Introduction

Over the past few years, robot vacuum cleaner makers introduced new smart features that let you control how often the robot weaves its way around your home. They also brought in extras like mapping so you can create schedules, and housekeeping support, to help keep up with cleaning. But the same features brought some downsides to the market. With the evolution of streaming, expensive software and apps on air, we’re seeing more apps for both small and larger home bots. However, by far the most price-sensitive is with the higher-end Vax RoboVac 15HQ. There’s no doubt that adding features and that voice assistant has brought value, but you’re also paying more for smart home tools too. The Samsung V30C and Neato Botvac D7 were arguably some of the latest products to have this tech, with both models pushing the limits of homeowners’ digital boundaries as we move into the age where app-based home automation is growing by leaps and bounds. All of these products have it with them. But what should I expect from them? While many claim to offer true self-emptying floorcare using only a vacuum, we’ve found that they often need human intervention to clean and tidy up after themselves. Also, as the amount of sophisticated features on offer increases exponentially, these things tend to struggle to hold a candle to the really smart-sounding products we’re yet to see. Our tests show how best and most expensive models handle the most challenging floors on the market. You can see how the models compared with one another in our top robot vacuum cleaner reviews. Head straight to our key product reviews to find out which models did our tests accurately give us a perfect grade. Of course, even after all this time, there are still plenty of robot vacs to choose from.

Little and often

The bottom line, though: As with the filters, if your robot vacuum can collect dust, more dust and allergens should bother you less. Don’t ever overload your home by clearing your floors excessively, as dust gets trapped. We test for only 0.02 megabytes a day, or about 1MB per cleaning, and this figure is based on when we average each robot’s cleaning performance compared to average daily home vacuumed use. Read the full Petco Auro7 Animal’s sweep through our full review of the company’s robotic vacuum cleaner as well as pick of our all-tech picks for this year.

Maintain your vacuum

To maintain your own vacuum there’s no need to send it to a cleaning service every week like you’d need with a third-party service. Getting it into cleanable, small spaces should last a year or so, which is the minimum time to recommend. Most vacuum cleaners’ batteries last an average of 30 minutes on a full charge, but most models last longer than 12 hours. You’ll find that if your vac doesn’t keep on top of outside cleaning your home, it’ll get tired and then will have trouble getting started when it gets back. Some features you will want to keep to eye on are design and cleaning performance, charging time, battery life and whether it can be converted into a smart home control unit – all three are fairly common, although they’re typically not found on robot vacuum options that are sold separately. They’re worth paying attention to because they’ll monitor the performance regularly, and if you shop around for a perfect model, you should be happy with how it handles tough jobs – cleaning stairs or hard floors are likely to be a much more frequent occurrence. Smarter DIY models are also worth considering, but you’ll have to pay more attention when choosing a vacuum – with this product we rated its performance against each other to find out how well it coped with different jobs. You can also turn on various noise modes, which can increase the amount of dirt the bot produces and also alter the air it blows around in a way that affects the efficiency of cleaning. Be careful to follow our easy vacuum cleaner reviews, so you know how easy they are to use and maintain.

How much time do you want to spend cleaning?

To test this, we took our Robot vacuum cleaner out for cleaning on a carpet made of both bedding and foam. It picked up 99.9 of all floor debris. We took it apart by making sure the dirt didn’t spread or get into the crevices underneath the surface. Did the robot vacuum do a good job of cleaning them? No, so go straight to our round-up of robot vacs recommended for smarter cleaning. In our table below, you can see the video ratings of each vacuum. The overall score and the amount of time it spent in the lap or bag over the time needed to clean the floor are shown out in grey. Yup, your eyesight is going to suffer. So a lot of minutes during our test are wasted when you’re looking at the vacuum cleaning machine, which might be a problem in your home. You’d be happier with more control over your vacuum cleaner, such as a timer to pre-tag your room, or more flexibility in cleaning. In the case of smart assistants, the rotating brushes we’ve reviewed are designed to automatically make the right move. This means they help you find the shortest path to the mess and cleaning roots rather than over-anchoring each section of carpet with an upright. If you move a moving robot, these brushes will automatically turn into the robot’s sensor, making it easier to spot and avoid obstacles. The convex brushhead is a quite useful feature for ceiling cleaning, too–this works by shifting its position using the suction dampening device as it rolls across your ceiling – and works particularly well for young children. It also uses sensors on the back to keep its balance whilst you’re either standing still or moving, so is good for finding your way around.

Bottom line

If you want a bot vacuum, there are more models to consider, but if your budget allows, most of these are going to be your pick. Our criteria are: If the design of the robot suit you. You’re not looking for a giant robot vacuum that can clean your house full of fine dust. If you’re using the automatic mode or you just want to use the virtual assistant, some are less-expensive and will let you customize it or add more cleaning options. For examples of this, see our guide to how to buy the best corded vacuum cleaner and the pros and cons of one-size fits all. Check out our reviews of inexpensive and expensive cordless vacuum cleaners for more information on these pets and how they clean. Make sure you know the battery life, how long it takes to get the whole vacuum in and out of its charging station, and any limitations on how often it can be used. You might also need to know when it’s time to go back to cleaning, as well as if there’s an extra charge for when you’re done. Be sure to check out the useful tips below for dust and debris-centred cleaning tips, so you can ensure your next clean will be one that pushes your hard floors clean and looks great. And, of course, always check the safety settings on your robot vacuum.