IRobot’s Roomba i7+ makes our best robot vacuum list because it has a base with its own dustbin, so you can go multiple cleanings without having to empty out the bin. It edged out the Shark Ion R85 on our pet hair test, picking up just over 90 percent of all the fur on both hard floors and carpet. It was slightly quieter than the average from our tests as well, with a reading of 62.6dB. Roombas before the seventh-generation models do not map out the rooms they are cleaning. Instead, iRobot developed a technology called iAdapt Responsive Cleaning Technology. This relies on a few simple algorithms, such as spiraling, room crossing, wall following, and random walk angle changing after bumping into an object or wall.
It’s really up to you, but the advantage of a robot vacuum is that it can clean your floors more often than many people are willing to vacuum. If you schedule it to run every few days, or even every day, dust and crumbs never have a chance to accumulate, leaving your floors feeling cleaner than they would without a bot. When you add up all those little optimizations, the S4 Max saves a noticeable amount of time compared with other bots. The Roomba i7 is an older model and tends to cost less than the new Roomba j7. We wrote a review of the self-emptying Roomba i7+ in 2018, when it was brand new, and called it the best robot vacuum that money could buy. The rest of the industry caught up very quickly, so the i7+ is no longer such a standout.
The Roomba i3+ EVO is a top choice for anyone looking to upgrade from a standard robot vacuum to one with self-emptying abilities. If you’re tired of manually emptying your current bot’s bursting dustbin on the daily, the Roomba i3+ EVO will eliminate that chore. It’s a particularly compelling option if you suffer from allergies, because it also uses a high-efficiency filter to capture allergens as it cleans.
Powered by rechargeable batteries, the robot typically sits on a charging dock to top off its energy supply. Premium models come with docking stations that can also empty the robot’s dustbin when it’s full. Roombas are the only robot vacuums that use two brush rolls that rotate toward each other, which works well on all surfaces but has its biggest advantage over other robot vacuums on rugs.
The older Eufy RoboVac L70 is still available as well, but its app is not capable of permanently remembering specific rooms in your home, which makes it substantially less convenient than most current laser-nav bots. As for cleaning, we’ve found over and over bissell crosswave cordless again that basic Eufy bots are capable of picking up all the most common types of debris off bare floors and low-pile rugs. It’s actually kind of surprising how effective they are, since the advertised suction is so modest, and the single brush roll is small.
Canine-behavior expert and trainer Shelby Semel recommends Neato robot vacuums to her clients because of their zoning features. “You can block off and control sections of a room from your phone,” she explains, marking virtual no-go zones for the vacuum to avoid. Ryeon Kim, co-founder of pet e-commerce retailer Little Beast, also loves the vacuum’s ability to focus on specific areas in a home. And Dr. Jamie Richardson, veterinarian and chief of staff at veterinary start-up Small Door, says the unique D-shape helps this robot vacuums get into all the nooks and crannies of her house where pet hair can accumulate.