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Don't have time to clean floors? A robot vacuum is your answer. We've bought and tested over 35 models since 2016. In this update, we test the top 13 you can buy today. We ran each vacuum through a series of tests, broken down into subsets of even more extensive and specific challenges, to see how effectively they cleaned a room, navigated obstacles, avoided objects and barriers, and picked up dirt, dust, and debris. Read on as we break down which vacuums clean effectively and are hassle-free and which aren't worth the cost.
While a robot vacuum can be very helpful in keeping your home tidy, we have found they are rarely a complete replacement for other vacuum products. These tend to lack the cleaning power of a traditional vacuum cleaner. We have found a top-ranked stick vacuum is often a better option for spot cleaning as they offer great precision around furniture and are fast to deploy and put away. Stick vacuums are still our favorite option for stairs. A top-notch handheld vacuum does better at cleaning corners and quickly taking care of small messes. And while it is tempting to think a robot vacuum could keep your garage or workshop tidy, we prefer using a cordless wet dry vacuum, which is also our preferred car vacuum style. To read more about the advantages and limitations of incorporating a robot vacuum into your home, see our Buying Advice. As technology evolves, so do our little robot friends, and they are quickly becoming more and more helpful in keeping our homes tidy.
Editor's Note: This product review was updated on May 31st, 2023, with two new robot vacuums added to our test suite — the Roborock Q5 and the Wyze Robot Vacuum.
The Roborock Q5 is a top-performing option at a very reasonable price. The Q5 is the culmination of the considerable experience of the brand. Navigation and coverage are top notch due to the considerably advanced mapping algorithm, and the app has all the features you could want in a robotic vacuuming assistant: multi-level mapping, power level adjustment, spot cleaning, repeat cleaning setting, and effective no-go zone assignments. Cleaning of both carpet and hard surfaces like tile is some of the most impressive we've seen in our test lineup.
Ultimately the only thing the Q5 doesn't do outright well is handling finely powdered messes like flour or coffee grounds. But it'll still get the job done — it just needs several extra passes. We think you can buy the Q5 with confidence that you're getting a top-tier product at a mid-tier price tag.
If you're looking for a more economical option that performs with the best of them, the Wyze Robot Vacuum is your winner. No glitz and glam here, the Wyze has the features you need (and a few nicer ones not normally included on options in this price range). It not only gets the job done but does it the right way. This vac also comes with smart features such as multi-story mapping and it methodically parallel-passes to overlap the debris. This means that one cleaning session is enough for most standard messes.
We wish it picked up pet hair better, but all things considered, the intelligence in the mapping of your home and ease of app navigation makes this a good option for anyone wanting to try out a robotic assistant without breaking the bank.
We nerded out over the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra! We loved this model so much that we affectionately named it "Ventura" for its advantageous nature. The MaxV Ultra is probably the most intelligent robot we've tested, and in many ways, this device is a cut above all other models, leading the way for what a modern robot vacuum should be. It is an excellent navigator, starting with its quick mapping system, which evolves with use. It can work around furniture and make intelligent choices about the most efficient routes while negotiating all obstacles. It also has incredible object detection and recognition and can identify pet poop and avoid it. After identifying pet waste, this device seems to build confidence over time to approach and clean more closely without ever making a mess. This model's intelligence is a cut above others, including dynamic recognition of objects like a foot or shoe, which it will include in a map, and later remove in real-time when the object is moved. A self-cleaning mop and water reservoir also sets this model apart from others.
Beyond all the specific accolades, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is a capable vacuum, but it isn't without its shortcomings. First, for a robot with incredible poo avoidance, it's almost ironic that it does a poor job of cleaning pet hair. It also offers only average hard surface cleaning and edging performance. However, all-in-all, it's an incredible robot vacuum and one of the most interesting our team has tested.
If you are a pet owner interested in a little extra help keeping your home cleaner for longer between more thorough house cleanings, then look no further than the iRobot Roomba j7+. It is one of the few models that will do both a great job of vacuuming pet hair and recognizing and avoiding pet poop. It is also a fairly decent vacuum overall that offers convenience and good carpet and hard floor cleaning.
We found that the iRobot Roomba j7+ has room for improvement in a few areas where it only exhibited average performance. It could certainly be a smarter navigator, cover areas more efficiently, respect virtual barriers better, and do a better job spot cleaning. However, it is a competent device, capable of cleaning and a great helper for pet owners.
The j7+ is excellent for pet-loving households due to its effective pet hair pickup and the relatively rare ability to effectively avoid your pets' accidents.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
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Many robot vacuums now come with smart capabilities and mapping that can be managed from your smart phone.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Why You Should Trust Us
We have done hundreds of individual tests to evaluate the 35 robot vacuums we have tested since 2016. Our detailed tests show that all robot vacuums are not the same. To help find the perfect vacuum for your home, we bought each model ourselves and then performed a battery of over 30 individual tests on each model. We ranked and scored all the best 'bots' performances and updated our review as new models were released. This comprehensive testing puts GearLab in a unique spot to help you find the perfect robot vacuum for your needs and budget.
Cleaning flour from carpet is a challenge for many.
We photograph and document the results produced by all of our challengers.
Both have clocked many hours, and together bring a combination of industrial technology, heavy machinery knowledge, critical problem solving, and tech analysis skills to our test designs and testing operations. They also bring expertise from extensive experience evaluating the performance of a wide variety of consumer products, having tested and reviewed over 600 different tech and smart home products here at GearLab over what is fast approaching a decade.
Our in-house vacuum expert, Jessica, setting up a test.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
To provide fair and scientific evaluations and analysis, we spent close to 250 hours testing these robots side-by-side. We made simulated furniture in our test room to directly compare each robot's home coverage and utilized long-exposure photography. We spread out controlled amounts of messes on different surfaces for our cleaning tests, then scored each robot on how much each one picked up. We obtained pet hair donated from a local groomer to spread out on our test carpet for our pet hair collection tests. We evaluated and measured navigational intelligence through obstacle avoidance, such as simulated pet poo (poo-avoidance), and observed navigational behaviors during cleaning, docking, and operating around furniture. Finally, we also rated each model based on convenience features and functions, including dust removal systems, maintenance tracking, and suction power adjustment, to name a few.
This long-exposure photo shows semi-random robots often over-clean areas while missing others.
Quick mapping allows the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra to detect objects around the room every time it leaves its docking station.
We tested all the features and functions!
Analysis and Test Results
We divide these tests into six metrics — Navigation, Home Coverage, Carpet Cleaning, Hard Surface Cleaning, Pet Hair, and Convenience — each weighted based on their overall significance to robot vacuum performance. Additionally, we consider each product's price and how that connects to its performance for shopping on a tighter budget and looking for better value options.
Robot vacuums are challenged and evaluated across the six metrics below:
The most intelligent robot vacuums on the market today are a little spendy — like the expensive but most intelligent model we tested, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, which sets the bar high for other models. However, if the S7 is out of your budget, the Roborock Q5 is also an intelligent and capable vacuum. It competes performance-wise with our higher-end tested options without breaking the bank. The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid is similarly priced but has a snap-on mopping component which is surprisingly nice. We believe the very best value is reserved for the Wyze Robot Vacuum, which is a good choice, especially for homes with a lot of hardwood, linoleum, or tile.
Typically, we look at a product and expect a fairly significant trade-off for being affordable. However, short of a poor ability to avoid pet poop and the lack of a tower dock, we can confidently say that the Q5 and Wyze do not force you to trade off all that much if you are looking for a great deal.
Navigation
Our most important testing metric, navigation, constitutes 30% of the overall score for each product. After all, what good is a robot vacuum if it can't navigate its way to a mess? The majority of each product's score for this metric is based on how it performed in our furniture navigation challenge. For this test, we set up a simulated course full of furniture — a dining room table, chairs, coffee table, sofa, lamp, and a comfy armchair — to see how well each robot cleaned and maneuvered around these objects. We primarily focused on the robot's ability to navigate the room without assistance, instead of how much of the room it cleaned.
Navigation is also about identifying obstacles and handling them appropriately on that journey. We challenged robots with different sizes of simulated pet poop and learned which ones were able to recognize pet waste as an obstacle to avoid, if they had to make unpleasant contact with poop to avoid it, and which ones unintelligently treated pet waste as a cleaning challenge by completely running over and smearing our fake poo everywhere.
Navigating can be difficult in our challenging test environment.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
The most intelligent navigators that we tested seem to be Roborock products, headed far and away by the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. The Q5 and the Wyze Robot Vacuum followed next.
Roborock s7 MaxV Ultra takes pictures of obstacles in our poo-avoidance challenge
Intelligent enough to both identify and avoid our obstacles!
Most still lack the important navigational intelligence to avoid pet poop or smaller things like a child's sock. To quote the words of a wise, albeit completely fictional person, "Do or do not, there is no try." — this should be the programmed approach to poo-avoidance as most robots completely fail to recognize and avoid poop, more often making a larger, more disgusting mess than accurately detecting and avoiding it. In general, these models would have done better to avoid a mess than try to clean it. Only a few higher-end models, like the iRobot Roomba j7+ and Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, can be trusted with sufficient object recognition.
The Jet Bot AI+ manhandles lighter furniture.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Home Coverage
Home coverage covers the next most important set of tests, accounting for 20% of each vacuum's overall score. Rather than just seeing how well each bot could navigate autonomously, we also evaluated how much floor area each robot could clean. We tested the size and ease of use of each robot's spot cleaning functions, as well as their abilities to clean from room to room and recharge if necessary. Our team also created a controlled environment to test performance along edges. In our furniture test, we considered the overall space each robot cleaned, the ability to create barriers or no-go zones, and each robot's ability to respect those barriers. This is beneficial in areas where the robot is likely to become trapped or suck up something it shouldn't, such as around a shoe rack or pet food bowls.
After completing our tests, we had two clear performers in our home coverage test metric, the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, and a pair of Roborock products, the Q5, and the S7 MaxV Ultra. They combine excellent multi-room and multi-floor memory and cleaning, spot cleaning, edging, and virtual barrier effectiveness to outshine the competition.
The very smart s7 MaxV Ultra app.
With the Roborock S7 Max, you can manually map out where furniture is located in your home so that the vacuum knows where and where not to go.
The Roborock S7 takes pictures of obstacles to decipher if the objects are stationed permanently or temporarily.
Two models followed close behind our leaders of this test metric. The first of these great performers was the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ and the Wyze Robot Vacuum, which was great other than its spotty virtual barrier respect at times.
A few models, like the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, Neato D10 Intelligent, and iRobot Roomba j7+ fell into the middle of the pack, with the i3+ and Neato performing just above average, and the j7+ performing just below-average. However, a couple of models really missed the mark in our home coverage tests.
Carpet Cleaning
After all of our tests assessing how well each robot moves throughout a home, we scored how proficient each robot is at cleaning floors, starting with carpets. We tested on both low-pile and high-pile carpets, using flour, rice, oats, and mini-wheat cereal as our sample messes. This metric accounts for 15% of the overall score for each vacuum.
When it comes to carpet cleaning, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra and Roborock Q5 were yet again far and away the best carpet cleaners we tested, followed by the Wyze and iRobot Roomba s9+, both of which only struggled cleaning flour. What surprised our team was the carpet cleaning performance from the iRobot Roomba 675, proving that it is a diligent cleaner despite being relatively unintelligent and doing poorly in our previous two test metrics.
A great flour cleaning performance from the S7 MaxV Ultra on carpet.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
We also saw average or above-average performances from the iRobot Roomba j7+, Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, and Shark AI, with the first three models providing more balanced performances, often only doing a substandard job of just one of our challenges.
The S4 Max offered average performance on our carpet cereal challenge.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Sometimes we test products and our team experiences an anomaly, like some really irregular performances across challenges. The only strange exception in the case of carpet cleaning worth mentioning is the Shark AI which exhibited the most extreme performance within the metric, doing an exceptional job of cleaning rice and oatmeal but a heinous job of cleaning cereal and flour. So if you are a baker or love your breakfast cereals, the AI probably isn't for you, but on the flip side if you love making rice or only start the day with oatmeal, the AI may be perfect!
This model did a terrific job cleaning both rice and oatmeal from carpets.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
The Eufy RoboVac 11S, iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, and the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ all did a poor job cleaning carpets, with each exhibiting average performance on no more than one challenge and dismal performances across the rest.
The Neato D10 Intelligent and the iRobot Roomba 675 both did a poor job cleaning flour from carpet.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Hard Surface Cleaning
The Hard Surface Cleaning metric accounts for 15% of the total score for each robot vacuum. We repeated the same tests as above, though this time using a section of hardwood laminate floor. Cleaning hard floors is much easier for these products than cleaning carpets, meaning many performed quite a bit better.
The Samsung Jet Bot AI+ is the hard surface cleaning leader in our robot vacuum test group. While it struggled to clean larger breakfast cereal bites from our hard surfaces (a common difficulty among all vacuums due to their low clearance), it did an incredible job cleaning rice, oatmeal, and flour.
The very capable iRobot Roomba j7+.
More great hard surface performance from the iRobot Roomba j7+.
Even more strong performance from the iRobot Roomba j7+.
Two models trailed the performance of the AI+. They were the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid and the Wyze Robot Vacuum. The X8 and T10 are both mopping models, and the AI+ has an optional mopping accessory attachment. The T10 is not especially advanced in any other metric we tested, but if you need a beautiful, mop-centric model, that's its sweet spot. The iRobot Roomba s9+ also deserves mention as it did particularly well with granular debris, represented by rice and oatmeal in our testing. But it faltered on cereal and flour.
A really unimpressive performance cleaning flour from hard surfaces by the Neato D10.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Cereal on hard surfaces is generally very difficult for our robot vacuums, with many of them completely unable to handle the task. The Neato D10 Intelligent was capable of thoroughly cleaning cereal but was rather unexceptional in every other hard surface challenge.
The iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO was completely unable to pick up cereal from hard surfaces.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Like many robots, the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVOsimply could not pick up cereal but, unlike others, did not grind the cereal into a bigger mess.
The i3+ EVO struggles with clearance at times.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Flour is also a difficult task for many of the models we tested. With the iRobot Roomba j7+ performing the best on flour, followed closely by the iRobot Roomba 675, Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, and Samsung Jet Bot AI+, but most others exhibited average to fair performance.
The Eufy RoboVac 11S proved it was capable of cleaning rice and oatmeal while unable to clean cereal and flour.
Less than impressive flour cleaning results from the Eufy Robovac 11s.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
The Neato D10 Intelligent and Shark AI finished at the rear of the pack, with dismal performances overall.
Pet Hair
For our final evaluation of cleaning performance, we evaluated how well each vacuum picked up pet hair. This metric is responsible for 10% of the overall score, with some robots handling our tests far better than others.
We used pet hair kindly donated by a local groomer, then spread a measured amount out on both low-pile and medium-pile carpet. We scored each vacuum on the percentage of hair collected and how much hair ended up in the collection bin rather than tangled up in the brush under the machine. Picking up pet hair is tricky for these robots and is better suited for a more powerful upright or stick vacuum.
Rita, our testers pup, helped us with our pet hair tests.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
We saw what we'd call good results from just a few models. The Roborock Q5, iRobot Roomba j7+, iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, and the Eufy RoboVac 11S.
Five grams of carefully measured pet hair is distributed for each robot to tackle.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Our pet hair tests expose a pretty glaring low point in the robot vacuum market that we hope to see addressed and improved in time. For now, frequent cleaning schedules are your best bet to keep hair buildup at bay.
Convenience
We evaluated features and functions that improve convenience for the final 10% of the total score. Our team considered the docking station features that increase convenience, such as a dirt disposal system, capacity, and tower size. We also scored each model based on the presence of app features and functions and how robust those features are. We independently rated 13 different features and functions, including remote control features, spot cleaning effectiveness and robustness, suction power adjustments, maintenance tracking, and repeat functions.
After extensive testing, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is the top dog once again, followed by the Samsung Jet Bot AI+. Their sky-high price tags are directly correlated to their convenience in our opinion. The purpose of a robot vacuum is to bring convenience to your life, but the more convenient you go, the more moolah you can expect to fork over.
Many robot vacuums can now be controlled via smartphone.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
The S7 MaxV Ultra is head and shoulders above the rest mainly for it's tower dock — including a three-liter bagged dirt collection system and clean and soiled water reservoirs for its mop system. Combine that with a slew of other features like effective no-go zones, auto-recognition of whether a mess needs a mop or vacuum, adjustable suction power, remote control via app, and quick mapping — this robot can do everything short of putting a man on the moon.
The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra rower dock allows for easy refills of mop water and less frequent dust collection.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
A few other options out there have dust collection towers, notably the Roomba models. The iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, iRobot Roomba j7+, iRobot Roomba s9+. Other models that lack tower docks and many of high-end features may lack extra convenience, but their prices are significantly lower.
A history report on the S7 MaxV Ultra.
The Jet Bot AI app notifications.
Worth mentioning is that the Eufy RoboVac 11S, which includes a physical remote and is one of the few models that doesn't operate entirely through an app. So if you prefer a robot vacuum that you don't need to connect to your smartphone, this model might be an option worth considering.
A physical remote, while simplistic and interesting, doesn't enhance convenience the way an app can.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Conclusion
Hopefully this review has helped you decide which robot vacuum is the best fit for your needs and budget, regardless of whether you are looking for the absolute best of the best when it comes to these automated assistants or you're shopping on a tighter budget.
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Austin Palmer, David Wise, and Jessica Riconscente
