However, if you have to pick up half your belongings, move a heap of cables and chivvy your pets out of the room before you can use your robot vacuum, you’re going to lose a lot of its time-saving magic. There are features that’ll help you to manage the interactions between your robot vac and your life. If clutter is an issue, some robot vacs create maps that allow you to zone no-go areas for your robot vac. You can also look out for a model that can identify and avoid obstacles, including wires and shoes. There are many more considerations when buying, which is why our full reviews accompanying every robot vac in the following chart will give you all the details you need to find the right one for you. If you’d like more information on features to look out for, skip past the chart and start off by reading our robot vacuum cleaner buying advice before checking out our top ten. And if you’re in the market for a traditional cleaner, check out our round-up of the best regular vacuum cleaners.
Best robot vacuum cleaners
Robot vacuum buying advice
Robot vacuum cleaners aren’t the cheapest appliance around but the tech is improving all the time, which means that as newer models gain fresh functionality, some really great models that are only a year old will have dropped significantly in price.
Smart navigation Powerful suction Voice assistant Granular mapping
Large dock Auto-emptying is noisy Expensive
The X1 OMNI not only empties itself, but if you’re using the mopping function, it’ll empty and refill its water tank, clean and dry itself. It has powerful suction (a whopping 5000PA), a clever mapping system that allows you to target specific rooms, or even pieces of furniture within those rooms, for cleaning. And you can even do it via voice commands, thanks to the integral voice assistant. It has a 4 hour 20 minute running time and there’s an onboard camera that you can access remotely. But all that tech has to go somewhere and what this means is a huge dock. The dock is also noisy when it comes to emptying and cleaning the robot vac.
Great across carpet and hard floors Well designed app High-end functionality
Basic mop integration No self-emptying bin
This mid-range addition to the Eufy stable is worth a look if you want up-to-date features such as LIDAR, mapping and scheduled cleaning but you’re after an option that won’t break the bank. The mop is a little disappointing but we are not often blown away by the mopping prowess of a hybrid model.
Obstacle avoidance Powerful cleaning Smart navigation
Expensive Average mopping capability
It identifies and avoids obstacles (including pet poop), has an excellent mapping system that easily allows for the creation of exclusion zones and will even allow you to schedule the cleaning of your rooms in a specific order at specific times. It’s also got something extra in the form of the camera, which you can view remotely from your phone, turning it into a secondary home security device. You can check up on its progress or see how your pets are getting on while you’re out.
Powerful Brilliant mapping & targeted cleaning Good climbing ability Low profile
Noisy Bangs into furniture Expensive at full price
Another clever feature is its mapping, which allows you to target not only rooms but specific pieces of furniture within them. This means that you can set up a cleaning schedule to target the cat litter (which you can opt to mark up) first thing every morning, or get the i7+ to vacuum under the sofa in the living room once everyone has gone to bed. However, it’s not without its flaws. It’s noisy in operation and in spite of its promises of sophisticated navigation, it repeatedly bumps into furniture. Still, now that the price has come down, we think these compromises are worth it.
Laser mapping Quiet Doesn’t often get stuck
Mediocre mop Hair and debris gets tangled inside
Its Lidar system helps it to navigate an efficient course around your home and you can use its map function to create custom cleaning modes and exclusion zones. It also has a mop function which works well enough but is sadly no substitute for mopping by hand.
Compact footprint Excellent cleaning performance Useful app
Expensive Tiny dustbin Taller than rivals
Via Dyson’s Link app, you can schedule vacuuming, as well as map and zone your home for different levels of cleaning. It has a decent 75 minute running time before it needs to trundle back to its dock and recharge, but this is somewhat offset by its very small bin (0.33 litres). It doesn’t take up much floor space, which is handy when it’s not in use. However, its height means that it won’t fit under as many piece of furniture as most other robot vacuums. Measure up if you’re considering buying.
Empty once a month Great mapping and cleaning options Automatic carpet detection
The dock takes up a lot of space N8+'s climbing is poor Mop is average
If you go for the N8+, you’ll get impressive suction, acceptable mopping and a brilliant mapping system that’ll allow you to set up sophisticated cleaning schedules, with no-go areas marked up. Its carpet auto-detection means it’ll automatically ramp up the power when it encounters a rug or carpet, saving power for when it needs it. On the minus side, the N8+ isn’t the best climber and got itself stuck more often than many of the robot vacs we test. You’ll also need a big, dedicated space for the oversized dock.
Home assistant support Good suction Good value
Uses physical boundary strips
The ability to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network for remote operation is cool, although nothing new, but we love the voice assistant integration for proper lazy boy cleaning. It’s not the newest robot in town any more but at its current low price, it’s one of the best value. If you’re planning to buy, it’s a good idea to get an idea of what features are important to you and find the cleaner that best fits your profile.
Control options
Robot vacs will be controlled by a free to download and use app, a remote control or your home assistant. Most have at least two of these options. But you should also bear in mind that the robot vac will also need to communicate with you. Some will have a display that brings up error messages, while others will speak to let you know that they’re starting to clean, returning to the dock, or have had to pause because they’ve ingested a sock. If there’s a compatible app, you’ll also get messages and alerts via that, so if you’re away from home, you’ll know if your cleaner got tangled up with a cable or if it made it back to the dock to charge. Mapping options One of the most important features of a robot vacuum cleaner is the ability to map boundaries. Less expensive cleaners may come with magnetic strips or battery-operated towers you can use to keep your robot vac away from the top of the stairs or block off a room you don’t want cleaned (for example, if you don’t have time to pick up your floordrobe but you’d still like to give the sitting room a once-over). Other, more expensive robots – typically those that use Lidar – create a map of your home. The very good cleaners will have space for more than one map, so you can save maps of each floor. You’ll be able to go into your app and add exclusion zones which they’ll then avoid. Very advanced cleaners with mop capabilities will also let you zone areas for mopping as well. The best robot cleaners will also use cameras to help them identify and avoid obstacles such as shoes, cables and even pet poop. Some cleaners with cameras will also let you use them remotely, via your app. This means you can use your robot vac as an additional home security device. And if you use it in conjunction with your app’s remote control, you can drive your vac around to check up on your pets while you’re out.
Cleaning power
Suction power (measured in Pascals – Pa) is getting better all the time. If you have hard flooring, a less expensive cleaner will do the job but if you have thicker carpets, it’s worth your while investing in something with very good cleaning power.
Apps
As well as giving you updates and allowing you to schedule cleaning, a good app will give you information on how long parts, including brushes and filters, will last before they need to be replaced. Most importantly, it’s where you’ll see the map of your home (or separate maps of different floors) that the robot vacuum creates. Robot vacuums with the best mapping systems will not only let you target specific rooms for cleaning but pieces of furniture within them, so you can get the area around the kitchen table vacuumed every day after breakfast, or get the robot to clean under the sofa once you’ve gone to bed.
Profile
Before you invest in a robot vac, it’s a good idea to measure the distance from the floor to the underside of your sofa and other key pieces of furniture. Robot vacuums can vary in height between 7cm (very low profile), 10cm (medium profile) and 12cm (high – the Dyson machines tend to be the tallest). If your robot vac can’t get under your sofa and bed, it can make a big difference to its overall usefulness in your life.
Other things to look out for
The cheapest robot cleaners may not have a rotating brush, which means they won’t be brilliant at cleaning carpets but they’ll do a decent job on a hard floor. A really good one will have a full-length rotating brush, making it ideal for picking up hair and fluff on carpets and from the edges of the room. You’ll also want to look out for the size of the bin. Most have a similar dustbin capacity, but some will empty themselves into a larger bin when they dock. The most expensive cleaners will have cylindrical (or cyclonic) drums that offer very good suction no matter how full the dustbin is. Emma is Home Tech Editor at Tech Advisor. She covers everything from kitchen appliances to smart home devices, from floor care to personal care to air care technology. She’s particularly interested in environmentally conscious brands and products that save people time and money.
