Best robot vacuum cleaner 2024: Tried, tested and reviewed

The iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ is the best robot vacuum cleaner we’ve reviewed in recent years, combining excellent navigation, great obstacle avoidance, a mopping function and a powerful app. 

The Combo J7+ is physically the same as the regular J7 but it comes with a self-empty station, which we appreciated as it took away a messy job. 

The Roomba Combo J7+ includes a fully retractable mop that slides out from the top of the robot and drops underneath when a hard floor is detected, before switching back to its vacuum function for carpets. This makes the vacuum great for homes that make use of both hard floor and carpet. 

Of course, the Roborock S8 Ultra Pro and the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni also feature mopping systems, but these can only rise less than 1cm from the floor making them less ideal when faced with deeper carpet. 

The 210ml water tank is quite small however so it will need refilling after every use, while the filter needs to be cleaned about once a month. The design also includes a side-sweeping brush for getting dirt from the edges of rooms and two contra-rotating rubber rollers to prevent hair from getting trapped. 

When it comes to mapping your home, the Roomba Combo J7+ allows for multiple maps and does not have to start from its dock. You can also designate Keep Out Zones to block out specific areas and furniture, along with No Mop Zones for hard floors that you’d rather were left alone. 

We found that the vacuum offered powerful suction and excellent navigation, picking up dirt in just 1-2 passes, though edges proved more of a challenge. The mop does well when faced with fresh messes but deeper ones can be tougher to clean due to the lack of agitating cleaning cloths. 

If you’re looking for an excellent all-rounder with both vacuum and mopping functions and brilliant navigation and obstacle avoidance, the iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ is our top choice. However, those with dirtier hard floors may want to look toward a cleaner with an agitating mop instead. 

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: iRobot Roomba Combo J7+

The new top-of-the-line robot, the iRobot Rooba J7+ includes a self-emptying charging dock, although the cheaper J7 dumps this if you want to save cash and are happy to empty the robot yourself. Both versions of the robot have the new camera system, which uses AI to spot problems and avoid them, including cables and pet mess.

In fact, iRobot is so confident that its system works that it will give you a new robot if yours runs over solid pet waste within the first year. In my tests, the robot ably avoid cables and my fake pet poop every time.

There’s proper mapping here, with the option to create rooms and set no-go areas. You can then create jobs and select which rooms you want to clean, tapping your favourite cleaning patterns when you want to use them. Scheduling is a step above the competition: you can set times to clean, but the robot will suggest programmes for you and can even start to clean when you go out using geolocation.

There are no power settings for this robot, but you can set the cleaning mode: using the double-pass option gives the best results in my tests. Cleaning on carpet and hard floors was excellent, but edge performance could be slightly better, as the iRobot J7+ left a chunk of my test dirt behind. Still, my tests use more dirt than the average home, so for regular daily cleaning, the J7+ will do a great job.

What you don’t have to worry about is hair getting tangled: two rubber rollers spin in different directions to prevent hair from getting in the way. Battery life was very good, too, and the robot can recharge mid-way through a clean if needed. If you want a very smart robot vacuum cleaner, then this is the model to buy.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: iRobot J7+ review

Those with hard floors rejoice as there’s finally a robot vacuum that makes light work of mopping. The EZViz RS2 has a hefty 5.5L water tank that allows you to mop up to 300m² of surfaces, including parquet, tiles and PVC.

After mopping, the RS2 will automatically lift the mop pads as the vacuum returns to the base, or if you have a carpeted room between two hardwood rooms, ensuring no mop water gets onto the carpet. Most robot vacuums with a mopping feature tend to allow the mop to wet the carpet, so this is a particularly impressive feature. 

Once the RS2 has finished mopping and returns to the base, the mops are cleaned at high speed, and then dried in hot air to prevent unpleasant smells, mould or bacteria. 

Even though its mopping feature is a highlight, it does work equally well as a vacuum cleaner. The RS2 has a powerful 4000Pa suction and dual rotating brushes, that lift fine dust and debris and help to detangle hair. 

You can also issue commands to the RS2 via your smart speaker for a hands-free experience, and the partnered app is easy to use. You can also adjust the robot’s power models and mopping water levels with the app, and schedule whether the RS2 vacuums before or after mopping or just does one mode at a time. 

It is worth noting that the RS2 doesn’t have a self-emptying station, so you need to remember to replace the two tanks, for both fresh and dirty water, which can be a bit fiddly. However, if you want an easy way to keep on top of mopping, this robot vacuum is a great investment.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: EZViz RS2

Dyson has a solid reputation for building powerful vacuum cleaners, so it’s not surprising that it’s managed to create one of the most powerful robot vacuum cleaners available.

The Dyson 360 Vis Nav motor spins up to 110,000rpm, which Dyson claims is the most powerful suction of any robot vacuum. Thanks to its triple-action brush bar, which features carbon fibre filaments, stiff nylon bristles and soft nylon fibres, all surface types can expect a deep clean.

Not only does it boast super suction but thanks to its D-shaped body the Dyson 360 Vis Nav can reach into tight corners to ensure a complete room clean. 

It is worth noting that there’s no self-emptying station for the Dyson 360 Vis Nav, however, it does have a 570ml dustbin which is very generous for a robot vacuum cleaner. When the time comes to empty the dustbin, the robot has a more hygienic, one-touch ejection mechanism that pushes dust and debris into your bin without needing to touch any dirt.

Connect to the smart MyDyson app and you’ll receive notifications on when you need to empty the bin or wash the filter. The MyDyson app also lets you map and track the robot vacuum and adjust the suction settings. 

The Dyson 360 Vis Nav is also suction-only, making this better for homes with either lots of carpeting or ones that don’t require any mopping. 

It’s quite an expensive robot vacuum and it doesn’t boast quite as many accessories as we’d like for the price but it is a mighty robot vacuum that easily takes the hassle out of manual vacuuming. 

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Dyson 360 Vis Nav

The original Dyson robot vacuum cleaner was the most powerful for years, and now the Dyson 360 Heurist takes its crown and throws in additional smarts. Externally, this model looks very much like the old one: it’s narrow but tall, so can fit through gaps but can’t get under all furniture.

As with the original model, the robot uses a camera to see where it’s going, although this time around the robot can map your home, letting you split it into zones. This lets you clean one room only, or set smart schedules that let the robot clean different rooms at different times, using different power settings for each one. As the robot cleans, it learns your home and improves its routing and cleaning patterns over time. Mapping is powerful, but we found the robot very slow to make the initial maps when we first started using it.

You need to place the 360 Heurist carefully to make sure it can navigate your home and map properly; if you don’t, it can get stuck, as we found when we had to restart the mapping process a few times. In our bedroom, we had to reposition the charging dock, otherwise the robot got confused and couldn’t make its way between the end of the bed and the wall.

Fortunately, we found this effort is worth it, as this robot vacuum cleaner is the most powerful that we’ve tested. With its brush bar that runs the full width of the body, edge pick-up is excellent, and the vacuum managed all of our tests pretty much perfectly, doing almost as well as you could with a regular vacuum cleaner.

Voice control is available via Alexa and, finally, Google Assistant. We found that we could start and stop a clean easily with our voice.

It’s an expensive vacuum cleaner but if you want a robot that can deliver a cleaning performance similar to using a manual cleaner, the Dyson 360 Heurist is for you. If you want more flexibility and better obstacle avoidance, the iRobot J7+ is the best for you.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Dyson 360 Heurist review

Eufy has excelled at making cheap(ish) robot vacuums that clean well but are often slightly lacking in features. The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid changes that. This model has proper mapping, including support for multiple floors, and programmable no-go zones and no-mop zones. The latter can be problematic, as if a no-mop zone is between the robot and an area it can clean, the X8 may not be able to make its way to the area to clean.

As well as telling the robot which rooms to clean, you can put down a zone over any part of the map and just have the X8 Hybrid go there. That’s brilliant if you just want to clean up after you’ve cooked or eaten.

We found the cleaning performance was excellent, as the robot is very powerful. It picked up most of our test dirt on carpets and hard floors, and also got right into the mess spread by the edges of the room.

With a basic gravity-fed water tank and simple microfibre cloth, mopping performance is much more basic. The X8 Hybrid can deal with lighter surface stains, but it can’t scrub away bigger messes: the Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1 is far superior at this.

Maximum battery life is around 180-minutes on minimum power; on maximum setting, I had enough power to clean my downstairs with some juice left.

Good value with lots of features, the RoboVac X8 Hybrid is a solid mid-range robot; if you don’t want the mopping features, the standard X8 is a little cheaper and has a slightly larger bin.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid

Roborock’s excellent mapping abilities and brilliant mop make the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra the pinnacle of robot vacuum cleaners. With its Empty Wash Fill dock, the robot can self-empty, have its mopping cloth cleaned and take on more water. That’s similar to the Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1.

On the robot’s underside is a soft rubber floor brush, which is designed to avoid becoming tangled with hair, and it really works well never getting clogged in our tests.

A camera enables the vacuum to detect any obstacles, so you can set the S7 MaxV cleaning without you having to tidy up beforehand. It will spot shoes, cables and pet mess, avoiding them automatically.

We put the Roborock S7 MaxV through a series of real-world tests, injecting real obstacles along its cleaning path for it to avoid. For the most part, the robot performed brilliantly, with navigation up there with the best we’ve seen. Overall, this vacuum cleaner was able to tackle most day-to-day mess with ease, so when you do have to get the main vacuum cleaner out, there’s little to be done.

And the mopping function uses sonic vibration, similar to that of an electric toothbrush, to scrub the floor as the robot runs over it. This gets out tough stains, although we’d say that the X1 Omni is slightly better.

Where Roborock wins is with its smarts. Here, the mop can be lifted off the floor when the S7 detects that it’s on carpet, preventing it from soaking the floor. In terms of convenience that’s brilliant, as there’s no need to mess about with no-mop zones as with other cleaners, or to remove the mopping bracket when you want to tackle carpet.

The app is also one of the best in the business: maps are accurate and generated quickly, and you can even place virtual furniture around, so you can tell the cleaner where to go: clean around the table, for example.

If you don’t want the docking station, the standard S7 MaxV ships without this and is cheaper. In terms of overall convenience and power, this is the robot vacuum cleaner to beat, but it’s currently only available in the US.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: Roborock S7 MATV Ultra

If you’re keen to upgrade to a robot vacuum but have been put off by the high prices, then the Yeedi Vac Max is perfect for you.

Not only a powerful robot cleaner that picks up day-to-day dust and debris in its stride but the Yeedi Vac Max is also equipped with a handy mop function to make your floor cleaning that bit easier. 

In our tests we found the Vac Max was able to collect mess with a high degree of accuracy and even rivalled its more expensive robot counterparts too. The Vac Max is equipped with a motorised brush bar for agitating dirt from carpets and a side sweeper for teasing debris away from the edges of the room. 

On the robot itself you’ll find its 450ml lift-out bin which stores around one or two full cleans’ worth of dust before needing to be emptied. You also have the option of adding the Yeedi self-empty station which automatically removes dirt out of the bin into the much larger 2.5-litre capacity bag. 

You’ll also find a removable 240ml-sized water tank which attaches underneath and enables the Vac Max’s mopping function. Perfect for surface level cleaning, the mop works by dropping water onto the tank’s microfibre cloth to wipe away dirt. As it lacks an agitation feature, it isn’t suitable for particularly dirty floors. 

The Vac Max is controllable through the Yeedi app and is even compatible with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant. Before you start using the Vac Max you’ll need to download the app and set the robot to map your space. Once you’ve mapped your home, you can name rooms and set no-go vacuuming and mopping zones.

The no-go zone feature is especially useful if you have a combination of hard floors and carpeted areas as the Yeedi Vac Max doesn’t have automatic surface recognition, which means it can soak through carpet if you aren’t careful.

For an impressively powerful robot vacuum with a useful mop function all at a reasonable price, the Yeedi Vac Max is worthy of a spot in our best robot vacuums list.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Yeedi Vac Max 

If there’s a robot vacuum that epitomises value, it’s the Proscenic M8 Pro. It is a vacuum that’s on the larger side, with a 35cm diameter, and comes comprised of some unassuming looking black plastics, apart from when you look at the top. Here the M8 Pro takes on a smarter finish, as well as a laser conning tower that sticks up by around an inch or so, raising its total height to 10cm. This is low enough so it will fit under sofas, but you may have less luck fitting it underneath sideboards and cupboards. Underneath, the M8 Pro comes with a rotating brush bar to loosen dirt on hard floors and carpets, as well as a side brush that aids in increasing the cleaner’s overall reach. 

It comes with a decent capacity dust box on the underside, which doesn’t actually need any emptying, but as this is a vacuum that can also mop, it still needs to be filled with water. The mop attachment comes as a clip on plate with a microfibre cover which is easy enough to attach. In addition, the Proscenic app provides excellent control, although there is a bundled remote control to use if you wish to. Alongside this also comes a couple of spare dust bags and a spare HEPA filter, as well as a combined brush/razor tool for removing any tangled hair. 

The M8 Pro also comes with loads of features to get stuck into, including three vacuum levels and three different water volume settings to pick from – on the default of these (the middle setting), it automatically detects whether it’s on carpet or solid floor and for the most part, the M8 Pro did a decent job of adjusting between different floor surfaces. To achieve a precise clean, Proscenic’s robo-vac uses a rotating laser to go round your house and map out a floor plan. The Proscenic app allows for manual designation of zones, which is especially handy, as is the app’s scheduling feature for cleaning, and its spot cleaning one, too.

Admittedly, it also does an excellent job of cleaning, especially thanks to the amount of obstacle detection the M8 Pro features. There’s infrared time-of-flight sensors, as well as cliff detection, bump detection and laser mapping, as discussed previously. During testing, we found it to successfully navigate door stops, stair tops, chair legs, and other furniture too. It also dealt with our reviewer’s chunky divider well, as well as with their thick doormat and rug. 

Its suction is decent enough, with our testing showing the M8 Pro to do a good job in dealing with smaller items like crumbs and pet hair. Its mopping skills were okay, and while the M8 Pro wasn’t that adept at dealing with dried on stains, it was a good performer with recent, wetter spills. The four hours of battery life Proscenic quotes is perhaps a little too optimistic, as our testing demonstrated that a 23 minute clean drained between 10 and 12% of the battery’s total 5,200mAh capacity. Its noise level ranged between 58dB and 62dB isn’t too loud to hold a conversation over, although the base station’s 70dB is about as loud as a normal vacuum cleaner, even if it’s only on for around 15 seconds at a time.

Reviewer: Simon Handby
Full review: Proscenic M8 Pro review

TP-Link Tapo RV30 Plus

Best value robot vacuum cleaner

Trusted Score

Pros

Cons

For a good value, hardworking robot vacuum that’s also able to do light mopping, you can’t go wrong with the TP-Link Tapo RV30 Plus. 

With 4200Pa suction, which rivals typical vacuum cleaners, the RV30 Plus easily sweeps away debris and can detect hidden dust in gaps and carpets for a deeper clean. With carpet auto-boost, the RV30 detects the surface it’s cleaning and will adjust the suction power accordingly. 

Thanks to its mammoth 5000mAh battery, the RV30 promises up to five hours of continuous cleaning, although our review found this more to be around three hours. Once the battery starts to run low, the robot will automatically return to the charging dock and later restart from where it left off.  

The RV30 Plus is also hassle-free, with a self-emptying station that houses 4L disposable dust bags. The 4L dust bag allows hands-free cleaning for up to 70 days and is sealed, meaning the collected dust and debris can’t escape when it’s time to replace the bag. 

To add to the good value of the RV30 Plus, it also comes equipped with a clip-in mop cloth and a 300ml water tank. You can adjust the mop cleaning intensity via the app, so whether you need just a light mop in a low-traffic area, or you’re cleaning a particularly muddy spot, you can easily adjust the robot vacuum’s mopping level accordingly.

The partnering app is useful for mapping your home, separating areas and setting a cleaning schedule, but you can also find three control buttons on the robot vacuum itself. This includes one to start/pause a clean, one to send the vacuum back to the charging dock and one to start a spot clean. 

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: TP-Link Tapo RV30 Plus

The Yeedi Vac 2 Pro doesn’t look that different, on the outside, to the Yeedi Vac Station that we reviewed last year. Both are circular vacuum cleaners, with a camera on top for visual SLAM map building.

The differences start to pile up when you look more closely. First, the Vac 2 Pro ships with a standard charging dock, whereas the Vac Station ships with a self-empty dock. However, the self-empty station is an optional extra if you want the convenience of bin auto-emptying.

With the self-emptying station, there are 2.5-litre bags that the robot is emptied into automatically. It certainly saves on a messy job.

The big difference is with the mopping. This model has a scrubbing mop, with the microfibre cloth shunting forwards and backwards as the vacuum cleaner moves. This lets it agitate dirt and we found that it could clean up dried on mess that a regular robot with a static mop couldn’t touch.

Vacuuming performance is also excellent. One pass over our hard floor and carpet mess was enough to pick up regular debris; two passes was enough to clean even the toughest of messes.

Control of the robot is via the Yeedi app. It’s functional but a bit clunky in places: after an initial mapping run, the app guessed where our rooms were incorrectly and the split-room feature is a bit fiddly to use. There’s also currently no support for multiple maps, although that is coming in the near future.

There’s a carpet sensor on this robot, so the Vac 2 Pro won’t run over your soft flooring while in mopping mode. That’s good for safety, but if there’s no clear path over carpet to a hard floor area, the robot won’t be able to clean everywhere unless you remove the mop bracket. The Roborock S7 MaxV does a better job, as it can lift its mop bracket off the floor and move over carpet.

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant skills are available so that you can start and stop a clean with your voice alone.

Although basic in some regards, the quality of the mopping makes this a great mid-range choice for anyone with lots of hard floors.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Yeedi Vac 2 Pro