AR Score is a scoring system developed by our experts. The score is from 0 to 10 based on the data collected by the Appliances Radar tool. This score doesn't impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Learn more

Top performers can find their way out of tight spots and around extension cords. You’ll need to do some prep work in moving clothes, toys, and other objects from the floor before sending out the vacuum, though.

So, ideally you will still want to run your regular vacuum every so often, while the robot vacuum helps keep dust down in the interim. By keeping on top of the light debris, you won’t need to use your full-sized vacuum so often.

You can set them to clean just the kitchen floor after dinner or an entire level of your home while you’re out of the house. Can you get it done faster with your regular vacuum? Sure. But the real question is, do you want to?

The app stood out to us for its user-friendly design, allowing you to adjust water and suction levels, schedule cleaning tasks and even view a live feed from the robot’s camera.

There are all the smart sensing systems that you need, offering anti-bump, anti-fall and obstacle detection. The Proscenic will also recognise when it needs charging and return automatically back to the charging base.

Cleans and Dries Its Mops: The mops are lifted automatically when returning to the base station to ensure your floors stay pristine. Automatic mop cleaning immerses the mops in water and spins them at high speed against grooves in the removable base plate to dislodge dirt.

AR Score is a scoring system developed by our experts. The score is from 0 to 10 based on the data collected by the Appliances Radar tool. This score doesn't impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Learn more

Issues like this can be avoided after the first few trips around the house, if you identify problem areas your robot vacuum typically encounters, simply block them off.

Eufy X10 Pro Omni is the best robot vacuum for most people. This self-empty robot vacuum and mop checks pretty much all our boxes. The suction power is excellent, pulling all kinds of debris, fluff and hair and fluff out of our tester's carpet (although it did flick larger debris about rather than sucking it up – a problem with almost all robovacs). It's relatively quiet in all but it's very highest vacuum Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners setting, too.

"The battery life of the SwitchBot K10+ is excellent, with the added benefit that it sends itself back to its charging station if it needs a boost. Like other high-quality robot vacuums it also features a mop function."

The iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ has self-emptying and Automóvel-fill capabilities, allowing it to clean for weeks with little upkeep. Its Auto-Retract Mopping System lifts the mop when moving onto carpets, and its Dirt Detective system targets areas which are dirtier than others with stronger suction and scrubbing.

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is the best robot vacuum for carpet. It's a premium product, (and it's not available in the UK), but delivers the best carpet cleaning performance of any robovac we've tested. On test we found that not only did it suck up finer dust and dirt efficiently, it also scooped up larger debris – namely bits of cereal – just as well.

Over the past 10 years, we've tested dozens of robot vacuums, both by performing objective tests as well as real-world setups. Each model we review is first evaluated to see how well it can pick up three types of debris. We measure out 20 grams of Cheerios, 20 grams of kitty litter, and 20 grams of pet hair. Next, we scatter each individually across a hardwood floor, and then weigh the contents of the robot vacuum's dustbin to see how much of each it picked up. We then repeat the same three tests on a low-pile carpet. Afterwards, the robot vacuum receives a cleaning performance score, which is the percentage of debris it was able to collect. After we record each robot vacuum's scores, we let these machines loose in our tester’s home to see how each holds up in terms of navigation, obstacle avoidance, and coverage in real-world testing.