Robot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have visitors on the way. Instead, your compact robot chum regularly trundles out from its dock, sucking up dust, hair and debris to leave your floors looking spick and span.
Over the past few years, robot vacuums have become much more affordable, with basic units starting at about £150. They’re also doing more than they used to, mopping areas of hard flooring and charging in sophisticated cleaning stations that empty their dust collectors and clean their mop pads for you.
In fact, the biggest effort required by you is deciding which one to buy. That’s where I can help. I’ve tested seven of the most popular models to help you find the best robot vacuum for your space.
At a glance
Best overall robot vacuum cleaner:
Eufy X10 Pro Omni
£579 at EufyBest robot vacuum for power cleaning:
Samsung Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI+
£800 at John LewisBest for no-fuss robot vacuuming and mopping:
iRobot Roomba Combo J9+
£599 at iRobotBest robot vacuum cleaner for small homes and small budgets:
Beko VRR61414VB RoboSmart
£239 at Currys
Why you should trust me
I’ve spent almost three decades reviewing technology, home and garden products, covering everything from PCs, printers and tablets to lawnmowers, coffee machines, steam cleaners and fans. I’ve tested a wide range of smart-home appliances and devices, and I know the features that make them more effective and easier to use – and those that don’t bring any real value.
How I tested
Our team scoured the stores and spoke to manufacturers to pull in the leading robot vacuum cleaners. I then gave our test subjects the workout of their little robot lives in my three-bedroom, two-floor home. Over three weeks I had them cleaning every room, switching vacuums and docks around to give each a shot at the upstairs and downstairs spaces.
The house has a mix of wooden and composite hard flooring, rugs and carpets, with various awkward, dusty corners as well as two cats shedding inconceivable quantities of hair. What’s more, the living room is a fiendish obstacle course, with two sofas, a packed TV cabinet, an Ikea Poäng armchair and a vintage suspended egg chair to navigate. Even with some lighter furnishing removed, these robot vacuums had their work cut out.
I used a smartphone sound meter to measure noise levels, and a plug-in power meter to see how much energy the docks or chargers used while idle and when charging. I also spilled flour and crunched cereal on to a barrier mat to check the suction and cleaning power of each model, treading in the crumbled shredded wheat to up the challenge. I also used the apps to check the vacuums’ mapping and scheduling capabilities and to add rooms, zones and no-go areas.
After testing, the cleaners are either being returned to their sources or donated to the British Heart Foundation.
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The best robot vacuums for 2024
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Best overall:
Eufy X10 Pro Omni
The X10 Pro Omni is not a bad price for a self-emptying, self-cleaning robot mop and vacuum. The base station washes and dries the heads between uses, refilling the internal water tank and emptying the dust collector. It uses a front-facing camera and laser technology to sense its way around your floors, spotting and identifying items, such as socks or cables, that it can then avoid. It’s powerful, with 8,000Pa of suction force, and its twin rotating mop heads can apply 1kg of downwards pressure, to give your hard floors a serious scrubbing when they need it.
Why we love it
This Eufy machine does almost everything for you, as long as you periodically empty the base station’s dust bag and dirty-water tank and refill the clean-water tank. Like the Samsung, reviewed further down, it’s great at mapping out your home and dodging potential obstacles, but it’s also better than the Samsung at cleaning on the first pass. The side brush and vacuum can shift dust and hair in seconds, while the mop left my hard floors sparkling, even dealing with dried-on spots of juice.
The app gives you plenty of control, allowing you to set up cleaning scenarios to focus on different areas. You can also tweak cleaning options such as suction power if, say, you’ve got a deep pile carpet to clean and you don’t think it’s really making an impact. The brush and roller seem particularly resistant to getting clogged with hair.
It’s a shame that … mopping isn’t so effective on the low water setting – switching up to medium will get you better results. It’s also bigger and louder than rivals, struggling to fit under low furniture and hitting 68dB on max power. Cleaning and drying the mop can be a long and noisy process.
Suction power: 8,000Pa
Robot dimensions: 327 x 353 x 114mm (WDH)
Dock dimensions: 365 x 480 x 360mm (WDH)
Maximum noise level: 68dBA
Battery life: 180 mins
Power consumption (charging): 26.4W
***
Best for fuss-free vacuuming and mopping:
iRobot Roomba Combo J9+
iRobot has been in the robot vacuum game for longer than anyone else, and it shows. The Roomba Combo j9+ is one smart cookie. It uses its camera and sensors not only to navigate your home but also to dodge obstacles and to work out which surfaces need vacuuming and which need its retractable mop.
Give it time to learn your floors and it’ll even use its Dirt Detective feature to prioritise the areas that need the most attention. When it’s done, it trundles back into its charging station, where the dust is sucked into a bag and the mop’s water tank is refilled.
Why we love it
The Roomba is quiet and effective, and it just gets on with the job. It explores rooms and then cleans in a logical fashion, working methodically through the centre before tackling the edges. It reached every area in my living room without getting caught up in tricky furniture or rugs.
The mop slides out of the top of the unit, flipping underneath while it works then popping away when not in use – a clever way to avoid it dragging along the carpet and making it soggy. And it does a great job of tackling hard floors. The app makes it easy to set schedules and mark up areas to clean or avoid, too.
It’s a shame that … the initial setup took a while, with the Roomba failing to connect to my network on the first three tries. It also missed a small area in my spot-cleaning test, though it was consistently impressive elsewhere.
You’ll have to remove and wash the mop pads yourself, and it can be expensive if you miss it while it’s on sale.
Suction power: not stated
Robot dimensions: 338 x 339 x 87mm (WDH)
Dock dimensions: 312 x 400 x 416mm (WDH)
Maximum noise level: 64dBA
Battery life: 90 mins
Power consumption (charging): 24.4W
***
Best for power cleaning:
Samsung Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI+
It’s hard to miss Samsung’s robot mop and vacuum cleaner, not least because its white base station is more of a mansion than a house, standing over half a metre tall. It’s also unnervingly speedy and has a habit of playing jingles when it starts or finishes, or on any event in between.
It uses a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanner and two 3D cameras to navigate your home, and it features twin rotating mop heads, which attach magnetically to the bottom of the unit. These are steam-cleaned and dried when the robot returns home.
Why we love it
It’s a strong all-rounder. It doesn’t have as much suction as the mighty Dyson, reviewed below, but makes up for it by hunting hair, dust and debris relentlessly until it’s gone. The rotating mop heads do a fantastic job of removing marks and stains from kitchen floors, and they lift up when not in use to avoid rubbing on the carpet.
It’s also great at navigation, picking up and even identifying potential obstacles, before carefully manoeuvring around them. Even my troublesome egg chair didn’t cause this machine any issues. With the dock’s integrated dust bin and water tanks, it’s also no great effort to maintain.
It’s a shame that … the base station is enormous, and this model is among the most expensive on test. It also struggles with rugs more than the other top vacuums, regularly pulling up the edges and creating a rumpled mess that it subsequently had trouble traversing.
Suction power: 6,000Pa
Robot dimensions: 359 x 364 x 100mm (WDH)
Dock dimensions: 444 x 510 x 547mm (WDH)
Maximum noise level: 68dBA
Battery life: 180 mins
Power consumption (charging): 45.8W
£800 at John Lewis
£800 at Samsung
***
Best for small homes and small budgets:
Beko VRR61414VB RoboSmart
Short of space? Beko’s compact cleaner doesn’t need much: it’s just 34cm across and 8cm high, with a small, simple dock for charging. There’s no mop and not a huge amount of suction power, but it uses laser tech to map out and make its way around your rooms, automatically detecting rugs and carpets then boosting up the suction power. It’ll also get into nooks and under low furniture that halts bigger robot vacuums in their tracks.
Why we love it
It’s relatively tiny and inexpensive, but don’t dismiss the Beko as a toy. Thanks to chunky wheels and ingenious suspension, it’ll make its way over tricky rugs and thresholds without any worries, and its rotating side brush has enough oomph to compensate for a meagre 2,000Pa of suction.
While it’s not the best vacuum for deep cleaning, it’s great at heading out daily to keep dust under control. Battery life isn’t epic, but two hours should be more than enough for the two floors of the average home, and it can always head back to its dock and start again later. It’s also quiet, putting out 60-61dB even at maximum power.
It’s a shame that … long hair can bind itself around the side brush and roller, and it struggled to shift all the flour in the spot cleaning test. You’ll also need to empty the internal dust collector yourself – although it has a large capacity, the vacuum works better if you do so after every session.
Suction power: 2,000Pa
Robot dimensions: 342 x 342 x 800mm (WDH)
Dock dimensions: 154 x 146 x 90mm (WDH)
Maximum noise level: 61dBA
Battery life: 130 mins
Power consumption (charging): 13.2W
£239 at Currys
£239.10 at Amazon
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The best of the rest
***
Dyson 360 Vis Nav
Best for: power
Dyson’s robot vac is the most powerful I’ve tested, dragging dirt and long hair out of carpet more effectively than any other model. It’s also great at vacuuming close to furnishings and skirting boards, and it has clever features to map out the dustiest areas of your home and increase its suction when it hits them.
The internal dust collector is easy to remove and empty, and it has a built-in Hepa filter to trap the tiny particles that aggravate common allergies. It’s easy to schedule and manage cleans with the MyDyson app, too.
It didn’t make the final cut because … it’s a bit of a bruiser that won’t fit under low furniture, and while it’s good at navigating obstacles, it left sections of our test rooms entirely untouched. It’s also ludicrously expensive for a robot vacuum with a basic charging dock.
Suction power: 65AW; robot dimensions: 322 x 332 x 99mm (WDH); dock dimensions: 265 x 102 x 180mm (WDH); maximum noise level: 70dBA; battery life: 65 mins; power consumption (charging): 61W
£1,199.99 at Dyson
£1,199 at John Lewis
***
Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1
Best for: convenience
Shark’s beefy bot came so close to making the grade. It has the same self-cleaning and self-emptying features as the Samsung, Eufy and iRobot models, and it empties into a larger dust bin rather than a bag. It can detect carpets and hard floors and will mop and/or vacuum accordingly, and it has smart features to spot and tackle hidden dirt or stubborn stains.
It also gets extra points for having an intuitive app that takes you through setup and cleaning, and even suggests amusing names for your robot friend. We’ll remember you, Colonel Dustard.
It didn’t make the final cut because … it’s effective but slow to clean, and sometimes had issues making its way back to its base station. And while the app is helpful, it doesn’t give you much control. It can map only one floor, which is fine if you live in a flat or an open-plan bungalow, but otherwise limiting.
Suction power: not stated; robot dimensions: 365 x 338 x 106mm (WDH); dock dimensions: 364 x 478 x 446mm (WDH); maximum noise level: 60dBA; battery life: 100 mins; power consumption (charging): 23.4W
£549.99 at Currys
£499.99 at Amazon
***
Ezviz RE5 Plus
Best for: big features at a low price
The RE5 Plus gives you a lot for a budget model, handling the vacuuming and mopping with the aid of a self-emptying base station. It’s smaller than similarly equipped models, though you’ll have to wash the mop pads and refill the water tank yourself.
With LiDAR navigation, it’s good at threading its way under your furniture, and it’s quiet, never putting out more than 61dBA. It’s a talkative little robot, with notifications and error messages delivered with a crisp English accent and optional Google and Alexa voice commands.
It didn’t make the final cut because … Ezviz isn’t particularly well known for its cleaning products, and the app isn’t all that intuitive, even if there is plenty of control over settings available. The RE5 Plus also had issues getting over rugs, and in the spot vacuuming tests it left a little too much flour and debris on the carpet.
Suction power: 4,000Pa; robot dimensions: 345 x 345 x 95mm (WDH); dock dimensions: 220 x 180 x 380mm (WDH); maximum noise level: 61dBA; battery life: 180 mins; power consumption (charging): 19.3W
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What you need to know
Robot vacuums fit into two categories: those that just vacuum, and those that mop as well. My advice would be to focus on the vacuum part, and on the ability to suck up dirt and grime. The mopping is good enough to remove surface spills and superficial marks, but it’s not going to replace your stream cleaner or manual mop. What’s more, some of the less flexible mop mechanisms can leave you with a soggy carpet as the robot vacuum makes its way around your floor.
Cleaning power
Suction power counts and most manufacturers will specify the maximum suction force for each cleaner in Pascals (Pa) – or air watts (AW) in Dyson’s case. However, it’s not the whole story. Different cleaners will use different combinations of rollers and rotating brushes to whisk dirt and dust off the ground and into the vacuum intake.
Some are also noticeably better than others at cleaning near the edges of a room and adjusting their suction power to match the levels of dust with which they have to deal. Most robot vacuums can do multiple passes if they need to, but this obviously adds to the cleaning time.
Navigation and emptying
The second key factor is navigation. Robot vacuums use a mix of optical and laser sensors and physical bumpers to make their way around the room, moving past obstacles and making sure they cover every area. More advanced models feature 3D cameras that map the room, giving them a clearer idea of the geography and their exact position within it. Either way, navigation skills vary dramatically, with some cleaners prone to getting lost or confused under your furniture.
Vertical navigation skills are just as important as robot vacuums will probably have to make their way over rugs and low-lying thresholds. Some of the more limber models can push, flip and clamber their way over impediments, while others just get tangled up.
Robot vacuums don’t have much space onboard for their dust collector, so they need more regular emptying than the average cordless vacuum. The pricier models work around this by having a larger dust collector or bag in the base station or dock, so that when your robot vacuum puts itself to bed for a recharge, the dock will automatically empty the dust collector and, where necessary, clean the mop head and refill the water tank.
Battery life and apps
Battery life isn’t a huge deal with modern robot vacuums. Most will easily make it around one floor or more of an average-sized home without a recharge, and they automatically return to base if they get caught short. However, a larger battery and a more efficient motor can be helpful if you have a big space to keep in shape.
And while onboard controls can be useful when you just want to clean an area quickly, you’ll spend most of your time managing your robot vacuum from a smartphone app. At the very least, these should have features to customise any room maps, adding zones that need more thorough cleaning and no-go areas where you don’t want the robot vacuum to get stuck.
Scheduling features are also very welcome, allowing you to set times when you want your plucky robot to put itself to work. And accessible controls, to change the settings or run quieter at night, can make your new friend even easier to live with.
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Stuart Andrews is a freelance journalist, with more than three decades of experience in computing and consumer tech. When he’s not messing around with PCs, laptops and projectors, he’s trying to tame his post-apocalyptic garden with the latest cordless gadgets. Likes arty movies, walking and devices that just work; hates things that won’t connect to his home network.
