The 5 Best Robot Vacuums Winter 2023: Reviews

The Roomba i3 EVO is a standalone vacuum, but the i3+EVO comes with a self-emptying dock. But generally, if you want a cheap robot vacuum, I suggest looking at the ones from iRobot. Even the cheapest iRobot vacuums have features like Dirt Detect, where it automatically spot cleans, that I have yet to see pop up in any other line.

The best robot vacuums will skillfully and thoroughly clean your floors with little or no effort from you. We tested 10 robot vacuums to see which one is best at navigating a home, picking up dirt and simplifying your life. Robot vacuums are designed to make your life easier, cleaning the floors so you don’t have to. They’re particularly great for keeping up with pet hair but can also keep your house tidy when you’re just too busy (and they’ll do it better because they don’t mind vacuuming every day).

irobot vacuum cleaner

The vacuum cleaner covered the entire floor of our test room without missing any spots across multiple runs in an average of just 16 minutes. That’s a full 9 minutes shorter than the Roomba S9 Plus required for the same job. That makes this highly-versatile floor-cleaner a top value pick, and an easy recommendation for the very top of our list.

Some cheap, dead-simple bots are especially nimble, while certain high-end models struggle constantly. But for the most part, modern robots are pretty good at navigation, and many models now give you the option to draw invisible boundaries around problematic shark cordless areas using a smartphone app. We will also continue to monitor reports and how and why robot vacs are using your data, but when it comes to object-recognition robots, we just don’t think they are worth your time, money, and possible privacy tradeoffs—yet.

They each come with a big charging dock that sucks debris out of the robot through a trapdoor in the dustbin and stores the debris in a disposable bag or a bagless bin . We’ve tested the docks on these and other robot vacs, and they work and prove useful, though they fall a little short of life-changing. Instead of emptying your shark cordless bot’s bin after every cleaning session, you have to empty the dock only every month or two. The Bissell SpinWave Hard Floor Expert Wet and Dry vacuum may be the answer to all your cleaning prayers. With a triple cleaning system, this tiny but mighty vacuum-mop combo comes with dual spinning brushes and a rotating brush roll.

They cost $99 for two, so if keep-out zones are important to you, it’s worth upgrading to the j7. If your home is mostly carpeted, Williams said the Wi-Fi-connected self-emptying Roomba s9+ is your best bet. That’s because this is iRobot’s “most powerful, deepest-cleaning robot vacuum,” he said. “[The s9+] motor is 40 times more powerful than the Roomba 600 series and will increase its power automatically on carpet and rugs,” said Williams. He added that the Roomba s9+ also has dual, counter-rotating rubber rollers that are 30% wider than the 600 series. It has a slightly different shape that allows it to get into corners more easily and is designed with anti-allergen filters built in, making it great for pet owners, according to the brand.

The vacuum uses LiDAR to map and navigate along with infrared drop sensors to detect stairs, but it kept mistaking the base of my cat condo for stairs and asked to be moved away from it. Though it claims a whopping 180 minutes of runtime, it ran down at 110 minutes and died before it made it back to its base. But for staying ahead of dust and dirt buildup, they’re solid investments that will save you time, and as part of an overall cleaning schedule they make a lot of sense. The Shark IQ XL navigates efficiently in a linear fashion and easily gets over and around furniture. It’s the only vacuum out of the 11 we tested that was able to get up and over the base of barstools without getting stuck.

The Eufy 11S ($120) is very short, to fit under the lowest cabinets. In my testing, I have found that Yeedi vacuums have trouble making it back to the dock, but otherwise, their battery life and room navigation are excellent. When you swap out the Shark’s vacuum bin for the mopping bin, you can see it wiggle as it scrubs the floor.