The Best Robot Vacuums Suck Up Dirt While You Soak Up Life
Our favorite budget vacuums are currently made by Eufy, including this one, the 15C Max. Though it employs a random bump method, we found that the Eufy 15C Max had enough
suction power to be a supremely effective cleaner. It had a little trouble getting over an odd 1"-tall hump in our kitchen with hard floors, but otherwise did a great job navigating around the space and cleaning up everything we put in front of its motor. Scheduling cleaning times or manually turning on the bot is really easy to do with the Eufy app, which is well laid-out and simply designed. You’re also able to connect the vacuum with Amazon Echo or the Google Home, if you’d like to schedule cleaning with your voice.
Best Mopping Robot Vacuum
Compared with mapping and surface detection technologies, the latest innovation among robot vacuums is a bit underwhelming. That improvement? Robot vacuums can mop now. Well, okay, calling it “mopping” is a bit of a stretch. It’s more like “robot vacuums have Swiffer pads on the bottom of them now.” If you have mostly hardwood floors, this is actually kind of cool. Giving that wood a once over with clean water every so often will go a long way in keeping them looking as shiny as the day they were finished. But, just because a robot vacuum can mop doesn’t mean it’s a good robot vacuum.
The Roborock S6 Max is a genuinely good robot vacuum that also happens to be a functional robot mop. It has all the functionality of our favorite vacuums, like surface detection, laser navigation, and the ability to set virtual barriers, all in a relatively quiet package with a powerful motor that is capable of sucking up everything that comes in its wake. But it also adds a couple that feel a bit more experimental, like object recognition. That’s right, it can tell you (and show you, thanks to an onboard camera) what it’s running into. The app is a little bit clunky, but setting up the vacuum isn’t that much different than with any other one we’ve tested. Plus, the Roborock is compatible with Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. If you’re interested in a vacuum that can mop, this is the one to get for now.
Robot Vac with the Most Advanced App
The Neato D7 required just a little bit more assistance than other robot vacuums we’ve tested, but it offers a lot of the same features that made us love more premium robots. For one, the app is great: after a few sessions, it delivers a pretty complete floor plan, and you can draw lines where the vacuum shouldn’t go, which is far easier to use than physical sensors or magnetic strips that other vacuums force you to install. It has both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant smart home compatibility. You can also set up “spot cleanings,” which mean you don’t have to send the thing off for an hour when you just want it to circle the area around where you just ate. You can also manually control it like a remote control car, which is impossibly lazy and also very fun.
It’s a powerful robotic vacuum, though it fares less admirably against hair than other vacuums. It also managed to get stuck more often, and you have to be more careful about placing it back down, because it’ll lose its bearings if you set it back down more than a few feet away than where you picked it up. And you have to empty its filter manually, which is a pain, but usually unavoidable at this price. But overall, the extra options and easy app make up for these somewhat typical robot vacuum flaws.
5 More Good Robot Vacuums
While these didn't make our top slots, they're still high-quality robot vacuums that we'd definitely give our stamp of approval.
The Eufy 11S is basically the same feature-light vacuum as the 15C Max, but with less powerful suction. That means you'll have to run it a little bit more often or for longer periods in order to get the same level of cleanliness. It's still a super effective vacuum that's easy to set up and use, but a bit less efficient. This vacuum is also available in white.
The iRobot Roomba i7+ is basically a robot vacuum with the i3+’s motor and the i9+’s software. If you’re willing to shell out for a vacuum at this price, you might as well get the i9+, whose power allows you to more fully take advantage of the software.
Roborock's vacuums were some of the first to bring premium robot vacuum features down to lower price points. The S4, which has mapping technologies, is a testament to this. At this price it's a bit of an awkward fit: not quite as good as the bots that are a little bit more expensive, not so much better than the cheaper bots. Still, if you want those premium features but can't shell out for them, the S4 is a compromise you should consider.
This robot's unique design makes it better at tackling corners than many other robots. It also has manual settings that give you control over where it heads and the amount of energy it will spend to accomplish specific tasks. We think our options above are more effective, but if you like the design and are really worried about your corners, this is a good option.
The iRobot Roomba 980, our former top pick, is still an excellent vacuum with a powerful motor. But if you're going to be paying this much for a vacuum, you should get something with all the premium robot vacuum features that this bot doesn't have. At this price, we think you'll get more utility out of something that allows you to set up virtual walls without physical devices and that will empty its own tray when full.
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