The budget-priced iLife V3S Pro uses a suction tube like a traditional vacuum cleaner rather than the roller brushes employed by other robot vacuums, and does a better job picking up pet hair without clogging. 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 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. “Suction is only one factor in a complex cleaning equation that includes agitation, type of debris, air path, sealing, etc.,” he says. While some vacuums provide numerical measurements for their suction power, iRobot does not, he said.
That’s enough to keep most homes tidy, and most owners seem happy with those results. If you have thicker rugs, or if you just feel like owning a stronger bot, go ahead and spend a little more on a bot dyson robot vacuum with better brushes or stronger suction. The i3+ EVO offers 10 times the suction power of the entry-level Roomba 600 series, and in testing did a good job of removing dirt from hard floors and carpet.
To their credit, they seem to be strong cleaners, particularly on bare floors. Even Shark and Samsung joined the laser-nav bonanza (after previously releasing robots that used camera-based smart navigation), with the Shark AI Robot Vacuum RV2000 series and the Samsung Jet Bot and Jet Bot AI+, respectively. Of the three, we’ve tested only the AI+, and we wouldn’t recommend it based on its cleaning abilities. We’re confident that the Shark model and the lower-end Samsung bot will work similarly to all the other laser-nav robots described in the previous few paragraphs. Their “everyday” prices are a bit high, but we’ve seen some pretty good deals on the version of the Shark that comes with a self-emptying dock.
CNET will continue to test robot vacuums and update this best robot vacuum list periodically as new models become available — for now, let’s get right to the top models we’d currently point you toward. 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 yeedi also has a passive mopping system, though it isn’t especially effective in clearing stains. The mop cleaning and drying process is efficient, and, in theory, you don’t need to remove the pad after every run. But I would recommend throwing it in the washing machine every time you empty the dirty water tank. The biggest downside is that, instead of using the very good Roborock app, for some reason, you are stuck with Roborock’s parent company Xiaomi’s Mi Home app. But the app lets you add schedules, set a do-not-disturb period, and play with a few other features, which is all you need to get the job done. Stepping it up a notch, and for about $200 more, you can take away the chore of having to empty its decent-sized bin by investing in the j7 Plus, the robot vac with an auto-empty dock.
To compensate for this, Roombas have a rotating multi-pronged brush on one side which sweeps debris towards the path of the cleaning head, helping to clean a wider path and to reach into edges and corners. First- and second-generation Roombas were not compatible with the Virtual Wall, an accessory used to prevent them from entering an area. It projects a pattern of infrared light, which the vacuum detects and treats as a physical wall, prompting it to stop and turn around.
Read on for our top picks, as well as all the factors you should consider when buying a robot vacuum. But just because you’re not spending a lot of money on a smart unit doesn’t mean you’re not going to get a clean house. In our testing, we found there are some models that clean really well and can do almost as good a job as a higher-priced option. Luckily the Eufy has a recharge and resume feature, so if it runs low on battery, it makes its way back to the base to recharge itself and when ready resumes the cleaning job. In our testing this worked well, except for the fact that it resumed right in the middle of a dinner with friends, but it was easy enough to stop the cleaning run by pressing the button on the vacuum.
But I watched in amazement as it navigated adroitly around a sleeping 80-pound dog, even vacuuming around her face without trembling a single whisker. With features such as in-app mapping, scheduling and no-go zones, the Neato BotVac D8 was promising. The signature D-shape design of the machine makes it easier to get into corners and edges, and it was the easiest of all the connected vacuums to set up. You’ll pay more money for these models, but you get the capability of setting schedules, designating specific rooms to be cleaned and using voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant to control your vacuum. As with other inexpensive robots, you can only set a single daily schedule; the V3S Pro also offers three cleaning modes — whole floor, spot and edge — accessible from the included remote.