The Ultimate Guide to Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners
✔️ Battery life and dust cup: Let the size of your home guide you. If you live in a small apartment, you can consider a corded vacuum or one that doesn’t need as much battery life; if you have multiple floors, you'll want a longer run time and a bigger dust cup. If you have stairs, you’ll need a vacuum that can easily go up and down each step all while picking up dirt and dust.
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Remember that in general robot vacuums are designed for regular, light cleaning rather than deep cleans.
Your home has lots of stairs and bare floors. Many full-size canister vacuums come with a power nozzle that has a rotating brush to mimic that of an upright.
Improvements like a roller drying feature after self-cleaning and greater capacity in the dirty water tank make this model easier to care for, though some Amazon shoppers note that it can smell even if it hasn't sucked up anything smelly.
We also found this robot vacuum would dock regularly for mop cleaning, which isn't necessarily an issue, but does extend overall cleaning times. It will automatically empty and refill its onboard water tank, and it can clean its own mop pads too.
I love the easy-to-use app that allows you to schedule cleanings and view the progress from a camera that is attached to the vacuum. This vacuum also came in second out of 10 vacuums for maneuverability.
If your robot vacuum has a mopping function, some bases come with water tanks and scrubbing abilities as well, so it can keep the mop cloth clean. However, there are some drawbacks to self-emptying bases. Besides the additional cost, these take up a lot more floor space.
Who it's best for: If you're tired of cleaning the dust bin of a bagless vacuum and you're willing to spend big bucks on a vacuum, you'll love this self-emptying model with high-tech features.
Finally, there's the Freo X Plus, which is significantly cheaper and more basic than the others in the range. It has mopping capabilities but the dock is just a simple charge dock.
Today's top-specced robovacs can generate upwards of 10,000Pa of suction. That's rare though, and you're generally looking at machines that sit in the four-figure price bracket to get that kind of power.
Carolyn Forté has tested and reviewed hundreds of vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, mops and other major (and minor) home appliances as executive director of the Home Care Lab. She oversees all testing Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners done in the Cleaning Lab and recently tested all of the handheld, stick, upright and canister vacuums that were submitted for consideration in the most recent Cleaning and Organizing Awards.
Human hair is embedded into the same section of the test carpet. Technicians time how long it takes for the vacuum to pick up the hair and weigh the amount that’s in the dustbin and the brush roll.
Navigation: Our technicians attach a tracking device to the vacuum and map its movement through a multiroom lab. Then they calculate the coverage of the room over multiple runs and note what the vacuum avoids and what it doesn’t. They conduct several runs to see whether the vacuum is able to learn the layout and improve its navigation.