Cleaning Solution: The Best Robot Vacuums of 2021

Possibly the smartest vacuum on this list, the Proscenic M7 Pro Robotic Vacuum Cleaner shoots out 24 lasers from sensors all around the vacuum, including some from a turret on top of the vacuum. These lasers not only allow the vacuum to learn the shape of your house and avoid obstacles and drop-offs, but the laser guidance system also creates a map and an optimal pathway to ensure that every inch of your floor gets cleaned. The system also allows you to save multiple maps in the ProscenicHome app so you can move the M7 from floor to floor in multi-level homes.

Our tester, who lives with a German Shepard, a Russian Blue cat, and an active 7-year-old daughter, put the M7 through the wringer during testing. Even with the whopping 2700 Pa of suction power, the roller brushes and dust bin capacity struggled to clean some of the furrier areas of the floor. However, when the dust bin was full, the HEPA filter still managed to keep excess dust from blowing out of the vacuum.

While it struggled on the more challenging areas, the M7 Pro worked perfectly well as a consistent maintenance tool. By programming a section of the house to be cleaned every day, the vacuum managed to keep the floors free from dust and debris. Read the in-depth review here.

If you want the cleaning power that iRobot is known for but don’t want to shell out $800 for one of the company’s top-tier models, the e5 model is a great option. At around half the cost of its more expensive brethren, you still get a sensor-loaded smart vacuum with adaptive navigation with powerful suction and high-efficiency brushes. While it’s not the best Roomba on the market, it certainly gets the job done.

After a few months of testing, the iRobot Roomba e5 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner has become a great tool for keeping my house clean. Three times a week, I come home to a clean carpet and thoroughly traumatized cats. Well, the cats are getting used to the vacuum, which is less hilarious, but the dirt is still gone, so I can’t complain.

One of the e5’s best features is the auto-adjusting cleaning head, which automatically adjusts its height when it transitions from hardwood to carpeted floors. Our house has carpeted bedrooms with a hardwood hallway, and both get clean every time it runs.

The only real downside that I’ve found is that I have two chairs that are just high enough to encourage it to attempt to clean under them, but low enough to trap the poor little guy every time (I’ve named him Roomberto). I stuck some yearbooks under the chairs to block it. I haven’t had the problem since. Read the in-depth review here.

The closest thing to a Robo-maid that we could find, the iRobot Roomba i7+ 7550 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner lets you forget about vacuuming for months at a time. Thanks to the intelligent mapping system, the i7+ recollects every vacuumable area of your home, avoiding obstacles and remembering its cleaning history so that it knows exactly what areas of your house need vacuuming and when.

The dual rubber brushes break up dirt and debris, and it works well on carpets, hard floors, and in homes with pets, no matter how much they shed. Also, the allergen lock bag keeps the vacuum from blowing dander all over the house every time it runs.

High on the list of the top robot vacuums, the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11s Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is a great option. The vacuum’s profile is a half-inch lower than most of the robot vacuums on the market, which greatly decreases the odds of coming home to find it stuck halfway under your favorite easy chair.

The super-strong suction combines with a high-performance triple filter system, so it not only takes dirt, dust, pollen, and allergens off the floor, it also prevents them from getting blasted out into the air (and then into your sinuses). One of our favorite perks of this model is the low noise mode, which allows it to operate about as quietly as your microwave, which is great for those still working at home. Between the fact that it’s super quiet, works well with low furniture, and is packed with smart features, we’d highly recommend this bad boy to anyone looking for a solid robot vacuum.

If you want high-end tech without paying a high-end price, the ECOVACS Deebot N79 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is a great way to go. For under $150, you get a slim, quiet, budget robot vacuum with plenty of cleaning power, and that charges itself when the battery runs low. The Deebot’s sensors prevent it from going off drops or repeatedly banging into your entertainment center, and its four cleaning modes (auto, spot, edge, and single room) allow you to dial in how it cleans via the app or the included remote control.

In addition to choosing settings and commanding the Deebot to clean, the app also allows you to set the vacuum’s schedule or check its status or any alerts. It’ll run for roughly an hour and a half on a single charge, but if it starts running low, the Deebot will head back to its home base for a boost before finishing its cleaning job. Car owners will appreciate some of the top car vacuum cleaners from our list. Be sure to check them out.

Designed with hardwood and carpets with a medium pile in mind, the ILIFE A4s Robotic Vacuum Cleaner might be the best vacuum for hardwood floors. The motor manages to provide strong suction without generating an obnoxious amount of noise, so you can run it while you’re kicking back without having to turn subtitles on the tv.

Its sensors will alert it to potential drop-off points and obstacles, and the slim design minimizes its chances of getting wedged until your bed and dying a slow death as its battery drains. Speaking of which, it runs for around 140 minutes on the automatic cleaning setting, but if the battery gets low in the middle of a job, it’ll return to the dock to refuel before going back to work. For more top-quality products for your home, be sure to browse our list of the most popular HEPA vacuums on the market.

Keeping a multiple-pet home clean is not a job for the faint of heart. Luckily, bObsweep’s bObi Pet Robot Vacuum is the best robot vacuum for pet hair (among other pet messes). In addition to the standard obstacle setting, auto-recharge, and removable dustbin, the bObi Pet sports an added wet/dry mop attachment and UV disinfectant light for those times when Robert Bowney Jr. doesn’t make it to the doggy door in time.

Also, the soft silicone touch sensors are easy on furniture. Back-to-back rubber and bristle brushes make sure that every bit of fur is pulled off the floor, and the HEPA filters keep the dander out of the air. The FullCommand remote lets you control the navigation and schedule automatic cleaning, and the multiple color options add a bit of flair. One of the cooler features is the bObi blOck, an included cube that provides a digital barrier, which lets you section off areas you want the automatic vacuum to avoid.

Hair (pet or otherwise) is the bane of many vacuums’ existence. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to unwind long hair from distressed vacuum rollers. It’s a pain in the butt, and it can be a regular occurrence if you or your housemates have longer hair. Shark’s IQ Robot Self-Empty XL Vacuum does away with this annoying (and gross) inconvenience with a killer set of self-cleaning rollers that do away with the dreaded hair-wrap phenomenon.

However, that amazing feature isn’t the only one this baby Shark (cue the song) sports. The vacuum sports a powerful sucking motor and total home mapping, which allows you to select which rooms to clean or schedule whole-home cleaning via the SharkClean app. The voice command lets you tell the Shark to clean a specific room via Alexa or Google Assistant, and the row-by-row cleaning covers your entire home systematically and avoids any missed spots or psychedelic cleaning lines on your carpets. Here are some of the best-selling upright vacuums on the market that will make your life easier, as well. Check them out.

Okay, maybe your house isn’t actually that messy. Even if you don’t need a full-on vacuum, your floors are going to get dusty over time. O-Cedar O-Duster Robotic Floor Cleaner, while not actually a vacuum, uses electrostatic cloth that traps hair, dust, and dander. Think of it as a robot Swiffer.

It sports two cleaning programs, one that lasts 30 minutes and one that goes for a full two hours. Clearly, this was not meant for carpet, but if you have hardwood or tile floors, this is a great option for quickly picking up all of the dust and pet hair that sticks to your feet when you walk around barefoot. I once owned a house with dark cherry wood floors. They looked amazing, but they gathered dusk so quickly that it was hard to keep them looking their best. This bad boy would have been handy before the subfloor moisture made them crack and splinter like the floors of the titanic. For more lightweight and portable cleaning products, be sure to browse our list of the most reliable handheld vacuums on the market.