Robot Vacuums Are Finally Good---Here's Which One to Buy
Robot Vacuums Are Finally Good---Here's Which One to Buy
A robot vacuum always seemed like a nice idea. I’d obviously rather delegate the hoovering than do it myself. But for years, the devices didn’t work well enough. They were just extravagances that could help a bit but couldn’t fully replace the manual labor.
Now there are dozens of robot vacuums, and many companies have similar lineups, plus or minus a few signature features. For my tests, I chose a sample of five of the most popular and interesting ones on the market: the $300 Eufy Robovac 30c, the $400 Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930, the $500 Shark Ion S87, the $700 Neato Botvac D7 and the $950 iRobot Roomba i7+. All five have their pros and cons, but even the cheapest model was able to pick up nearly all the dirt from my floor.
Mercifully quiet; inexpensive; low enough to fit under most things
Not especially well-made; tends to move haphazardly
Set up was tricky; vacuum didn't always stay connected to Wi-Fi
Doubles as a mop; tidy cleaning pattern; can deep-clean a single spot
Mediocre at cleaning; more expensive than other similar products
Simple, usable app; comes with a hand vac that also charges in the dock
Really loud; bumps into everything
D-shaped body gets into corners better; app lets you pick places to avoid
Built-in dustbin means less emptying; maps home so you can say where to clean
Really expensive; dock is huge
Mercifully quiet; inexpensive; low enough to fit under most things
Not especially well-made; tends to move haphazardly
Doubles as a mop; tidy cleaning pattern; can deep-clean a single spot
Set up was tricky; vacuum didn't always stay connected to Wi-Fi
Mediocre at cleaning; more expensive than other similar products
Simple, usable app; comes with a hand vac that also charges in the dock
D-shaped body gets into corners better; app lets you pick places to avoid
Really loud; bumps into everything
Built-in dustbin means less emptying; maps home so you can say where to clean
Really expensive; dock is huge
Mercifully quiet; inexpensive; low enough to fit under most things
Not especially well-made; tends to move haphazardly
Doubles as a mop; tidy cleaning pattern; can deep-clean a single spot
Set up was tricky; vacuum didn't always stay connected to Wi-Fi
Mediocre at cleaning; more expensive than other similar products
Simple, usable app; comes with a hand vac that also charges in the dock
D-shaped body gets into corners better; app lets you pick places to avoid
Really loud; bumps into everything
Built-in dustbin means less emptying; maps home so you can say where to clean
Really expensive; dock is huge
Not especially well-made; tends to move haphazardly
Mercifully quiet; inexpensive; low enough to fit under most things
Set up was tricky; vacuum didn't always stay connected to Wi-Fi
Doubles as a mop; tidy cleaning pattern; can deep-clean a single spot
Simple, usable app; comes with a hand vac that also charges in the dock
Mediocre at cleaning; more expensive than other similar products
D-shaped body gets into corners better; app lets you pick places to avoid
Really loud; bumps into everything
Really expensive; dock is huge
Built-in dustbin means less emptying; maps home so you can say where to clean
I’m all in. Robot vacuums are the best smart-home gadget I’ve tested yet, because they solve a real problem rather than just complicating how I turn on my tea kettle. I still have my stick vacuum, but it’s buried in the closet. It’s only for serious spillage now.
The Cleaning
Matt Petersen, Neato Robotics’ chief executive, told me a robot vacuum has two jobs. To be useful, it has to clean well and not get stuck. I’d add a third: It has to go home when it’s finished. In general, a good robot vacuum is one you never think about: It’s as if your floors are just magically clean all the time. To do that, a robot needs to clean what’s dirty, avoid what’s in the way and get home to its charging base when it’s done.
A flat-front edge helps Neato Robotics’ Botvac D7 clean in corners—but it means the vac can get stuck more easily, too.
Photo:
David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal
Not all robot vacuums measure up to that low bar, but many do, including all five of my test subjects—for the most part. Neato’s Dotvac D7 has an unusual D-shape that helps it clean in corners and along walls, but it also ended up wedged underneath chair legs a few times. And there was the time the Neato cleaned up half a pile of Dorito crumbs before returning to its base and happily declaring mission accomplished. Which, nope.
Eufy’s Robovac was just short enough to get under the railing at the top of my staircase—and get trapped.
Eufy’s Robovac 30c was the shortest device we tested: It fit into some places others couldn’t.
Photo:
David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal
And I experienced the dreaded dog-poop incident: One of my vacuums attempted to pick up the leavings and instead smeared them around my carpeted bedroom. That was rough. Multiple vacuum makers told me it’s an important, and hard, problem to solve.
iRobot CEO Colin Angle said the company is working on teaching robots to recognize and avoid cables and even building a feature to tell you when it finds something under the couch like your keys. Or dog poop. Sadly for the world and my carpet, we aren’t there yet.
You can tell the iRobot Roomba i7+ to clean up a specific room—even via the Alexa voice assistant.
Photo:
David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal
Since these robot vacuums can’t clean stairs or couch cushions, they likely can’t be your only vacuum. The Shark Ion S87 comes with a small hand vac that shares the dock with the robot, but even it wasn’t enough for really serious messes.
Many of these vacs have trouble with wet messes. The Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930 has a clever solution: a built-in water reservoir and attachable pad that turns the robot into a mop. It works well enough, but the Ecovacs can’t be both vacuum and mop simultaneously, and switching modes often took longer than just wiping up my coffee spills.
Attach the pad to the bottom of the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930 and fill its water tank, and the vacuum becomes a serviceable robo-mop.
Photo:
David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal
For many people, a robot vac still seems like an expensive luxury rather than a household necessity. But it is true luxury. Here’s what my vacuum routine is like now: I press the button on the robot to start cleaning, or open its corresponding app and start it that way. (All five of my testers have straightforward apps that let you start or schedule a cleaning remotely, and integrate with voice assistants to do the same.) Then I go for a walk or head to work. When I come back, everything is just as I left it, except now my floor is clean.
The Smarts
For some, like the Eufy, cleaning and getting back to base is about where the smarts end. Higher-end models do much more. The Neato generates a floor plan of your home as it works, then allows you to draw virtual lines in the app to tell the vacuum where not to go. The Roomba i7+, the most expensive vacuum I tested, creates a similar floor plan and allows you to choose where the robot should clean. You can say, “Alexa, tell Roomba to clean the kitchen,” and off it goes.
Got a place you don’t want the vac to touch? In the Neato app, you can draw ‘no go’ lines on your floor plan and the Neato Botvac D7 will steer clear.
Photo:
Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
Over time, the smartest of these products will be much more robot than vacuum. Since they know where everything is in your house, and can move around it, vacuums could be a handy place from which to control and manage your smart home. “The house needs to get better at understanding itself,” Mr. Angle said.
Buying a robot vacuum is a bit like buying a car, in that there’s no one choice that’s right for everyone. If you’re only worried about the basics, you don’t need to spend much. The Eufy Robovac 30c is a good vacuum that takes the job out of your hands. I didn’t test its cheaper sibling, the $150 Robovac 11s, but the only difference between the two is the Wi-Fi connection, so if you don’t care about the app, you can save even more money.
Some high-end robot vacuums, such as the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930, store the maps they make of your house, and you can tell them exactly where to clean next time.
Photo:
Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
If you want the grand luxury vehicle of the bunch, there’s just no beating the Roomba i7+. It can’t mop—I wish it could—but the Roomba has a useful app, and lots of smart features. It just does its job really well. Its crowning feature is a dustbin built into its base: Instead of emptying the vacuum every time you run it, you empty it every few weeks. And there are cheaper versions of this bot too without some of these extras.
After a few days, I hardly even thought about the Roomba i7+, which is exactly what I was looking for. I don’t vacuum anymore, but my floors are clean. I’m living the dream.
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