First-generation models must be recharged from a wall power adapter, while all subsequent models have a self-charging homebase that the unit seeks out at the end of a cleaning session via infrared beacons. Roomba uses a patented 3-stage cleaning process to vacuum your carpets, hardwood, tile, and laminate floors on its own, automatically adjusting to different floor surfaces as it moves through your home. The Roborock couldn’t match the Roomba S9 Plus’ impressive ability to clean up pet hair, but it fared better than most. The S7 wiped hardwood floors completely free of hair and left only a few stray tufts on carpeting.
An NYC native, Brian now resides in bucolic Louisville, Kentucky where he rides longboards downhill in his free time. Even setting aside the smart maps, the Roborock S4 Max is still one of the best navigators we’ve used. It rarely misses any accessible areas of your home, like random-navigation robots sometimes do, and it’s not susceptible to the same low-light navigation errors as robots that rely on cameras . Even when it does bump into an object its LiDAR turret didn’t detect, we’ve found that it course-corrects faster and more accurately than other bots. I’ve written about robot vacuums for Wirecutter since 2013, logging hundreds of hours of research and testing in that time.
The barriers work as advertised, but at around $50 each, I prefer using everyday household objects to keep the Roomba out of areas I want to protect. The Bissell SpinWave Robot Vacuum picked up all the pet hair on carpet in our tests and has a great assortment of mop attachments and accessories. The company is also committed to helping homeless pets and helps them find loving homes. How to shop for a robot vacuumNo one knows your mess better than you, so consider what you want from your robovac as we run through what to consider when shopping for a robot vacuum.
When I find robots that do well on all of those tests, I run them as much as possible for at least a week to see if they perform consistently. I have a long-haired cat, a long-haired wife, and a toddler, who all leave plenty for the robot to pick up . In one test, I run the bot in a room with two chairs, some stray USB cables, a sock, a flat-weave area rug with uneven edges and tassels, and a tall threshold—several of the most-common bot-trapping obstacles in one place. As long as a robot can clean my apartment pretty well, without getting stuck or lost too often, I’ll put it through some stress tests.
There are several types of dust and debris collection bins for the 500 series models. The high-capacity sweeper bin does not include a vacuum, but has greater debris capacity. The AeroVac Bin directs suction airflow through the main brushes instead of using a squeegee, which is thought to keep the brushes cleaner.
The rest of the industry caught up very quickly, so the i7+ is no longer such a standout. As of late 2021, it’s no longer one of iRobot’s “core” products and won’t be available through as many retailers as other models, but you can still find it in plenty of places for now. The functionally identical Roomba i6 is also common, as are the auto-emptying Roomba i6+ or Roomba i8+. The dustbin on the i3 EVO is smaller than the ones on some other dyson robot vacuum bots at this price, but the upgraded Roomba i3+ EVO comes with a dock that automatically empties the bin when it’s full, or at the end of a cleaning session. By default, Home Assistant does not provide any card for controlling vacuum cleaners. Once the first full clean has been performed, however, there are options to give names to rooms and areas, which makes it easier to set schedules so you can clean specific places at particular times.
We’re not confident that you can count on the bot’s AI to avoid a doo-doo catastrophe but if you were thinking about getting a Roborock anyway and are curious about the AI, it’s not a bad option. IRobot doesn’t claim that the Roomba j7 can avoid most kinds of obstacles yet. “You’d be surprised at how many types of poop there are,” said Hooman Shahidi, iRobot’s vice president of product development, in a conversation with Wirecutter. He noted that they’ve curated a large learning library of different “shapes and configurations” of pet waste. We wouldn’t recommend the Coral One robot-handheld hybrid at any price. It’s uncomfortably loud—by far the noisiest vac we’ve ever tested.
The main reason we don’t recommend the Wyze is that the app can’t currently remember maps for multiple floors of a home. It learns one level, whereas Roborock bots can remember up to four levels. According to the Wyze customer support forums, a beta version of the Wyze app supports multiple maps, and it’s supposed to be released widely at some point. If that doesn’t matter to you, or you’re willing to believe that they’ll actually release the multi-level update soon (I wouldn’t, but I’ve been wrong before), the Wyze seems like a decent-enough option.
The i3 EVO has two counterrotating “extractor” rolls, which we’ve found to be excellent for cleaning rugs and resisting tangles. It also has much more suction than the 600 series bots, which helps its bare-floor pickup. The Roomba i3 EVO stands out from other brands’ robots at this price mostly because it’s more durable and easier to repair. We don’t often hear about Roomba bots completely breaking down, even after a couple of years of regular use . There are at least a couple dozen super-smart yet affordable robots that, using invisible lasers, can quickly learn the layout of any home, then clean individual rooms on command, and skip everything else. If you’re up for fiddling with maps in a smartphone app, it’s a fantastic and flexible system.
Create cleaning schedules, save favorites, and adjust them on the fly. Get personalized cleaning recommendations based on what’s happening in your home, and even shark cordless tell your robots to clean while you’re away with smart home integration. Turn cleaning from something you do to something that happens around your life.