It doesn’t clean any better than our top pick, and can’t avoid all obstacles yet. “You’d be surprised at how many types of poop there are,” said Hooman Shahidi, then iRobot’s vice president of product development, in a conversation with Wirecutter. He noted that the company has curated a large learning library of different “shapes and configurations” of pet waste. Most robot vacs with object-recognition rely on an onboard camera, which not only identifies obstacles (such as cords and stray socks), but takes an image of the purported clutter so you can see what was avoided. It’s important that anyone using a camera-equipped robot vacuum understand that the bot may inadvertently record images that many would consider private, such as photos of people, including children, in the home. Those images may be sent to the cloud and shared with third-party companies (such as those that analyze photos), in order to improve the vacuum’s capabilities and features.
If you have plush carpets and a lot of hair to deal with, though, you’re likely to prefer a robot with better brush action and possibly stronger suction. Every bot we’ve tested—even the latest models irobot vacuum cleaner with sophisticated navigation and smart-home integration—has gotten trapped or tangled at least occasionally. “Prioritize features that contribute directly to effective carpet cleaning,” says Toner.
Introduced in September 2002,[1] they have a set of sensors that enable them to navigate the floor area of a home. These sensors can detect the presence of obstacles, particularly dirty spots on the floor, and steep drops (e.g., to avoid falling down stairs). For a more budget-friendly option, pet owners should consider the Roomba e5 with Wi-Fi. Robot vacuums can offer a very impressive clean, even on thick carpets, making them an excellent alternative to upright or other vacuums. They’ll be more convenient too as you can set them to work when you’re busy doing other things. In addition, the dust cups on robot vacuums are often smaller than you’d expect to find on a canister or an upright vacuum cleaner.
The Roomba i3 Evo Plus doesn’t have clean zones or keep-out zones, so if those features are important to you and the j7 Plus is a step too far, the Shark is a good option. Compared to the Roomba i3, the Eufy has fewer features, lacks mapping and room-specific cleaning, and doesn’t have the option of an auto-empty shark cordless dock. But it makes up for that somewhat with a bigger bin and / or the option of a mopping attachment. It’s also cheaper, and it’s smaller and shorter, so it will fit under lower furniture better. The j7 is one of the loudest vacuums I’ve tested (hence the propensity to be silenced by a household member).
Shark just introduced a mopping version of this bot, the Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1. As with Roomba’s mopping version, this is of limited value as an actual mop but will get up some of that fine dust the robot’s suction misses. While I love auto-empty bases, sometimes you don’t have space for them, especially bissell crosswave cordless if you like your robot to live under your bed (this is a useful thing, not a kinky thing). This brings the level of this bot way up, making it much more reliable than some of Shark’s previous models. It’s also designed exclusively as a self-emptying bot, and for the money, it’s a great deal.
In our tests, even when it did bump into an object its lidar turret didn’t detect, it course-corrected more quickly and more accurately than other bots. Then there are the top-of-the-line Roomba s9 and self-emptying Roomba s9+, which we do not recommend. Instead of the classic puck shape, the s9 has a D-shaped body and extra-wide brushes intended to improve its edge-cleaning and corner-cleaning abilities. It also has four times more raw suction than the already-strong Roomba i4 EVO, i7, and j7. That helps it consistently pick up larger debris such as cat litter or yard waste better than most robots, though it still doesn’t come close to deep-cleaning dust from a rug like a traditional vacuum does.