You no longer have to suffer the indignity of dragging around an unwieldy plastic hose connected to a clumsy, wheeled canister the size of a Galapagos tortoise. There are many good robot vacuums available to help you dispose of dust, pet hair, and other debris in your home—without needing to lift a finger. We’ve rounded up our highest-rated robot vacuums, and provided irobot vacuum cleaner a few pointers to help you find just the bot you’re looking for. The affordable Wyze Robot Vacuum methodically zips around your home sucking up dust and pet hair from hard flooring and carpet thanks to top-notch laser mapping and efficient route planning. The 11S is quiet enough that you could easily forget that it’s running if you’re home while it’s working.
The 11S isn’t actually any slimmer than the more powerful RoboVac 30C – both of them sit at 2.85-inches thin. It’s cheaper than the 30C and can run for just as long with the same BoostIQ technology to keep the carpets clean too. The only difference you’ll notice in your cleaning between the two models is that the 11S cuts the suction power to 1300Pa – only 200 difference maximum and at a much lower price tag. You do lose support for smart assistants as well as the Eufy app, however – the 11S ships with a remote you can use to schedule your cleaning and switch your cleaning modes.
At some point, you might have to erase your old maps and re-train the robot. The main thing that makes the Roomba 600 series stand out from other affordable robot vacuums is that it’s more durable and easier to repair . They generally don’t break, spare parts are always in stock, and you can swap in everything from a new filter to a new transmission with nothing more than a screwdriver.
While the Roomba i3’s nav system doesn’t come with all the convenient controls that other bots at this price often do , it generally gets the job done without any fuss. The j7+ leaves behind neat rows of just-vacuumed carpeting and bissell crosswave cordless the powerful suction of the unit was able to pick up cat litter and pet hair in my bedroom carpeting. Another side effect of the Roomba i3’s approach is that it’s relatively slow compared with bots with smart mapping features.
It’s a similar robot, with semi-random navigation, plus some extra suction and nubbed “extractor” rolls that are great at getting debris out of rugs . It’s a semi-discontinued model, and at this point may cost less than the weaker Roomba 694, so keep an eye out for deals. If you somehow stumble across a good deal for an old Roomba 800 Series model, that’s also very similar to the Roomba e5, but may not have Wi-Fi. Most robot vacuums will get snagged on charging cables, which jam the brush roll or sometimes pull the bots off course.
This ends up in surprisingly good overall coverage, but you may find that some areas that trap the robot get lots of attention, and more open areas just get one quick pass. The budget-priced iLife V3S Pro uses a suction tube like a traditional vacuum cleaner rather than the roller brushes employed by other robot vacuums, and does a better job picking up pet hair without clogging. There are also a few workarounds to get the Roomba i3 to clean a smaller space in a given session. These are small, AA-battery–powered beacons that project an invisible do-not-cross barrier.
Wipe the sensors clean as needed, according to the manufacturer’s guidelines—usually with a microfiber cloth or cotton swab with a little water or rubbing alcohol. You could save some money by using third-party filters, which are extremely unlikely to harm the bot, but you may void your warranty if you happen to send in your bot for repairs with one of shark cordless them in the filter slot. The Shark AI VacMop did not avoid any obstacles, nor did it even acknowledge in the app that it encountered any obstacles. We’ve also discovered that, as of late 2021, several other brands are selling near-copies of the Eufy bots. Personally, I used an old Roomba 650 at home for four years and found that it held up very well.
That map enables a bunch of cool tricks, like targeted room cleaning and no-go zones, without having to manually move the bot or fiddle with physical barriers like you would with other robots, including our other picks. The S4 Max isn’t the only robot with a smart-map feature, nor is it the cheapest, nor does it always work perfectly. I’ve written about robot vacuums for Wirecutter since 2013, logging hundreds of hours of research and testing in that time.
All Roomba bots, including the i3, also have a dirt-detection system—another unique feature you can’t find in other brands’ bots. When the Roomba senses that it’s passing over an area with a lot of debris, it’ll stop and make a few passes back and forth to pick up as much as possible. If you don’t mind picking up toys and lamp cords and anything else that might get in the way or get snarled in the roller brush, then you can get one of the more affordable robot vacuums.
Again, there are plenty of no-cost solutions that could work, such as picking any loose cables off the floor before starting a cleaning cycle, or closing closet doors to keep shoes hidden. If your budget allows it, you could also instruct a floor-scanning robot vacuum to avoid areas with cords and cables, or use virtual wall accessories to block them off. It’s been about six weeks since our family coughed up the cash for our very first robot vacuum, and I can honestly say that it was worth every penny.