Best Robot Vacuum of 2024 | Global News Avenue

Every robot vacuum we consider for recommendation is tested in our testing lab in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to the test floor where we conduct controlled pick-up testing, we monitor each robot vacuum in a special test room filled with simulated furniture to measure how well it maneuvers around common obstacles. Among other things, we check each robot vacuum’s ability to gobble up pet hair without getting clogged or leaving loose hair behind, we consider mopping ability, and we check whether it can handle a fake dog’s mess well. .

Let’s dive deeper into the main considerations, starting with our Performance testing.

Robot vacuum cleaner power

When it comes to vacuuming capabilities, we wanted to know how well each robot cleaned up common crumbs and other debris, as well as how well it cleaned up smaller particles like dust, dirt, and sand. To find out, we used dry, uncooked black rice as a substitute for bread crumbs, and sand as a finer-grained analogue.

In each case, we spread a certain amount of carpet across three test floors: short-pile carpet, medium-pile carpet, and hardwood flooring. We then take the robot vacuum, completely empty its bin, send it out to clean the affected areas, and finally measure the weight of anything it picks up. This gives us the full pickup percentage. From there, we repeated each run two more times and averaged the results.

Speaking of results, the chart above shows you how each cleaner we’ve tested over the past few years performed on hardwood floors. The iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus was the top cleaner we tested on this surface, removing an average of 98% of debris and an impressive 100% of sand. Following closely behind is our top recommendation, the Dreametech DreameBot D10 Plus, which narrowly takes second place on hardwood floors despite retailing for less than half the price of the top-tier Roomba Combo J7 Plus.

Next is the low pile rug. In fact, the orange bar is much shorter (vacuating sand on carpet is a bigger challenge than on hardwood floors because of all the fibers the sand can cling to), please note that the order of the cleaners is different, our top The mid-range option, the Roborock S8, is in the lead right now. Different robot vacuums have different advantages and disadvantages depending on their design, so our various tests help us make recommendations that are as informed and comprehensive as possible.

Finally, out comes our medium pile rug. Neato did the cleaning job in this test, with the Neato D9 overall leading all of our CNET-tested cleaning machines, while the less expensive Neato D8 came in third. In between the two is the second-placed iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus. As with the lint test, note that most of the cleansers in the upper half of the chart are relatively close to each other—it’s not until you get to the bottom of the package that the bars really start to shrink. This is a good thing for you as a consumer, because it means you have a variety of robot vacuums to choose from, all of which offer comparable cleaning capabilities at different price points.

Another reminder: These charts cover robot vacuums we’ve tested over the past few years. The robot vacuums we tested before this one used slightly different test settings, so the data from those tests isn’t directly comparable. I’m sure to point out that past performance is still worth buying, most notably the iRobot Roomba S9 Plus, which performs particularly well on medium-pile carpets and remains one of our top recommendations.

Robot vacuum navigation skills

Your robot vacuum can only clean your home thoroughly if it can navigate. The ideal cleaner can easily find its way from room to room and automatically avoid obstacles along the way, all of which contributes to proper, low-maintenance automated cleaning.

We made sure to watch each robot vacuum as it cleaned to get a better idea of ​​how well it navigated, but to get the best comparison between the different vacuums, we shot overhead shots of each robot vacuum as it cleaned our dark test room Long exposure photo with the top of each glow stick fixed directly above the vacuum inlet. The resulting images show us the robot’s path as it navigates the room and cleans around simulated furniture.

Now, compare that to this next GIF, which shows you three runs of our top mopping product, the iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus. Notice the difference? The Roomba was less efficient at covering the entire room, with two-thirds of scans missing the lower left corner, and it also struggled to provide adequate coverage around the legs of a simulated dining table.

A lot of it depends on how technology plays out. We’ve noticed for years that robot vacuum cleaners that use laser-guided lidar to navigate tend to be very good at mapping their environment and finding their way around it. At the same time, 3D mapping cameras with object recognition intelligence can provide sweeping robots with the additional ability to identify and adapt to obstacles in their paths. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra uses both technologies, which helps explain why it performs so well here. Roomba, meanwhile, relies solely on cameras and sensors, not lasers.

Still, these cameras will definitely come in handy. Just watch the GIF above, which shows what happened when we put the iRobot Roomba J7 Plus to the test—specifically, it promises to identify and avoid pet poop. With a small enclosed test floor littered with all kinds of (I assure you, all fake) shit, the Roomba did its best to vacuum the area without touching any of the shit. It did the trick without hitting any of our gross-looking test poop at all.

Now, compare that to the Samsung JetBot AI Plus, which also promises to use its camera to spot and avoid pet poop. The results were not ideal. On every test run it ends up hitting one of our test piles. Thank God they’re not real.