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Don't have time to clean floors? A robot vacuum is your answer. We've bought and tested over 40 models since 2016. In this review, we test 10 of the top robot vacs you can buy today. We ran each vacuum through a series of tests, broken down into subsets of even more extensive and specific challenges, to see how effectively they cleaned a room, navigated obstacles, avoided objects and barriers, and picked up dirt, dust, and debris. Read on as we break down which vacuums are hassle-free and clean effectively and which ones aren't worth the cost.
While a robot vacuum can be very helpful in keeping your home tidy, we have found they are rarely a complete replacement for other vacuum products. These tend to lack the cleaning power of a traditional vacuum cleaner. We look to stick vacuums for spot cleaning as they offer great precision around furniture and are fast to deploy and put away. Stick vacuums are still our favorite option for stairs. The highest-rated handheld vacuums we tested are better at cleaning corners and quickly taking care of small messes. To keep a garage or workshop tidy, check out our favorite cordless shop vacs, which is also our preferred car vacuum style. To read more about the advantages and limitations of incorporating a robot vacuum into your home, see our Buying Advice. As technology evolves, so do our little robot friends, and they are quickly becoming more and more helpful in keeping our homes tidy.
Editor's Note: Our robot vacuum review was updated on September 29, 2024, to remove discontinued models from our lineup and include our new mopping test.
The Roborock Q5 is a top-performing option at a very reasonable price. The Q5 is the culmination of the considerable experience of the brand. Navigation and coverage are top-notch due to the considerably advanced mapping algorithm, and the app has all the features you could want in a robotic vacuuming assistant: multi-level mapping, power level adjustment, spot cleaning, repeat cleaning setting, and effective no-go zone assignments. Cleaning of both carpet and hard surfaces like tile is some of the most impressive we've seen in our test lineup.
Ultimately, the only thing the Q5 doesn't do outright well is handling finely powdered messes like flour or coffee grounds. But it'll still get the job done — it just needs several extra passes. We think you can buy the Q5 with confidence that you're getting a top-tier product at a mid-tier price tag.
If you're looking for a more economical option that performs with the best of them, the Wyze Robot Vacuum is your winner. No glitz and glam here, the Wyze has the features you need (and a few nicer ones not normally included on options in this price range). It not only gets the job done but does it the right way. This vac also comes with smart features such as multi-story mapping and it methodically parallel-passes to overlap the debris. This means that one cleaning session is enough for most standard messes.
We wish it picked up pet hair better, but all things considered, the intelligence in the mapping of your home and ease of app navigation makes the Wyze a good option for anyone wanting to try out a robotic assistant without breaking the bank. You can spend a bit more for slightly better performance with the Roborock Q5, but overall, the Wyze offers our favorite price-to-performance ratio.
Roborock discontinued the S7 MaxV Ultra and now offers the S7 Max Ultra, which features a self-emptying dust bin. We're linking to the S7 Max Ultra in our review.
We nerded out over the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra! We loved this model so much that we affectionately named it “Ventura” for its advantageous nature. The MaxV Ultra is probably the most intelligent robot we've tested, and in many ways, this device is a cut above all other models, leading the way for what a modern robot vacuum should be. It is an excellent navigator, starting with its quick mapping system, which evolves with use. It can work around furniture and make intelligent choices about the most efficient routes while negotiating all obstacles. It also has incredible object detection and recognition and can identify pet poop and avoid it. After identifying pet waste, this device seems to build confidence over time to approach and clean more closely without ever making a mess. This model's intelligence is a cut above others, including dynamic recognition of objects like a foot or shoe, which it will include in a map, and later remove in real-time when the object is moved. A self-cleaning mop and water reservoir also sets this model apart from others.
Beyond all the specific accolades, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is a capable vacuum, but it isn't without its shortcomings. First, for a robot with incredible poo avoidance, it's almost ironic that it does a poor job of cleaning pet hair. It also offers only average hard surface cleaning and edging performance. Overall, this is an incredible robot vacuum and one of the most interesting our team has tested. If you need something that does a better job picking up pet hair, though, check out the iRobot Roomba j7+ below (although ultimately, we recommend a cordless stick vacuum for this task).
If you are a pet owner interested in a little extra help keeping your home cleaner for longer between more thorough house cleanings, then look no further than the iRobot Roomba j7+. It is one of the few models that will do both a great job of vacuuming pet hair and recognizing and avoiding pet poop. It is also a fairly decent vacuum overall that offers convenience and good carpet and hard floor cleaning.
We found that the iRobot Roomba j7+ has room for improvement in a few areas where it only exhibited average performance. It could certainly be a smarter navigator, cover areas more efficiently, respect virtual barriers better, and do a better job spot cleaning. However, it is a competent device, capable of cleaning and a great helper for pet owners.
The j7+ is excellent for pet-loving households due to its effective pet hair pickup and the relatively rare ability to effectively avoid your pets' accidents.
Mopping tech on robot vacuums is pretty limited at the moment. Only a few models on the market have this feature, and evolution has been slow but steady. Stationary mop heads with gravity feed reservoirs are giving way to vibrating and rotating scrub heads. We expect the technology to improve dramatically in the coming years.
The Shark Matrix Plus is an interesting contender in our lineup worth considering. It has a few pretty stellar features, making it stand out in our eyes with its mid-range price point. Chief among them is an included mopping attachment with a sonically vibrating pad. This alone puts the Matrix Plus at the head of the pack for the time being. A 2.1-liter auto-collect station allows you to go longer without having to empty. A simple benefit that can really make a difference in a busy life. The Matrix is named for its cleaning path design, commanding the robot to vacuum first from a verticle alignment that is quickly followed by a horizontal path. Although this seems remedial, this is quite unique. Many models can be scheduled to tackle multiple rounds of cleaning, but we haven't seen many that clean from different angles; they simply just repeat the same route.
There's a lot to like about the Matrix Plus; it performs above average in most categories, but there are a few things to note otherwise. We noticed the main center roller became saturated with hair faster than many other models, which alone would throw a wrench into the 'hands-off' benefit the tower dock should give. Look to the Q5 again if you have a prolific shedder running around the house. As good as the Matrix Plus is at navigation around furniture, there is no object recognition built into the software, so charging cords will be consumed whole if you're not careful. If you're particularly interested in a mopping model but the Matrix Plus isn't resonating with you, take a look at the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid (which only has a stationary mop pad) and the much more expensive Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra.
The Shark Matrix Plus taking on our rice pickup challenges.
Credit: Matt Lighthart and Graham Faulknor
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Many robot vacuums now come with smart capabilities and mapping that can be managed from your smart phone.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
How We Tested
We have done hundreds of individual tests to evaluate over 40 robot vacuums since 2016. Our detailed tests show that all robot vacuums are not the same. To help find the perfect vacuum for your home, we bought each model ourselves and then performed a battery of over 30 individual tests on each model. We ranked and scored all the best 'bots' performances and updated our review as new models were released. This comprehensive testing puts GearLab in a unique spot to help you find the perfect robot vacuum for your needs and budget.
Quick mapping allows the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra to detect objects around the room every time it leaves its docking station.
We tested all the features and functions!
To provide fair and scientific evaluations and analysis, we spent nearly 250 hours testing these robots side-by-side. We made simulated furniture in our test room to directly compare each robot's home coverage and utilized long-exposure photography. We spread out controlled amounts of messes on different surfaces for our cleaning tests, then scored each robot on how much each one picked up. We obtained pet hair donated from a local groomer to spread out on our test carpet for our pet hair collection tests. We evaluated and measured navigational intelligence through obstacle avoidance, such as simulated pet poo (poo-avoidance), and observed navigational behaviors during cleaning, docking, and operating around furniture. Finally, we also rated each model based on convenience features and functions, including dust removal systems, maintenance tracking, and suction power adjustment, to name a few.
We tested these robot vacuums using six different performance metrics:
Navigation (30% of the overall score weight)
Home Coverage (20% weighting)
Carpet Cleaning (15% weighting)
Hard Surface Cleaning (15% weighting)
Pet Hair (10% weighting)
Convenience (10% weighting)
This long-exposure photo shows semi-random robots often over-clean areas while missing others.
They've clocked many hours, and together bring a combination of industrial technology, heavy machinery knowledge, critical problem solving, tech analysis skills, and engineering backgrounds to our test designs and testing operations. They also bring expertise from extensive experience evaluating the performance of a wide variety of consumer products, having tested and reviewed over 600 different tech and smart home products here at GearLab over what is fast approaching a decade.
Our in-house vacuum expert, Jessica, is setting up our spot-cleaning test.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Analysis and Test Results
We divide these tests into six metrics — Navigation, Home Coverage, Carpet Cleaning, Hard Surface Cleaning, Pet Hair, and Convenience — each weighted based on their overall significance to robot vacuum performance. Additionally, we consider each product's price and how that connects to its performance for shopping on a tighter budget and looking for better value options.
The most intelligent robot vacuums on the market today are a little spendy — like the expensive but most intelligent model we tested, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, which sets the bar high for other models. However, if the S7 is out of your budget, the Roborock Q5 is also an intelligent and capable vacuum. It competes performance-wise with our higher-end tested options without breaking the bank. The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid is similarly priced but has the added value of a snap-on mopping component, the same as the slightly pricier Shark Matrix Plus, which also adds a tower dock usually reserved for top-end products. We believe the very best value is reserved for the Wyze Robot Vacuum, which is a good choice, especially for homes with a lot of hardwood, linoleum, or tile.
Typically, we look at a product and expect a fairly significant trade-off for being affordable. However, short of a poor ability to avoid pet poop and the lack of a tower dock, we can confidently say that the Q5 and Wyze do not force you to trade off all that much if you are looking for a great deal.
Navigation
Our most important testing metric, navigation, constitutes 30% of the overall score for each product. After all, what good is a robot vacuum if it can't navigate its way to a mess? The majority of each product's score for this metric is based on how it performed in our furniture navigation challenge. For this test, we set up a simulated course full of furniture — a dining room table, chairs, coffee table, sofa, lamp, and a comfy armchair — to see how well each robot cleaned and maneuvered around these objects. We primarily focused on the robot's ability to navigate the room without assistance instead of how much of the room it cleaned.
This metric is also about identifying obstacles and handling them appropriately on that journey. We challenged robots with different sizes of simulated pet poop and learned which ones were able to recognize them as obstacles to avoid, if they had to make unpleasant contact with poop to avoid it, and which ones unintelligently ran them right over, smearing our fake poo everywhere.
The Wyze Robot Vacuum shown here, navigating the stripped down furniture stand-ins of our test environment.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
The most intelligent navigators that we tested seem to be Roborock products, headed far and away by the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, plus the occasional offering from other manufacturers, like the iRobot Roomba j7+ and Samsung Jet Bot AI+. These products have object recognition built into the software to determine friend from foe. Most other models on the market rely entirely on LiDar technology, which can be pretty advanced in its own right. The Q5 and the Wyze Robot Vacuum are good examples.
Roborock s7 MaxV Ultra takes pictures of obstacles in our poo-avoidance challenge
Intelligent enough to both identify and avoid our obstacles!
Without the navigational intelligence to avoid pet poop (or other smaller things like a child's sock), well… to quote the words of a wise, albeit completely fictional person, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Nothing will restore a robot vacuum that has gotten into that kind of mess, so consider carefully which robot vacuum assistant is right for you if you have accident-prone furry friends.
The Jet Bot AI+ manhandles lighter furniture.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Home Coverage
Home coverage covers the next most important set of tests, accounting for 20% of each vacuum's overall score. Rather than just seeing how well each bot could navigate autonomously, we also evaluated how fully each robot covered the floor area and how well it ran over transitions and thresholds between rooms. We measured the height of each robot to let you know if it can fit under your furniture or be barricaded from areas that need it the most.
Eufy 11S Slim doesn't lie on its slim figure. Coming in at a short 2.8 inches, it's the shortest in our lineup and best if you have low furniture. LiDar is the big variable here. While 11s are slim, it doesn't house the sensor that rides on the top of other robots in this comparison. So you'll have to compromise efficiency since this robot just bounces all over the place instead of navigating properly to catch every spot in your house.
Our team also created a controlled environment to test performance along edges. The chart above shows how close the robot can get to a hallway or how tight it can get to furniture. Samsung stood out, cleaning just 1 inch from the wall. This may be due to its unique square front design. The Romba s9+ has a similar square front, but it was only able to vacuum as close as 2 inches from the wall. The circular nature of all the other vacuums makes it a difficult task to achieve, but the 11S was impressive, with vacuuming only 1.3 inches away from the wall.
In our furniture test, we considered the overall space each robot cleaned, the ability to create barriers or no-go zones, and each robot's ability to respect those barriers. This is beneficial in areas where the robot is likely to become trapped or suck up something it shouldn't, such as around a shoe rack or pet food bowls.
After completing our tests, the clear performers were the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid and a pair of Roborock products, the Q5 and the S7 MaxV Ultra. They combine excellent multi-room and multi-floor memory, spot cleaning, edging, and virtual barrier effectiveness to outshine the competition.
The very smart s7 MaxV Ultra app.
With the Roborock S7 Max, you can manually map out where furniture is located in your home so that the vacuum knows where and where not to go.
The Roborock S7 takes pictures of obstacles to decipher if the objects are stationed permanently or temporarily.
Two models followed closely behind our leaders in this test metric, the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ and the Wyze Robot Vacuum, which was great other than its spotty virtual barrier respect at times.
A few models, like the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO and iRobot Roomba j7+, fell into the middle of the pack, with the i3+ performing just above average and the j7+ performing just below average. The Shark Matrix Plus was respectable as well, thanks in part to its 2-way coverage of each space.
Carpet Cleaning
After all of our tests assessing how well each robot moves throughout a home, we scored how proficient each robot is at cleaning floors, starting with carpets. We tested on both low-pile and high-pile carpets, using flour, rice, oats, and mini-wheat cereal as our sample messes. This metric accounts for 15% of the overall score for each vacuum.
When it comes to carpet cleaning, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra was yet again far and away the best carpet cleaner we tested, followed by the iRobot Roomba j7+, which struggled to clean finer messes, like flour.
A great flour cleaning performance from the S7 MaxV Ultra on carpet.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
We also saw average or above-average performances from the iRobot Roomba j7+, Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, and Shark Matrix Plus, with the first three models providing more balanced performances, often only doing a substandard job in just one of our challenges.
The S4 Max offered average performance on our carpet cereal challenge.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
The reason that we test a variety of debris types is to eliminate the risk of a rogue score throwing off a proper evaluation. Irregular performances can be as important to know as well as what a vacuum does well or not. The Samsung Jet Bot AI+, for example, showed great performance cleaning out sand from carpet, one of the tougher materials in our experience. But with rice and mini wheats, performance was poor at best. What type of mess you're most likely to encounter in your home should be one of the main considerations in choosing a product, given such a variety in the category.
The J7+ did a stellar job with all types of messes we tested, particularly rice and Mini Wheat cereal.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Along with the Jet Bot AI+, the Eufy RoboVac 11S, and iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, also did a poor job cleaning carpets, with each exhibiting average performance on no more than one challenge and dismal performances across the rest.
The Neato D10 Intelligent (previously tested) and the iRobot Roomba 675 both did a poor job cleaning flour from carpet.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Hard Surface Cleaning
The Hard Surface Cleaning metric accounts for 15% of the total score for each robot vacuum. We repeated the same tests as above, though this time using a section of hardwood laminate floor. Cleaning hard floors is much easier for these products than cleaning carpets, meaning many performed quite a bit better.
The Samsung Jet Bot AI+ is the hard surface cleaning leader in our robot vacuum test group. While it struggled to clean larger breakfast cereal bites from our hard surfaces (a common difficulty among all vacuums due to their low clearance), it did an incredible job cleaning rice, oatmeal, and flour.
The very capable iRobot Roomba j7+.
More great hard surface performance from the iRobot Roomba j7+.
Even more strong performance from the iRobot Roomba j7+.
Results you can see from our hard surface testing.
Three models trailed the performance of the AI+. They were the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, the Shark Matrix Plus, and the Wyze Robot Vacuum. Not coincidentally, the X8 and Matrix Plus are both mopping models along with the AI+, which boost their hard surface cleaning ability. The iRobot Roomba s9+ also deserves mention as it did particularly well with granular debris, represented by rice and oatmeal in our testing, but it faltered on cereal and flour.
The few options available on the market with mopping attachments, such as the Shark Matrix Plus, add extra value to homes with extensive hard surface flooring.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Cereal on hard surfaces is generally very difficult for our robot vacuums, with many of them completely unable to handle the task. Like many robots, the iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO simply could not pick up cereal but, unlike others, did not grind the cereal into a bigger mess.
The i3+ EVO struggles with clearance at times.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Flour is also a difficult task for many of the models we tested. With the iRobot Roomba j7+ performing the best on flour, followed closely by the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, and Samsung Jet Bot AI+, but most others exhibited average to fair performance. The Eufy RoboVac 11S proved it was capable of cleaning rice and oatmeal while unable to clean cereal and flour. It tested dead last in our lineup on hard surfaces.
Less than impressive flour cleaning results from the Eufy Robovac 11s.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Pet Hair
For our final evaluation of cleaning performance, we evaluated how well each vacuum picked up pet hair. This metric is responsible for 10% of the overall score, with some robots handling our tests far better than others.
We used pet hair kindly donated by a local groomer, then spread a measured amount out on both low pile and high pile carpets. We scored each vacuum on the percentage of hair collected and how much hair ended up in the collection bin rather than tangled up in the brush under the machine. Picking up pet hair is tricky for these robots and is better suited for a more powerful upright or stick vacuum.
Frida, our tester pup, helped us with our pet hair tests.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
We saw what we'd call good results from just a few models. The Roborock Q5, iRobot Roomba j7+, iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, and the Eufy RoboVac 11S.
Five grams of carefully measured pet hair is distributed for each robot to tackle.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Most of the other models did not perform well at all. Our pet hair tests expose a pretty glaring low point in the robot vacuum market that we hope to see addressed and improved in time. For now, frequent cleaning schedules are your best bet to keep hair buildup at bay.
Convenience
We evaluated features and functions that improve convenience for the final 10% of the total score. Our team considered the docking station features that increase convenience, such as a dirt disposal system, capacity, and tower size. We also scored each model based on the presence of app features and functions and how robust those features are. We independently rated 13 different features and functions, including remote control features, spot cleaning effectiveness and robustness, suction power adjustments, maintenance tracking, and repeat functions.
After extensive testing, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is the top dog once again, followed by the Samsung Jet Bot AI+. Their sky-high price tags are directly correlated to their convenience in our opinion. The purpose of a robot vacuum is to bring convenience to your life, sure, but the more convenient you go, the more moolah you can expect to fork over.
Many robot vacuums can now be controlled via smartphone.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
The S7 MaxV Ultra is head and shoulders above the rest, mainly for its tower dock — including a three-liter bagged dirt collection system and clean and soiled water reservoirs for its mop system. Combine that with a slew of other features like effective no-go zones, auto-recognition of whether a mess needs a mop or vacuum, adjustable suction power, remote control via app, and quick mapping — this robot can do everything short of putting a man on the moon.
The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra rower dock allows for easy refills of mop water and less frequent dust collection.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
A few other options out there have dust collection towers, notably the Roomba models. The iRobot Roomba i3+ EVO, iRobot Roomba j7+, iRobot Roomba s9+. The other option to note is the Shark Matrix Plus, which has a tower dock at a comparatively lower cost. Other models that lack tower docks and many high-end features may lack extra convenience, but their prices are also significantly lower.
A history report on the S7 MaxV Ultra.
The Jet Bot AI app notifications.
Worth mentioning is that the Eufy RoboVac 11S, which includes a physical remote and is one of the few models that doesn't operate entirely through an app. So, if you prefer a robot vacuum that you don't need to connect to your smartphone, this model might be an option worth considering.
A physical remote, while simplistic and interesting, doesn't enhance convenience the way an app can.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
How to Choose the Best Robot Vacuum
The sub-market of robot vacuums is a relatively new development in the wider world of more traditional vacuums. They're inherently tech heavy and have required a ton of iteration to get to where they are today - finally presenting with a mature market full of good options.
Can a Robot Vacuum Replace Your Upright Vacuum?
The short answer is, unfortunately, no. At least for now, we can hope that advances will result in some truly replacement-level options for all your cleaning needs one day. Robot vacuums as they exist today are comparatively small products that inherently lack the same cleaning, lifting, and suction power as their larger counterparts. Think of them more as a way to keep the dust and hair that accumulates with daily life under control, between the deeper cleans of your primary cleaning device. They're complimentary, not a full replacement.
It Starts and Ends with Convenience
The primary benefit to a robot vacuum is, of course, the ability to run it without much oversight, and more often than you may be compelled to pull out your bulky upright model. What you'll need to decide, though, is what level of convenience you are willing to pay for. Most models are now smart enough to automatically train themselves on the specific layout of your home, and all you have to do is set up a few requirements on the app to be up and running (things like virtual barriers and schedules). Don't be fooled, though - they'll still require plenty of touchpoints. Most models have LiDar to help navigate larger objects like furniture but don't have advanced object recognition to avoid smaller things like socks or charging cords. You'll have to pick those up before running, and also empty the collection bin afterwards. There are models out there that have said object recognition built in, and tower docks that empty the smaller on-board bins, but you will pay dearly for the extra convenience of those features. There are major trade-offs in value tied directly to how much you're willing to work with your chosen model.
What Type of Flooring do you Have?
The other main consideration is the type of flooring in your home or business. Some models score better on carpets, and some better on hard surfaces. Some models have mopping accessories, and some are too short to effectively climb the edge of some high pile shag carpets. Pet hair is a principal concern in many homes, but only a few models do an effective job of removing it, and even then, they're likely to clog the rollers more often than their more powerful cousins.
A few models are particularly convenient with added features like tower docks and mopping attachments, as seen here with the Shark Matrix Plus.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Conclusion
Hopefully this review has helped you decide which robot vacuum is the best fit for your needs and budget, regardless of whether you are looking for the absolute best of the best when it comes to these automated assistants or you're shopping on a tighter budget.
—Austin Palmer, David Wise, Kyle Hameister, and Jessica Riconscente
