To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
The best robot vacuum cleaners do a great job of keeping your carpets clean with minimum hassle. They use a variety of sensors and sometimes built-in cameras to find their way around your home and even return to base to charge themselves. All you have to do is occasionally empty the dust collection bin – it’s that easy.
Our team of expert testers has reviewed over 100 vacuums, including cordless models, handheld vacuums and even our favourite vacuums for pet hair. On this page, we’ve picked out our favourite fully tested robots. Below, you can find a quick list of our top picks with prices and buying links. Underneath, you’ll find our short reviews of the robot vacuums themselves, with links to our full-length reviews at the end if you’re interested to read more.
We’ve also put together a buyer’s guide at the bottom of this page with all the most important information. So if this is your first time buying a robot vacuum and you need to know what to look out for, we’ve got you covered.
| Best robot vacuums: At a glance | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for cleaning power | Dyson 360 Vis Nav (~£1,000) | |
| Best for pet hair | Eufy Clean X10 Pro Omni (~£799) | |
| Best budget robot for tricky home layouts | Ecovacs Deebot N10 (~£199) | |
How we test robot vacuum cleaners
We test each robot vacuum cleaner by installing it in a typical domestic setting. The charging station is always placed in the same location, and the robot is given the same basic floorplan of 58m² to clean, so we can see how elements such as navigation and speed compare between every robot we review. It’s a demanding floorplan that challenges even the smartest robot, with plenty of corners, tight spots, low furniture, surface changes and cable nests.
During our testing, each robot is connected to Wi-Fi and controlled through the supplied app, where available. We test all the features and functions, including self-emptying and navigation to a second floor, to ensure robots can handle switching between multiple maps. If a robot comes with a mop attachment, we also test this by running a basic clean cycle across our floor.
When it comes to analysing a robot’s cleaning capabilities, we test each robot using 50g of rice and flour and 5g of pet hair. We send the robot to perform a spot clean of each spill on both carpet and hard floor, and measure the amount collected each time. This indicates how effective each robot is at gathering these problematic materials, and allows us to compare the results with every robot vacuum cleaner we’ve ever tested.
The best robot vacuum cleaners from our testing
1. iRobot Roomba j9+: Best Roomba robot with mop
Price when reviewed: £1,249 | Check price at Amazon
The iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ sits at the top of iRobot’s current range of robot cleaners. It can both vacuum and mop your floors, with a handy lift-away mopping arm that tucks well out of the way when it detects carpet. As with all recent Roombas, it has a clever object detection system that can avoid a wide range of dropped objects, including its speciality – pet poo, and a dual-roller suction system that did a great job of picking up dirt and dust without getting clogged up during our testing.
There are elements that don’t stack up quite so well against its rivals, though. Because it doesn’t use Lidar to navigate, mapping isn’t as fast or accurate as many robots I’ve reviewed. Also, many similarly-priced robot mops have rotating mopping pads, which seem to do a more efficient job of mopping the floor.
The j9+ has one of the most attractive base stations we’ve seen to date, with a faux wooden top that makes it look a bit like an occasional table. Stick a vase of flowers on it and no-one would know. As well as charging the battery, the base station keeps the robot’s water reservoir topped up and self empties the collection bin into a larger bag, so you don’t need to perform maintenance tasks quite so often.
Read our full iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ review
- Excellent object detection
- Good cleaning performance
- Looks good
- Mop could be better
- Mapping not as fast as similar models
Key specs – Size (WDH): 348 x 87 x 348mm; Weight: 4.07kg; Battery life: 180mins; Charge time: 4hrs; Bin capacity: 360ml; Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes; Decibel volume: N/S
2. Eufy Clean X10 Pro Omni: Best robot vacuum for pet owners
Price when reviewed: £799 | Check price at Amazon
The Eufy Clean X10 Pro Omni is one of the most fully-featured and well-realised robot vacuums available for under £1000. The robot itself is a well-rounded cleaning appliance, with an anti-tangle roller for tackling pet hair, formidable suction power and dual rotating mop pads that performed admirably in testing.
The vacuum’s base station also helps keep things largely hands-off. It charges the vacuum, cleans and dries its mop pads and keeps it topped up with water. The base station also auto-empties the vacuum, and with a roomy 2.5l internal bin capacity, it requires only very occasional emptying itself. Similarly, the station’s 3l water capacity will give it enough runway to get through plenty of mopping before you need to get involved.
The X10 Pro Omni uses the same Eufy app as other models, and it once again proves easy to use and full of neat, bespoke cleaning commands and abilities. Once you’ve quickly set up your floor plan and routines, the Omni moves around well, detecting and avoiding objects fluidly.
Read our full Eufy Clean X10 Pro Omni review
- Decent everyday cleaning
- Easy to use
- Superior object avoidance
- Struggled with some tougher tests
- App over-simplifies map
Key specs – Size (WDH): 327 x 353 x 114mm; Weight: 4.6kg; Battery life: 180mins; Charge time: 5hrs; Bin capacity: 2.5l; Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes; Decibel volume: N/S; Navigation type: Lidar/camera mapping
3. Ecovacs Deebot N10: Best budget robot for tricky home layouts
Price when reviewed: £199 | Check price at Amazon
The Ecovacs Deebot N10 has plenty going for it. It’s a decent vacuum cleaner that will do a good job of keeping your floor clean, especially if you send it out regularly. This is easy to set up using the Ecovacs app, which is well-featured and simple to operate.
The best thing about the N10, though, is that it’s an excellent navigator. In testing, it worked its way around our testers’ tricky c-shaped floor plan with ease and was able to vacuum around floor-length curtains without bumping into them. Its LiDAR-based mapping made short work of creating a map of our home and it can manage multiple floors with little difficulty. It’s also gentle around furniture and didn’t become stuck in or around any hazards, such as cables, during testing.
The most disappointing element is the mop, which is a drag-and-wipe affair that didn’t perform as well in our tests. The reservoir is drip-fed clean water as it wipes a cloth over your floors. This isn’t as thorough as robots that add movement to agitate dirt to remove it but it will work for light grime. If a mop is important to you, the now discontinued Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni is the best robot mop we’ve tested.
Read our full Ecovacs Deebot N10 review
- Good for tricky floor layouts
- Effective vacuuming
- Not great at mopping
- Spot cleaning could be better
Key specs – Size (WDH): 350 x 350 x 93mm; Weight: 7.36kg; Battery life: 5hrs; Charge time: 3-5hrs; Bin capacity: 0.42l; Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes; Decibel volume: 65dB; Navigation type: Laser/camera mapping
4. Dyson 360 Vis Nav: Best robot for cleaning power
Price when reviewed: £1,000 | Check price at Currys
When it comes to suction power, nothing beats the Dyson 360 Vis Nav, making it, in our opinion, the most powerful robot you can buy. With Dyson’s powerful Hyperdymium motors, there isn’t much loose dirt that can stay on the floor when this beast passes over it.
We think other unique features make the 360 Vis Nav worth considering, too. Although most robots can handle most types of flooring, the soft roller on this model means it was particularly effective on hard floors in our tests, while its bristles mean it’s equally good on carpets. We found it to be more effective at cleaning along edges than most, too. Instead of wispy, spinning brushes that flick dirt into the path of its brush, the 360 Vis Nav has an arm that extends out of the side, to suck it directly under the vacuum.
Despite its obvious strengths, however, the Dyson is very expensive and, for that money, we’d also expect it to have self-emptying and effective mopping. Alas, it has neither.
Read our full Dyson 360 Vis Nav review
- Most powerful robot we’ve tested
- Excellent edge cleaner
- Effective mapping
- No self-emptying function
- No mop
- Very expensive
Key specs – Size (WDH): 330 x 345 x 97mm; Weight: 4.5kg; Battery life: 1hr 5mins; Charge time: 2.5hrs; Bin capacity: 0.57l; Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes; Decibel volume: 62dB; Navigation type: Laser/camera mapping
5. iRobot Roomba Combo j7+: Best for dodging obstacles
Price when reviewed: £999 | Check price at Amazon
Most robots can navigate around furniture but if someone has dropped a sock or left a charging cable on the floor, a robot that doesn’t notice it could end up in a tangle that stops it in its tracks. In our tests, the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ tackled such problems with ease. It’s equipped with a front-mounted camera and even has a visual database of common hazards it uses to check whether it should be cleaning or avoiding a problem. This includes socks, charging cables and even poo.
Its skills don’t end at object detection, either. The Combo j7+ also has iRobot’s rubber-sheathed dual roller bars, which are effective at collecting dust and debris, and it self-empties into a base station when the robot’s bin gets full. It also has a mopping function, which is automatically lifted out of the way when it approaches carpets and rugs. Unfortunately, the mopping isn’t as good as it could be and the vacuuming is better on the base model, the Roomba j7. However, if you have an unavoidably messy house due to children or pets, this is worth considering.
Read our full iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ review
- Exceptional object detection
- Self-emptying
- Includes mopping function
- Expensive
- Better mopping and vacuuming out there
Key specs – Size (WDH): 330 x 333 x 84mm; Weight: 3.3kg; Battery life: 75mins; Charge time: 4hrs; Bin capacity: 313ml; Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes; Decibel volume: 64dB; Navigation type: Laser/camera mapping
How to choose the best robot vacuum cleaner for you
What specifications and features are the most important?
Bin capacity: Robot vacuums need emptying more frequently than a regular vacuum but there’s still quite a variation in bin capacity from model to model. The largest we’ve tested has a 0.7l capacity but they can be as small as 0.3l.
Mop attachments: These use a small water reservoir with a cleaning pad attached to the bottom that drags around the floor as the robot makes its way around your room. You’ll still need to use a proper mop to get stubborn stains off, though: a mopping robot is only good for cleaning up light dirt and dust from hard floors.
Self emptying: Most robot vacuums have small dust collection bins and so need frequent emptying but some can empty themselves into a larger base-station bin and then continue to clean. These robots tend to be more expensive, though, and the base stations occupy more space in your home.
Height: One thing robot vacuums are great at is cleaning below low-lying furniture, but some are considerably taller than others. It’s well worth checking out the dimensions before you buy to make sure it will fit if you’re planning on using it to clean under things.
Which robot vacuums give the best cleaning performance?
Although most robot vacuums look the same from the outside, they deliver vastly different levels of cleaning performance. And this is affected by a number of different factors.
Brushes: Our favourite robot vacuums, such as the Dyson Vis Nav, have brushes that span the full width of the unit, allowing them to clean right along the edges of your room and into the corners.
Unfortunately, these aren’t particularly common and most stick with the popular disc shape, with the main brush situated between the wheels and a couple of less effective spinning brushes at the edges to drag dust into the mouth of the vacuum.
Suction power: Next, you need to consider suction power. Typically expressed in pascals (Pa), this is a measurement of how powerful the motor is inside a robot vacuum. For an effective clean, a good number to look for here is around 2,000Pa or above, which all of our tested favourites offer.
How well do they deal with household obstacles?
All robot vacuums employ bumpers and sensors to help them navigate their way around your home and prevent them from coming to grief by falling down the stairs. But some are more efficient at finding their way around than others.
Predetermined cleaning patterns: The cheaper versions run to a random cleaning pattern and bump around your rooms blindly, cleaning as they go. This works up to a point but it can take a while for these types of vacuum to finish cleaning a room and, though they do their best, they often miss spots here and there.
Cameras and laser sensors: The more expensive robots employ cameras and advanced laser sensors to map out their surroundings first before tackling each room. This means they can work out the most efficient route before getting started and don’t need to cover the same spot twice. Even then, advanced sensors can only go so far. A big problem with robot vacuums is that, no matter how good they are at mapping out their surroundings, they often get beached on low-lying furniture and stuck on stray cables.
No-go zones: The best way to avoid obstacle issues is to keep your floors clear of such items. However, in some cases that isn’t possible, in which case you want a robot that comes with the ability to set virtual no-go zones in the accompanying app, such as the Eufy RoboVac X8. That way you can instruct your robot to avoid the places you don’t want it to go near.
