but they are cheaper.

The following diagram shows how the navigation system is distributed among the robot vacuum cleaners.

Some robots are also equipped with various sensors that serve various purposes. Anti-fall sensors will allow a robot to detect when it is near a ledge or stairs to avoid falling down from it. Most robot vacuums these days are equipped with them. Cross-barrier height sensors allow the robot to climb from one threshold to another which helps when a robot goes from floor to carpet. Other sensors keep the robot from bumping into obstacles it encounters while it is cleaning.

The following graph represents the distribution in climbing height/step height among the robot vacuum cleaners.

You will find that robot vacuums are more or less the same height Nevertheless, those few inches can mean a great deal, especially if you’re hoping that your robot vacuum will help you clean under low-lying furniture. If this is something you want, it’s best to check the height of your furniture (beds, sofas, tables, shelves) against the height of the robot vacuum cleaner you’re thinking of getting.

Robot vacuum cleaners have a whole lot of other functions and settings. Some robot vacuum cleaners are exceptionally good at picking up pet hair. For pet parents, this is something you should look into especially if your pet sheds heavily. You can learn more about robot vacuum cleaners for pet hair here.

Other features in robots include the ability to keep your robot from entering a room or to assign it to clean certain rooms of your house only. These are done by assigning magnetic or virtual walls with the help of an app. Some robots also come with strips that you can place on the floor to keep your robot from entering a certain place.