The first phase of our analysis starts with testing each robot vacuum to see how effective it is at picking up 20 grams of kitty litter, 20 grams of Cheerios, and two grams of dog hair on hardwood and a medium-pile carpet. We also time how long it takes each to complete each test, as well as how loud the vacuum is as it goes about its business. While we factor in the average cleaning time to our overall shark pet hair vacuum rating, we give it less importance than cleaning effectiveness, as most people will schedule a robot vacuum to go about its rounds after they leave their house. The combined capabilities do mean the S7 MaxV Ultra comes with an all singing, all dancing charging base too, which has a whopping footprint of 49 x 42 cm. So it’s safe to say you need some space if you want to invest in this beast.
We also found the Roborock Q5 to be easier to use and program than other robots we tested. On the robot vac itself, you’ll find a power button and a home button; the latter can send the device back to the dock or tell it to spot-clean if you hold it for a few seconds. We found that all three responded to voice commands very well; this was most evident in how the robot always reacted after our first request, no repeat commands necessary. And like the Roomba i4 EVO, the Q5 does allow you to ask Siri to clean specific rooms. For instance, you can say “Hey Siri, go clean the kitchen,” and the bot will do just that.
The physical design is also very similar under the hood, with two multi-surface rubber roller brushes to get more dirt up. These rubber brushes don’t get tangled by long hair the way bristle brushes can. Because there’s no option to add keep-out zones in the app, you’ll need to buy iRobot’s virtual walls if there are places you don’t want the robot to go.
Again, the fact that it removed sand from the rug is enough to make you overlook the little blip in the transition from bare floor to carpet. While there aren’t a lot of special features with this Roomba, it does connect to Wi-Fi for remote access. Reflects the average time it took the robotic vacuum on its max-clean setting to clean our greater than 600 square foot test room over 3 test runs. It manages to squeeze out more than an hour of cleaning on Max mode and has suction more than strong enough for hard floors and light carpet upkeep. Lefant’s M210 robot vac features built-in, anti-collision infrared sensors so it won’t bang into its surroundings.
The main reason we don’t recommend the Wyze bot is that the app can’t currently remember maps for multiple floors of a home—it learns one level, whereas Roborock bots can remember up to four levels. According to the Wyze customer support forums, a beta version of the Wyze app supports multiple maps, and it’s supposed to be released widely at some point. If that doesn’t matter to you, shark canister vacuum or if you’re willing to believe that Wyze will actually release that multi-level update soon, the Wyze robot seems like a decent-enough option. Eufy makes several RoboVac models built on the same base as the 11S but with extra features. The key is that bots don’t procrastinate or get bored, so they spend more time cleaning, and they clean more thoroughly, than almost any human.
“Your robot cleaner needs to mop, too,” Robot vacuums with mopping capabilities have onboard sensors to detect floor texture and behave accordingly, so your carpets stay dry while hard floors get a thorough cleaning. We liked the Ecovacs Deebot T9+, which offers the best of both worlds for cleaning. The Roomba i3+ EVO takes the advanced capability of the self-emptying dust bin and pairs it with a more affordable robot vacuum, for a value-packed blend of performance, usability, and price. It has digital mapping, smartphone integration, and great cleaning performance.