Over the past several years, robot vacuums have matured into useful, efficient, user-friendly autonomous devices. Along with the industry’s general refinement have come a vast selection of models to choose from, with a wide difference in performance and longevity between many of them.
After testing a great deal of leading models hands-on, we found varying mapping and scheduling abilities, support for floor types, levels of suction power, and self-emptying mechanisms. We’ve also run into quite a few with dependable support for smart assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, making them especially easy to integrate into a modern smart home.
Top robot vacuums
Roborock Q8 Max+
Highly reliable, moderately priced
The Roborock Q8 Max+ offers premium features at a fairly affordable price, making it ideal for anyone who wants to strike cleaning floors from their chore list. It boasts 5,500Pa suction, uses 3D mapping for easy navigation, features a dual brush system, self-empties the dust bin, and is Alexa-compatible.
- Powerful suction
- Smart navigation
- Easy to use
- A bit loud at maximum suction
Roborock’s Q8 Max series offers some of the most reliable robot vacuums, and the Roborock Q8 Max+ is as efficient as they come. Like most units in its class, it can vacuum and mop while navigating its way around obstacles. The LiDAR sensor maps the floor layout in real time, allowing the bot to clean the entire area without getting stuck.
It has two rubber roller brushes that dig deep into carpet fibers, lifting dirt and hair, and the 5,500Pa suction system sends everything to the onboard 470ml bin. The charging station has a 2.5l dust bag that supports multiple uses without requiring service. When using the mop function, you can adjust the water flow to match your needs and flooring material. All adjustments can be made through the Roborock app.
The same can be achieved through Alexa, Xiaomi Mi Home, or Google Assistant. It can mop up to 1,250 square feet, thanks to a 350ml water tank and 4-hour battery life. The Q8 Max+’s only negative is that the mop pads must be cleaned manually, unlike some self-cleaning competitors. All in all, though, it’s a great buy and will completely change how you vacuum and mop your floors.
DreameBot X30 Ultra
The best ever, if you can stomach the price
The latest, most advanced model from Dreametech, the DreameBot X30 Ultra boasts just about the most complete feature set available today. Its industry-leading suction power and articulating mop heads combine to clean floors better than nearly any other, and its large reservoir and dust bag minimize how often you’ll need to maintain it.
- Consistently great cleaning
- Advanced dirt detection and schedule adjustment
- Effective mapping and autonomy
- Absurdly expensive
- Mop pads need periodic manual washing
While $1,400 is quite a bit to spend on an autonomous mop, the DreameBot X30 Ultra sports some of the most advanced cleaning, mapping, and scheduling technology we’ve yet seen. Its 8,300Pa suction capability picks up loose dirt with ease while sensors track just how much dirt there was, so the robot itself can adjust the suction power and cleaning schedule for maximum efficiency. It even tracks how effective its mopping is, and can automatically adjust how saturated the pads are so it works well and doesn’t waste cleaning solution.
The software driving it sports tons of features, like the option to immediately revisit heavily soiled areas that a robot vacuum would never be able to thoroughly clean in one go. It can also detect when it encounters baseboards, and extend the novel, articulating mop heads to clean them. Its autonomous mapping works remarkably well, and the app offers plenty of manual control like virtual walls and no-mop zones.
DreameBot X30 Ultra robovac review: Just shy of touchless cleaning
High-tech and automated cleaning at a high price
While we’d like a $1K+ vacuum to be perfect, nothing is, and you’ll need to pop off the X30 Ultra’s mop pads periodically and run them through the wash. On the other hand, its tangle-resistant bristeless brush and optional tricut roller make it one of the best at conquering pet hair, something few competitors consistently get right. If money’s no object, you can’t do better than this one.
Dreametech D9 Max
Super efficient
Give your floors a quick wipe with the Dreametech D9 Max, a mid-range robot vacuum with a lot to offer. It has strong suction (4000Pa), mops and vacuums, uses LiDAR technology for autonomous navigation, integrates with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and can clean all floor types.
- Great vacuuming performance
- Reasonably priced
- Long battery life
- Roller brush easily gets tangled by pet hair
- Mapping system could be better
If you are looking for a robot vacuum and mop combo that offers good value for money, the Dreametech D9 Max may just be the right device for you. In our testing, it easily vacuumed 410 square feet of wooden floor space in about one and a half hours. The D9 Max is rather unique compared to most robot vacs with a similar design, sporting a hybrid roller brush made of rubber with bristles. This enables it to pick hair from carpets and hard surfaces with just a few passes.
However, the bristles can be a deal-breaker when vacuuming long hair strands. We had to manually pull out some of the hair from the bristles to allow the brush to roll smoothly. On the plus side, this robot vacuum delivers 4,000Pa suction, which is quite impressive for its size. The 570ml dust bin is not the largest and will require frequent emptying when covering large areas. And the 270ml water tank enables you to mop about 1,500 square feet of floor space with a single refill. You can also adjust the water flow according to your cleaning needs.
Dreametech D9 Max review: An affordable and efficient robot vacuum and mop combo
Come home to clean floors
With its 5,200mAh battery, the D9 Max can clean nonstop for 150 minutes. It may run for a longer or shorter time depending on the mode of operation, but this shouldn’t worry you much since the bot can move to the charging station on its own. The Dreametech D9 Max easily pairs with smartphones and tablets through the Dreamehome app, giving you complete control of all bot functions. For voice control, you can use Google Assistant or Alexa.
Roborock Q Revo
An impressive vacuum/mop combo for under $1K
Now fully established as an industry leader, Roborock’s followed its groundbreaking S7 MaxV Ultra’s success with the even more remarkable Q Revo. It, like the S7 before it, washes its own mops, eliminating one of the biggest maintenance hassles with hybrid robot vacuums. And while it’s not exactly cheap, it outperforms competitors that cost considerably more.
- Extensive app control and scheduling
- Works great on low-pile carpet
- Self-drying pads to avoid mildew buildup
- Design & build quality aren’t quite premium
- Trouble detecting small objects like cables
While it’s far from low-cost, the Q Revo is actually Roborock’s midrange hybrid, and does nearly as well as models costing twice as much. In fact, the somewhat plasticy, less-than-stellar look and feel is one of the few things about it that makes it seem midrange.
While not the highest out there, its 5,500Pa suction made short work of all the messes we threw at it during hands-on testing. Nothing got tangled up in the brushes and wheels, mapping was quick and accurate, and obstacle detection worked quite well, thanks to a pair of infrared sensors on the front and back. In our experience, the only obstacles it struggled to avoid were charging cables, a common challenge among robot vacuums.
Mopping works well, and the base station’s self-cleaning function reduces how often you need to clean the pads yourself. It doesn’t rid you of that task entirely, though, as the manufacturer opted against including the more effective, more complicated dedicated mop brush that its more costly offerings use.
Roborock Q Revo review: High-end cleaning at a competitive price
Cheaper price doesn’t mean worse cleaning efficiency
The Q Revo isn’t particularly loud, can lift its mop brushes 5mm to account for rugs, cleans better than anything else in its price range, and uses convenient, powerful software. If you’re willing to forego the ultra-high suction and articulating mop pads of the premium DreameBot X30 Ultra, it’s a much better value.
Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus
A robot vacuum that does it all
The Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus is a neat 3800Pa-suction vacuum and mop combo robot that cleans without downtime for almost 60 days. It boasts over 4 hours of runtime with precision mapping and LiDAR navigation.
- Powerful suction
- Great companion app
- Auto-empties
- Mopping isn’t great
The Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus is a feature-rich vacuum and mop combo that remarkably combines 3800pa suction vacuuming and a competent mop function without the price tag of similar spec models. One of its highlights is its auto-empty station, which ensures you won’t need to empty its dustbin every few days.
Allergy sufferers will appreciate the powerful filtration of dust and allergens to reduce odor, thereby minimizing symptoms. The auto-empty station stores dirt and debris for up to 60 days in a layered and sealed dust bag while the robot completes its rounds using LiDAR-based navigation. When it’s time to dispose of the dirt, the process is mess-free.
Best robot mops in 2024
Safely scrub and clean your floors with one of these high-performance robot mops
Ecovac’s Deebot can detect carpets and avoid wetting them automatically, but if you want your floor mopped, the mop attachment will need regular cleaning. The Deebot N10 Plus also supports Alexa voice assistant and has an intuitive companion app for remote control to help the bot map your floor spaces in seconds.
Roborock Q5
No-nonsense effectiveness at a great price
The Roborock Q5 gets extremely high marks from experts and users alike, with effective navigation, dependable vacuuming, and competent scheduling making it one of the best low-cost options. If you don’t need an autonomous mop and want to save some money, nothing can compete. Note that the only difference between it and the Q5+ is the latter’s self-emptying base station.
- Reliable mapping and obstacle avoidance
- User-friendly app
- Optional base station
- Doesn’t have a mop
- The base station bundle’s costly
The Q5 and Q5+ did a lot to boost Roborock’s profile and cement it as an industry leader on their release 2 years ago, and remain great choices today. The only difference between them is the Q5+ base station, which adds about $160 to the cost, doesn’t do anything other than empty the robot, and requires disposable bags, making the baseless version a little better value.
It’s still a quality choice years after its release because it does everything well, without posing any configuration or control difficulties. It’s strong enough to clean up moderate messes from bare floors and carpet, and climbs across rugs without issue. The robot’s precise mapping and the app’s informative, straightforward interface make planning easy, and it can store multiple maps for multi-floor homes.
Roborock Q5+ review: A powerful, convenient robot vacuum
With a bundled auto-emptying dock, you can ignore the Q5+ for weeks at a time
The Q5 won’t compete with high-end alternatives in terms of pure vacuuming performance, but it does great for most people’s needs and costs just over $200. The biggest drawback is the absence of a mop, but a decent contingent of robot vacuum users hardly ever take advantage of that feature. If you’re among that crowd and don’t want to spend a ton of cash, it’s hard to beat the Roborock Q5.
SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+
Does the job without taking up space
As the world’s smallest robotic vacuum, the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ is the embodiment of tiny but mighty. If a single room, a small office, or a studio apartment needs to be cleaned, and there’s no space for a massive vacuum, this little guy is an excellent option. It offers an impressive 2,500Pa of suction and a 3,200mAh battery life to ensure hard-to-reach spaces are spotless.
- Compact profile is great for small spaces
- Powerful 2,500Pa suction
- Kind of expensive
- Not great for mopping
Under couches, behind furniture, in cramped offices or studio apartments, there isn’t always room for large, mega-powerful vacuums to run. In this case, consider the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+, a robotic cleaning device half the size of other vacuums. Despite its petite stature, this vac still features 2,500Pa of suction power and up to two hours of cleaning time on the reduced-power mode, cut about in half on max power. It also offers an ultra-quiet motor and wide smart home compatibility, including Alexa and IFTTT.
SwitchBot K10+ robot vacuum review: Petite and powerful
The world’s smallest vacuum proves size doesn’t matter
There are a few drawbacks to this tiny vacuum. As we found in firsthand testing, the SwitchBot K10+’s mopping function is kind of useless. And a smaller vacuum means less surface area covered per pass, so cleaning a room will take longer than with a full-sized option. This vacuum also bumbles over a lot of obstacles, like furniture legs or cables, instead of detecting them and moving in a different direction. However, it’s a powerful vacuum for its size and will fit in well when space is limited.
Eufy L60
Consistent cleaning and user-friendly control
Robo-vacs are meant to deliver convenience, and that’s where the Eufy L60 stands out. Its powerful, efficient motor does deliver more pressure than most at this price point, but the L60 shines because you won’t have to interfere to get a thorough vacuuming every time. The optional self-emptying base is worth considering, although the hybrid mopping version is a little more of an afterthought.
- Powerful suction
- Quick initial mapping
- Easy scheduled and on-demand cleaning
- Optional mopping version isn’t that great
- Requires a (free) Eufy account to use
Just to be clear, the Eufy L60 comes with or without a base station, with the more complete version priced at $120 more. At $400, it’s one of the best-performing options for people who don’t want to hassle with opening and emptying their robot constantly. Its suction power rivals much more expensive models, and it can climb thresholds and other small obstacles up to 2cm tall, so you don’t have to worry about it getting stuck.
Other than its reliable vacuuming ability, the L60’s straightforward setup and control make it one of our favorite midrange options today. Its lidar mapping works well right away, with a quicker adjustment period to new spaces than many competitors. Configuring no-go zones, setting schedules, and ordering the robot to a single room for instant clean-up all take just a few presses in the easy-to-understand app. You won’t run into any significantly frustrating navigation foibles, and the base station’s big enough to last for weeks in most homes.
Like with other moderately priced options, the mopping situation represents the biggest drawback. Mopping is only available on the Hybrid edition of the base station-bundled version, and consists of just a single pad with no vigorous scrubbing or self-cleaning function. On the other hand, you have to spend quite a bit more to get a seriously competent robot mop, and the L60’s particularly excellent for spaces with a lot of rugs, doorway thresholds, or transitions between carpet and hard flooring.
Smart robot vacuum cleaners that get your floors clean
What a time to be alive. With technological development at an all-time high, engineers have finally put humanity’s massive knowledge base to use, delivering stronger, smarter robot vacuums than we could ever have imagined.
In other words, there’s a ton of these things to wade through, and picking the right one can be a little bewildering. We’ve done quite a bit of testing on these, and we’re confident in recommending pretty much anything from Roborock, for starters. Its Q8 Max+ boasts a complete set of high-end features and some of the best mopping in the industry, which doesn’t come cheap. The Q Revo adds a pair of higher-quality, self-cleaning mop heads, and the Roborock Q5 and Q5+ are two of the best for anybody who doesn’t need a mop at all.
But Roborock’s far from the only dependable robot vacuum company. DreameTech’s X30 Ultra employs even more advanced technology, particularly in its dual articulating mop heads, which even clean baseboards automatically. Truly, we’re living in the future. And the DreameTech D9 Max offers just about the best price-to-performance ratio for anybody looking for a low-cost autonomous vacuum.
Where are all the Roombas?
Roomba is — or at least, was — basically a household name, as the first widely known brand of high-quality robot vacuums. As the field’s developed, though, Roomba’s resisted evolving its devices in the ways competitors have pushed the envelope. Bland designs, minimal improvement, a refusal to implement LiDAR mapping, and recurring customer support horror stories have turned off a lot of both experts and everyday users to what was once the kleenex or white-out of the robot vacuum world.
We’ll continue to put new Roombas through their paces out of due diligence, of course, and won’t hesitate to recommend any that impress us. For the time being, though, all our favorite models roundly outperform any Roomba in their price range, so none of the old guard’s offerings made the cut.
Roborock Q8 Max+
Highly reliable
The Roborock Q8 Max+ offers premium features at a fairly affordable price, making it ideal for anyone who wants to strike cleaning floors from their chore list. It boasts 5,500Pa suction, uses 3D mapping for easy navigation, features a dual brush system, self-empties the dust bin, and is Alexa-compatible.
