The best mapping robot vacuum Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark’s robovac ticks all the boxes you would expect from a machine in this price range. It is reliable in cleaning and a user-friendly mobile app and provides accurate home maps.
It also comes with Matrix Clean navigation, a system that allows two passes back and forth before moving from side to side to provide complete coverage. And its base is unbagged, which is different from other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a fantastic robot vacuum for bare flooring with a large dirt container that can pick up debris. The smart pathing feature works well and the app allows you to manage cleaning and docking. The app also provides an easy overview of cleaning, including a map of where the S4 has cleaned, cleaning duration, and battery life.
The S4’s maximum suction is 2,000Pa which is comparable to some larger vacuums. With 19CFM the S4’s side as well as combo brush is situated more to the front than in other Roborock models, which could be a strategy to lessen the amount of clogging.
The S4’s advanced navigation system can digitally map a home up to four levels. It will remember the areas it’s cleaned, making it easy to set up an agenda for cleaning without the need to manually move the robot from room to room. You can designate certain areas as “no-go zones” to deter the S4 from cleaning these areas.
It was able of cleaning an entire level of our house with ease and was very efficient on flooring that was not clean. It had a hard time picking up dog hair. This is a common problem with robotic vacuums. It only 8.5 percent of the dog hair it picked up was captured in the dustbin, and the majority was clumped up around the suction inlet and brushes.
The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This improves its maneuverability. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles which slow other robots. The low-profile design makes it easier to fit under furniture. It has improved climbing capabilities for navigating flooring transitions as well as different flooring levels. It is able to reach the bottom of stairs and is a great choice for larger homes with multiple floors. The application lets you set a timer and also has an automatic control for vacuuming. It is also able to return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery that is expected to last for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet between charges in standard mode.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is a fantastic choice for pet owners looking for a machine that’s user-friendly and efficient. The self-emptying bagless base is a major benefit particularly when compared to competitors that use disposable dirt bags for their bases. It is easy to remove the bin and then empty it over a trash can; this may be messy, but it saves you money on new bags.
The bin is also large, so the EZ Robot can handle a lot of garbage. It’s also a great performer on bare floors, though it does struggle somewhat with embedded dirt on carpets with a low pile. It’s got good navigation capabilities and cheap robot vacuum cleaner a tiny footprint.
Although the EZ Robot isn’t as good as the Roborock S4, it’s still an excellent choice for those who want a high-quality affordable robot. It’s well-built, offers a wide range of features for automation, and boasts outstanding cleaning performance on carpet and floors with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are very high and its ongoing costs are high.
Another great feature of this Shark Cheap Robot Vacuum Cleaner is its capacity to recharge and automatically resume where it left off when it returns to its docking station following a full cleaning session. This is a great feature particularly if you own a large house.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a variety of useful features, like the ability to remotely schedule home cleans and review cleaning reports using the SharkClean app. You can also initiate, stop and resumptuate cleaning sessions using voice control through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by-row cleaning mode of the robot is a huge benefit as it cleans your entire home in neat rows, not the back-and-forth snake design of many other robots.
The biggest drawback of the IQ XL is its inability to climb over obstacles like power cords, which it might detect as solid barriers to avoid climbing over. It’s not as fast or effective at navigating rooms that are stuffed with pet hair, which can cause brushes to get caught and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a great robotic vacuum from Shark that offers a combination of features. It comes with a base that can hold up to 30 days of debris, and it also combines the cleaning power of an automated mop and a vacuum cleaner. It comes with a matrix grid cleaning mode, and is equipped with advanced smart home integration that works with Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set it to clean on a regular basis, activate on demand, or set virtual boundaries to prevent it from entering rooms that may contain rugs or fragile items.
The Shark AI Robot does a good job cleaning bare floors. It picks up debris with ease, like rice. However it has a tough to remove larger, bulky debris from carpets with low pile and is not capable of maneuvering around large furniture. It has a do not disturb feature so you can use it at home without it interrupting your routine.
It also makes use of LiDAR to identify your home. This allows it to detect and navigate obstructions more precisely than devices that depend solely on gyroscopes or an infrared sensor. This lets it avoid crashing into delicate objects, and optimize dirt collection on different surfaces. The LiDAR system is also more efficient than gyroscopes, which can cause robots to slow down or lose control when they come across uneven surfaces.
Other features include the remote control, automated mopping and multiple vacuum modes. It can also recharge and charge while working. Its biggest flaw is that it only maps out one floor. If you have two floors, it’s going to need to be manually transported to the areas, and then programmed to repeat.
It can also be quite loud especially when it is in mopping mode. It also has a lot of components that must be cleaned or replaced frequently which increases its ongoing costs. The base self-empty function helps to reduce the cost of these items. It’s also compatible with bagless filter, which can further reduce the cost per year.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series is a complete package that you would expect of a mid-range robotic vacuum. It is reliable in its cleaning performance, a superb mobile app that can create accurate maps of your home, and a great cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless base that means no annual purchase of replacement dust bags. In our cleaning test it was able to remove 97.8% of debris from carpeting with low pile and hardwood floors, though it wasn’t as effective on carpets with high piles. Its maneuverability is sturdy and it can maneuver through furniture, climb onto carpets with high pile and climb over objects like rug tassels and electrical cords without getting stuck.
The bristles with a helix-pattern pattern are sturdy enough to manage and untangle long hair strings, other fibers and the like, and its brushroll has an edge that retracts and can be used when it encounters obstacles. Its slender design allows it to glide under furniture and proximity sensors enable it to adapt and assess the presence of obstacles. The app lets you schedule cleanings or trigger the machine using one button press. It is quiet at a moderate level, however it can be quieted by using the do not disturb mode or the custom scheduling.
The RV700 is a bit more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba j7+. This is to be anticipated from the fact that it does not self-empty. However, it still feels more durable and is easier to maintain, and charges faster and clears more debris on floors that are not bare and high-pile carpeting. Its navigation system can also create virtual boundaries and recognize and avoid obstacles which makes it the ideal pick for “set it and forget it” robotic cleaners.
The RV700 Series doesn’t have a the cliff sensor, which prevents it from falling down the stairs, which could be a problem for those living in taller homes. It’s not able to mop and vacuum simultaneously and you must switch between modes within the app. However, the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more sophisticated Roborock and iRobot models that have self-emptying and cliff-detection capabilities. The most attractive feature is that it can be used to empty and recharged while docked at its base, which makes it a good choice for those who don’t want the hassle of emptying the onboard dustbin each time they use it.