The best robot vacuum cleaners of 2024

, By Team SNFYI
Tech

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Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well without complaining (much). As prices have dropped, these busy little bots have become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. They can reach places most standup vacs never see (under beds and sofas) and, thanks to better batteries and robot brains, they rarely get tired of cleaning.

I’ve been testing robot vacuums for six years and have run over 60 robot vacuums all over my house. These are my top picks if you’re looking for the best: a robot vacuum that can do it all without getting stuck and with limited intervention from you.

I’ve also got options to fit specific needs, such as mopping, tackling small spaces, or besting pet hair. Check out my budget robot vacuum guide if you want to spend under $500 on a robot vacuum. Here, we’re going to look at the premium options.

While there’s been a lot of innovation in robot vacuums in recent years, we’re still far from that Rosey the Robot dream of a robot that can handle all the household chores (or stairs). But they’ve got floors down. Today, there are robots that can mop well, charging docks that empty the bin for you, and “hands-free” models that can refill their water tanks and wash their mops so you don’t have to. The biggest improvements, however, are in mapping and obstacle avoidance, two crucial skills that mean most robot vacuums today can avoid getting tripped up by your shoes and will get the job done.

Despite all these innovations, there still isn’t one robot that excels at both mopping and vacuuming. For most people, the vacuum is the thing to focus on; I consider mopping a bonus feature. I prefer a powerful vacuum for my main rooms and one that excels at mopping for rooms like the bathroom or kitchen.

The good news is that robovacs are constantly on sale; I wouldn’t pay the list price unless you want the latest model. The general range is around $500 for a standalone vacuum with good features and between $1,000 and $1,800 for an all-singing, all-dancing bot that can largely take care of itself and use AI to avoid common household clutter in its quest to clean your floors.

There are many options, and whether you have a 3,000-square-foot home and three shaggy dogs or a small, stylish apartment you share with a goldfish, there’s a robot vacuum to suit your needs.

a]:shadow-underline-white”>What I look for

It’s not all about suction. In my testing, the brush is the big factor in how well a robot will clean your floors. A large rubber roller brush is much better than a small bristle brush at picking up debris. It’s also less prone to getting tangled up with hair. Two brushes are better than one, and a brush housing that has some flexibility — and can move with the contours of the floor — is also more effective.

It’s hard to find a robot vac that doesn’t have some form of mopping, but not all mops are created equal. I looked for mopping bots that could get up dried-on stains, like milk and ketchup, and scrub up small wet spills without messing themselves up. Oscillating, spinning, or vibrating mop pads clean better than bots that just drag a wet rag around, but the new self-cleaning roller mops that are beginning to appear are even more effective. Auto-carpet sensing is also important since it prevents the robot from accidentally mopping your rug.

A big bin means you don’t need to empty it as often. The largest I’ve seen is 800ml, but anything over 500ml is decent. With many bots now pulling double duty as mopping robots, plus the popularity of self-empty dock / charging bases, it’s getting harder to find small robot vacs with big bins. But they’re worth considering — especially if you have carpets and pets. I love self-empty docks, but sometimes you don’t have space for them, and if you like your robot to be out of sight (living under your bed or sofa), you’ll want a big bin and no dock.

These are becoming standard now and coming down in price (thankfully). A self-empty dock turns the charging base for your robot into a motorized emptying station that sucks out the dirt from its bin. (Warning: this process is loud!) This saves you from having to pull out the bin after every few runs and empty it yourself. Instead, you’ll have to replace the bag (and buy new ones) when it gets full, generally about once a month. Many robots now have a self-empty dock option you can add later, although buying them together is generally cheaper.

Another nice-to-have feature, AI-powered obstacle avoidance helps your robot “intelligently” avoid clutter (and a potential poop apocalypse if it encounters pet waste). These models use cameras (worth noting) to see objects in their path and onboard processors to “decide” how to approach them based on what they see. All AI is not created equal, however, and some are much better at this than others, but the end result is robot vacuums with AI avoidance are less likely to get stuck when cleaning, so you’re more likely to come home to a clean floor rather than a beached bot.

A robot that maps your house will get into every nook and cranny better than one that bumps and rolls around. Mapping also lets you send the robot to clean specific rooms rather than the whole space and add virtual walls to prevent your bot from going where you don’t want it to. These are crucialif you have delicate objects or areas in your home that regularly trap robots. Most robots use variations on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology such as lidar or VSLAM.

A good app has easy controls to stop and start your vacuum, scheduling options (including do-not disturb hours), plus good mapping features. Nice-to-have features are room-specific cleaning and settings (so you can tell your vacuum to clean the kitchen or have it mop and vacuum the kitchen but only vacuum the living room). My biggest frustration with apps is maps that are fiddly to update and / or crash and must be rebuilt constantly. Most vacuums now have voice control (see FAQs), but some offer more in-depth control, such as telling Alexa to have the robot clean twice under the dining room table.

Nearly all robot vacuums can “recharge and resume” — take themselves back to their dock when they’re low and recharge before picking up where they left off, but a vacuum with at least 120 minutes of runtime (180 is ideal) will clean the whole house in one go. If it takes too long, noisy robots that are constantly running will get shut off by annoyed family members who aren’t about to clean the room for you.

Robot vacuums are quite an investment, and it’s important to be able to buy replacement parts to keep them going for longer and have access to good support in case your robot has a serious issue.

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With top-notch vacuuming performance, an easy-to-use app, and built-in voice control, the S8 MaxV Ultra is a superb vacuum and good mop. It features Roborock’s best obstacle avoidance, innovative features like dirt detection, and a hands-free dock that makes it an expensive but excellent choice.

Dustbin capacity: 270ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water and heated air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 10,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber/ Works with: Matter , Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra ($1,799.99) is an exceptional vacuum cleaner and a very good mop thanks to several innovations and quality-of-life features that make it a superb floor cleaner. Its dual rubber roller brushes and 10,000Pa suction make it the best robot vacuum for carpets; its mopping chops make it great for hard floors, too, and its improved AI-powered obstacle avoidance means it will mostly get the job done.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is also the best model in the relatively new category of “hands-free” robot vacs, bots that do virtually everything for you: empty their bins, refill their mop tanks, and clean and dry their mop pads. Roborock invented this category with the S7 MaxV Ultra and has been steadily improving it.

With the S8 MaxV Ultra, the company has produced the best top-of-the-line robot vacuum. If you are willing to spend the cash, this machine will keep your floors clean with relatively little intervention from you.

The big selling point here is the virtually hands-free cleaning experience. Just fill the S8 MaxV Ultra’s clean water tank and empty its dirty water once a week, then change out the dust bag every couple of months. The robot will take care of the rest.

For $100 more, you can dispense with dealing with the water tanks entirely and buy the Refill & Drainage System model. This lets you plumb the charging base directly into your home’s water supply. I’ve not tested this on the Roborock, but my experience with the SwitchBot S10 with the same feature (see below) leads me to recommend this option if it’s available to you. However, you’ll need a power supply near your water hookups, whereas the SwitchBot’s refill station is battery-powered.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is the best robot vacuum for carpets

The S8 MaxV Ultra comes with the brand’s best AI-powered obstacle avoidance, finally bringing back the camera it last had on the excellent S7 MaxV Ultra. It’s not quite as good as Roomba’s obstacle avoidance — it sometimes confused a pile of Cheerios for a charging cable and avoided them — but it’s much better than the Roborocks that rely on non-camera obstacle avoidance. It deftly navigates around most household clutter, allowing you to get the job done without having to tidy up.

Roborock has caught up to Roomba regarding cleaning prowess, and the S8 MaxV Ultra’s dual rubber brushes and 10,000Pa of suction power tackled the pet hair on my fluffy carpet and demolished my oatmeal test. It also did a better job at mopping than Roomba’s mopping bots. Its sonic mopping system — which vibrates its mop pad 4,000 times a minute — ably simulated scrubbing and wiped out my OJ and ketchup tests, though I did have to set it to deep scrub. Plus, the addition of a side mop and flexi-arm brush that extends from the bot helped with cleaning edges and corners.

Other pros of the S8 MaxV Ultra include Roborock’s mobile app, which is easy to use and comes with a laundry list of features and customizations that give you ample control over your cleaning. The S8 MaxV Ultra is also the first Roborock with a built-in voice assistant, which makes getting the bot to clean the mess your kid made after dinner as easy as saying, “Rocky, clean here.” Plus, as one of only a couple of vacs with Matter certification, it will work with all the major smart home platforms, including Apple Home, once the platforms support robot vacuums (see the FAQ section for more).

The biggest downside is the price. For $1,800, you’ve got to really want to get those corners clean and really dislike having to mess with mop pads. My previous top pick — the Roomba j7 — is still a great robot vacuum, especially if you’re not interested in mopping and would rather spend under $800.

Roborock also sells the S8 Max Ultra (no V) for $1,599.99. It has the same cleaning hardware as the MaxV but no camera, so its obstacle avoidance will not be as good. However, you also don’t have to worry about a camera in your house. It has a lower 8,000Pa of suction and lacks a voice assistant, too, which makes it seem overpriced since it’s currently available for only a couple hundred dollars less than the MaxV.

While there are better options if you want a bot that’s more of a mop, the S8 MaxV Ultra is the best at both. It can also do both in one run, as it can lift its mop 20mm, which will clear all but the highest-pile rugs. (If you have a lot of those, go for the Dreame X40 with its automatic mop removal.)

Read my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review.

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The Combo j9 Plus is the first Roomba that can refill its own mop tank and empty its own bin. With a redesigned dock that doubles as a table, increased suction power, and a new SmartScrub feature that moves back and forth to mop more effectively, it’s the best Roomba available.

Dustbin capacity: 300 ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, up and over / Mop washing: No / Mapping: Yes, vSLAM / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: N/A / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

I’m a big fan of Roombas for three main reasons: their dual rubber roller brushes rotate in opposite directions to effectively dig up dirt from carpets, their AI obstacle avoidance is by far the best, and they have a history of being easy to repair. Their auto-empty docks are some of the best-looking, too, and I like Roomba’s vSLAM mapping, which takes longer than lidar mapping but is more reliable. The Roomba app has never lost my maps, which happens frequently with lidar bots.

However, Roombas are falling behind the competition in features and cleaning prowess, especially regarding mopping. And while they’re no longer the most expensive robot vacs you can buy, they are costly. As much as I appreciate the simplicity of the iRobot app, some may prefer the deep customization options other brands offer.

The current top-of-the-line Roomba, the j9 Combo Plus, is my top pick for a Roomba, as it features a well-designed dock and can refill its own mop tank. Like the j7 Combo, the j9 has a retractable mopping pad it can lift up and over the robot to avoid getting your carpets damp and has higher suction power than previous Roombas. There’s also a nifty dirt-detect feature, which “remembers” which rooms are dirtiest and seeks them out first. The j9 is the quietest Roomba I’ve tested and offers three suction levels for an even quieter clean, something most other Roombas don’t have.

However, the mopping still feels like an afterthought. The SmartScrub feature that tells the robot to wiggle its butt to scrub your floors works surprisingly well, but the mopping pad is too small to clean your floors effectively, and you still have to clean the mop manually. Most every other robot with a mop and dock will wash and dry it for you. If you’re not interested in mopping, the j7 is still a great robot (see below for more).

I did run into a few issues with connectivity, with the j9 going offline for no apparent reason. It also regularly struggled to dock itself correctly, so I’d often find it dead when it was time to clean. These are all issues that should be resolved via software updates, and overall, the j9 Combo Plus is iRobot’s most advanced floor-cleaning machine. It looks good, vacuums well, and mops acceptably, but you will need to get your hands dirty to deal with its little mop pad.

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My previous top pick, the j7 offers great AI-powered obstacle avoidance, excellent navigation skills, and superior cleaning power. It can be a bit rough with furniture and its app has become confusing in pursuit of simplicity. But it is aggressive at getting your floor clean and is my favorite vacuum-only Roomba.

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With a handy ability to remove and reattach its mop pads, the Dreame X40 solves the problem of vacuuming carpets while also mopping hard floors. Its mops can also swing out and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach. An extendable side brush helps get dirt out of corners and a whopping 12,000Pa of suction makes this a great vac.

Dustbin capacity: 300ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 12,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Dreame X40 is the best robot vacuum / mop hybrid because it can drop its mop pads automatically, extend them, and swing them to get under your cabinets and consoles. I watched the X40 spread its mops wide apart and swing behind my TV console, allowing it to access the dust wedged a good inch under it. That’s impressive.

The X40 also features an extending side brush arm to reach corners — like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra — and its dual oscillating mop pads are more effective than Roborock’s thin microfiber pad. If you have a mix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the best robot vacuum for you.

Its signature feature is its ability to automatically remove and reattach its mop pads depending on whether it’s vacuuming or mopping. This solves the problem of how to vacuum and mop without getting your rugs wet. The robot will do this procedure multiple times during cleaning to ensure carpets are vacuumed and floors are mopped. Genius.

While it’s a superb mopper, its vacuuming prowess is slightly behind the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra because, despite its 12,000Pa suction power, it still only has a single roller rubber brush. The Roborock’s dual rollers are simply better at getting dirt out of carpets and tackling pet hair.

Roborock’s app is also more stable and easier to use than Dreame’s, which often crashes and can take a while to load. While the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is my top pick overall, the Dreame X40 is a very good vacuum, and the two companies are neck and neck regarding innovative features.

If you have a mix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the best robot vacuum for you.

The X40 can also clean its washboard, something the Roborock can’t. That area can get quite grungy, so it needs a clean every few weeks. The X40 has AI-powered smart dirt detection that uses its cameras to identify spills like milk or particularly dirty areas. When it spots something, it will slow down and do a more thorough cleaning. I also like Dreame’s option to vacuum first and then mop, which the Roborock doesn’t offer.

The X40 has AI-powered obstacle avoidance, although Roborock’s is just a bit better. However, both still get tripped up occasionally by pencils and other small items —something that never happens with the Roomba j7 or j9.

The X40 has a couple of cheaper siblings: the L20 Ultra (more on that below) and the X30 Ultra, which came out only a few months ago. The X30 Ultra costs $1,700 (and is currently on sale for $1,600) and has many of the same features as the X40. However, you don’t get the extendable side brush, and it has lower suction power (8,300Pa). Also, while it can extend its mop pads, it can’t swing its body sideways to go further under low furniture.

Read my Dreame X30 Ultra review.

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The L20 Ultra is a great all-around bot that can remove its mop pads to vacuum carpet and do the splits with its mops to better clean your baseboards. It has 7,000Pa suction, a bigger base station, and fewer advanced cleaning features than the newer X30 and X40 Ultra models, but it’s still an excellent robot vacuum.

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The X10 is a great robovac with excellent AI-powered obstacle avoidance, powerful oscillating mops, a user-friendly app, and good mapping capabilities. Its rubber bristle brush means it is not as good as my top picks at getting up dirt and debris, but it’s a terrific price for a bot with all these functions, and as a bonus, its dock is compact and not a major eyesore.

Dustbin capacity: Unknown/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes/ Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,000Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual/ Brush style: single rubber / bristle hybrid/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

The Eufy X10 Pro Omni combines the Eufy Clean X9 Pro mopping robot vacuum and the Eufy X8 Pro self-empty robot vacuum. It’s the first Eufy with a multifunction auto-empty / wash / fill dock, and unlike many bots in this price range, it comes with AI-powered obstacle avoidance.

With 8,000Pa suction and oscillating dual spinning brushes for mopping, the X10 has all the same basic functions as the top-of-the-line, all-in-one bots. But it’s not quite as good at any of them, which is sort of the definition of “midrange.”

The Eufy performed excellently in my mopping tests, even eradicating dried stains with its 1kg of downward pressure. Thanks to an onboard water reservoir, it didn’t have to head home to fill up as frequently as some mopping bots do. It also has heated mop drying to help prevent the base from getting stinky — a first in this price range. (There’s no hot water washing.)

An edge-hugging mode makes the robot swing its behind into the baseboards to help mop edges. With its square-ish shape, it got into corners better than most of the round bots. But its 12mm mop pad lift over carpet wasn’t effective, resulting in its pads getting hung up in a few places.

The X10 has superb object recognition, allowing it to suck up Cheerios and piles of oatmeal while deftly navigating fake dog turds and cables. However, its navigation sometimes got screwy; it would go into a corner and stay there for a while, trying to figure itself out.

While its vacuuming is good, particularly on carpet and tile surfaces, the single rubber / bristle roller brush lets it down and is a good illustration of my point that it’s not all about suction power; it’s also about the brushes and how you use them. The Eufy’s brush is supposedly anti-tangle — a cutting tool inside the robot should shred the hair — but this wasn’t effective.

One fun feature is Smart Track cleaning. This lets you nudge the robot with your foot, and it will start following you, cleaning as it goes. You can hit the on-device spot clean button when you get to an area you want cleaned. This is a nice change from relying on an app to get your robot to go where you want it to.

The Eufy Clean app is very easy to use, and the lidar-powered mapping was fast and accurate, dividing my rooms correctly on the first try. There are many customization options — including room-specific cleaning, zone cleaning, and customized cleaning — but the app is clear and well laid out.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:float-left sm:mb-20 sm:mr-20 sm:w-[300px] sm:min-w-[300px]” data-item-id=”YO1e8c” href=”https://goto.walmart.com/c/482924/565706/9383?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FRoborock-Q-Revo-Robot-Vacuum-and-Mop-with-Self-Emptying-Self-Drying-5-500Pa-Suction-Obstacle-Avoidance-Black%2F2327485293″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock. class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full” data-item-id=”YO1e8c” href=”https://goto.walmart.com/c/482924/565706/9383?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FRoborock-Q-Revo-Robot-Vacuum-and-Mop-with-Self-Emptying-Self-Drying-5-500Pa-Suction-Obstacle-Avoidance-Black%2F2327485293″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.

This is a great bot with a multifunction dock that can auto-empty its bin, fill its water tank, and clean and dry its oscillating mops. There’s no AI-powered obstacle avoidance or heated mop drying, but it has a compact dock and works with the excellent Roborock app. It can also lift its mops over carpet and has a rubber brush that’s less prone to tangling.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:hidden” data-item-id=”S3B4Gp” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPLP422K?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall. class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full sm:block” data-item-id=”S3B4Gp” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPLP422K?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.

A superior mopping bot with a superior price tag, the Narwal is smart enough to know when it needs to go back and mop more and is the best bot for keeping your hard-surface floors spotless. Its vacuuming is good and a unique onboard compression bin means no loud auto-emptying. But its obstacle avoidance is spotty (there’s no camera), and the app is a challenge.

Dustbin capacity: 1L/ Self-empty dock option: No/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,200Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, conical rubber bristle hybrid/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is one of the best mopping robots I’ve tested — and it’s a great vacuum, too. Its spinning triangular mop pads rotate at 180RPM with 12n of downward pressure Combined with its ability to swing slightly to get closer to baseboards, the Narwhal does a good job on hard floors. Its two four-liter water tanks will keep you going longer than most other mopping bots as well, the bulk of which feature smaller tanks.

The Narwhal has some innovative features, including dirt sense — which analyzes the dirt level in the water and prompts it to remop — and an ability to adapt the pressure of its mop based on the type of floor material, applying more pressure to tile and less to hardwood. “Freo” refers to the bot’s ability to make cleaning “decisions,” including going back to clean dirty floors.

Its charging dock is very big, though, giving off a real Wall-E vibe. But despite the size, there’s no spot for an auto-empty dustbin; instead, Narwal’s disposable onboard bin can compress the dust, and Narwhal claims you won’t need to empty it for up to 60 days. In two weeks of testing, it wasn’t close to full, but I’ll report back after two months. A bonus here is that there’s no loud noise, as is the case with most auto-empty docks.

In fact, the Freo X Ultra is one of the quietest bots I’ve tested. Even at full power, it was so quiet that I had to check that it was actually working. Its anti-tangle brush and 8,200Pa suction did a good job on most carpet, but its 12mm mop lifting isn’t good for plush carpets.

Narwal’s obstacle avoidance is also not great; there’s no camera, and it routinely eats cables. Its three lasers can identify objects as small as a sock and move around them, and it did pass my fake pet poop test.

The app is very hard to follow, making it tricky to access all the bot’s features. Mapping was fast, but it didn’t recognize all my rooms on the first go. It did better the second time, although splitting up rooms and naming them in the app was painful. The lack of a camera also means its navigation is spotty, and sending it to clean specific rooms wasn’t always successful.

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The S10 is a great mopping robot with a battery-powered water refill dock that makes it the most hands-free robovac we’ve tested. A separate auto-empty dock takes care of the dust. It’s big and loud and lacks some features found on high-end robots, but it does a great job of keeping your floors clean.

Dustbin capacity: 4L/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-Lift: Yes, fully retracts / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 6,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber roller/ Works with: Matter (including Apple Home),Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The SwitchBot S10 is a multitasking robot that hooks into your plumbing for a virtually hands-free sweeping and mopping experience. It’s one of the best robot mops I’ve tested thanks to its self-cleaning roller mop and the fact that I never had to empty or fill its water tanks. These two features meant I could set it and forget it and have clean floors for weeks.

I tested the S10’s mopping capabilities in a large bathroom where I recently installed a new white tile floor — one that looks filthy within a day of being cleaned. I set it to vacuum and mop every day, and the floor has stayed spotless since.

Roller mops may be the future of robot mopping. The Eufy S1 Pro I’ve started testing also has one, and both bots do a far better job at getting floors properly clean than the dual spinning mop pads, which are, in turn, better than the thin microfibre pads.

The greater surface area combined with the self-cleaning function — the vac sprays water onto the mop as it runs — left the tiles cleaner than the Narwal Freo X Ultra. However, the SwitchBot only has a small rubber roller brush for vacuuming, and the mop extends just halfway along the robot — meaning it doesn’t tackle edges, baseboards, and corners as well as my top picks.

I really like the S10s dual docking system. Its main dock is a charging / auto-empty dock, and there’s a separate battery-powered dock water station that you can put in a different room (I hooked it up in my laundry room). Both docks are small and unobtrusive — especially compared to the Dreame and Roborock docks — but the plumbing hookup isn’t elegant. There was a lot of extra cabling, and the width of the robot meant I couldn’t tuck the dock under my sink.

Roller mops may be the future of robot mopping.

While the SwitchBot is a good vacuum, it’s not the best. Its relatively paltry 6,500Pa of suction power is low compared to the competition, but the bot’s weight did help the rubber roller brush dig into the carpet and get up most of the cat hair.

Other downsides include the AI obstacle avoidance, which isn’t great. The S10 frequently got stuck on clothes left on my floor and bath mats, its battery life is short, and it lacks high-end features like dirt detection. It also currently only works with a direct plumbing hookup, so don’t get it unless you plan to hook it into your water supply.

It’s a game-changer not having to empty a dirty water tank or have my floor go unmopped because I forgot to fill the clean water tank. The S10 isn’t totally hands-free (the auto-empty station got a bit grungy during testing and required some cleaning), but in two months of testing, the mop has stayed clean. I haven’t even had to empty the four-liter dust bag yet.

Read my full review of the SwitchBot S10.

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The Q5 Pro has a huge bin and big wheels to get up on higher-pile carpets easily. It has a small removable mopping reservoir for when there are dirty paws on the floors, but its main job is to suck up dirt and pet hair, and it does very well at both.

Dustbin capacity: 770ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: No / Mapping: Yes/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: No / Suction power: 5,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual, rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

My recommendation for families with pets who don’t want to spend a small fortune on an auto-empty robot vacuum is to buy a good bot with a big bin. These are getting harder to find now that every bot wants to be a multitasker and also mop (the water reservoir takes up valuable dustbin room). So, I was very pleased with Roborock’s recent entry-level robot, the Q5 Pro; it’s my new favorite for pet hair.

This relatively inexpensive vacuum has a huge 770ml bin on board and dual rubber brushes that are better at getting pet hair out of rugs than single brushes. The rubber is also less prone than bristles to getting tangled with hair, and combined with 5,500Pa suction power, this vacuum does a really good job on very dirty floors. It does have a removable mopping pad with a small water tank built into it, which is useful for getting up the fine dust left behind by the vacuum, but it isn’t going to scrub your floors. It will, however, keep the pet hair at bay.

Don’t confuse this with the cheaper Roborock Q5, however. That bot has a smaller bin, lower suction, shorter runtime, and only one roller brush. It’s worth spending the extra for the Pro.

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The best robot vacuum cleaners of 2024

, Published By Team SNFYI
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Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well without complaining (much). As prices have dropped, these busy little bots have become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. They can reach places most standup vacs never see (under beds and sofas) and, thanks to better batteries and robot brains, they rarely get tired of cleaning.

I’ve been testing robot vacuums for six years and have run over 60 robot vacuums all over my house. These are my top picks if you’re looking for the best: a robot vacuum that can do it all without getting stuck and with limited intervention from you.

I’ve also got options to fit specific needs, such as mopping, tackling small spaces, or besting pet hair. Check out my budget robot vacuum guide if you want to spend under $500 on a robot vacuum. Here, we’re going to look at the premium options.

While there’s been a lot of innovation in robot vacuums in recent years, we’re still far from that Rosey the Robot dream of a robot that can handle all the household chores (or stairs). But they’ve got floors down. Today, there are robots that can mop well, charging docks that empty the bin for you, and “hands-free” models that can refill their water tanks and wash their mops so you don’t have to. The biggest improvements, however, are in mapping and obstacle avoidance, two crucial skills that mean most robot vacuums today can avoid getting tripped up by your shoes and will get the job done.

Despite all these innovations, there still isn’t one robot that excels at both mopping and vacuuming. For most people, the vacuum is the thing to focus on; I consider mopping a bonus feature. I prefer a powerful vacuum for my main rooms and one that excels at mopping for rooms like the bathroom or kitchen.

The good news is that robovacs are constantly on sale; I wouldn’t pay the list price unless you want the latest model. The general range is around $500 for a standalone vacuum with good features and between $1,000 and $1,800 for an all-singing, all-dancing bot that can largely take care of itself and use AI to avoid common household clutter in its quest to clean your floors.

There are many options, and whether you have a 3,000-square-foot home and three shaggy dogs or a small, stylish apartment you share with a goldfish, there’s a robot vacuum to suit your needs.

a]:shadow-underline-white”>What I look for

It’s not all about suction. In my testing, the brush is the big factor in how well a robot will clean your floors. A large rubber roller brush is much better than a small bristle brush at picking up debris. It’s also less prone to getting tangled up with hair. Two brushes are better than one, and a brush housing that has some flexibility — and can move with the contours of the floor — is also more effective.

It’s hard to find a robot vac that doesn’t have some form of mopping, but not all mops are created equal. I looked for mopping bots that could get up dried-on stains, like milk and ketchup, and scrub up small wet spills without messing themselves up. Oscillating, spinning, or vibrating mop pads clean better than bots that just drag a wet rag around, but the new self-cleaning roller mops that are beginning to appear are even more effective. Auto-carpet sensing is also important since it prevents the robot from accidentally mopping your rug.

A big bin means you don’t need to empty it as often. The largest I’ve seen is 800ml, but anything over 500ml is decent. With many bots now pulling double duty as mopping robots, plus the popularity of self-empty dock / charging bases, it’s getting harder to find small robot vacs with big bins. But they’re worth considering — especially if you have carpets and pets. I love self-empty docks, but sometimes you don’t have space for them, and if you like your robot to be out of sight (living under your bed or sofa), you’ll want a big bin and no dock.

These are becoming standard now and coming down in price (thankfully). A self-empty dock turns the charging base for your robot into a motorized emptying station that sucks out the dirt from its bin. (Warning: this process is loud!) This saves you from having to pull out the bin after every few runs and empty it yourself. Instead, you’ll have to replace the bag (and buy new ones) when it gets full, generally about once a month. Many robots now have a self-empty dock option you can add later, although buying them together is generally cheaper.

Another nice-to-have feature, AI-powered obstacle avoidance helps your robot “intelligently” avoid clutter (and a potential poop apocalypse if it encounters pet waste). These models use cameras (worth noting) to see objects in their path and onboard processors to “decide” how to approach them based on what they see. All AI is not created equal, however, and some are much better at this than others, but the end result is robot vacuums with AI avoidance are less likely to get stuck when cleaning, so you’re more likely to come home to a clean floor rather than a beached bot.

A robot that maps your house will get into every nook and cranny better than one that bumps and rolls around. Mapping also lets you send the robot to clean specific rooms rather than the whole space and add virtual walls to prevent your bot from going where you don’t want it to. These are crucialif you have delicate objects or areas in your home that regularly trap robots. Most robots use variations on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology such as lidar or VSLAM.

A good app has easy controls to stop and start your vacuum, scheduling options (including do-not disturb hours), plus good mapping features. Nice-to-have features are room-specific cleaning and settings (so you can tell your vacuum to clean the kitchen or have it mop and vacuum the kitchen but only vacuum the living room). My biggest frustration with apps is maps that are fiddly to update and / or crash and must be rebuilt constantly. Most vacuums now have voice control (see FAQs), but some offer more in-depth control, such as telling Alexa to have the robot clean twice under the dining room table.

Nearly all robot vacuums can “recharge and resume” — take themselves back to their dock when they’re low and recharge before picking up where they left off, but a vacuum with at least 120 minutes of runtime (180 is ideal) will clean the whole house in one go. If it takes too long, noisy robots that are constantly running will get shut off by annoyed family members who aren’t about to clean the room for you.

Robot vacuums are quite an investment, and it’s important to be able to buy replacement parts to keep them going for longer and have access to good support in case your robot has a serious issue.

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With top-notch vacuuming performance, an easy-to-use app, and built-in voice control, the S8 MaxV Ultra is a superb vacuum and good mop. It features Roborock’s best obstacle avoidance, innovative features like dirt detection, and a hands-free dock that makes it an expensive but excellent choice.

Dustbin capacity: 270ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water and heated air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 10,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber/ Works with: Matter , Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra ($1,799.99) is an exceptional vacuum cleaner and a very good mop thanks to several innovations and quality-of-life features that make it a superb floor cleaner. Its dual rubber roller brushes and 10,000Pa suction make it the best robot vacuum for carpets; its mopping chops make it great for hard floors, too, and its improved AI-powered obstacle avoidance means it will mostly get the job done.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is also the best model in the relatively new category of “hands-free” robot vacs, bots that do virtually everything for you: empty their bins, refill their mop tanks, and clean and dry their mop pads. Roborock invented this category with the S7 MaxV Ultra and has been steadily improving it.

With the S8 MaxV Ultra, the company has produced the best top-of-the-line robot vacuum. If you are willing to spend the cash, this machine will keep your floors clean with relatively little intervention from you.

The big selling point here is the virtually hands-free cleaning experience. Just fill the S8 MaxV Ultra’s clean water tank and empty its dirty water once a week, then change out the dust bag every couple of months. The robot will take care of the rest.

For $100 more, you can dispense with dealing with the water tanks entirely and buy the Refill & Drainage System model. This lets you plumb the charging base directly into your home’s water supply. I’ve not tested this on the Roborock, but my experience with the SwitchBot S10 with the same feature (see below) leads me to recommend this option if it’s available to you. However, you’ll need a power supply near your water hookups, whereas the SwitchBot’s refill station is battery-powered.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is the best robot vacuum for carpets

The S8 MaxV Ultra comes with the brand’s best AI-powered obstacle avoidance, finally bringing back the camera it last had on the excellent S7 MaxV Ultra. It’s not quite as good as Roomba’s obstacle avoidance — it sometimes confused a pile of Cheerios for a charging cable and avoided them — but it’s much better than the Roborocks that rely on non-camera obstacle avoidance. It deftly navigates around most household clutter, allowing you to get the job done without having to tidy up.

Roborock has caught up to Roomba regarding cleaning prowess, and the S8 MaxV Ultra’s dual rubber brushes and 10,000Pa of suction power tackled the pet hair on my fluffy carpet and demolished my oatmeal test. It also did a better job at mopping than Roomba’s mopping bots. Its sonic mopping system — which vibrates its mop pad 4,000 times a minute — ably simulated scrubbing and wiped out my OJ and ketchup tests, though I did have to set it to deep scrub. Plus, the addition of a side mop and flexi-arm brush that extends from the bot helped with cleaning edges and corners.

Other pros of the S8 MaxV Ultra include Roborock’s mobile app, which is easy to use and comes with a laundry list of features and customizations that give you ample control over your cleaning. The S8 MaxV Ultra is also the first Roborock with a built-in voice assistant, which makes getting the bot to clean the mess your kid made after dinner as easy as saying, “Rocky, clean here.” Plus, as one of only a couple of vacs with Matter certification, it will work with all the major smart home platforms, including Apple Home, once the platforms support robot vacuums (see the FAQ section for more).

The biggest downside is the price. For $1,800, you’ve got to really want to get those corners clean and really dislike having to mess with mop pads. My previous top pick — the Roomba j7 — is still a great robot vacuum, especially if you’re not interested in mopping and would rather spend under $800.

Roborock also sells the S8 Max Ultra (no V) for $1,599.99. It has the same cleaning hardware as the MaxV but no camera, so its obstacle avoidance will not be as good. However, you also don’t have to worry about a camera in your house. It has a lower 8,000Pa of suction and lacks a voice assistant, too, which makes it seem overpriced since it’s currently available for only a couple hundred dollars less than the MaxV.

While there are better options if you want a bot that’s more of a mop, the S8 MaxV Ultra is the best at both. It can also do both in one run, as it can lift its mop 20mm, which will clear all but the highest-pile rugs. (If you have a lot of those, go for the Dreame X40 with its automatic mop removal.)

Read my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review.

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The Combo j9 Plus is the first Roomba that can refill its own mop tank and empty its own bin. With a redesigned dock that doubles as a table, increased suction power, and a new SmartScrub feature that moves back and forth to mop more effectively, it’s the best Roomba available.

Dustbin capacity: 300 ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, up and over / Mop washing: No / Mapping: Yes, vSLAM / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: N/A / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

I’m a big fan of Roombas for three main reasons: their dual rubber roller brushes rotate in opposite directions to effectively dig up dirt from carpets, their AI obstacle avoidance is by far the best, and they have a history of being easy to repair. Their auto-empty docks are some of the best-looking, too, and I like Roomba’s vSLAM mapping, which takes longer than lidar mapping but is more reliable. The Roomba app has never lost my maps, which happens frequently with lidar bots.

However, Roombas are falling behind the competition in features and cleaning prowess, especially regarding mopping. And while they’re no longer the most expensive robot vacs you can buy, they are costly. As much as I appreciate the simplicity of the iRobot app, some may prefer the deep customization options other brands offer.

The current top-of-the-line Roomba, the j9 Combo Plus, is my top pick for a Roomba, as it features a well-designed dock and can refill its own mop tank. Like the j7 Combo, the j9 has a retractable mopping pad it can lift up and over the robot to avoid getting your carpets damp and has higher suction power than previous Roombas. There’s also a nifty dirt-detect feature, which “remembers” which rooms are dirtiest and seeks them out first. The j9 is the quietest Roomba I’ve tested and offers three suction levels for an even quieter clean, something most other Roombas don’t have.

However, the mopping still feels like an afterthought. The SmartScrub feature that tells the robot to wiggle its butt to scrub your floors works surprisingly well, but the mopping pad is too small to clean your floors effectively, and you still have to clean the mop manually. Most every other robot with a mop and dock will wash and dry it for you. If you’re not interested in mopping, the j7 is still a great robot (see below for more).

I did run into a few issues with connectivity, with the j9 going offline for no apparent reason. It also regularly struggled to dock itself correctly, so I’d often find it dead when it was time to clean. These are all issues that should be resolved via software updates, and overall, the j9 Combo Plus is iRobot’s most advanced floor-cleaning machine. It looks good, vacuums well, and mops acceptably, but you will need to get your hands dirty to deal with its little mop pad.

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My previous top pick, the j7 offers great AI-powered obstacle avoidance, excellent navigation skills, and superior cleaning power. It can be a bit rough with furniture and its app has become confusing in pursuit of simplicity. But it is aggressive at getting your floor clean and is my favorite vacuum-only Roomba.

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With a handy ability to remove and reattach its mop pads, the Dreame X40 solves the problem of vacuuming carpets while also mopping hard floors. Its mops can also swing out and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach. An extendable side brush helps get dirt out of corners and a whopping 12,000Pa of suction makes this a great vac.

Dustbin capacity: 300ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 12,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Dreame X40 is the best robot vacuum / mop hybrid because it can drop its mop pads automatically, extend them, and swing them to get under your cabinets and consoles. I watched the X40 spread its mops wide apart and swing behind my TV console, allowing it to access the dust wedged a good inch under it. That’s impressive.

The X40 also features an extending side brush arm to reach corners — like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra — and its dual oscillating mop pads are more effective than Roborock’s thin microfiber pad. If you have a mix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the best robot vacuum for you.

Its signature feature is its ability to automatically remove and reattach its mop pads depending on whether it’s vacuuming or mopping. This solves the problem of how to vacuum and mop without getting your rugs wet. The robot will do this procedure multiple times during cleaning to ensure carpets are vacuumed and floors are mopped. Genius.

While it’s a superb mopper, its vacuuming prowess is slightly behind the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra because, despite its 12,000Pa suction power, it still only has a single roller rubber brush. The Roborock’s dual rollers are simply better at getting dirt out of carpets and tackling pet hair.

Roborock’s app is also more stable and easier to use than Dreame’s, which often crashes and can take a while to load. While the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is my top pick overall, the Dreame X40 is a very good vacuum, and the two companies are neck and neck regarding innovative features.

If you have a mix of carpeted rooms and hardwood floors with high-pile rugs, the Dreame is the best robot vacuum for you.

The X40 can also clean its washboard, something the Roborock can’t. That area can get quite grungy, so it needs a clean every few weeks. The X40 has AI-powered smart dirt detection that uses its cameras to identify spills like milk or particularly dirty areas. When it spots something, it will slow down and do a more thorough cleaning. I also like Dreame’s option to vacuum first and then mop, which the Roborock doesn’t offer.

The X40 has AI-powered obstacle avoidance, although Roborock’s is just a bit better. However, both still get tripped up occasionally by pencils and other small items —something that never happens with the Roomba j7 or j9.

The X40 has a couple of cheaper siblings: the L20 Ultra (more on that below) and the X30 Ultra, which came out only a few months ago. The X30 Ultra costs $1,700 (and is currently on sale for $1,600) and has many of the same features as the X40. However, you don’t get the extendable side brush, and it has lower suction power (8,300Pa). Also, while it can extend its mop pads, it can’t swing its body sideways to go further under low furniture.

Read my Dreame X30 Ultra review.

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The L20 Ultra is a great all-around bot that can remove its mop pads to vacuum carpet and do the splits with its mops to better clean your baseboards. It has 7,000Pa suction, a bigger base station, and fewer advanced cleaning features than the newer X30 and X40 Ultra models, but it’s still an excellent robot vacuum.

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The X10 is a great robovac with excellent AI-powered obstacle avoidance, powerful oscillating mops, a user-friendly app, and good mapping capabilities. Its rubber bristle brush means it is not as good as my top picks at getting up dirt and debris, but it’s a terrific price for a bot with all these functions, and as a bonus, its dock is compact and not a major eyesore.

Dustbin capacity: Unknown/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes/ Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,000Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual/ Brush style: single rubber / bristle hybrid/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

The Eufy X10 Pro Omni combines the Eufy Clean X9 Pro mopping robot vacuum and the Eufy X8 Pro self-empty robot vacuum. It’s the first Eufy with a multifunction auto-empty / wash / fill dock, and unlike many bots in this price range, it comes with AI-powered obstacle avoidance.

With 8,000Pa suction and oscillating dual spinning brushes for mopping, the X10 has all the same basic functions as the top-of-the-line, all-in-one bots. But it’s not quite as good at any of them, which is sort of the definition of “midrange.”

The Eufy performed excellently in my mopping tests, even eradicating dried stains with its 1kg of downward pressure. Thanks to an onboard water reservoir, it didn’t have to head home to fill up as frequently as some mopping bots do. It also has heated mop drying to help prevent the base from getting stinky — a first in this price range. (There’s no hot water washing.)

An edge-hugging mode makes the robot swing its behind into the baseboards to help mop edges. With its square-ish shape, it got into corners better than most of the round bots. But its 12mm mop pad lift over carpet wasn’t effective, resulting in its pads getting hung up in a few places.

The X10 has superb object recognition, allowing it to suck up Cheerios and piles of oatmeal while deftly navigating fake dog turds and cables. However, its navigation sometimes got screwy; it would go into a corner and stay there for a while, trying to figure itself out.

While its vacuuming is good, particularly on carpet and tile surfaces, the single rubber / bristle roller brush lets it down and is a good illustration of my point that it’s not all about suction power; it’s also about the brushes and how you use them. The Eufy’s brush is supposedly anti-tangle — a cutting tool inside the robot should shred the hair — but this wasn’t effective.

One fun feature is Smart Track cleaning. This lets you nudge the robot with your foot, and it will start following you, cleaning as it goes. You can hit the on-device spot clean button when you get to an area you want cleaned. This is a nice change from relying on an app to get your robot to go where you want it to.

The Eufy Clean app is very easy to use, and the lidar-powered mapping was fast and accurate, dividing my rooms correctly on the first try. There are many customization options — including room-specific cleaning, zone cleaning, and customized cleaning — but the app is clear and well laid out.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:float-left sm:mb-20 sm:mr-20 sm:w-[300px] sm:min-w-[300px]” data-item-id=”YO1e8c” href=”https://goto.walmart.com/c/482924/565706/9383?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FRoborock-Q-Revo-Robot-Vacuum-and-Mop-with-Self-Emptying-Self-Drying-5-500Pa-Suction-Obstacle-Avoidance-Black%2F2327485293″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock. class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full” data-item-id=”YO1e8c” href=”https://goto.walmart.com/c/482924/565706/9383?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FRoborock-Q-Revo-Robot-Vacuum-and-Mop-with-Self-Emptying-Self-Drying-5-500Pa-Suction-Obstacle-Avoidance-Black%2F2327485293″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.

This is a great bot with a multifunction dock that can auto-empty its bin, fill its water tank, and clean and dry its oscillating mops. There’s no AI-powered obstacle avoidance or heated mop drying, but it has a compact dock and works with the excellent Roborock app. It can also lift its mops over carpet and has a rubber brush that’s less prone to tangling.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:hidden” data-item-id=”S3B4Gp” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPLP422K?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall. class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full sm:block” data-item-id=”S3B4Gp” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPLP422K?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.Narwal’s Freo X Ultra against the wall.

A superior mopping bot with a superior price tag, the Narwal is smart enough to know when it needs to go back and mop more and is the best bot for keeping your hard-surface floors spotless. Its vacuuming is good and a unique onboard compression bin means no loud auto-emptying. But its obstacle avoidance is spotty (there’s no camera), and the app is a challenge.

Dustbin capacity: 1L/ Self-empty dock option: No/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 12mm / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 8,200Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, conical rubber bristle hybrid/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is one of the best mopping robots I’ve tested — and it’s a great vacuum, too. Its spinning triangular mop pads rotate at 180RPM with 12n of downward pressure Combined with its ability to swing slightly to get closer to baseboards, the Narwhal does a good job on hard floors. Its two four-liter water tanks will keep you going longer than most other mopping bots as well, the bulk of which feature smaller tanks.

The Narwhal has some innovative features, including dirt sense — which analyzes the dirt level in the water and prompts it to remop — and an ability to adapt the pressure of its mop based on the type of floor material, applying more pressure to tile and less to hardwood. “Freo” refers to the bot’s ability to make cleaning “decisions,” including going back to clean dirty floors.

Its charging dock is very big, though, giving off a real Wall-E vibe. But despite the size, there’s no spot for an auto-empty dustbin; instead, Narwal’s disposable onboard bin can compress the dust, and Narwhal claims you won’t need to empty it for up to 60 days. In two weeks of testing, it wasn’t close to full, but I’ll report back after two months. A bonus here is that there’s no loud noise, as is the case with most auto-empty docks.

In fact, the Freo X Ultra is one of the quietest bots I’ve tested. Even at full power, it was so quiet that I had to check that it was actually working. Its anti-tangle brush and 8,200Pa suction did a good job on most carpet, but its 12mm mop lifting isn’t good for plush carpets.

Narwal’s obstacle avoidance is also not great; there’s no camera, and it routinely eats cables. Its three lasers can identify objects as small as a sock and move around them, and it did pass my fake pet poop test.

The app is very hard to follow, making it tricky to access all the bot’s features. Mapping was fast, but it didn’t recognize all my rooms on the first go. It did better the second time, although splitting up rooms and naming them in the app was painful. The lack of a camera also means its navigation is spotty, and sending it to clean specific rooms wasn’t always successful.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:hidden” data-item-id=”3R0w2z” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSNB6TF8?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”> class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full sm:block” data-item-id=”3R0w2z” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSNB6TF8?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>

The S10 is a great mopping robot with a battery-powered water refill dock that makes it the most hands-free robovac we’ve tested. A separate auto-empty dock takes care of the dust. It’s big and loud and lacks some features found on high-end robots, but it does a great job of keeping your floors clean.

Dustbin capacity: 4L/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-Lift: Yes, fully retracts / Mop washing: Yes, hot air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 6,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Single, rubber roller/ Works with: Matter (including Apple Home),Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The SwitchBot S10 is a multitasking robot that hooks into your plumbing for a virtually hands-free sweeping and mopping experience. It’s one of the best robot mops I’ve tested thanks to its self-cleaning roller mop and the fact that I never had to empty or fill its water tanks. These two features meant I could set it and forget it and have clean floors for weeks.

I tested the S10’s mopping capabilities in a large bathroom where I recently installed a new white tile floor — one that looks filthy within a day of being cleaned. I set it to vacuum and mop every day, and the floor has stayed spotless since.

Roller mops may be the future of robot mopping. The Eufy S1 Pro I’ve started testing also has one, and both bots do a far better job at getting floors properly clean than the dual spinning mop pads, which are, in turn, better than the thin microfibre pads.

The greater surface area combined with the self-cleaning function — the vac sprays water onto the mop as it runs — left the tiles cleaner than the Narwal Freo X Ultra. However, the SwitchBot only has a small rubber roller brush for vacuuming, and the mop extends just halfway along the robot — meaning it doesn’t tackle edges, baseboards, and corners as well as my top picks.

I really like the S10s dual docking system. Its main dock is a charging / auto-empty dock, and there’s a separate battery-powered dock water station that you can put in a different room (I hooked it up in my laundry room). Both docks are small and unobtrusive — especially compared to the Dreame and Roborock docks — but the plumbing hookup isn’t elegant. There was a lot of extra cabling, and the width of the robot meant I couldn’t tuck the dock under my sink.

Roller mops may be the future of robot mopping.

While the SwitchBot is a good vacuum, it’s not the best. Its relatively paltry 6,500Pa of suction power is low compared to the competition, but the bot’s weight did help the rubber roller brush dig into the carpet and get up most of the cat hair.

Other downsides include the AI obstacle avoidance, which isn’t great. The S10 frequently got stuck on clothes left on my floor and bath mats, its battery life is short, and it lacks high-end features like dirt detection. It also currently only works with a direct plumbing hookup, so don’t get it unless you plan to hook it into your water supply.

It’s a game-changer not having to empty a dirty water tank or have my floor go unmopped because I forgot to fill the clean water tank. The S10 isn’t totally hands-free (the auto-empty station got a bit grungy during testing and required some cleaning), but in two months of testing, the mop has stayed clean. I haven’t even had to empty the four-liter dust bag yet.

Read my full review of the SwitchBot S10.

class=”relative block aspect-square h-min w-full sm:hidden” data-item-id=”ZrgWJF” href=”https://www.amazon.com/roborock-Q5-Pro-DuoRoller-Navigation/dp/B0C7VLHMQR?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”> class=”relative hidden aspect-standard h-min w-full sm:block” data-item-id=”ZrgWJF” href=”https://www.amazon.com/roborock-Q5-Pro-DuoRoller-Navigation/dp/B0C7VLHMQR?tag=theverge02-20″ rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>

The Q5 Pro has a huge bin and big wheels to get up on higher-pile carpets easily. It has a small removable mopping reservoir for when there are dirty paws on the floors, but its main job is to suck up dirt and pet hair, and it does very well at both.

Dustbin capacity: 770ml/ Self-empty dock option: Yes/ Auto-refill mop option: No / Mapping: Yes/ AI-powered obstacle avoidance: No / Suction power: 5,500Pa / Remote check-in: No / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual, rubber/ Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

My recommendation for families with pets who don’t want to spend a small fortune on an auto-empty robot vacuum is to buy a good bot with a big bin. These are getting harder to find now that every bot wants to be a multitasker and also mop (the water reservoir takes up valuable dustbin room). So, I was very pleased with Roborock’s recent entry-level robot, the Q5 Pro; it’s my new favorite for pet hair.

This relatively inexpensive vacuum has a huge 770ml bin on board and dual rubber brushes that are better at getting pet hair out of rugs than single brushes. The rubber is also less prone than bristles to getting tangled with hair, and combined with 5,500Pa suction power, this vacuum does a really good job on very dirty floors. It does have a removable mopping pad with a small water tank built into it, which is useful for getting up the fine dust left behind by the vacuum, but it isn’t going to scrub your floors. It will, however, keep the pet hair at bay.

Don’t confuse this with the cheaper Roborock Q5, however. That bot has a smaller bin, lower suction, shorter runtime, and only one roller brush. It’s worth spending the extra for the Pro.

1/3

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