Our latest lab test reviews 36 models from popular brands such as Dreame, Dyson, Narwal, Ecovacs, iRobot Roomba and more
We assess how well models clean hard floors, carpet and pet hair plus how easy they are to use
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Robot vacuums promise to eliminate the burden of one of the most dreaded household chores, and they’ve certainly gained legions of fans whose bots have become valued members of the family.
But while we all fantasise about putting our feet up while someone else takes care of our filthy floors and carpets, the truth is that not all bots turn out to be the magic helpers we hoped for.
Not all robot vacuums are the magic helpers we hoped for
CHOICE tests show that while some models perform well on hard floors, there are many that disappoint on carpet, or struggle with other tasks like mopping and avoiding obstacles.
And they’re not cheap. The robot vacuums in our latest review range in price from $350 up to almost $3000 for bots with fancy features such as automatic self-emptying and mopping functions with automatic carpet avoidance.
In our tests, each model is scored on its skills on hard floor and carpet, pet hair, how well they navigate objects, and other key criteria, including how easy their app is to use and how easy the dirt receptacle is to empty.
We found some very helpful units, and some woeful ones that are just not worth the price tag.
Generally, all of the robot vacs that come through our labs now have a mopping function, so we test that too.
Our experts spread clay and chocolate on a set test bed of ceramic tiles and run the wash/mop mode.
Setting up the mopping performance test in the lab’s dedicated test area.
Three experts visually assess how well the robot cleans the debris, and whether it leaves a dirty trail in its wake.
And since most people don’t want their rugs mopped, we also check how well they avoid carpet – whether that’s by us programming the robot to avoid defined areas, or by the robot detecting carpet by itself.
If you’re interested in how a particular model performs at mopping, check our full robot vac reviews.
They may do the dirty work so you don’t have to, but unfortunately our rigorous lab tests have found robot vacs generally don’t clean as well as traditional barrel or stick vacuums.
Of course, given that you’re not the one doing the cleaning, you might be fine with that – and you can always schedule your robot to clean more often to compensate.
Robot vacuums are best for ‘top-up’ cleans in between more thorough laps with your stick or barrel vacuum
Adrian Lini, CHOICE vacuum expert
“We’ve found robot vacuums are best for ‘top-up’ cleans in between more thorough laps with your stick or barrel vacuum,” says CHOICE vacuum expert Adrian Lini.
“Overall, how effective a robot vacuum will be for you depends on your home’s layout and things such as whether you have pets, and the main type of flooring.”
If you’re hoping for clean floors in your future, steer clear of these dismal droids.
Dreame Mova M1
CHOICE Expert Rating: 28%
Hard floor score: 45%
Carpet score: 23%
Mopping score: 8%
Price: $350
The Dreame Mova M1.
It’s the cheapest bot in our review by a fair margin (the next most expensive is around $250 more), but while this budget bot may be dirt cheap, it’ll leave your floors dirty too.
Hard floors, carpet, pet hair: it sucks (or rather doesn’t) at vacuuming them all.
And when it comes to its mopping chops, it’s a shocker, receiving the second-lowest score of all the robot vacs in our review: just 8%.
While it’ll avoid the dirt on your floor, the same can’t be said for its ability to dodge objects in its path.
Our experts scored it 0% on our object avoidance test. You can’t get worse than that!
Our experts scored it 0% on our object avoidance test. You can’t get worse than that!
In short, it’s terrible at vacuuming, terrible at mopping, and it’ll bump into everything as it tries (and fails) to clean your floors. It’s not so much a Dreame as a nightmare.
Narwhals are sometimes called “unicorns of the sea”, but there’s not much that’s magical about this robot vac.
It does a pretty good job of spot-cleaning on carpets, but plenty of models in our review do too, so it’s not exactly a wizard in that regard.
It definitely doesn’t work wonders on hard floors (it scored just 15%), and it doesn’t mix well with other animals, scoring a dismal 25% for picking up pet hair.
This model offers spell-binding cleaning program names like “super powerful” and “meticulous” but judging by the test results, that’s mostly make-believe.
If you’re after an out-of-this-world clean, you won’t be bewitched by this robot vac.
Another ironically named vac, the Max Plus is anything but. Its performance is more minimum than maximum, and our experts found very few pluses to report.
One positive is the price. It’s the second cheapest bot in our review, but it also ranks equal third lowest, so you could say its low price correlates with its low scores.
Once again, the manufacturer must’ve named its cleaning programs with a heavy dose of irony. You can choose an “advanced cleaning” program and “turbo” or “max” vacuum power in the app, but our test results show that even on its highest setting, it doesn’t deliver on its promises.
It has a relatively long charging time too, so the effort to reward ratio just doesn’t add up: it’s not worth waiting for.
Is the Eufy X10 a Pro? In the opinion of our professional testers, definitely not.
With the lowest pet hair removal score in our review (just 3%), it’s not one for animal lovers, and with a disappointing overall vacuuming and mopping rating, it’s not one for lovers of clean floors either.
Its one saving grace is that the mopping function is easy to use, but given that it mops so badly you’ll probably have to re-mop the floor yourself, we’d argue that it’ll make more work for you overall.
With the lowest pet hair removal score in our review, it’s not one for animal lovers
It scored just 2% for energy use (which means it uses a lot of power while charging and in standby mode), so it might be best to turn it off when not in use.
All up, this un-Pro-fessional bot will cause you more Pro-blems than it’ll solve.
It was at the bottom of the class for carpet cleaning, scoring the lowest of all robot vacuums in our review, so it’ll fail your floors.
This bot isn’t good at anything much, except for cleaning around obstacles. But that’s not much use when it’s a dunce at cleaning anyway.
Here’s how our experts rated it for our main tests:
Hard floor cleaning: Poor
Carpet cleaning: Very poor
Pet hair removal: Poor
Mopping: Poor
Ease of use: Poor
That’s basically all the things you buy a robot vacuum for.
Almost every one of the top-scoring bots in our review cost less than the T90 Pro Omni, so it’ll leave you with lighter pockets and dirtier floors than if you had checked our detailed robot vacuum reviews before you bought.
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
LinkedIn
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
LinkedIn
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
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