What wasn’t so easy for me at first was connecting the S7+ to the Roborock app. The vacuum had trouble connecting to my home’s WiFi network, but I was able to connect it to the Mi Home app, which is Xiaomi’s main smart home companion app (Xiaomi is an investor in Roborock). There aren’t a ton of differences between the two apps when it comes to robo-vac controls, but the S7+ is designed to work with Roborock’s program. After troubleshooting with a Roborock representative, I was able to fix the problem by factory resetting the vacuum and that allowed me to connect it to the Roborock app properly. If you’ve shopped for a robot vacuum before, you’ll know that under $300 is a steal.
Perfect for pet hair, Shark’s vacuum maps your home and lets you choose which rooms you want to clean. Another thing the Shark ION AV751 struggles with is finding its way back to the docking station after completing a cleaning cycle. Whenever it finished its job and was too far from the dock, it would aimlessly drive around looking for the docking station (and wasn’t very successful). More times than not, I had to go find the vacuum, stop it, and station it myself.
Robot vacuums never get bored or distracted, and they don’t mind cleaning every day. So with very little effort on your part, they’ll keep your floors constantly tidy. We’ve tested dozens of robots, from cheap models that bump around randomly to fancy machines that empty themselves and (usually) steer around dog poop. First, consider the strong, durable, and smart-enough iRobot Roomba i4 EVO. Most self-emptying robot vacuums bundle everything you need in the box.
You’re able to choose three different suction levels—Regular, Eco, and Max—as well as a variety of cleaning options, such as vacuuming specific rooms or spot-cleaning an area you select via the app. Additionally, the vacuum has a special Ultra mode, which increases the suction power and goes over shark canister vacuum the floor twice for a more thorough clean. Where the j7+ really stands out from the rest of the Roomba lineup is its advanced obstacle detection. Through the iRobot app, you can review these images and instruct the robot whether it should avoid the obstacle or clean around it in the future.
Should the on-board dustbin reach capacity, the robot vacuum can empty itself via its base and then continue on route. Of course, the dust bag will eventually need changing within the base, but these will often last for several weeks at a time. However, with an average pick up score of almost 97 achieved during our testing, it’s a capable vacuum on both hard floors and carpet. We noticed that it’s better at picking up pet hair and kitty litter compared to Cheerios — this is usually the other way around. The iRobot s9+ offers the best of everything; it’s simple to operate and provides strong pick up across hard floors and carpet, excelling on pet hair.
The best robot vacuum models offer strong suction, quiet motors and hands-free cleaning that makes life easier than ever before. It also gives you the option of room-specific cleaning commands (with the app or voice control via Alexa, Google, or Siri) and allows you to set keep-out zones. This is essential as it doesn’t have AI obstacle avoidance, so it does get stuck in regular robot traps such as clusters of cables. It also struggles with tight furniture footprints since it’s quite wide. If you are looking for a robot that vacuums and mops, the Roborock S7 or S8 will suit you better than iRobot’s j7 Combo — a j7 with a mopping pad.