Some of the most advanced robot vacuums, such as the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, feature artificial intelligence technology to automatically identify and avoid obstacles like shoes and toys. Premium models may also feature a camera, letting you view live video of your home from wherever you are. That said, one of the best innovations in the robot vacuum space in recent years has been the development of models that can empty their own dustbins. Beyond offering greater convenience than traditional models, they significantly limit your exposure to dust, a big plus if you suffer from allergies. As recently as a couple of years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sub-$1,000 self-emptying robot vacuum, but the price on these models has been coming down. Several excellent options, including the iRobot Roomba i3+ and Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL, are now available for less than $600.
To their credit, they seem to be strong cleaners, particularly on bare floors. Another advantage is that the Roomba 694 has two counter-rotating brush rolls, mounted in a suspension system, while every other bot at this price has a single brush sitting at a fixed height. Even the cheapest bots we’ve tested do a good job of picking up the most common types of debris from bare floors and short rugs. But the Roomba’s bissell crosswave cordless design helps it work better on rugs, especially when it needs to pick up a lot of hair. The Roomba 694 also has a dirt-detection system, which helps the bot reliably clean the most obvious piles of debris, as long as it encounters that pile on its semi-random travels. The main thing that makes the Roomba 600 series stand out from other affordable robot vacuums is that it’s more durable and easier to repair .
It offers 10 times the suction power of the e5 and it recharges and resumes cleaning until the job is done. Another benefit of this model is that it cleans in neat rows rather than following a reactive cleaning pattern. And you can purchase a self-emptying dock to go with this robot vacuum, which is something that the other two Roomba models do not have the ability to use. In an ideal world, you’d clear all your floors of clutter before using your robot vacuum.
If you decide to sell or give away a Wi-Fi robot, be sure to factory reset it to remove Wi-Fi credentials. If you want one, we’d recommend getting one of the self-emptying versions of dyson robot vacuum one of our picks, though we’d steer you toward a Roomba instead of a Roborock. The Roomba i3+ is usually the most affordable way to get a great self-emptying robot vacuum system.
We scouted reviews for hints about longevity, and favored bots with easy-to-find replacement parts like filters and brushes, but also batteries, wheels, and transmissions. We also fully disassembled some popular bots to get a sense for the build quality and how straightforward they might be to repair. If you have thicker rugs, or you just feel like owning a stronger bot, then go ahead and spend a little more on a bot dyson robot vacuum with better brushes or stronger suction. We also tested the EcoVacs T8 AIVI, which did not avoid any objects. It just informed us in the app, after the session was over and the Nutella smeared everywhere, that there were many objects on our floor and that we should pick them up. The Eufy 11S doesn’t have Wi-Fi or any smart-home connectivity, but you can still set a daily cleaning schedule with the remote control.