Robot Vacuums

This robot was outstanding at picking up nearly every last bit of the sample messes we scattered, partly due to its unique dual counter-rotating rubber brushes. We appreciated that it would periodically dock to recharge and empty its own bin (the dock holds replaceable vacuum cleaner bags) before returning to cleaning. It quickly mapped multiple rooms accurately, making it easy to set cleaning schedules and assign it to specific rooms on demand. Its app wasn’t always the most user-friendly, with some tasks taking multiple steps, but it was adequate. One caveat: While the manufacturer guarantees that this robot avoids pet “accidents,” it didn’t do so consistently: Sometimes it was remarkably clever in dodging the larger pieces of soft plastic dog poo we placed on the floor, but it plowed right over small ones. It did avoid electrical cords as promised. We liked that this robot can be set to start cleaning when it detects that you have left the house and stop when you return, using the location on your phone or by linking to other smart home features such as your door locks. You can also set it to be silent at specific times, such as while you have Zoom meetings or the baby naps.

This simple, comparatively inexpensive robot was unstoppable; it randomly travels around a space, bouncing off walls and furniture, so it ended up picking up much more dirt and covering the space more thoroughly than so-called “smarter” robots with fancier navigation systems. When we set it to clean, either via the app or by pushing a button on top of the robot, it typically ran more than 1½ hours at a time, chugging along while most other robots we were testing returned exhausted to their docks. It’s also easy to operate, clean out, and maintain. Its app is pretty basic but lets you schedule cleaning.

This snow-white robot was easy to set up and did an acceptable job picking up measured messes in the lab. However, at home it often missed spots and got stuck as it went on its row-by-row cleaning pattern. It struggled with an area rug, leaving it rumpled. On the plus side, its app was easy to use and gave a clear indication of what was happening with the robot. We liked its mop attachment, with dual rotating heads that gave a deeper scrub than robot mops that drag cleaning pads; we could set the scrubbing to three power levels. It mopped a room several times over the course of more than an hour, but it didn’t work well unless it was on the “max” setting. Later, when we wiped the floor with a white paper towel, it came up gray; dirty water doesn’t get picked up. This robot is best for maintenance of an already-clean setting and for those who don’t mind that it needs some hands-on help.

This robot constantly speaks about what it’s doing. But mostly what you’ll hear is that “charging will start soon.” That’s because it frequently decides to recharge after only a few minutes of run time. Its flimsy two-piece dock sometimes doesn’t fit smoothly together and also needs abundant open space around it, or the robot struggles to dock successfully. It has a mapping function, but even after many runs, its map remained incomplete, and its app was frequently frustrating to use. It did an acceptable but not stellar job picking up our measured messes of kitchen ingredients and confectionery sprinkles in the lab. At home it jumped over thresholds and handled rugs with aplomb, but it got stuck navigating out of a bathroom and shut down deep under the clawfoot tub, making us hunt for it.

This shiny, gold-trimmed robot had a loud, perky voice and was constantly telling us what it was doing. Unfortunately what it was usually doing was announcing, “I’ve done my chores!” and going back to the docking station well before the space was actually clean (and with battery charge to spare). As a “pet edition,” it’s designed to pick up lots of shed fur and avoid pet “accidents,” but in practice it ran right over soft plastic poo piles during multiple tests and didn’t seem to pick up more hair than other robots in our lineup.

This handsome, D-shaped robot was remarkably easy to set up, and we loved its compact dock that included a slot to hold its brush-cleaning tool. But it wasn’t very smart: Even after the robot went over the floor plan of our home several times for extended periods, its map remained incomplete and hard to interpret, so we couldn’t use it for scheduled cleaning. It often struggled with climbing thresholds, couldn’t locate its base, and kept shutting down its vacuum to figure out its surroundings (or so it told us) and ask to be picked up. The D shape, designed to help it get closer to clean walls and corners, seemed to contribute to its getting stuck more easily in tight spaces, and our top-ranked round-shaped robots swept up dirt equally well or better, even along walls and in corners. In our lab tests with premeasured messes, it did a poor job of suctioning dirt, leaving trails of rubble in its wake. (Its boast of a bigger dustbin capacity was wasted.)

With row-by-row navigation (plus laser vision to avoid obstacles), this vacuum mop picked up a moderate amount of our measured lab messes but missed certain areas over and over. At home, it easily climbed thresholds and scoped out the territory to create a good map; unfortunately, its performance went downhill shortly thereafter: It kept wanting to do an initial exploration run, never completed its “carpet detection” mapping even though we tried to make it go, and finally disconnected itself from Wi-Fi—and refused to reconnect. On the plus side, we were glad that we could operate it manually and that its mop attachment snapped right over the dustbin, which made it extra-simple to use; it did an acceptable job mopping the floor.