And if you decide to sell or give away a Wi-Fi robot vacuum, be sure to factory-reset it to remove the Wi-Fi credentials. Many of these robot vacuums can also pair with a smartphone app, which lets you command the bot to clean specific rooms or sections of a room while ignoring other areas. This “smart mapping” tech is particularly convenient, and it’s one of the irobot vacuum cleaner most compelling reasons to spend a little extra on a robot. For example, you could send the robot to vacuum your kitchen and dining room after dinner while skipping the bedrooms and den so that the bot doesn’t disturb you while you’re relaxing or studying or whatever. And then you could tell the bot to clean those rooms at a time of day when nobody is around.
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 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.
The smart navigation system learns the layout of a home, coordinates no-go zones, and builds smart maps so users can create and automate their cleaning schedule. Programming preferences can be done through the iRobot Home app and through voice prompts with Alexa or Google Assistant. We could see a map generated almost immediately, even after just a 5-minute test run. Most second- and third-generation models and all newer ones have internal acoustic-based dirt sensors that allow them to detect particularly dirty spots and focus on those areas accordingly. Fourth-generation and newer models have an optical sensor located in front of the vacuum bin, allowing detection of wider and smaller messes. Generally speaking, all the vacuums on this list can handle hardwood floors and pet hair without issue.
It also features a self-emptying dustbin, good battery life, impressive obstacle avoidance, and strong vacuum suction power. Although robot vacuums are weaker than traditional vacuums, they can reliably pick up most kinds of floor debris, and they work on most bare floors and carpets. Shark’s non-laser robots are reasonably priced and look great on paper but are just okay in the real world. They’re also pretty loud on bare floors, sounding sort of like a two-stroke lawn mower puttering in the distance. To their credit, they seem to be strong cleaners, particularly on bare floors. However, we don’t think chasing the very best cleaning performance is worthwhile.
Roombas that include cameras and mapping will get to know the environment and potential obstacles, then utilize that data to create adaptive cleaning patterns. Those without cameras and smart mapping rely on sensors to feel their way around, moving in neat rows for cleaning. Previously a base model to consider, the newer options offer better power and more functionality dyson robot vacuum than this Roomba. The E5 is a midrange option with five times the suction power of the 600 series, but still slightly less than the i7 and i3. It lacks smart mapping but features advanced sensors to help it navigate around furniture and along edges. The cleaning time depends on room size and, for models equipped with dirt sensors, volume of dirt.
The Roomba 694, on the other hand, was easy for us to strip down and then reassemble with just a screwdriver. In one test, the basic Eufy RoboVac 11S spent an hour picking up enough debris to fill the palm of our hand. Next we ran the Neato Botvac D7 (usually $700 when it was a current model), and it picked up only enough hair to coat the filter and a bit of dust. Then we ran the iRobot Roomba s9+ (usually $1,100), and it came back with barely anything in the bin. The Roomba 694, like most affordable robots, is what we call a bump-and-run navigator.
In the product health area it would be useful to have reminders to clean the filter every so many hours as well as the reminder when to change it. Also when it comes to the map it would be useful to just delete parts of the map you want to remap or were just an error in the first place. Use Automations to connect to your smart devices and personalize your cleaning experience by scheduling your robot to clean when you leave the house. Models with an interface come with a Mini-DIN connector supporting a serial interface, which is electrically and physically incompatible with standard PC/Mac serial ports and cables. However, third-party adapters are available to access the Roomba’s computer via Bluetooth, USB, or RS-232 (PC/Mac serial). Roombas pre-October 2005 upgraded with the OSMO hacker device allow monitoring many sensors and modifying the unit’s behavior.
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.
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.