Did your mother often yell at you because you lay on the sofa while she did housework on her own? Wanna solve the terrible nightmare? Why not give her a robot vacuum as Mother’s day present.
Maybe it’s not a fun, romantic, or charming gift idea, but robot vacuums may be on the brink of becoming a trend in a big way. Probably because vacuuming the house is one of those jobs that cause lots of family friction, and obviously parents are tired of getting stuck with the job.
After all, when it comes to high tech smart equipment for your home, very little new stuff for sale can replace hard physical labor by humans. No big new things like washers, dryers and refrigerators with ice makers once were. A robot that vacuums carpets or mops up tile floors probably can change your life.
So, what are the main things to look for in a Robot Vacuum Cleaner?
By searching online reviews of Robot Vacuums on sites like Home Vacuum Zone it’s possible to find out the features and functionality that the latest units offer. Some of the things that you need to take into consideration in a robot vacuum are:
Battery life & recharge cycles – look for lithium-ion batteries which is the latest technology;
HEPA filtration – to ensure that the majority of dust particles are fully captured and not released back into the air;
Replacement parts that are easy to find—at least filters, but preferably brushes, batteries, and wheels. Third-party vacuum filters are more affordable than buying from the manufacturer;
Virtual walls – to keep your robot out of particular locations in your home;
Advanced scheduling features;
Intelligent navigation systems – your robot should learn the layout of your home over time so that its efficiency improves.
To help you make this decision, we’ve picked a range of robot vacuum cleaners and tested in three scents: a small bedroom with a hardwood floor and rugs for the robot to navigate over; a large, open-plan kitchen complete with dining table and chairs; and a carpeted living room featuring numerous obstacles such as sofas, a coffee table, a desk and a television. Our final pick features the products that performed the best in these challenges and we believe are worth investing in as gift for mother.
You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice.
The Best: Lefant M210s
Available in black, this mini-looking robot vacuum won our best buy. This is actually a dual-function robot-the world’s most innovative robot vacuum & mop. As with many other products, this robot can be controlled via APP, but you can also simply press the button on the top of the robot to begin cleaning.
During testing, we found this product had no problem with navigating rugs and different surfaces at reasonable speed, and most importantly it always corrected its cleaning path due to the Freemove technology. It uses drop-sensing technology to avoid falling downstairs and off of ledges. With an impressive 100 minutes of battery life, this was one of the longest-running robots we tested, and we particularly liked that if it runs out of charge while cleaning a room, it’ll return to the dock to charge just enough battery to then complete the remainder of the room.
The scheduling options for this vacuum cleaner were advanced compared to other products we tested. The easy-to-use app allows you to set time and the clean mode – we were impressed.
This vacuum robot consistently finds its way back to its small charging dock, and you don’t have to completely clear a room of obstacles (as with other models) in order to effectively vacuum dirt and dust. Another feature we liked was that Lefant does an impressive job on picking up dirt, dust, pet hair and fur without tangling caused by hairs blocking into roller! We also found the dust bin has a large capacity, making it easy to empty after weekly clean.
The latest: Dyson 360 heurist
This futuristic-looking robot is the latest release from Dyson. A step up from its previous model, Dyson claims to have made this vacuum capable of learning as it goes, with 20 per cent more suction than before. This product lived up to these credentials, providing a seriously impressive and methodical clean in all the rooms we tried it out in.
We set up this vacuum through the Dyson Link app, where you can view the robot mapping the zones you want it to clean, which it then remembers via its huge 10GB of memory. You can set a cleaning schedule for your robot, viewing exactly where has been cleaned and how long it took. Moving on tank-style tracks instead of wheels, it easily moves across the room, and adapts to new surfaces, and you can even create “restricted zones” via the app, so that it knows the areas it must avoid.
Smaller in diameter but thicker than other robot vacuums on the market, an obvious problem with this product is that it can’t get under objects that other models we tested were easily able to clean. We also noted that the efficiency of this robot means that it sometimes moves at quite a speed, barging into objects in its way before understanding and then remembering how to navigate around them.
The Pricey:iRobot Roomba S9 Plus
If someone were to give you a blank check and tell you to buy the best robot vacuum, this is the bot to get. That said, the iRobot Roomba S9 Plus has a whopping price of $1,099. For that staggering pile of cash though, this robotic vacuum delivers powerful suction and superb dirt and dust removal.
On hardwood floors this Roomba picked up an average of 93% of our test sand, the highest amount in our test group, but it struggled a bit cleaning sand from low-pile carpeting and area rugs, earning a low average dust and sand pickup of 28%.
That said, the Roomba robot vac removed an average 71% of sand from our medium pile carpet while vacuuming. Again, this is the best result that we saw on this specific test. It also cleaned up more dog hair, pet dander and allergens than any vacuum in this test group, and the bot navigates and maps multiple rooms and floors. iRobot has also updated its app to let you designate “Unreachable zones” that you want the S9 Plus to avoid when cleaning. The app also allows you to use voice commands to clean a room using Alexa or Google Voice Assistant.
The robot zipped through our test room in a short average time of 25 minutes, too. You can link the S9 Plus to the Roomba app and your home Wi-Fi as well. Best of all is the Roomba S9 Plus’ CleanBase docking station. The dock both charges the robot’s battery and empties its dustbin automatically, making cleaning even easier and keeping you from worrying about battery life. Now that’s convenient.
Conclusion
A robot vacuum cleaner is a great application to your home and saves your mother’s time to do the things she enjoys! Robot vacuums are compact and will not take up too much space in your home and I guess it won’t be long that replace your trusty upright or cylinder vacuum.