Its more expensive siblings, on the other hand, can remember multiple floors, which is useful if you have a multi-level home. I’m PCMag’s executive editor of reviews, steering our coverage to make sure we’re testing the products you’re interested in buying and telling you whether they’re worth it. I previously managed the consumer electronics reviews team, and before that I covered mobile, smart home, and wearable technology for PCMag and Gigaom. The Roomba® j7/j7+ Robot Vacuum uses iRobot OS Technology and PrecisionVision Navigation to recognize and avoid common objects in its way, like cords, pet waste, socks and shoes. Forget about vacuuming for months at a time with the Clean Base® Automatic Dirt Disposal that allows the Roomba® j7+ Robot Vacuum to empty itself for up to 60 days. Save on cleaning products powered by iRobot OS for a more thoughtfully intelligent cleaning experience.
It was one of the top performers for picking up Cheerios, kitty litter and pet hair. We also looked for robot vacuums that can learn the layout of your home, meaning they can be dispatched to clean a particular room or space in just a few taps. The best robot vacuums are daily helpers, designed to whizz around and keep your home looking its best before returning to their base to recharge.
While not as effective as the top performers on our list, it still managed to pick up 88.9 percent of all debris laid before it. It is a much better performer on hard floors (94.35%) vs carpets (83.52%), which is worth bearing in mind depending on your flooring. This new robot vacuum cleaner from Wyze makes our list because of its exceptional performance on hard floors. When we put it to the test, it picked up 100% of pet fur and cereal — it just missed a perfect score, as it collected roughly 97% of kitty litter. Until the Roborock S7, most of the hybrid robot vacuums/robot mops we’ve tested have been good, but not great, at either task.
Depending on the model you are using, your robot cleaner can run a total of 60 to 120 minutes on a single charge. Roomba models that do not have the VSLM feature move in a random pattern. According to the company’s test lab, a unit with VSLM can clean up to 2,000 square feet on a 120-minute charge.
We tested 10 robot vacuums to see which one is best at navigating a home, picking up dirt and simplifying your life. The Roomba i3+ is perfect for homes with lots of foot traffic, including homes with pets and kids. Its premium three-stage cleaning system is as powerful as it comes, and it’s able to clean precisely, moving in straight lines back and forth to thoroughly clean your floors while navigating around furniture. If it manages to drain its battery before it finishes the job, it will return to its base for recharging, then promptly pick back up where it left off when it’s all charged up.
To create additional metrics, we tested each against simulated “dust” in the form of sprinkled flour and “crumbs” by way of uncooked rice on hard floors. We also tested the ease of setup, charging, and operation to determine how easy or difficult each product is to use. While we rated each robot in the same category of usability, we considered how they stacked up against the old methods of manual cleaning as well.
It is important to manually remove large debris before beginning a cleaning cycle. While not a complete home-cleaning replacement, robot vacuums offer impressive cleaning capability given their small size and autonomous nature. They are able to tackle a variety of lighter cleanup projects throughout the home, all on their own.
For one, with robot vacuums, you usually get what you pay for, meaning that a premium priced brand will likely outlast a bargain priced one. With good maintenance, many robot vacuums can last at least 4 – 6 years, longer for a high quality one. To keep it running well, you will need to replace various parts on it at different times. With the irobot vacuum cleaner S6, you get the added advantage of Alexa and Google Assistant voice control plus a longer battery life , and it’s 50% quieter than the S5. The main advantage, however, is that you can name rooms and set custom cleaning schedules and routes in the app. Plus, the added 32-bit quad core processor makes navigation 20% more efficient than the S5.
However, we still predict that Roomba bots on average will last longer than any of their competitors and work better at getting hair out of rugs. We haven’t tested the i3 EVO since its software was updated to include smart mapping, but when we do, we’ll report back with the results. When we initially tested and recommended the i3 EVO, it didn’t have any smart-mapping features. That is, the i3 EVO couldn’t remember your home’s floor plan from session to session, and you couldn’t designate no-go zones or ask the bot to clean rooms in a specific order while ignoring others.
Many of the latest models feature a Light Detection and Ranging laser (the same technology used in self-driving cars) to map your home and plan an efficient cleaning route. But some affordable robot vacuums still haphazardly ping-pong from wall to wall, inefficiently crossing over the same space multiple times as they clean. Battery life is also an important factor to consider based on the size of your home. In general, most robot vacuums can run for at least 60 to 70 minutes, which should be enough to tackle smaller homes and apartments.