On its strongest suction setting , the S4 Max has enough oomph to suck up almost anything from a bare floor, but even the Balanced suction setting is fine for common debris like crumbs or pet hair. Its single brush can pick up surface-level debris from most types of carpets, but it won’t dig up hair like a dual-brush Roomba can. Most robot vacuums will get snagged on charging cables, which jam the brush roll or sometimes pull the bots off course. It is powerful and does a great job of cleaning both carpets and hard floors. This is important, clearly, because iRobot wants its customers to replace their conventional vacuum with a Roomba.
You can also use ‘virtual wall barriers’ to stop the Roomba from going into a space. Place a virtual barrier next to the dog’s water and food bowls, for example, and the Roomba will keep at least 4ft away. Two virtual barriers and the required AA batteries are included in the box. Eschewing a standard circular design, the Neato Botvac D8 uses bissell crosswave cordless a “D” shape intended to clean corners far more thoroughly. Derek specialises in home and outdoor wares, from coffee machines, white appliances and vacs to drones, garden gear and BBQs. He has been writing for more years than anyone can remember, starting at the legendary Time Out magazine – the original, London version – on a typewriter!
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 . They generally don’t break, spare parts are always in stock, and you can swap in everything from a new filter to a new transmission shark cordless with nothing more than a screwdriver. You’ll usually pay more for the Roomba 694 than you would for our other budget pick, the Eufy 11S, or other super-cheap bots with random navigation. But the Roomba can easily pay off in the long run because it’ll last longer.
We can’t pinpoint one spec or feature that helps a robot navigate well—we just have to test the bots and see how they do. Some cheap, dead-simple bots are incredibly nimble, while certain high-end models struggle constantly. But for the most part, modern robots are pretty good at this, and many models now give you the option to draw invisible boundaries around problematic areas using a smartphone app.
Whether you choose a Roomba® robot vacuum, or a Braava® robot mop — your floors get the specialised care they need to stay effortlessly clean, every day. A suite of intelligent sensors guides the Roomba® robot vacuum throughout your home, along walls, around furniture, and under sofas and beds to help thoroughly clean your floors. The 11S is the most basic, and is one of the few robotic vacuums still available that doesn’t connect to the internet. Other RoboVac variants, including the 30C, 35C, and 15C Max, do have WiFi connectivity, which allows you to use a companion app to turn the robot on or off, steer it manually, and set a cleaning schedule.
Speaking of recharging, the 960 and flagship 980 are the only models of Roomba which can carry on with a cleaning job after recharging. However, you’re likely to find its bin gets full long before the battery winds down, which in the 980, is about two hours. But if we set the Roomba to clean every day then this could be extended. Second, while robots have sensors to make sure they don’t smash into things or irobot vacuum cleaner roll down the stairs, there isn’t much stopping them from sucking up small items. You’ll need to make sure objects like cables, shoelaces, and hairpins are off the floor before each cleaning session, as well as anything that might get caught in rollers, like tassels. The i3 is available with or without the Clean Base charging station and, according to iRobot, it has the same suction power as the older i7.
The ability of the rubber main brush to float to meet uneven surfaces sets this robot vacuum apart from the competition. Similar to other cordless vacuums, the best robot vacuums have varying runtimes that depend on the battery life. The battery life will generally range from 60 minutes with more basic versions to about 120 minutes at the higher end. Those who want their Roomba to cover more square footage may prefer a model with a longer battery life, or perhaps two robots to cover different zones or floors.
A possible side effect of the Roomba i3 EVO’s design is that it may be relatively slow compared with other smart-mapping bots, like our other top pick, the Roborock S4 Max. Although those other bots use lasers or cameras to help them map and clean areas, the i3 EVO still utilizes gyroscopes to help it navigate. Laser-nav bots can learn your home’s layout in a single session, whereas the i3 EVO and higher-end Roombas typically need two or three sessions of training. The laser-nav bots also tend to bump into less stuff than the Roombas do and complete their jobs faster as a result. However, we still predict that Roomba bots on average will last longer than any of their competitors and work better at getting hair out of rugs.