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While robot vacuums are excellent at keeping your floors clean but they aren't able to substitute for a larger vacuum. Even the most powerful robots struggle to penetrate carpets and rugs. They also often get tangled in socks and cords.

Your robot will last longer if you perform routine maintenance. This includes replacing filters, cutting hairs that are tangled from brushes and emptying the dust bin.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums can manage one or two cleaning sessions before requiring a charge. The second-placed model in our overall picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is that is designed to last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. This amount of runtime will be more than enough for homes that have a mixture of hard floors and low pile carpets or larger homes with rooms that are similar in size.

A longer battery lifespan also means the robot can spend more time cleaning and less time charging its dock. It's a good idea to choose models that have a self-emptying dust bin, as they are more efficient when it comes to cleaning up debris and returning to the dock for charging. It is also essential to clean or replace the filter and clean cameras and sensors regularly so that they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to look out for, as it allows you to program your robot to only clean certain rooms or avoid areas that it's likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. This feature is also beneficial for ensuring that your robot can reach under and around furniture such as beds, sofas and other tall items. Some cheap robovacs offer boundaries that you can place on the floor to block off areas while others make use of sensors and cameras to achieve this goal.

Even the most powerful robot vacuums can't replace a conventional vac for heavy-duty dirt and debris. It is recommended to keep a power robotic vacuum cleaner comparison available to tackle these tasks, and also schedule robot vacs for light cleanings throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able of moving around your home without getting caught or running into things like metal screws, pet hair or sand. In our tests, we use an instrument to track the robot as it goes through a multiroom lab and shows its surroundings. We also look for the way it manages to avoid obstacles like power cords, furniture legs and pet waste.

The best robots can identify different floors and recognize landmarks such as doors and windows. The most advanced robots, such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra have a dual sensor navigation system that uses a LIDAR to draw a room's layout and a structured-light camera on the front to detect objects in real-time. This allows the S8 to avoid common obstacles such as power cords and furniture legs and can store up to four floor maps in its internal memory.

Cheaper models don't come with this kind of detection and rely on bump sensors, which aren't as precise. In my tests they cut right through dog poop, cords, and even the shoes that were placed in the middle of the room. The best value pick the Dreametech D10+, is an exception to this. It is a great carpet and hard floor pickup, great hair and tangle pickup and an almost perfect auto vacuum cleaner empty score.

Another important feature is a large onboard dustbin which doesn't have to be manually emptied, and for those models that mop, a water tank that can last for weeks of cleaning sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is a great example of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not too big that it is unable to fit into the space between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to upright models, and it takes an enormous amount of technology to bring them up to speed. There are plenty of options in a market that is mature. Even the best models require interaction from their users particularly when it comes time to plan cleaning schedules, design a floor plan for your home and install virtual barriers.

To help reduce the impact of this interaction, you should look for a model that has its own app to determine the design of your home and save these settings for future use. This will let the vacuum begin where it left off on subsequent runs, without having to restart the mapping process each time.

It's also worth keeping an eye out for a vacuum that comes with zones or spot cleaning modes. They allow you to instruct the robot vacuum to focus on a specific spot like under the dining table following the family's big meal. You can typically do this using the app or via voice commands.

The ability to avoid objects is another feature that's included in several models. It lets the robot vacuum ebay see something in its path, such as the shoe box or a crate of dog toys, and guide itself around it. This prevents it from crashing into objects that might damage its sensors or cause a jam.

Some of the most expensive models in our tests have this feature. However, they tend to rely on bump sensors to accomplish this and weren't always able to avoid things in my test homes.

Pet Hair

When it comes to removing pet hair, you should choose a model that's designed specifically to handle this kind of debris. The top models feature high suction power, a brush that avoids getting caught in a knot, and an emptying mechanism that can automatically empty hair into the bin when necessary. Some are also able to detect dirt levels and adjust the cleaning intensity accordingly. They are also able to detect objects that aren't part of your flooring in your home, such as toys, furniture and food bowls.

Some robot vacuums come with additional pet-friendly features. They include a water dispenser which is used to clean floors, and an HEPA filtration system that reduces allergens such as pet dander. They could also provide a quieter operation that can reduce the amount of sound generated during cleaning.

Robot vacuums with mapping capabilities are a great option for pet owners. They are designed to analyze your home and devise an attack plan based on the arrangement of each room and obstacles. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can create a map of a room, and navigate through furniture, and over other obstacles by using accelerometers and gyroscope sensors.

Other advanced models allow you to define no-go zones that are areas that the robot is expected to stay clear of, such as fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings via an app. This feature is particularly useful for a busy household because it allows you to schedule cleaning sessions and make adjustments without having be in the same room as the vacuum. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning, which lets you direct the vacuum to clean a particular area that is dirty or brimming with pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you don't want anything small, consider a robot with a large bin or even a self-emptying trash bin. This is why we suggest opting for a model with a large bin, or perhaps a self-emptying dustbin. The one will let you keep up with emptying your bin frequently enough to ensure its efficiency. The second will save you time and effort by automatically dumping the contents into an internal container every few cleanings.

No matter the size of your home, most robots can easily climb up and around furniture, and almost all can detect and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, loose cords and dog poop. Consider models that have smart mapping capabilities, which allow them to "learn" the layout of your home and devise more efficient routes, and ones that can sense and avoid objects that could block their paths (like shoelaces or strangling charging cables).

Some models offer spot cleaning. This allows you to manually target an area of your house for intensive cleaning. We've discovered that many of the top performers in our tests can pick up fine particles like sand and baking soda, along with heavier debris such as oatmeal orzo pasta, metal screws and pet hair.

Depending on the brand, most robots can last for a long time and continue to perform well as long as you are on top of maintenance tasks, such as cleaning hair that has become tangled from brushes and dust bins, emptying them after every use and cleaning cameras and sensors when required. The most reliable robots are more flexible. This allows you to repair or replace parts like wheels and batteries when they get worn out.