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What to Look For in a Good Robot Vacuum

A quality robot vacuum will help you stay on top of pet hair, lint, and dust on a daily basis. Many of them use apps to allow you to schedule cleaning times and set virtual boundaries or "walls" to keep them away from areas that you don't want to be cleaned.

This smart vac-mop makes the map of your home using its first run. It then stores the area for future cleaning jobs. It has an extra-large dustbin that automatically emptys and a self-cleaning, brush roll.

Object Detection

When picking a robot vacuum, choose one that is able to pick up large objects, such as toys and lamp cords, and also dust particles. This will ensure that they do not get caught in the roller brush or end up on your floor. This is especially important if your robot will be cleaned frequently by children or pets.

It's also a good idea to select a model that has a powerful motor and plenty of suction power. This will help it to be more efficient in removing pet hair, dust and lint from carpets and hardwood flooring.

The size of your home is another important consideration. If you have an apartment it is possible to choose one that has multiple cleaning zones so that you can clean the entire house in one session. Some models have mopping capabilities that can be used to keep floors clean and fresh.

Robot vacuums can last a long time however they'll need to be maintained and cleaned regularly. Cleaning the rotating brushes and emptying the dust container and wiping the sensors clean on a regular basis will keep your robot running efficiently for the years to come. Many of the robot vacuum owners who we talk to have been using their machines for 10 years or longer (and have replaced motors, brushes, and batteries along with time).

A basic robot is much less expensive than a full size vacuum cleaner. They will still be able to do a fantastic job of cleaning surface dirt as well as pet fur and lint. They're a great maintenance cleaner that you can send out several times a week to keep your floors free of dirt. They aren't as technologically advanced and are more prone to get stuck or require manual intervention.

Object Avoidance


The top robot vacuums make use of sensors, cameras or lasers to help you navigate your home, avoiding getting stuck or falling down the stairs. They are also able to avoid obstacles like cords and furniture legs and some models will automatically return to their base or dock when they run out of energy. Some of the most expensive models come with mapping capabilities that allow them to memorize your home's layout and therefore spend less time bouncing against walls.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on the latest robotic vacuums, you can still locate a model that is capable of picking up pet hair dirt, dust, and debris from floors that are hard like wood and tile and carpets with a low pile. They can also do a good job of handling larger debris like metal screws, rusty staples or discarded toys. Some even come with self-emptying bases that is handy if you don't want to empty your trash bin after every cleaning run.

Most robotic vacs also offer innovative features that make a standard stick vacuum seem prehistoric such as zones, schedules, and the capability to control them using an app or a voice assistant like Alexa. You can also set up cleaning zones and virtual walls to block off areas you don't wish the robot to get into.

Some robotic vacs like the Eufy 11S and my former top pick the Roborock S8, have obstacle avoidance technology that stops them from crashing into furniture or tangling cords. Other models, like the iRobot Roomba j7+, are more sophisticated. AI obstacle avoidance that utilizes sensors powered by processors to identify and avoid items like shoe cords, lamp cords socks and pet waste. It is a little bit more expensive than the other bots I've tested, but it does an excellent job of avoiding obstacles, and never gets stuck or derailed when I'm working on my floor.

While the iRobot j7+ was a good obstacle avoidance robot, it didn't always do an excellent job of removing dust and crumbs from my carpets. It also tends to over-vacuum some areas, resulting in an abundance of dust in the filter and a less clean house.

Smart Mapping

The best robot vacuums come with an application that lets you alter cleaning modes, create schedules, and view the floor area covered by the machine. robot vacuum that vacuums and mops is a useful feature that many competitors don't have. This makes it easy to create profiles that will automatically start your robot at specified times and continue to run on an ongoing basis, such as cleaning your living room prior to dinner or every other day.

A good app can also allow you to control your robot using voice commands. Certain models are compatible with Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant, which allows you to control your robot through voice commands.

Look for models with a large dust bin. This will allow you to do many cleaning sessions without having empty it. You can find models that self-empty. This eliminates the need to empty the robot after every vacuuming session.

If you're looking for a robot that can do more than simply vacuum, you'll need to look at the possibility of a model that can mop your floors. These are typically larger than the robotic vacuums and come with a water tank in the interior that holds multiple cleaning sessions worth of dirt and debris before needing to be emptied.

The most advanced robots generate their own maps of your house and can even keep track of the arrangement from one cleaning to the next, which helps them avoid getting lost or stuck in corners. This can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your robot vacuum, as it will not have to return to where it started when it encounters furniture or walls.

Our testers who used the robot that has this capability found it to be very efficient, and they could comfortably watch TV or do other chores while the robot cleaned. Some of these models utilize laser navigation, and can create an exact map of your house, which means you can program them to clean only the bedroom after dinner, or every room in the house while you're working.

App Control

It is recommended to select one that comes with an app that is mobile if you want to customize the frequency of cleaning and choose cleaning mode. You can also view the status of the vacuum and the condition of its dust bin in the app. The best robotic vacuums can be controlled by Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri Shortcuts.

It is simple to maintain a robot equipped with the ability to wash the filter and a self-emptying container, especially when the filter is easily removed and rinsed. Another excellent feature is a powerful brush that can be found in corners and along baseboards, making it easier to clean up hair and dirt. Certain robots are better at avoiding chair leg than others. Others have a sensor that automatically cleans brushes to avoid the clogging.

Some robot vacuums have navigation tools that allow them to discover your home and navigate around obstacles. The top models utilize sensors and cameras to recognize obstacles like stairs, furniture, and cords. The cheaper models could use boundaries to mark areas where you don't want it to enter. Avoidance of objects is particularly useful for families with children who scatter toys and socks all over the house. This can help your robot collect these items, instead of scattering them.

We're beginning to see more robots equipped with mops which are beneficial for those who have hard floors and need to regularly clean them. These robots have water tanks built into the chassis or an additional piece that you can swap in when you're ready to mop. They may require to be refilled more often than other kinds of robots, but they're great for homes with floors made of wood that can't be easily cleaned with a vacuum.

These robots are loaded with some amazing technology, and they cost significantly less than you'd think. In fact, you can get an affordable model for less than $200 that does a good job of cleaning pet hair and crumbs from hard floors while also moving around the edges of light carpets or area rug. The robot can be programmed to clean the room on a regular schedule. It can be controlled remotely through an app or by pressing buttons.