The Ultimate Guide to Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners
The easy-to-use Shark app makes automating the robot vacuum painless and relays any issues the bot runs into. For the most part, the robot goes out on its own and deposits up to 45 days worth of debris into its bagless docking station.
The iRobot s9+ is simple to operate and provides strong pick up across hard floors and carpet. Its high-end performance especially excels in picking up strands of pet hair. Roomba's self-emptying base saves you time and effort on maintenance too.
An automatic vacuum cleaner is a device that cleans floors without human help. It uses sensors to navigate rooms.
✔️ Cord or cordless: Decide whether you want a vacuum with a cord, which can limit how far you can vacuum until you need to find another outlet, or if you prefer cordless, which has a battery life you'll need to monitor.
Several of the top robot vacs below also double as robotic mops, but we didn’t evaluate mopping capabilities in our vacuum tests.
We look at whether there's any remnants left after a single pass from the robot vacuum, and if it catches them on a second run. We repeat these tests for both hard floor and carpet.
Alistair is a London-based journalist who has been writing about tech for over a decade. He has tested numerous robovacs over the years for TechRadar, from brands like iRobot, Eufy and Roborock. His favourites match intelligent navigation with smart design.
Thankfully, many manufacturers make robot vacuums that are suited for cleaning up after pets. Models like the iLife V3s Pro and the Roomba S9, scored the best in our robot vacuum lab tests, picking up nearly all pet hair on both hardwood and carpeting, and making our list of the best robot vacuums for pet hair.
After at least two weeks of testing, we consolidate our findings and use them to judge who (if anyone) we'd recommend the robot vacuum to. We also compare the features and build quality to the price, to assess if the robot vacuum is good value for money.
It's also packed with handy features such as its upgraded AdaptLift chassis that allows easy access over tall thresholds (without getting stuck). The App was easy to set up, map and schedule routines. More importantly, the Orevo Curv excelled in the majority of our tests.
A big bin means you don’t need to empty it as often. The largest I’ve seen is 800ml, but anything over 500ml is decent. With many bots now pulling double duty as mopping robots, plus the popularity of self-empty dock / charging bases, it’s getting harder to find small robot vacs with big bins.
Who it's best for: This stick vacuum is ideal for those who want an easy-to-use model that can do it all. With multiple settings and attachment options for different surfaces to clean, this vacuum has a one-hour run time, which is quite high for a cordless model.
If you’re using a standard charging base, you may have to fix it to the wall, so the robot vacuum won’t knock it out of place. Some Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners bases come with stickers to help with this issue. If you’re lucky enough to own a robot vacuum with a self-emptying base, it should be heavy enough to hold itself in place.
This isn't a cheap bot, and while I think the featureset and performance justify the price, it'll be out of budget for some. We have more affordable options in our roundup of the best robot vacuums for pet hair – although be aware that if you really want something up to the task, you will likely need to spend a bit more.