Among the many ideas that iRobot explored during these years was one proposed by engineer Joe Jones, the company’s first full-time employee, who while at MIT had created his “Rug Warrior” robot to vacuum his apartment. After an iRobot team worked for three years, the company was ready to release a robot vacuum for the home. It was tentatively named “Cyber Suck,” though that was mercifully changed to the Roomba. Both of these manufacturers produce a quality robot vacuum and depending on your needs, they may be met by any one of these models listed above. The Roomba i3+ EVO strikes a nice balance between performance and price. It has the same self-emptying dust bin like on the S9+ and i7+ as well as wifi-connectivity and app control.
Budget-friendly vacuums typically clean in a random pattern, while midrange and premium models often feature laser- or camera-guided navigation so they work methodically and efficiently. Some can also map your home, and support area cleaning and virtual boundaries to vacuum specific rooms while avoiding others. With the ability to empty its own dustbin and wash its own mop, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is one of the most self-sufficient two-in-one robot floor cleaners we’ve tested. Jodhaira Rodriguez has been researching and testing cleaning appliances and other products in the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab since 2021.
If you don’t like having to pick up before each cleaning cycle, the iRobot Roomba j7+ is the robot vacuum for you. Of all the brands we tested, iRobot has the most user-friendly and intuitive app design. We were able to sync the s9+ with its app shark robotic vacuums on the first try, and all its main features are laid out on one screen, making it easy to find the vacuum’s key settings. The robot was able to create the detailed map after two cleaning runs, including automatically marking carpeted areas.
I tested the j7+, which means I was treated to the roaring sounds of the machine emptying its dustbin into its clean base. The emptying process isn’t as simple as an automatically opening flat that shakes dirt from one garbage shark pet hair vacuum can to another – the base actually sucks the dirt from vacuum. This was the case for all of the machines I tried that came with clean bases; they’re all quite loud, but the Roomba j7+ was the loudest of them all.
It aced every challenge we threw at it, picking up a range of debris, and it was a pleasure to use thanks to its user-friendly app and next-gen smart mapping. The Eufy RoboVac 11S is the best lower-price pick, offering surprisingly thorough cleaning abilities with a price tag that’s often under $200. We found the Roomba j7+ and Shark AI Ultra Robot Vacuum to be great options as well. A Shark robotic vacuum is a disc-shaped vacuum that moves around your home on its own, sucking up the dirt, dust, and debris in its path. are compact with sensors that help them maneuver around and under obstacles in your home.
(iRobot has anti-tangle tech that makes the bot reverse course if it starts to get tangled.) This works pretty well for bigger items but, sadly, not phone charging cords. The best bang for your buck, the Roomba i3 Evo cleans just as well as the j7 but won’t avoid clutter and doesn’t have app-enabled clean zones or keep-out zones. Just watch the above GIF, which shows what happened when we put the iRobot Roomba J7 Plus to the test — specifically, its promise of identifying and avoiding pet waste. With a variety of (I assure you, fake) dog poop scattered about a small, enclosed test floor, the Roomba did its best to vacuum the area without touching any of them. It succeeded, never bumping into any of our disgusting-looking test turds at all. Jodhaira (she/her) is a product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Home Care & Cleaning Lab, where she tests and writes about home appliances, cleaning products and cleaning tips.