Plenty of models can reliably clean homes, both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout the home and making a map of where they have or haven’t been. Bots rarely miss patches or waste time recleaning areas that they’ve already visited. If their batteries run low before they can finish cleaning an entire level of a home, they’re smart enough to drive back to their dock, recharge for a few hours, and then pick up where they left off. So the first order of business for any successful robot vacuum is to avoid or at least escape from potential bot traps and hazards. This is important because if you set your bot to clean while you’re out of the house, but it gets stuck, say, under the dining room table within the first 10 minutes, you’ll still have dirty floors when you get home. Even if you’re home to babysit your robot and rescue it from trouble, that kind of defeats the purpose of having an automatic vacuum.
One caveat is that the i3+ EVO’s mapping capabilities are limited to a single floor. Its more expensive siblings, on the other hand, can remember multiple floors, which is useful if you have a multi-level home. I’m PCMag’s expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I’ve written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I’ve been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I’m also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. I’m PCMag’s executive editor of reviews, steering our coverage to make sure we’re testing the products you’re interested in buying and telling you whether they’re worth it.
Using Alexa, Rachel was able to create an automated Routine that would tell the Roomba i3 EVO to start vacuuming whenever Rachel and her smartphone left her house. However, as with most robot vacuums, you could also set a Schedule to accomplish these tasks. Also consider the Eufy RoboVac 11S, which is so quiet and nimble that it blends into the background like no other robot . This basic, bump-and-run bot sounds more like a desk fan than a vacuum—even if you’re home while it works, you’ll barely notice it running.
Although robot vacuums are weaker than traditional vacuums, they can reliably pick up most kinds of floor debris, and they work on most bare floors and carpets. Shark’s non-laser robots are reasonably dyson robot vacuum priced and look great on paper but are just okay in the real world. They’re also pretty loud on bare floors, sounding sort of like a two-stroke lawn mower puttering in the distance.
For starters, let’s consider what a robot vacuum gives you and what features actually matter. With nearly a dozen Roomba robot vacuums to choose from, it’s tough to decide which one best suits your needs. Instead of relying on cameras or lasers to map out its environment, the machine bumps around the floor like a slow-motion ping-pong ball, changing direction when it encounters an object or obstacle. As a result, it took an excessive 91 minutes shark cordless to finish its cleaning cycle in our test room, so don’t expect it to cover your house in anything close to efficient fashion. Still, that’s more than a fair tradeoff at this bargain-bin price, especially considering what a surprisingly competitive cleaner the thing is. Roombas are powered by a user-replaceable rechargeable battery; older models used NiMH batteries, while newer models use lithium-ion batteries, and a few models support both.
Replaced Roborock S7 with Ecovacs DEEBOT OZMO T8 AIVI as ‘Best Upper Mid-Range Robot Vacuum’. Replaced Wyze Robot Vacuum with Roborock S5 Max as ‘Best Mid-Range Robot Vacuum Cleaner’ pick. Removed less relevant product picks from Notable Mentions and added Neato D8 to Notable Mentions. Replaced Roborock S5 Max with Roborock Q5 as ‘Best Mid-Range Robot Vacuum Cleaner’ due to current availability.