Plus, it has dual spinning side brushes that are designed to capture debris from edges. The vacuum’s multi-stage filtration captures 99.9 percent of dust, pet allergens, and dander. The mop cleaning and drying process is efficient, and in theory, you don’t need to remove the pad after every run. But I recommend throwing it in the washing machine when emptying the dirty water tank.
Setting it up was as quick and simple as one of the company’s standard robot vacuums, and its first run will create a map of your home, which you can then label with room names, edit with no-go zones and carpeted areas and more. You can even choose to have the robot do a dry run first before doing any actual mopping, so you can make sure it doesn’t enter into the carpeted areas you’ve indicated in your home map. In my testing, the robot accurately stayed away from these zones that I set and I actually like having that little bit of extra control over where the machine goes. But of course, that’s just another thing you have to do manually that iRobot’s vac and mop takes care of using built-in tech. Vac-and-mop devices aren’t new, but they are new to iRobot’s lineup and the company made a great one in the Roomba j7+ Combo.
Most Shark robots fall into the budget / moderately priced category, with only the Shark IQ rising to the mid-range price. If you’re interested in how Roomba compares to other robots check out some of our comparisons here. The Shark ION R75 is self-charging and comes with Wifi-connectivity—allowing you to start, stop, or schedule a cleaning cycle remotely from your smartphone at any time. If you’d like to see a deep dive on all of the vacuums shark offers see our complete Best Shark vacuums guide here. There are a number of 800 and 600 series models available (900 and 700 series are mostly discontinued). However, they are older and you get much better performance with the e and i series for about the same price.
Some newer Shark models use a set of cameras to systematically cover the entire floor. Roombas are sold and distributed by iRobot and sometimes shark canister vacuum use the iRobot brand. You can operate all Roomba models manually by carrying them to the room where they will be used and pressing a button.
All Roomba bots, including the i4 EVO, also have a dirt-detection system—another feature you can’t find in other brands’ bots. When a Roomba model senses that it’s passing over an area with a lot of debris, it stops and makes a few passes back and forth to pick up as much as possible. We tackled this question when we reviewed budget robot vacuums and the answer is yes, especially if vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores. Robots take the hard work out of cleaning your floors – just turn the thing on and watch it go. Any robot vacuum cleaner worth buying is semi-autonomous in that it will suck up dirt around your home until its battery is low and then make its way back to its charging dock.
Once I mapped my house, I designated separate rooms and added a no-go zone around the fireplace, where vacuums tend to fall in. It simply isn’t as user-friendly and intuitive as the iRobot app, and it often took us several tries to find the settings or features we were looking for. However, this model is a top choice when it comes to versatility, and its many modes allow you to customize the cleaning cycle to suit your needs. The AI Ultra Robot Vacuum offers several different cleaning modes, including multiple levels of suction, allowing you to customize its performance to suit your needs.
Different robot vacuums will have different strengths and weaknesses based on their designs, so our variety of tests help us make recommendations that are as informed and well-rounded as possible. It’s our no. 4-ranked cleaner on low-pile carpets, and it was able to suck an impressive 56% of sand from more plush, midpile carpets. A good robot vacuum makes it easy to keep your floors clean at home, and after countless hours of tests, we think the Dreametech DreameBot D10 Plus is the best pick for most people. The Roomba i7+ has an advanced “home base” that doubles as a charging station and a self-emptying dustbin where it can store up to 30 loads of debris from the i7+ cleaning cycles. Additionally, its cleaning performance and usability (via app control and advanced mapping) easily make the i7+ one of the best robot vacuums on the market.
Aside from the extra suction, those are all nice-to-haves rather than must-haves, so most people – including you! It’s the fanciest robot vacuum iRobot has to offer, but you’ll get a similar level of quality with the Roomba j7 while spending a couple hundred bucks less. The Roomba s9+ is admittedly overkill for most people – but it’s nothing if not one of the best robot vacuums out there. The s9+ is the biggest but also the most attractive robo-vac I tried, with a corner-friendly design, copper accents and a 1.5-foot tall clean base.