We found the best robot vacuum options with rave reviews—and which one is right for you. An easy 5/5 if they fix the issue where certain cleaning job maps are unable to load. Only some of the maps in “History” load, and if I attempt to open one that’s broken shark cordless (doesn’t load, displays the loading spinner indefinitely) then I can’t view any maps at all until I force quit the app. To reset a Roomba i and 900 series, press and hold the “clean” button on the robot for 10 to 20 seconds depending on the model.
It also did a good job of staying away from a power strip, a power cord, and a USB cable. But it didn’t recognize (or at least didn’t try to avoid) our other obstacles, including toys, a sock, a shoe, and a water bowl. We like this bot for a lot of other important reasons , and the obstacle recognition dyson robot vacuum is almost like a toss-in feature, so it isn’t a bad buy. The company has a good history of following through on those kinds of promises, but you should expect the improvements to trickle out over several years, not months. IRobot doesn’t claim that the Roomba j7 can avoid most kinds of obstacles yet.
Many of those reviewers also noted difficulty getting replacement parts. We can’t be sure whether other models will have similar rates of problems, though the typical owner ratings for Ecovacs laser-nav bots tend to be a few tenths of a point lower than the ratings for other brands’ models. To Ecovacs’s credit, we’ve found that its bots are a little better at traversing tall rugs and large thresholds than other brands’ bots.
Also, we’re not convinced that obstacle avoidance is really the holy grail of robot-vacuum technology. One of the reasons robot vacuums help your home feel so tidy is that they force you to pick stuff up off the floor. Even if advanced obstacle recognition worked well enough to let you skip the pre-tidying, your home would still feel messy. Some high-end robot vacuums now include advanced obstacle recognition in their navigation systems. In theory, these systems should help the robots drive around any floor clutter they find, and even assist them in avoiding hazards like dog turds. Siri Shortcuts worked a little better in our tests since we could customize the wording of our voice commands, but their overall functionality is limited.
For the 600 and e series, press and hold the “home” and “spot clean” buttons for 10 seconds. Many homes have areas that aren’t always ready for a vacuum to roll through. Roombas have customizable keep-out zones, so users can create spots where the robot vacuum knows not to venture. This might mean staying clear of an area of tangled cords under a desk, a playroom’s toy zone, or the dog’s water bowl. Users can give specific areas names such as “living room” or “kitchen” for custom schedules and voice activation.