What to Look For in a Good Robot Vacuum
A good robotic vacuum can assist you in keeping track of pet hair, lint and dust on a daily basis. Many work with apps to let you schedule cleaning sessions and create virtual boundaries, or “walls” to keep them from areas that you don’t want to be cleaned.
This smart vacuum and mop creates a home map with its first run, storing your home’s layout for future tasks. It comes with a large dust bin that automatically empties and self-cleaning, self-cleaning brush roll.
Object Detection
When you are choosing a robotic vacuum cleaner, choose one that can clean up large items like lamps and toys and dust particles of fine size. This will help ensure they don’t get snarled in the roller brush and don’t end up on your floors. This is especially important if you have children or pets and may need to clean the robot regularly.
A model that has an efficient engine and plenty of suction is also a good option. This will make it more efficient in removing pet hair, lint, and dust from your hardwood and carpet floors.
Another important consideration is the size of your room. If you have a large house, you may prefer a model with multiple cleaning zones that cover the entire house in one session. Certain models also include a mopping function, which can be used to keep your floors looking fresh and clean.
Robot vacuums last a long time, but they’ll need to be cleaned regularly and properly. Cleaning the rotating brushes, emptying the dust bin and wiping down the sensors on a regular basis will keep your robot running smoothly for years to come. Many robot vacuum owners we have spoken to have owned their machines for ten years or more (and have replaced motors, brushes and batteries with time).
A basic robot will cost you less than a large-sized vacuum cleaner, however they’ll still do a great job at keeping up with surface dirt, pet hair, and dust. They’re a great maintenance cleaner that you can send out several times a week to keep your floor clean. They don’t have as much technology and are more prone to becoming jammed or requiring manual intervention.
Object Avoidance
The best self-emptying robot vacuum and mop robot vacs use sensors, lasers, or cameras to help them navigate your home without falling off or getting stuck on the stairs. Some models can return to their base or dock when their batteries are low. They can also stay clear of obstacles like furniture cords and legs. The more expensive ones often have mapping capabilities that allow them to learn the design of your home and lessen the time you spend hitting walls.
If you’re not looking to spend the money on the most sophisticated robotic vacuums, you could find a model that does an excellent job of removing pet hair dirt, dust, and debris from floors that are hard like tiles and smart vacuum wood, as well as carpets with low pile. They can also handle larger debris such as nails that are rusty, metal screws or even toys that have been discarded. Some have a base that automatically empty itself, which is great if you do not want to empty it at the end of each cleaning session.
Some robotic vacuums have clever features, making the look of a stick vacuum old-fashioned. They include scheduling, zone-targeting and the ability for you to control them using an app or a voice assistant, like Alexa. You can also create cleaning zones and virtual walls to block off areas you don’t want the robot to get into.
Some robotic vacuums, such as the Eufy 11S or my former top choice, Roborock S8, come with obstacle avoidance technology that will keep them from tripping over cords or furniture. Others, such as the iRobot Roomba j7+, are more sophisticated. AI obstacle avoidance that utilizes sensors powered by processors to detect and avoid objects like shoes, lamp cords, socks, and pet waste. It’s a little more expensive than other bots I’ve tested however, it did a great job of avoiding obstacles around my home. It also didn’t get stuck or tangled when I was cleaning my flooring.
Although the iRobot J7+ was a good obstacle avoidance robot, it didn’t always do an excellent job of avoiding dirt and crumbs off my rugs. It also tends to over-vacuum some areas, which led to an abundance of dust in the filter and an unclean home.
Smart Mapping
Some of the best sweep and mop vacuum robots vacuums have an application that lets you alter cleaning modes, create schedules, and view an image of the area covered by the machine. This is an extremely useful feature that other models do not have. This makes it easy to create profiles that will automatically start your robot at specific times and continue to run on a regular basis, like cleaning the living room before dinner or on a regular basis.
A good app can allow you to control your robot via voice commands. Certain models are compatible with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, which allows you to control your robot with voice commands.
For a truly hands-free experience, choose models with a large dust bin that can withstand numerous cleaning sessions before needing to be emptied. There are models that self-empty that take some of the labor out of emptying the machine after each cleaning run.
If you’re looking for a machine that is more than simply vacuum, you’ll need to consider one that can mop your floors. They are typically larger than robotic vacuums and include a tank of water that can hold multiple cleaning sessions’ worth of dust and dirt before needing to emptied.
Robots that are more advanced can create their own maps, and can remember the plan of your house from one cleaning session to the next, which prevents them from getting lost or stuck. This can make a huge difference in the speed at which your robot vacuums, as it won’t be spending time going back to the beginning of the room whenever it comes across walls or furniture.
Our testers who used a robot with this feature discovered it to be extremely efficient, and they could easily watch TV or complete other chores while the robot cleaned. Some of these models use laser navigation, and can create an exact map of your house, which means you can program them to clean just the bedroom after dinner or every room in the house when you’re at work.
App Control
If you want to customize the frequency at which the robot cleans your home and choose a cleaning mode, it’s best to get one that is compatible with an app for mobile devices. In the app, you can also check the status of your vacuum as well as its dust bin. Some of the top robot vacuums can even be controlled via voice with Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri Shortcuts.
It is simple to maintain a robot that has an washable filter and self-emptying container, particularly when the filter is easily removed and rinsed. A high-powered brush is another fantastic feature that allows you to reach into corners and along baseboards to remove dirt and hair. Some robots are more adept in avoiding chair leg splinters than others. Others have sensors that automatically clean brushes to avoid clogging.
Some robo-vacs have navigation tools that help them navigate around obstacles and help you understand your home. High-end models use sensors and cameras to detect obstacles such as stairs, furniture and cords. Cheaper models may utilize boundaries to mark areas you don’t want it to enter. Avoidance of objects is particularly useful for families with young children who scatter toys and socks around the house. This allows your robot collect these items, instead of scattering them.
Robots are increasingly equipped with mop heads. This is great for those with hard floors who require to mop regularly. They come with an integrated water tank into the chassis or an extra piece you can put in when you’re ready to mop. These robots might need to be refilled frequently however, they are perfect for homes that have hard floors and can’t be easily cleaned by vacuums.
We’ve seen some incredible technology in these small robots and they’re cheaper than you expect. You can find a quality one for under $200. It can do a decent job of cleaning on hard floors and can be scoured around the edges of carpets and area carpets. It is possible to schedule the robot to clean the room every day and smart vacuum it can be controlled remotely via the app or by pressing buttons on its side.