The best robot vacuums you can buy

Robot vacuums have come a long way over the past few years. Robot vacuums are smarter and more efficient than ever, as well as (marginally better) at eliminating chair legs. You don’t need to spend nearly twice the amount of money for one. There are also many more robo-vacs available now than there once were, so deciding which to buy isn’t as simple as choosing the latest model from the biggest brand. To compare the latest robot vacuums, we tested them all.

Are robot vacuums worth it?

We tackled this question in our budget robot vacuum guide and the answer is yes, especially if vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores. Robots take the hard work out of cleaning your floors – just turn the thing on and watch it go. Any robot vacuum worth buying is semi-autonomous in that it will suck up dirt around your home until its battery is low and then make its way back to its charging dock. It should be able to only interact with you to switch it on and empty the dustbin. If it gets stuck, it can also untangle itself.

That’s not to say robot vacuums are perfect. They’re almost always less powerful and less flexible than standard vacuums. Robotic vacuums often have a lower suction power than conventional models. Their dustbins will also need to be cleaned more often because they are smaller than traditional models. While WiFi-connected robot vacuums give you the flexibility to start a cleaning job from anywhere using an app, targeting a small area of your home can be more complicated. Some robo-vacs have spot-cleaning features that focus the machine’s attention on a specific area, which almost – but not quite – mimics the spot-cleaning you’d be able to do yourself with a regular vacuum.

What should you look for when buying a robot vacuum

iRobt / 1996-2001 AccuSoft Co., All rights reserved

As we explained in our budget guide, WiFi is a key feature for most robot vacuums. Some of the cheapest devices aren’t WiFi connected, though, so if you’re looking at the most affordable devices, it’s best to check for that feature before you buy. A robot vacuum can communicate with your smartphone via WiFi, which allows it to be controlled from your mobile phone.

Another important aspect to take into consideration is suction power. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard power scale that all robo-vacs adhere to, so it’s difficult to compare suction power among a bunch of devices. Some companies offer Pascal levels. The higher the Pa the vacuum will perform. Other companies, however, don’t depend on Pa levels. They simply state that their robots produce X times more suction than others.

Ultimately, we recommend thinking first about the floors in your home: Do you have carpet throughout, or tile and hardwood, or a mix? Because they are able to reach the corners and crevices better, robots that have stronger suction will be a more effective cleaner for carpets. There are also “max” mode options that increase the suction power, but they consume more battery life than “normal”.

At a set price, advanced features such as home mapping, object detection, and dustbin disposal will be available. It’s exactly as the name suggests: Your vacuum maps your house using sensors. This allows you to direct it to specific rooms and areas for later cleaning. Most robo-vacs have some version of object detection, but some will be better than others at actually avoiding things like chair legs and children’s toys. Some, like iRobot’s j7 series, even go so far as to promise to avoid things like pet poop that can potentially ruin your machine.

Finally, for maximum convenience, consider buying a robotic vacuum with a clean base. They are basically trash bins attached to the machine’s charging base. At the end of each job, the robo-vac automatically empties its small dustbin into the large clean base – that means you won’t have to empty the dustbin yourself and you’ll only have to tend to the base once every few weeks. Just keep in mind that most clean bases require proprietary garbage bags – another long-term expense you’ll have to factor into the cost of owning one of these devices.

Engadget picks

Best mid-range robot vacuum: Shark AI Robot Vacuum with Base

Shark

Shark’s $650 RV2502AE AI robot vacuum with Base ticks all of the boxes that a mid-range machine should. It offers reliable performance, its mobile app is easy to use and it produces accurate home maps. On top of that, its base is bagless, which means you won’t have to spend money every few months on garbage bags for your robot vacuum.

Buy Shark RV2502AE with base at Amazon – $650

Setting the Shark up is easy. Simply take the box and the base out, and then plug the base into the socket. The companion app can be downloaded to complete the process. You can control the machine via your smartphone or tablet by connecting to WiFi. An “Explore Run” is the Shark’s first trip. This allows it to create a map of your house that you can edit using the app.

The Shark produced a pretty accurate floorplan of my two-bedroom apartment, and I was happy to see a “re-explore” option that I could use if the map wasn’t up to my standards. Once you have a map completed, it is time to mark the rooms within your house. This allows you to send the Shark only to the bedroom, and for additional cleaning work, choose “no go” zones.

The first few times I ran the Shark robot, I had it clean my whole apartment. I was impressed by how quiet it was – or rather, how much quieter it was compared to other robo-vacs I’ve tried. If it is cleaning in the same area, you will need to increase the volume of your TV. However it won’t be able to hear it sucking up dirt and debris from the hallway. It also did a decent job maneuvering its way around the cat toys I left out on the floor. The device’s object detection feature claims it can avoid things as small as four inches, but I found that it was much better at sensing and moving around the three-foot-long cat tunnel on my floor than the many tiny mouse toys.

But even if Mr. Mouse caught the edge of the Shark’s wheels now and then, the robo-vac took it all in stride. When testing robotic vacuums, one thing that I pay attention to is the amount of time they require from me when cleaning. They don’t require any extra attention – the best robot vacuums are smart enough to move about your house, pick up objects, and then return to their base once they finish. Shark’s robot vacuum was so easy to use that I didn’t have to worry about it cleaning. Now, I did my due diligence and picked up pieces of clothing and charging cables off the ground before running the Shark (ditto for every other robot vacuum I tested), so those things were never in the way. Many companion apps will remind you that this is a must before you start a clean-up job.

This Shark machine has a clean base. It will empty the dustbin after each job, and during any job that it isn’t finished with. The Shark can automatically clean its bin after the job is finished. That’s a great feature, but I found the best thing about the base to be its bagless design. Shark’s robot vacuum cleaner is different than other models because it doesn’t require you to buy special garbage bags. When you want to empty the base, part of it snaps off and opens to eject debris, and it easily locks back in place when you return it. This is not only convenient but also lowers the cost per year of ownership since you don’t have to buy special bags every month.

Runner up: Roomba j7

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

iRobot’s Roomba j7 is a great option if you want the latest obstacle avoidance technology from the company in an attractive package. The $600 j7 doesn’t come with a clean base, but you can get the same vacuum with one for $200 extra.

Buy Roomba j7 at Amazon – $600

The biggest selling point of the Roomba j7 series is its upgraded AI-driven computer vision which helps it detect and move around objects. This includes pet poop – a robot vacuum’s arch nemesis – and iRobot even promises that it will replace your j7 machine if it runs into pet poop within the first year of ownership.

This is the one thing I regret not getting to try. My cat was very strict about keeping her activities in her litter box. Otherwise, the Roomba j7 did a good job sucking up dirt and debris around my apartment and it didn’t make too much noise while doing so. All of the robo-vacs I tested at this mid-range level had roughly the same level of suction, so there wasn’t a big difference between them when it came to cleaning power.

Employees can also set cleaning times in the iRobot app, so they don’t have to do a job every day. The app also has a “favorites” section, which lets you create profiles that you’ll use all the time like “clean the living room and the entryway.” And if you prefer to use voice commands, the robot supports Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant.

The Roomba j7 has Imprint Smart Mapping, but unlike the Shark, it took more than one runthrough of my home for it to create a complete map. iRobot’s app distinguishes between a regular cleaning job and a “mapping run,” so make sure you’re choosing the latter the first few times you run the machine.

I tested the j7+, which means I was treated to the roaring sounds of the machine emptying its dustbin into its clean base. The emptying process isn’t as simple as an automatically opening flat that shakes dirt from one garbage can to another – the base actually sucks the dirt from vacuum. This was the case for all of the machines I tried that came with clean bases; they’re all quite loud, but the Roomba j7+ was the loudest of them all. The whooshing sounds last for only five to 10 seconds, but it was shocking the first time it happened. Just keep that in mind if you ever decide to run the robot at night when others are sleeping.

Honorable mention: Anker Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid

Anker

You may be unfamiliar with Anker’s robot vacuums, but they’re often more affordable alternatives to the iRobots and Sharks of the world. The $649 Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid isn’t a budget machine by any means, but it’s a solid robot vacuum that offers a few key features that many competitors don’t have. Plus, you can often find it on sale for $549 or even $449.

Buy Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid at Amazon – $650

Unlike our other midrange picks, the X8 Hybrid doesn’t come with a clean base, nor is there one you can purchase separately. It’s just a standalone robot vacuum, but the “hybrid” indicates that it’s also a mop. It has both a dustbin for collecting debris and a 250-milliliter water tank that you can fill whenever you want to run a mopping cycle. This feature is common on many other robotic vacuums. It can be more helpful than the clean base for those with tiled or hardwood floors.

Besides that, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up the X8 Hybrid, how accurate its mapping technology was and how many extra features it supports. It has four cleaning modes – auto, room, zone and spot – and four suction levels starting with Pure at the low end and topping out at Max. You have a lot more control over the cleaning area and power of your machine. The X8 Hybrid was in Pure mode the first time I ran it, and I was surprised by not only how quiet it was but also how thoroughly it cleaned considering it was on the lowest suction setting.

There’s also a “tap and go” feature that lets you pinpoint any spot on your home map in the EufyHome app, sending the robot there to clean. You can also use manual controls, something that you won’t see on many robo-vacs. You can control your machine like a slower, less agile RC car. This gives you greater control of where it cleans.

It may not have the name recognition that iRobot or Shark do, but the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid is a solid choice nonetheless, especially if you don’t care to add a clean base into the mix. It’s an even more tempting choice if you can snag it when it’s discounted.

Best high-end robot vacuum: iRobot Roomba s9+

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

The Roomba s9+ is admittedly overkill for most people – but it’s nothing if not one of the best robot vacuums out there. As soon as the vacuum is unpacked, you’ll be able to see its top features. The s9+ is the biggest but also the most attractive robo-vac I tried, with a corner-friendly design, copper accents and a 1. 5-foot tall clean base. The setup was quick and easy, with the machine taking only a few minutes to connect to my home’s WiFi and the iRobot app.

Buy Roomba s9+ at Amazon – $999

While the s9+ doesn’t have the Precision Navigation feature that the newer j7 does, it has something called “Careful Driver” that uses a 3D sensor to detect and clean around objects. It seems that the main difference is that the s9+ isn’t specifically wired to avoid pet poop, so keep that in mind if you have furry friends around the house. However, with 40x the suction power of a standard Roomba, the s9+ does a great job cleaning up pet hair.

It’s aso 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. It also automatically switches between tile and carpeted floors when it detects that a tile floor is being cleaned.

Even this $1,000 robot vacuum bumped into a few table legs while cleaning, but it was noticeably better than other machines at navigating around my furniture and correcting itself when it got stuck. It also moves faster than the j7, so it was able to cover a bit more of my apartment before it had to return to the base for charging after about one hour of cleaning. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the s9+ wasn’t nearly as loud as the j7 vacuum when emptying its dustbin into the clean base.

With the iRobot app experience being the same across all Roombas, the s9+ stands out for its subtle premium features like its elegant design, elegant-looking clean base, superior cleaning intelligence and top-of-the-line suction power. Aside from the extra suction, those are all nice-to-haves rather than must-haves, so most people – including you! – probably don’t need the Roomba s9+. It’s the fanciest robot vacuum iRobot has to offer, but you’ll get a similar level of quality with the Roomba j7 while spending a couple hundred bucks less.

Honorable mention: Roborock S7+

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

Roborock’s high-end S7+ deserves a mention for its cleaning power and number of additional features that many other competitors don’t have. First, the S7+ is a vac-and-mop combo, and its mopping map automatically lifts itself out of the way when the machine reaches the carpet. That means you can have it clean your whole home, vacuuming and mopping in the right spots, without you giving it any extra attention (besides filling its 300ml water tank at the start).

Buy Roborock S7+ at Amazon – $950

The $950 machine has a longer setup process because its clean base comes in two pieces. Attach the base where the robot-vac charges to the upper part of your garbage bin using just a couple of screws. 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.

What wasn’t so easy for me at first was connecting the S7+ to the Roborock app. The vacuum had trouble connecting to my home’s WiFi network, but I was able to connect it to the Mi Home app, which is Xiaomi’s main smart home companion app (Xiaomi is an investor in Roborock). There aren’t a ton of differences between the two apps when it comes to robo-vac controls, but the S7+ is designed to work with Roborock’s program. Roborock representatives helped me troubleshoot the issue and I was able factory reset the vacuum, which allowed me to properly connect the Roborock program to it.

However, Roborock’s app isn’t as well-designed as apps from Shark, iRobot and other companies. You can quickly open the main page to see your house’s map, along with cleaning time and cleaning distance in feet. There are also buttons that allow you to start cleaning and then empty the bin. The app also allows you to choose specific areas or rooms to clean. However, the menu at the top of the screen shows all the controls. Things are a little buried, and that might make the S7+ harder for robot-vacuum newbies to use.

When it comes to cleaning, the Roborock S7+ did a great job sucking up dirt around my home. In addition to the usual features like cleaning schedules, zone targeting and others, the vacuum also has things like child lock, which will disable the physical buttons on the machine; different auto-emptying settings to choose from; “pin and go,” which lets you tap on your home map to send the robot to a specific location; and manual direction controls so you can move the machine like a toy car. This isn’t the robot vacuum to get if you want the most polished experience – and you may very well want that if you’re dropping $1,000 on one – but it remains a powerful vac-and-mop machine with a handful of extra perks.

Best budget: Roomba 694

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

iRobot’s $279 Roomba 694 is a great option for most people thanks to its good cleaning power and easy-to-use mobile app. This guide contains additional information on affordable robot vacuums. We will not go into detail. But suffice to say, the 694 gives you all the essentials you’d expect from a robot vacuum, along with all of the convenience that comes with iRobot’s mobile app.

Buy Roomba 694 at Amazon – $279