iRobot Roomba Vacuum Cleaning Robots

It earned an Excellent rating from Consumer Reports for bare floors and carpets, and continues to impress customers with inclusions like free boundary strips. We also note whether the robot cleans in a random or methodical pattern. Many of the latest models feature a Light Detection and Ranging laser (the same technology self-driving cars use) 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. As robot vacuums get more technologically advanced, with laser navigation sensors and home security cameras, they’re also getting bigger and taller.

For example, you can’t use Siri to set up Automations as you can with Alexa and Google Assistant—though to be fair, Automations on those two platforms are pretty limited, as well. Using Alexa, Rachel was able to create an automated Routine that would tell the Roomba i3 EVO to start vacuuming whenever Rachel and her smartphone left her house. However, as with most robot vacuums, you could also set a Schedule to accomplish these tasks. For every robot vacuum, we run at least two regular cleaning cycles across about 1,000 square feet, with lots of obstacles and thresholds.

When shopping, you’ll want to look for components like battery life, size and suction power. Some of the robot vacuum models also come with special features like WiFi connectivity and built-in mop heads. Similar to other cordless vacuums, the best robot vacuums have varying runtimes that depend on the battery life. The battery life will generally range from 60 minutes with more basic versions to about 120 minutes at the higher end.

However, unlike the Neato D7, our previous midrange robot vacuum pick, the Roborock S7 was much more effective at pulling sand away from both medium-pile (50.4%) and low-pile carpets (64.2%). On hardwood floors this Roomba picked up an average of 93% of our test sand, the second-highest amount in our test group. With 95% sand removal, the Neato Botvac D7 still reigns supreme on that test. In an open area, some models travel in a grid-like pattern in the area until they encounter obstacles.

That’s fine, but it’s slightly less than what you get from the slightly more affordable Roborock Q5. The older Eufy RoboVac L70 is still available, as well, but its app is not capable of permanently remembering specific rooms in a home, which makes it substantially less convenient than most current laser-nav bots. We’ve tested a handful of its bissell crosswave cordless laser-nav bots over the past few years, including the Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI (a higher-end but otherwise similar version of the N8 and N8 Pro). All of the Ecovacs models we’ve tested worked fine when they were new, but you can usually find a better bot for a lower price. Their major flaw lies in the Ecovacs app, which is glitchier than others.

irobot vacuum cleaner

Hands-off cleaning can create problems when a Roomba encounters something it shouldn’t roll over, like cords or animal waste. In addition, besides the initial cost, some Roombas require ongoing cost in the form of cleaning pads and fluid for the mops and dustbin evacuation bags for the + models. The maximum height of a threshold that all Roomba models can transition over while cleaning is ⅝-inch or 1.6 centimeters. Higher thresholds may create unpredictable routes and could upset robot operation reliability if the machine is stuck. A Roomba, however, won’t match the power of or replace a standard vacuum.

Some do, including a version of our top pick, the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, and our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5+. Self-emptying robot vacuums come with a big charging dock that sucks debris out of the robot through a trapdoor in the dustbin and stores it in a disposable bag or a bagless bin. You still have to toss the bag or empty the bin regularly, and the charging stations are big, noisy, and kind of ugly, but the system saves you from having to empty the dustbin on the robot every time you vacuum.

Even so, the semi-random bots still have a place in the world, and we’ve concluded that the Roomba 600 series is a great option if you want a simple, sturdy bot for a fair price. The Roomba i3 EVO is a better cleaner than most robot vacuums—at any price. We know this from assessing the visual results in our tests, but also from weighing the contents of the robot’s dustbin after vacuuming sessions and comparing dyson robot vacuum that against the performance of other vacs. On many occasions, we also ran it immediately after other bots had done a cleaning session, and the i3 EVO would still come back with a lot of extra debris in its bin that the other bots must have left behind. Every bot we’ve tested—even the latest models with sophisticated navigation and smart-home integration—has gotten trapped or tangled at least occasionally.

We’ve also discovered that, as of late 2021, several other brands are selling near-copies of the Eufy bots. Under the Settings menu are even more customization options, such as turning the robot to Do Not Disturb mode or telling it to charge during certain hours. We spoke with sources in the floor-care manufacturing industry to help make sense of all the low-cost, off-brand options.

They offer both vacuuming and mopping abilities for houses big and small. That means enjoying the benefits of kicking back and relaxing while these hands-off cordless vacuums do the hard work for you. Some are ranked among the best vacuums for pet hair and the most impressive vacuum-mop combos. Some of the higher-end Roombas also include intelligent features that allow the vacuum to “talk” to the robot mop, allowing a tag-team approach to cleaning.