The 2-in-1 version of the Roomba j7+ has a mop pad built in that only flips down when the machine senses that it’s rolling over hard flooring, dispensing water and cleaning solution before lighting scrubbing your floors. I tested the j7+, which means I was treated to the roaring sounds of the machine emptying its dustbin into its clean base. The emptying process isn’t as simple as an automatically opening flat that shakes dirt from one garbage can to another – the base actually sucks the dirt from vacuum.
Plus, the battery life is 90 minutes, which is competitive with higher-end picks, and you’re able to customize your cleaning schedule so you can come home to clean, sparkling floors. However, it builds on this with an Auto-Empty Station and will automatically empty the onboard 14.2oz / 420ml dust canister into a disposable bag after every clean. So you only have to worry about emptying the robot vacuum once a month or so. We found it sucked up fine dust and larger debris on hard floors on the lowest power setting but required the highest suction setting to remove the most visible traces of flour from medium pile carpets. The i3+ EVO offers 10 times the suction power of the entry-level Roomba 600 series, and in testing did a good job of removing dirt from hard floors and carpet. When it finds an especially dirty area, it automatically goes into Dirt Detect mode and moves over the offending spot multiple times until it’s sufficiently clean.
The Shark produced a pretty accurate floorplan of my two-bedroom apartment, and I was happy to see a “re-explore” option that I could use if the map wasn’t up to my standards. That way, you can send the Shark to only the bedroom for more direct cleaning jobs, select “no-go” zones and more. The downside is that the charging / cleaning base is huge and unattractive. And while it is well-designed — it’s easy to fill the fresh water and empty the dirty water tank — it does get a bit smelly. You also need to clean the mopping station periodically, and there is no hot air drying.
Although the function works well, we found the Roomba i3/i3+ to be more affordable and a better cleaner overall. This is the Roborock Q5 packaged with a charging dock that sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. Two rounded corners irobot vacuum cleaner allow it to clean corners in your home better than any other Roomba currently on the market. If you’re interested in mopping after vacuuming, you can purchase the iRobot Roomba s9+ Bundle that includes this Roomba and the Braava Jet m6, too.
Besides that, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up the X8 Hybrid, how accurate its mapping technology was and how many extra features it supports. It has four cleaning modes – auto, room, zone and spot – and four suction levels starting with Pure at the low end and topping out at Max. These features give you a lot of control over where the machine cleans and how powerfully it will do so. The X8 Hybrid was in Pure mode the first time I ran it, and I was surprised by not only how quiet it was but also how thoroughly it cleaned considering it was on the lowest suction setting. Shark’s RV2502AE AI robot vacuum with Base ticks all of the boxes that a mid-range machine should.
It will also actively avoid your furry friends at your command over Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. As one of the most popular robot vacuum brands, it’s generally easier to find replacement parts for Roomba vacuums, which will enable you to keep it in good shape for longer. But Williams recommends regularly cleaning and replacing air filters, inspecting and cleaning the rollers and occasionally wiping down the sensors on the bottom of each robot. Everyone’s needs are different, which means a robovac is not a one-size-fits-all. When shopping for one, it’s important to think about your individual circumstances. To help you understand the different features of each Roomba, Select reached out to Jason Williams, senior corporate communications specialist at iRobot, to find out what factors are most important to consider when buying one.
Its cleaning prowess is largely unmatched thanks to the decades of experience iRobot has in this space, and it’s one of the easiest robot vacuums to use. The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. Plenty of models (including our picks) 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.
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. Based on our testing, the Eufy RoboVac X8 seemed to be a fine laser-nav robot vacuum, but it’s relatively expensive and doesn’t offer meaningful improvements over the company’s cheaper models. Its defining feature is supposed to be its strong suction, with two turbines pulling 2,000 pascals each (whereas most laser-nav bots have a single turbine and less than 2,500 pascals of suction total). That’s fine, but it’s slightly less than what you get from the slightly more affordable Roborock Q5. The older Eufy RoboVac L70 is still available, as well, but its app is not capable of permanently remembering specific rooms in a home, which makes it substantially less convenient than most current laser-nav bots.
When testing the best robot vacuums, we didn’t just compare the top robot vacuums of 2023 to each other; we also compared them to elite stick vacuums like the Samsung Bespoke Jet. If you’re investing in a robot vacuum, you’ll want to make sure irobot vacuum cleaner you don’t have to follow after it with a handheld vacuum. While there are a lot of special features to consider (and we did test these out as well), overall cleaning effectiveness was our top priority when picking the best robot vacuum.