10 Best Rated Robot Vacuum Tricks All Experts Recommend

Best Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

While robot vacuums are excellent in keeping your floors clean but they aren't able to replace a large-sized vacuum. Even the best vacuums struggle to get deep into carpets and rugs. They also often get tangled in cords and socks.

Your robot will last longer if you perform regular maintenance. This includes replacing filters, cutting hairs that are tangled from brushes, and emptying the dustbin.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums can manage one or two cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The Ecovacs Q30S Combo is the runner-up of our overall selections. It has an energy-efficient battery that can last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square foot) on one charge. This is more than enough time to clean most smaller homes with a mix of hard floors and low-pile carpets, or a larger home with rooms that are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life means the robot will be able to spend less time charging and more time cleaning. It is recommended to choose a model that has an auto-emptying bin. These models are more efficient at picking up debris and returning to docks to recharge. It is also essential to empty or replace the filter and clean sensors and cameras on a regular basis to ensure they can clearly see your home.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to be looking for because it allows you to program your robot to clean specific rooms or areas where it's likely to hit furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also useful to ensure that your robot is able to reach under and around furniture, such as sofas, beds and other large objects. Some cheap robovacs offer boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off areas while other high-end models utilize sensors and cameras to accomplish this.

Even the top robot vacuums cannot replace a traditional vacuum for heavy-duty dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep a power vacuum available to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacs to do light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot must be able to navigate your home without getting stuck or crashing into things such as metal screws or loose pet hair or sand. In our tests the tracking device is used to track the robot cleaning machine's movements through a multi-room lab. It then tracks its surroundings. We also examine how well it avoids obstacles like power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

The most advanced robots can map out different floors and recognize landmarks like doors and windows. The most advanced ones, like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, have a dual-sensor navigation system that uses the LIDAR sensor to map out the room, and a light camera at the front of the robot to identify objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles like power cords and furniture legs and can store up to four different floor maps in its internal memory.

Cheaper models don't come with this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors which aren't as precise. In my tests they were able see through dog poop and cords, as well as a pair shoes placed in the middle. The most affordable choice, the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It is a great carpet and hard floor pickup, excellent hair and tangle pickup, and an auto empty score.

A large dust bin onboard, that doesn't need to be manually empty, is also a feature that is essential. If you have models that mop the floor, this tank is able to hold enough water for several weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is an excellent example of this. It has a wide enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not so large that it can't fit into the nook between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are like their upright counterparts and require an enormous amount of technology to get them up to speed. The result is a mature market with plenty of options. But even the best models still require some interaction with their users - particularly when cleaning schedules are being planned and establishing a floor plan and setting up virtual barriers.

Consider a model with its own app that can determine the layout of your home and save these settings for future use. This will allow the robot vacuum to continue where it left off when it runs again, instead of having the mapping process restarted every time.

It is also recommended to consider models that offer spot or best vacuums zone cleaning. They allow you to instruct the robot vacuum to concentrate on a specific area, such as under the dining table after the family's big meal. You can choose to do this using the app or voice commands.

Avoidance of objects is a different feature that's included in numerous models. It allows the robot to see something in its path, like the shoe box or a crate full of dog toys, and guide itself around it. This will prevent it from hitting objects that could harm its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the more expensive models in our tests have this feature. However, they typically rely on bump sensors to accomplish this and weren't always able to stay clear of things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

Look for an upright vacuum cleaner designed to pick up hair from pets. The best models will have the highest suction, a brush which stops tangling, and an automatic emptying mechanism. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust the cleaning intensity accordingly. They are also able to detect items that aren't a part of your home flooring, like furniture, toys, and food bowls.

Some robot vacuums include additional pet-friendly features. These include the water dispenser that can be used to clean floors, and a HEPA filtering system that eliminates allergens such as pet dander. They might also offer the option of a quieter operation, which will reduce the amount of noise generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that have maps are an excellent option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home and devise an attack plan based on the layout of each room as well as obstacles. For example the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum is a smart vacuum with an impressive capability to map rooms and navigate around furniture and other obstructions with gyroscope and accelerometer smart sensors which work in tandem to understand the layout of your room.

Apps allow you to set up zones that are not allowed. These are areas where the robot shouldn't be allowed, such as fragile items or pet feeding areas. This feature is especially useful for households with busy schedules, as it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions without having to be in the room in which the vacuum is. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning which gives you the option to control the vacuum to clean an area that is particularly dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't need something small, go for a model with a big bin or even a self-emptying dustbin. We suggest choosing one with an enormous bin or a trash bin that automatically emptys. The former will help you keep track of emptying the bin frequently enough to ensure you are on top of its performance and the latter will save you time and hassle by automatically dumping the contents into an internal bin every few cleanings.

Find models that have smart vacuum cleaner mapping capabilities that allow them to "learn" the layout of your home and plan more efficient routes. They can also sense and avoid objects that may hinder their routes (like shoelaces or tangled charging cables). Look for models with smart mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the patterns of your house and devise more efficient routes, as well as ones that are able to detect and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).

Some models provide spot cleaning. This allows you to manually target an area of your house for intensive cleaning. In our tests, we discovered that the top models are able to take out small particles like baking soda, sand orzo, screws made of metal and pet hair, as well heavier debris like oatmeal, orzo, and metal screws.

Based on the manufacturer, most expensive robot vacuum robots can last for years and will continue to perform well as long as you maintain them with regular maintenance, such as cleaning hair that has become tangled from brushes, emptying the dust bin after each use, and wiping down cameras and sensors as needed. The best roborock vacuum-performing robots also tend to be more modular and therefore easier and cheaper to replace or repair parts such as wheels and batteries as they wear out.