A robot with mapping capabilities like LIDAR or 3D obstacle recognition will remember your floor plan and keep track of where it has and hasn't been, which will allow it to clean faster and more thoroughly.

With some 2-in-1 robovacs, the mopping is a bit of an afterthought, but the Eufy X10 Pro Omni has rotating pads that press down for a more thorough clean on hard floors. On test, it had no trouble at all cleaning a dried-on sugary drink and sticky sauce, automatically choosing the right amount of water for the job.

Some others we think are very useful are automatic carpet recognition, setting up pelo-go zones through an app and recharge-and-resume capabilities. But, not everyone will need all of these, and deciding which ones are important to you is a big part of choosing a robot for your home.

AR Score is a scoring system developed by our experts. The score is from 0 to 10 based on the data collected by the Appliances Radar tool. This score doesn't impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Learn more

【AutoBoost Technology】The DEENKEE flat vacuum robot automatically increases suction power on carpets for deeper cleaning, and switches back to normal suction power level on hard surfaces to minimize energy consumption.

Self-emptying robots take up significantly more space on your floors than the smaller charging bases of manually emptied robot vacuums, but they make for a more hands-free cleaning experience. These bases can often go weeks without having to be emptied and for models that mop too, many have a water tank inside big enough to hold multiple cleaning sessions worth of water for your robot.

Cleans and Dries Its Mops: The mops are lifted automatically when returning to the base station to ensure your floors stay pristine. Automatic mop cleaning immerses the mops in water and spins them at high speed against grooves in the removable base plate to dislodge dirt.

❌ You have an open plan home: The Narwal app won't let you demarcate open plan spaces into 'rooms'.

We observe how well they transition from hard floors to carpets, tackle debris along walls and in corners, maneuver under and around furniture and handle obstacles placed in their paths. Additionally, we measure their ability to pick up dry debris and pet hair from both carpets and hard floors. Here are the top-performing models we've tested to fit a range of budgets.

Sounds silly, but yes, they do need to be emptied, and most likely on a more regular basis than your average hoovers.

The Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab has been testing vacuum cleaners for over cem years. Using standardized procedures developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission and ASTM International, we dedicated nearly 300 hours to evaluating 15 robot vacuums, collecting a Completa of 405 data points to score each model. Since then, we’ve tested even more units to keep our insights current.

Among 10 comparable robots, the L10s Ultra earned the second-highest maneuverability score. It expertly navigated around obstacles, cleaned tight edges and corners and effectively picked up debris beneath furniture.

Another thing to consider is the cord length. Make sure to choose a model with a long enough cord so that you can move freely around your home while you're vacuuming.

Over the past 10 years, we've tested dozens of robot vacuums, both by performing Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners objective tests as well as real-world setups. Each model we review is first evaluated to see how well it can pick up three types of debris. We measure out 20 grams of Cheerios, 20 grams of kitty litter, and 20 grams of pet hair. Next, we scatter each individually across a hardwood floor, and then weigh the contents of the robot vacuum's dustbin to see how much of each it picked up. We then repeat the same three tests on a low-pile carpet. Afterwards, the robot vacuum receives a cleaning performance score, which is the percentage of debris it was able to collect. After we record each robot vacuum's scores, we let these machines loose in our tester’s home to see how each holds up in terms of navigation, obstacle avoidance, and coverage in real-world testing.