The Ultimate Guide to Automatic Vacuum Cleaners
The Ultimate Guide to Automatic Vacuum Cleaners
Blog Article
While we had to cover our ears and watch our pets bolt when the iRobot Roombas ran or emptied their bins, the Q5 Max+’s emptying dock was comparably quiet.
First, your robot vacuum can literally self-empty, so if the onboard dustbin is filled mid-route, it can empty itself and then continue cleaning uninterrupted. A self-emptying base saves you from the chore of emptying the dustbin so often as well, with most bases able to hold a minimum of 45 days of dust.
Our ratings take into account these test results as well as reliability and owner satisfaction data from CR’s member surveys of thousands of robot vacuums purchased since 2013.
Roomba Combo i5+: One of iRobot’s newest models, the Combo i5+ comes with two separate, exchangeable bins, one for mopping and one for vacuuming.
It has a long run time—and it cleans quietly. The Q5 Max+’s battery lasts for 240 minutes when used on bare floors in quiet mode. If the Q5 Max+ encounters the resistance of carpets and is run on Turbo or Max mode, its run time will reduce significantly but will still be enough to vacuum a 1,500-square-foot home.
The Roomba Combo 10 Max is iRobot's first venture into the vacuum-mop combo space with a dock that washes and dries its mop—a long-awaited step toward a more fully featured robot vacuum and mop combo from the brand.
The Roomba s9+ also comes with a self-emptying charging base; while it's unfortunate that you'll have to purchase replacement bags for this base, you will only have to empty the container every 30 days. This will save you a lot of time versus emptying the onboard dustbin.
Note: Our rankings are updated frequently and can change daily based on several factors. These include fluctuations in current pricing, updated review scores, adjustments to our ranking algorithm, and whether a product has been discontinued. This ensures that our list remains as accurate and up-to-date as possible.
Vacuum the house? Clean the pool? Not your job anymore. JB's got robot vacuums from big names like Ecovacs, Eufy, iRobot and Dreame to handle the mess so you don't have to.
We also compare each vacuum’s performance to the average of all robot vacuums we’ve tested, using Vacuum Wars’ scoring methodology, to give you context on how each stands out. Let’s dive into the top robot vacuums of 2025 and see what makes each a winner.
Lidar navigation powers some competent obstacle avoidance. During our tests, the RV30 could navigate without bumping mindlessly into furniture, building a detailed map of your floorplan as it goes, to help it clean more efficiently on future runs.
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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 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners nearly all pet hair on both hardwood and carpeting, and making our list of the best robot vacuums for pet hair.
The Eufy RoboVac 11S Max is an excellent cleaner, and despite its basic bump-navigation system, it was less likely to get tangled than more expensive machines we tested. It also cleaned well along baseboards, performing better than our top pick. Sabine Heinlein/NYT Wirecutter