Another important factor is suction power. You want a vacuum cleaner that can pick up all of the dirt and debris on your floors. Be sure to check the specs to see how much suction power the vacuum cleaner has.

Top performers can find their way out of tight spots and around extension cords. You’ll need to do some prep work in moving clothes, toys, and other objects from the floor before sending out the vacuum, though.

Some others we think are very useful are automatic carpet recognition, setting up pelo-go zones through an app and recharge-and-resume capabilities. But, not everyone will need all of these, and deciding which ones are important to you is a big part of choosing a robot for your home.

The iRobot Combo Roomba j9+ receives solid performance scores across the board in CR’s tests, earning an excellent score for cleaning bare floors and a very good score for carpet. It has smart mapping technology as well as avoidance technology to help it move around household obstacles like cords.

65 inches, so it may struggle with taller door ledges. Sensors on the underside prevent falls from ledges or stairs, while laser navigation ensures it maneuvers effectively without bumping into walls or furniture.

❌ You're dealing with lots of dust: There's no self-empty on the dock, and the small onboard bin will fill up quickly if you're dealing with lots of dirt or hair.

Other notable features include a self-cleaning brush roll that minimizes hair tangles, an UltraClean mode that revisits areas three times for a deeper clean and the ability to glide smoothly over lightweight rugs and mats that sometimes trip up other robots.

It has advanced mapping which our top pick overall lacks, so it can record and remember a blueprint of multiple floors of your house after just a few trips; you can then label individual rooms, and tell the s9+ to clean specific rooms on specific days.

While the app is intuitive, and the mapping good, there is a major issue for anyone with an open plan living space. Namely, you can't separate it into different zones. It won't be a problem for everyone, but if you live in an open plan home, you'll probably want to opt for a different brand.

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Most robot vac apps allow you to set up virtual barriers to block off entire rooms or just small sections of a room. Homes with lots of areas to avoid (like kids’ playpens or dog beds and bowls) would benefit from no-go zone settings in the app.

✅ You want a truly autonomous robovac: This premium robot vacuum can be relied upon to take care of itself.

The Shark IQ can be controlled via an app as well as with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can create a schedule and connect it to smart home devices. It even has mapping features of more expensive robot vacuums so you can mark individual rooms as well as set invisible boundaries called No-Go zones.

While it is one of the pricier models we've tested, we think the L10s Ultra's superior performance, advanced features and ease of use make it well worth Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners the investment.