Small electric hover mower. Best Hover Mowers in the UK: Reviews of My top 5 Picks

8th August 2023

Best Hover Mowers in the UK: Reviews of My top 5 Picks

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In this article, we’re on the search for the best hover mower.

Now as you can imagine, the term ‘best hover mower’ means different things to different people. As such I’ve suggested 5 models and I’ll also talk about why you might pick one over another.

We’ll also talk about the pros and cons of a hover lawn mower, why to choose one and why a different type of lawn mower might be a better option.

A quick comparison

Flymo Turbolite 260

Flymo Hover Vac 270

Ready to use out of the box

Flymo Easy Glide 330VX

McGregor Hover Mower

Flymo XL500

Handles Slopes up to 45 Degrees

Best Hover Mower with Reviews

Before we get into this list of the best hover mowers, it’s worth mentioning that Flymo completely dominates the hover mower market.

As such, this list is a bit lopsided with most of my recommendations being Flymo machines.

Flymo TurboLite 260 Lightweight Hover Mower. Best Value

Power Type: Electric
Motor: 1,400 watts
Cutting Width: 26cm
Grass Box Capacity: None
Weight: 7.5kg
Cable length: 10m
Warranty: 2 Years

Overview

The Flymo Turbolite series is incredibly well-reviewed online and also comes in a range of sizes. As such I think it’s the best hover mower for most people.

Like many hove mowers, it’s not what you’d call expensive so investing in it won’t break the bank.

And I know this has no bearing on how good it is but I love the look of it. It looks like a little orange flying saucer!

It’s powered by an impressive 1,400-watt electric motor which is plenty powerful enough for most lawns (provided they’re not like a paddock).

As it only weighs 7.5kg, carrying it from the shed to the lawn is easy and manoeuvring it around the lawn is a doddle, no matter which direction you mow in.

It cuts well through grass which has been left to grow a little longer and I have to say, the finish was really quite nice.

The big drawback for many will be the fact that it doesn’t have a grass collection box.

That said, because it’s so light, the added weight from collecting grass clippings would negatively affect its cutting ability. Plus, if you cut the grass regularly, you can leave the tiny clippings on the lawn like the best mulching mowers do.

All in all, I really like the Flymo Turbolite mower.

It’s cheap, very light and leaves a nice, even finish and to be fair, it’s cheap feel didn’t really bother me.

It seems the thousands of users of this model agree.

Flymo Hover Vac 270 Hover Mower with Grass Box

Power Type: Electric
Motor: 1,400 watts
Cutting Width: 27cm
Grass Box Capacity: 15 Litres
Weight: 8.8kg
Warranty: 1 Year

Overview

If you have small lawns and with hard to reach areas, the Flymo Hover Vac is worth considering.

Powered by a 1,400-watt motor, it’s more than powerful enough to keep on top of small areas of turf. It works better than I expected when the grass is on the long side too.

Of course, it won’t tackle thick overgrown areas but if you’re faced with a few inches of growth after getting back from holiday, it’ll cope no problem.

It’s fairly light at 8.8kg so carrying from the shed to your lawn shouldn’t be a problem. It feels even lighter when cutting the grass, easily gliding over your lawn and tackling tight areas.

This particular model features a small, 15-litre grass collection box too, which for small lawns, should be enough.

Overall, the quality of the cut is very good, leaving a smooth, even finish (provided your lawn is fairly level).

When mowing along the fence line I was left with a 5cm strip of grass which I had to finish off with the strimmer.

I also found that despite collecting grass reasonably well, I was left with clippings on the lawn when I’d finished mowing.

In terms of value for money, The Flymo Hover Vac 270 is a good little machine.

It’s cheap but works well and comes with a mass of raving fans.

Of course, it’s not perfect but then nothing in this world is – especially when it’s made to a budget.

If you have small, fairly even lawns and you don’t want to spend the earth, it’s definitely worth your consideration.

Flymo Glider Compact 330AX Hover Mower with Grass Box

Power Type: Electric
Motor: 1,700 watts
Cutting Width: 33cm
Grass Box Capacity: 22 litres
Weight: 9.4kg
Warranty: 2 Years

Overview

If you’re after something a bit bigger and more powerful than the Hover Vac 280, the Flymo Easy Glide 330VX is a decent choice.

At 9.4kg it’s not so heavy so carrying it to and from the lawn shouldn’t be a problem and manoeuvring it around the lawn is a doddle.

The grass box holds 22 litres which compacts the grass to get more in. It even has a handy little window so you can see when it’s full. Plus, it’s dead easy to empty.

It has a longer power cable than most hover mowers at 10 meters. Still, depending on the size of your lawn and whether or not you have an outdoor power socket, you may need an extension cable.

For relatively well care for lawns it works well and produces quite a pleasing finish. That said, if your lawn is made up of long, stalky meadow grasses it doesn’t cut so cleanly. You might find yourself having to mow an eare more than once to get a finish you’re happy with.

Also, the collection system doesn’t work great when cutting wet grass. Instead, it had a habit of blowing it all over the place.

All that being said, it’s an incredibly popular machine and is very well reviewed by other users.

McGregor Hover Mower with Grass Box

Power Type: Electric
Motor: 1,450-watts
Cutting Width: 30cm
Grass Box Capacity: 20 Litres
Weight: 5.88kg
Warranty: 1 Years

Overview

If you’re looking for the best hover mower which isn’t a Flymo, this entry from McGregor is worth a look.

It’s just as easy to use as any of the Flymo models. In fact, it’s quite similar to the Hover Vac I reviewed earlier.

It’s super light at less than 6kg so carrying it to your lawn should be no problem. If it is, just tip it forward and you can roll it on the two small wheels on the front.

It tackles even thick grass well with its 1,450-watt electric motor and its 20-litre collection box it pretty effective when the grass is dry.

That said, it does have a tendency to clog up when the grass is wet.

Overall though, the McGregor lawn mower is just as good as the Flymos.

It cuts well and definitely competes with the Flymo’s in terms of cost, quality and value.

Flymo XL500 Petrol Hover Mower. Best Overall

Power Type: Petrol
Motor: 160cc 4-stroke
Cutting Width: 51cm
Grass Box Capacity: None
Weight: 18.2kg
Warranty: 2 Years

Overview

If your lawn is on the large size and you want a hover mower that isn’t restricted by a power cord, have a look at the Flymo XL500.

Designed for large gardens and semi-professional use, the big benefit the XL500 has over any other hover mower is the fact that you can go anywhere with it without having a power cord trailing behind you.

As it’s powered by a 160cc 4-stroke Honda engine, it’s;

As it’s powered by a petrol engine, it copes much better with both long, bumpy and wet grass. And its 51cm cutting width gets through it quickly.The Honda engine runs smoothly and it’s also surprisingly quiet when compared to other petrol lawn mowers.

One of the main benefits of hover mowers is the fact that they are handle slopes better than other types. This XL500 copes easily with slopes up to 45 degrees.

And because it’s made for more heavy-duty use, it’s the most robust hover mower on the market, however, it’s also the heaviest! Of course, you’d expect petrol mowers to be heavier than electric models because they have engines bolted to them.

However, all other petrol mowers have wheels which means getting them out of the shed and to the lawn is easy. This Flymo machine doesn’t have wheels so it means you’d have to physically carry its 18.2kg weight to wherever you want to use it.

For some, 18kg isn’t that heavy, for others though, it might as well weigh a ton. You can buy a set of transport wheels to help with this but that’s an added cost.

And despite the fact that it’ll cope with fairly steep inclines, pushing and pulling it up and down them is heavy work.

If you’re fit and able, the weight issue shouldn’t bother you so much. However, for some, it’s just too heavy to be useful.

Overall it’s a very good mower for medium lawns. Just make sure you can handle the weight.

Why Choose a Hover Lawn Mower?

Why not choose a different type?

Well, there are a few reasons;

The first one is the manoeuvrability.

Regular lawn mowers have fixed wheels so they’re limited to only mowing in straight lines.

Hover mowers work differently as they don’t have wheels. Instead, they create a cushion of air between the mower and the grass (similar to a hovercraft). This means you can mow in any direction you want.

If you have irregularly shaped lawns, being able to mow side to side as well as backwards and forwards makes your weekly lawn care much easier. It makes cutting the grass quick and easy in areas where you might struggle with other lawn mower types.

Secondly, mowing sloped lawns is generally easier when using a hover mower.

Hovering on a cushion of air makes them feel lighter when pushing and pulling them up and down inclines.

And lastly, the best hover mowers are pretty much ready to use straight out of the box.

Most other lawn mowers need at least some kind of assembly, plus;

Cordless lawn mowers need charging before use
Petrol mowers need fuelling and priming in order to start them, and
Robotic lawn mowers like the Flymo 1200R can take hours to set up

Why You Might Not Choose a Hover Mower

Many hover mowers are mains powered so they’re limited by the length of their power cables.

Also, power cords can be dangerous. Several people have died as a result of cutting the power cord with their mower. If this worries you, have a look for the best cordless mower.

For large lawns you could remove the limitations of a power cord by investing in a petrol hover mower.

However, these can be heavy. Especially when carrying them from your shed to the lawn as they don’t have wheels to help you.

For massive lawns, a hover mower won’t cut it. You’re only sensible option would be a sit on mower.

Something else to consider is the current state of your lawn.

If it’s thick with overgrown grass, bumpy and uneven, a hover mower probably isn’t the best choice.

On the other hand, if you have formal or ornamental lawns, you should invest in the best cylinder mower you can afford.

Lastly, hover mowers often lack the features of other types of lawn mower.

If rollers for striping, the ability to collect, mulch or discharge grass clippings and self-propelling features are important to you, choose another type of mower.

Even adjusting the mowing height is done differently. Instead of simply moving a lever you’ll need to get the spanners out, remove the blade, add or remove some spacers before re-attaching the blade.

It’s not a difficult job but it takes minutes instead of seconds.

In Conclusion

The hover mower market is relatively small so coming up with this list was fairly easy.

Hover mowers aren’t my favourite by a long stretch. I’d much rather have a quality electric mower with a roller or even better, a cordless mower for smaller lawns.

For larger lawns, I’d much prefer a conventional petrol mower over a petrol hover mower.

About Tim Stephens

I’m a professional gardener with degrees in Horticulture Landscape Gardening. I want to help you create the garden of your dreams. I want your garden to look like it’s maintained by a professional. As if I was there doing it all for you!

1 thought on “Best Hover Mowers in the UK: Reviews of My top 5 Picks”

I have a Flymo Hover Mower which I prefer to Lawn mowers with wheels has I can get right up to and over the lawn edge but I also agree that power cords can be very dangerous, I’m for ever getting tangled in the power cord which is attached to an extension cable. I can quite readily understand that people can die as a result of cutting the power cord with their mower. My question is Flymo have a cordless lawnmower on the market but as of yet haven’t produced a Flymo Cordless Hover Mower which I would prefer but will they ever produce what I prefer in the future? Regards John Reply

The best cordless lawn mowers in 2023

Looking for the best cordless mower? Browse our experts’ pick, from budget to premium models.

A lawn mower may be one of the first purchases we make when getting a garden of our own, but that doesn’t mean finding a good quality one is easy. There are so many models and brands on the market to choose from, including corded electric and petrol, but as their range increases and fall, cordless, battery-powered models are an increasingly popular option.

Light and compact compared with traditional petrol models, cordless mowers are simple to use, easy to manoeuvre around the garden, and have none of the maintenance and servicing needs or costs of petrol lawnmowers. Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which charges up quickly and won’t lose power in storage, they’re also quiet and emission free.

To compare these cordless mowers against other types of mower, we’ve reviewed the best lawn mowers, robotic lawn mowers, electric lawn mowers and push mowers, too. And if your lawn needs a bit of attention, our experts have tested a range of the best manual and powered aerators and scarifiers.Keep edges looking neat with our pick of the best strimmers, the best garden shears and the best lawn edging, and if you’re thinking about somewhere to store your new mower, our comprehensive guide to choosing the best garden shed will be helpful.

For your next DIY project, have a look at the best cordless drills.

The best cordless mowers to buy at a glance

Cordless mowers. Buyer’s Guide video

Many thanks to Rosie Yeomans and Sparsholt College for their help in making this video.

Getting the best cordless lawn mower for you means ensuring it has the correct cutting width, range of cutting heights, and weight plus a battery run time that matches the size of your lawn. We’ve tested a range of cordless push mowers, putting them through their paces across a range of grass and terrains, to help you find the right one for your garden.

Each mower has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set up and storage, handling, mowing and value for money. Every mower in our round up below has scored a minimum of four out of five stars, so you can buy with confidence.

In every review we award outstanding products our coveted Best Buy award. To see these and the others we recommend, browse our pick of the best cordless lawn mowers, below.

By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Best Buy cordless mowers

Husqvarna Aspire LC34-P4A

Our rating: 4.9 out of 5

Quiet
Cuts even long grass with ease
Battery level visible while mowing
Small and compact for easy storage
Part of the POWER FOR ALL cordless range

Flying Hovercraft Lawn Mower. No Wheels

Part of the new Husqvarna Aspire cordless range, which includes a hedge trimmer, pruner and leaf blower, this 34cm mower is powered by an 18V POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE battery and charger. These are interchangeable with tools in other leading brands such as Flymo, Gardena and Bosch so if you also invest in tools in these ranges, you’ll only need to buy the bare tool and won’t have different batteries and chargers taking up space in the shed.Great for small gardens the mower comes ready to go, there’s no assembly or handles to attach, and it folds down to a compact size when you’re finished, with a telescopic handle that folds completely flat over the body of the mower. It can then be stood up against a wall or hung up, and even comes with a handy hook. The 30l grass bag also flattens down to take up very little room and can be hung on the mower. The Aspire is light, with a carry handle so that lifting it up steps or into other areas is easy and it has an adjustable handle to suit different height users. It’s comfortable and easy to manoeuvre around the garden and has just four cutting heights to choose from, ranging from 25-65mm and changed easily with a single lever on the body of the mower. It cuts grass quietly and smoothly and has an automatic boost that increases blade speed when you’re mowing in tougher, longer areas that works well. You can hear it kick in when you push the mower into longer grass and unlike other cordless mowers that can cut out, just carries on cutting the grass. While you mow the battery charge level is always clearly visible so you know how much battery you have left and when it needs charging. It comes with a two year warranty and we awarded it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy in 2023 for ease of use.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 95 mins; run time. 500sqm. Cutting: width. 34cm; height. 25-65mm. Grass box. 30 litre.

Buy the Husqvarna Aspire C34-P4A cordless mower from Husqvarna and Sam Turner

Greenworks GDG24LM33

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Easy to assemble and use
Comfortable padded handle
Choice of mulching or collecting clippings
Interchangeable battery with Greenworks 24V family

Ideal for smaller gardens this sturdy, great value cordless mower is easy to put together, well thought out and simple to use. Thanks to a padded handle it’s comfortable to push, although it did feel a little short for our taller tester, and it’s light and easy to manoeuvre around trees and beds and borders. There are five cutting heights to choose from, adjusted with the simple lift of a lever and it offers the choice of collecting clippings in the 30 litre fabric grass bag or inserting the mulching plug and leaving them on the lawn to break down and feed the grass. It mows well but doesn’t like very long grass, with the battery cutting out occasionally but its long lasting brushless motor offers a a decent run time of 46 minutes and it charges in two hours. Plus, as part of the Greenworks 24V family, both the battery and charger are interchangeable with all the other tools in the range, saving you money if you invest in more in the future. We awarded it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for the best budget cordless mower in 2023.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 120 mins; run time. 46mins. Cutting: width. 33cm; height. 25-70mm. Grass box. 30 litre.

Yard Force LMG37A 40v 37cm

Our rating: 4.8 out of 5

Rear roller
Double folding handle for easy storage
Quickest charge time
Part of the Yardforce GR40 cordless range

This sturdy mower has a 37cm cutting width and useful features including a rear roller for those much desired stripes. Awarded a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy in 2022 for small to medium lawns, clippings are collected in the large 40 litre fabric grass bag. It offers a wide choice of seven cutting heights, from 25-75mm, and is easy to fold away at the end of the day. The 40V battery is quick to charge, taking just 50 minutes and when full it has the capacity to cut a 400m2 lawn.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 50 mins; run time. 400sqm. Cutting: width. 37cm; height. 25-75mm. Grass box. 40 litre.

Buy the Yard Force LMG37A 40V 37cm cordless mower from Yard Force, Amazon and Wickes

The Best Robot Vacuums

We now recommend the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO (and the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, with included dock) as the best robot vacuum.

The i4 EVO and i4 EVO are virtually identical to our previous picks, the i3 EVO and i3 EVO, but have a longer run time and are typically less expensive.

We plan to test two new robot vacuums, and will update this guide with our findings soon.

Best Cheap Lawn Mower UK (Best Lawn Mower under 100pounds)

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.

What to consider

Your choice: clever app-controlled bots that clean rooms on command or simpler yet Smart-enough models.

Check dimensions and choose a model that can easily get under couches and other furniture so you don’t have to.

Most bots work okay on rugs, but we found the models that pull up the most hair and dust. (They’re all good on bare floors.)

We spoke with sources in the floor-care manufacturing industry to help make sense of all the low-cost, off-brand options.

Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

The i4 EVO is better than competitors at getting pet hair out of rugs, and its nimble nav system helps it consistently and thoroughly clean large spaces. Like any iRobot Roomba model, it should be durable.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 0.

Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

This is the Roomba i4 EVO packaged with a charging dock that automatically sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works—and it makes owning a robot vacuum even easier.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 525.

The iRobot Roomba i4 EVO works well in most homes, large or small, because it drives in orderly, back-and-forth rows, keeping track of where it has or hasn’t been, so that it doesn’t miss any big patches of flooring. It also has Smart mapping, so you can tell it to clean or avoid specific rooms.

The Roomba i4 EVO is sturdy and repairable—you can reasonably expect to own it and use it regularly for years.

It’s also better at cleaning rugs than most other bots, and hair doesn’t get tangled in its brushes as quickly.

You can remotely turn the robot on or off and optionally set an automatic cleaning schedule. The downside is that it doesn’t work quite as fast as some competing models.

Another neat option: The iRobot Roomba i4 EVO adds a charging dock that automatically sucks the debris out of the robot and stores it in a disposable bag.

iRobot also sells a few models that are very similar to the Roomba i4 EVO and are worth buying instead if you find them on sale, including the iRobot Roomba i3 EVO and Roomba i3 EVO (with dock), which are identical to the i4 EVO and i4 EVO but have smaller batteries, and the older Roomba 900 series.

Super-Smart bot, great price

This bot is slightly smarter than our pick, with better mapping, easier app navigation, and more reliable voice commands through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. But it can’t clean rugs as well as a Roomba model, and it may not last as long.

Super-Smart bot, empties itself

This is the Roborock Q5 packaged with a charging dock that sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works well automatically and on-demand through the app.

Buying Options

Like our top pick, the Roborock Q5 can map multiple levels of your home, so it knows where to clean and where not to clean. Its maps are slightly better than our top pick’s.

The Roborock app is easier to use, and it has a larger dustbin and a battery that runs more than twice as long as that of our pick.

But the Q5 is a slightly weaker cleaner than our pick, especially on carpet.

The Roborock Q5 performs exactly the same as the Q5 but comes with a charging station that can empty debris from the robot right into a disposable bag.

Smart, sturdy, and affordable

This tried-and-true robot vacuum is much more durable and repairable than similar bots from other brands and is better at cleaning rugs, too. It’s a nimble navigator that rarely gets stuck, though it works best when it has to clean only a few rooms at a time.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 180.

Quiet, nimble, and affordable

This affordable robot vacuum is quieter and fits under more furniture than most models we’ve tested. While it works best in small spaces, it rarely gets stuck, and it does a good job on bare floors and short-pile rugs. It’s not as durable as our other budget pick, though.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 200.

Cheaper robots usually have semi-random navigation systems. (We like to call them bump-and-run bots.) That’s fine for cleaning three or four rooms per session (or a little more if you’re patient), though the bumbling aimlessness gets on some people’s nerves and makes such models inconsistently effective at tidying larger areas.

The iRobot Roomba 694 is our first budget pick, but really, any model in the Roomba 600 series is a good choice, since they are all strong cleaners, especially on rugs, thanks to the dual-brush and dirt-detection systems. They are also sturdier than any bump-and-run models from any other brand we’ve tested, which more than offsets the Roomba line’s slightly higher sticker price. The Roomba 694 is the most current model with Wi-Fi (for on/off remote control through a smartphone app).

Also consider the Eufy RoboVac 11S, which is so quiet and nimble that it blends into the background like no other robot (apart from the dozen or so clones from Eufy itself and other brands). This basic, bump-and-run bot sounds more like a desk fan than a vacuum—even if you’re home while it works, you’ll barely notice it running. It’s shorter than most bots, which lets it glide under more furniture, picking up plenty of hidden debris. The big downside is that the RoboVac 11S and other bots like it don’t seem to be built to last for more than a couple of years on average, and we’ve heard about plenty of unrepairable breakdowns that happen even sooner.

Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 0.

Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

This is the Roomba i4 EVO packaged with a charging dock that automatically sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works—and it makes owning a robot vacuum even easier.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 525.

Super-Smart bot, great price

Super-Smart bot, empties itself

This is the Roborock Q5 packaged with a charging dock that sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works well automatically and on-demand through the app.

Smart, sturdy, and affordable

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 180.

Quiet, nimble, and affordable

This affordable robot vacuum is quieter and fits under more furniture than most models we’ve tested. While it works best in small spaces, it rarely gets stuck, and it does a good job on bare floors and short-pile rugs. It’s not as durable as our other budget pick, though.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 200.

Why you should trust us

Senior staff writer Rachel Cericola first started testing Smart-home devices more than 20 years ago, when the only Smart-home devices were X10. She has been covering Smart-home gear for Wirecutter since 2016, and she has had her hands on everything from in-wall light switches, LED bulbs, and water-leak detectors to video doorbells, outdoor security cameras, and security systems. She has also written tech articles for The New York Times, Wired, and Men’s Health, among others.

Wirecutter’s Liam McCabe wrote the previous versions of this guide, evaluating some 200 robots and testing close to 50 models since 2012.

In addition to all the testing, this guide includes feedback from dozens of bot owners who live in all kinds of homes and households. On top of that, we’ve read hundreds of on retail websites, expert reviews, posts in enthusiast forums, and other reader or viewer Комментарии и мнения владельцев anywhere we can find them, including all of the feedback from Wirecutter readers, and we’ve talked to representatives from just about all of the major robot vacuum brands (and plenty of minor ones), including Ecovacs, Electrolux, iLife, iRobot (Roomba), Kyvol, LG, Neato, Roborock, Samsung, and Shark, as well as a few former engineers from some of those companies.

Who this is for

Yes, robot vacuums can actually keep your floors clean. They’re more than a toy or a novelty item, and they can be a valuable floor-care tool in most homes. If you’re short on time, have mobility or dexterity issues, or just hate vacuuming, a robot vacuum is likely to make your life easier.

The key is that bots don’t procrastinate or get bored, so they spend more time cleaning, and they clean more thoroughly, than almost any human. Pet owners and people with young kids in particular seem to gain a lot from bots, but many robot vacuum owners have told us that they are amazed at how clean their floors look and feel after they start using one regularly. If you run your bot a few times per week, or even every day, crumbs and pet hair will never get a chance to pile up; the mess is gone before it becomes a nuisance, with very little effort on your part required.

All you need to do is press the start button, and the robot figures out the rest—though some models let you control which rooms to clean in a given session. ( on how navigation works below.) All bots try to return to their charging dock at the end of a session (and usually succeed). You don’t even have to remember to turn on your bot every time you want to use it: Most of them allow you to set them to run on a schedule, and you can turn many of them on through an app or a voice assistant. Some even empty their own dustbins. And others can (sort of) mop while they vacuum.

Bots don’t procrastinate or get bored, so they spend more time cleaning, and they clean more thoroughly, than almost any human.

Bots work on almost any kind of bare flooring and on most kinds of carpets and rugs—though there are some exceptions, such as high-pile rugs and some very dark flooring (which can impede the bots’ infrared sensors). Bots can reliably pick up most kinds of common floor debris, including hair, crumbs, dust, and cat litter. Some people are comfortable using a robot as their only floor-cleaning vacuum (along with a handheld vacuum for couches, car seats, and the like), though bot owners tend to also own a traditional vacuum that they use to deep-clean their rugs on occasion.

Most robot vacuums will get snagged on charging cables, which jam the brush roll or sometimes pull the bots off course. Video: Michael Hession

Bots also tend to struggle with thresholds, certain types of furniture supports, and sometimes even floor-to-rug transitions. Video: Michael Hession

If a robot runs across anything smearable, get ready to do some nasty cleanup. Video: Michael Hession

Most robot vacuums will get snagged on charging cables, which jam the brush roll or sometimes pull the bots off course. Video: Michael Hession

Some caveats: Robots are much weaker than traditional vacuums—the strongest models we’ve tested have less than one-quarter of the raw suction of even an average cordless stick vacuum—so they can’t pick up the finest dust and the most deeply embedded hair in your rugs, and sometimes they even fail to pick up obvious debris. Bots don’t climb stairs, so you need to carry them between levels (they usually weigh between 5 and 10 pounds). Certain kinds of run-of-the-mill household clutter, such as power cords, lightweight floor mats, and stray laundry, can trap or confuse bots, as can tall thresholds, shag rugs, and dark, non-reflective surfaces like black carpets (which can trick a robot’s anti-drop sensors into perceiving that it’s about to fall down a flight of stairs and needs to back away). Errant dog turds pose a hazard, too.

Try not to watch your robot work. It will look stupid sometimes, and that can shatter the illusion that you have an artificially intelligent magic machine.

Every bot we’ve tested—even the latest models with sophisticated navigation and Smart-home integration—has gotten trapped or tangled at least occasionally. Lots of current robot vacuums let you use a smartphone app to set up invisible barriers around areas where your bot seems to get into trouble (such as around chairs and pet bowls), but you can also make physical adjustments (keeping socks and USB cables off the floor is a big one) or just deal with the occasional failed cleaning session.

Our advice: Try not to watch your robot work. Robots look stupid sometimes—making weird turns, missing spots, struggling to escape from a trap—and that can shatter the illusion that you have an artificially intelligent magic machine. The happiest owners tend to be those who leave their bots alone, so it’s better to let your robot do its job in peace. All you need to do is hit the start button, do some occasional maintenance, and appreciate your tidy floors. If you insist on watching, maybe get a robot with laser-based navigation, because they look the most like they know what they’re doing.

In the end, however, some people can’t get comfortable with the limitations. Try to buy from a retailer with a return policy of at least a few weeks in case a robo vac isn’t a fit for your lifestyle.

How we picked

It’s an excellent time to be a robot vacuum buyer. for robots with sophisticated navigation and Smart-home features have fallen by half compared with just a few years ago. The simplest robots cost less, too. Few robots are truly terrible anymore.

We’ve aimed to recommend a handful of robots that should work well in most homes and aren’t wildly expensive. But plenty of models that we don’t explicitly recommend can be good or great, too, and we cite many of them throughout this guide.

Based on years of at-home use and side-by-side testing, as well as an AI-assisted analysis of Amazon customer reviews with a tool called FindOurView, we’ve determined that nimble navigation is the most important element of a great robot vacuum, followed by cleaning performance and then repairability. Smart maps that let you set up barriers and target individual rooms for cleaning can also be especially handy, as can self-emptying docks. And we also consider privacy and security, among other features.

How we tested

For every robot vacuum, we run at least two regular cleaning cycles across about 1,000 square feet, with lots of obstacles and thresholds. None of the rooms have any wall-to-wall carpet, but the space does have several area rugs, with styles ranging from lightweight doormats to rubber-backed, medium-pile rugs that take up half a room. The test house also has cats, kids, and other family members, all of whom leave plenty for each robot to pick up.

Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 0.

Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

This is the Roomba i4 EVO packaged with a charging dock that automatically sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works—and it makes owning a robot vacuum even easier.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 525.

The iRobot Roomba i4 EVO is the first robot vacuum we recommend to most people because it’s Smart enough to clean an entire level of a home in a mostly orderly pattern without missing spots, and compared with similar bots from other brands, it’s a stronger cleaner in a sturdier, more repairable body. The Roomba i4 EVO is a great choice if you want a robot that mostly just works, without your having to fuss with settings. The Roomba i4 EVO can also work with the iRobot Clean Base automatic-emptying dock, and the two are sold together in a combo package as the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO. (Read more about self-emptying docks below.)

The Roomba i4 EVO stands out from other brands’ robots at this price mostly because it’s more durable and easier to repair. We don’t often hear about Roomba bots completely breaking down, even after a couple of years of regular use (though as with anything, it does happen). Like any robot vacuum, the Roomba i4 EVO may need new parts from time to time, but all the replaceable parts, from brushes and batteries to wheels and transmissions, are available directly from iRobot, and you can always do the repair at home with just a screwdriver. (In a rare show of commitment to supporting its products over time, iRobot even still stocks parts for older Roomba models—we’ve found parts for models dating back to 2004 and every model released since then.)

The Roomba i4 EVO is a better cleaner than most robot vacuums—at any price. We know this from assessing the visual results in our tests, but also from weighing the contents of the robot’s dustbin after vacuuming sessions and comparing that against the performance of other vacs.

Roomba models (including the i4 EVO) are the only robot vacuums that employ two brush rolls that rotate toward each other, an arrangement that works well on all surfaces but offers its biggest advantage over other robot vacuums’ brush rolls on rugs. In fact, the “brushes” on the i4 EVO are really rubber-nubbed extractors, which are particularly good at picking up pet hair, especially from thicker and higher-pile rugs, without much hair getting wrapped around the roller. All Roomba bots, including the i4 EVO, also have a dirt-detection system—another feature you can’t find in other brands’ bots. When a Roomba model senses that it’s passing over an area with a lot of debris, it stops and makes a few passes back and forth to pick up as much as possible.

The Roomba i4 EVO’s cleaning weaknesses are the same as those of most other bots: It sometimes misses a spot, gets caught on cords, and may struggle on really high-pile carpets, where the aggressive brushes can jam on the long fibers. But we’re confident that the i4 EVO can out-clean other bots on more surfaces with more types of debris.

The Roomba i4 EVO has two counter-rotating “extractor” rolls, which we’ve found to be excellent for cleaning rugs and resisting tangles. It also has much more suction than Roomba 600-series bots, which helps its bare-floor pickup. Photo: Michael Hession

The dustbin on the i4 EVO is smaller than those on some other bots at this price, but the upgraded Roomba i4 EVO comes with a dock that automatically empties the bin when it’s full or at the end of a cleaning session. Photo: Michael Hession

You can connect the Roomba i4 EVO to your Wi-Fi so that you can use a smartphone app to tell it to start or stop, instruct it to return to its dock, or create a cleaning schedule, if you’d like, though doing so is totally optional. Since we first tested this model, iRobot has added Smart mapping, which allows the i4 EVO to run through the house, without cleaning, in order to create a single floor plan that is saved in the app. You can then label rooms and tell the vac to clean specific areas (or avoid ones that are particularly cluttered). We’ve concluded that the Roborock Q5’s Smart mapping works better, but this new addition to the i3 and i4 EVO makes it slightly smarter than it was previously.

Like many robot vacuums at this price, the Roomba i4 EVO can thoroughly clean big spaces by following a (mostly) logical, orderly path throughout a home. To do so, the i4 EVO uses floor sensors, bump sensors, gyroscopes, and infrared (to communicate with the home base). That means it doesn’t miss many spots or waste much time recleaning the same areas, as our budget picks, or other low-end models that navigate semi-randomly, usually do. The i4 EVO should also reliably return to its charging dock. And it doesn’t get stuck on obstacles like thresholds or power cables often. Just don’t watch it too closely—it acts a little weird sometimes.

The Roomba i4 EVO also works with the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant Smart-home platforms, so you can control the bot with voice commands and integrate it with other Smart devices around the home. Senior staff writer Rachel Cericola tested these features but found using voice commands on both platforms to be a little frustrating. She often had to repeat commands and hold back-and-forth conversations with both voice assistants to tackle simple tasks, and she had to do a web search to learn what commands the Roomba i4 EVO could handle and how to state them properly. Rachel will continue to test these features to see if they improve after future software updates.

The iRobot app allows you to start and stop cleaning, as well as to schedule the bot to run when you’re out of the house.

In early 2022, iRobot added several new features to the app, including Smart mapping and integration with Siri voice commands.

The iRobot app allows you to start and stop cleaning, as well as to schedule the bot to run when you’re out of the house.

Siri Shortcuts worked a little better in our tests since we could customize the wording of our voice commands, but their overall functionality is limited. For example, you can’t use Siri to set up Automations as you can with Alexa and Google Assistant—though to be fair, Automations on those two platforms are pretty limited, as well. Using Alexa, Rachel was able to create an automated Routine that would tell the Roomba i4 EVO to start vacuuming whenever Rachel and her smartphone left her house. Automations also work with motion detection on a security camera, so you can trigger the vacuum to start whenever you enter or exit a room, but we’d like to see more options for triggers to tell the vacuum to clean, such as when outdoor or indoor lights are turned off at night. However, as with most robot vacuums, you could also set a Schedule to accomplish these tasks.

One neat feature: The i4 EVO can work with iRobot’s Clean Base auto-emptying dock. A package of the two together is sold as the Roomba i4 EVO and usually costs at least 300 more than the robot by itself. (We go into more detail about self-emptying docks later in this guide, but the gist of it is that the system works and is really convenient—you can go a month or more without having to clean out and dispose of debris by hand.)

The iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, Amazon, and privacy

Any robot vacuum with mapping and Smart features necessarily introduces some privacy concerns since it collects data about you and your living space. We’ve included the most up-to-date privacy and data practices behind the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO and our other picks below. Some people may feel uneasy about a robot that is purpose-built to roam around their living space, learning every contour along the way. And Roomba vacuums in particular have come under heightened scrutiny since Amazon announced its intention to acquire iRobot in August 2022, which to many people expands the potential array of privacy problems. As Wirecutter’s Thorin Klosowski writes in our article about the announcement: “Combine a home’s floor plan with all the various data that different Alexa-enabled devices collect, plus everything you shop for, and you don’t need to sport a tinfoil hat to see the privacy implication: A company whose main purpose is to sell you more stuff is sitting on vast amounts of data.”

So far, the privacy concerns surrounding the Amazon acquisition are mostly theoretical, but we’re keeping our eye on any developments. As of November 2022, the Federal Trade Commission was still reviewing the acquisition, so it’s unclear whether or when the deal will go through, and what the implications for Roomba owners may be. For now, we’ll continue to monitor the privacy practices of iRobot, as well as the companies behind all of our picks. If you want a Smart-mapping robot vacuum whose maker won’t potentially get acquired by Amazon, you can opt for the Roborock Q5. Or, you can sidestep privacy concerns altogether with a non-Smart robot like our budget pick, the Eufy RoboVac 11S.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

A possible side effect of the Roomba i4 EVO’s design is that it may be relatively slow compared with other Smart-mapping bots, such as our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5. Whereas those other bots use lasers or cameras to help them map and clean areas, the i4 EVO still utilizes gyroscopes and sensors to help it navigate. Laser-nav bots can learn your home’s layout in a single session, whereas the i4 EVO and higher-end Roomba models (see below) typically need two or three sessions of training. The laser-nav bots also tend to bump into less stuff than the Roomba bots do and complete their jobs faster as a result. However, we still predict that Roomba bots on average will last longer than any of their competitors and work better at getting hair out of rugs.

What about higher-end Roombas?

If you like most of what you’ve read about the Roomba i4 EVO, you might consider upgrading to a smarter Roomba.

The Roomba j7 has an object-detection system that helps it steer around dog poop and power cables. (Like most robot vacuums with object recognition, the Roomba j7 uses a camera, which may present privacy concerns.) We plan to run additional tests on this model, and we will update this section as needed. It’s also available as the Roomba j7, bundled with a self-emptying dock that’s shorter and arguably better-looking than the dock that comes with the i4 EVO and the i7. (The j7 dock is not cross-compatible with the i4 EVO and i7 bots, unfortunately.)

The Roomba i7 is an older model and tends to cost less than the new Roomba j7. We wrote a review of the self-emptying Roomba i7 in 2018, when it was brand-new, and at the time we called it the best robot vacuum that money could buy. The rest of the industry caught up very quickly, so the i7 is no longer such a standout, but it still works well. It’s no longer one of iRobot’s “core” models and isn’t available through as many retailers as others, but you can still find it in plenty of places for now. The functionally identical Roomba i6 is also common, as are the auto-emptying Roomba i6 and Roomba i8.

Then there are the top-of-the-line Roomba s9 and self-emptying Roomba s9, which we do not recommend. Instead of the classic puck shape, the s9 has a D-shaped body and extra-wide brushes intended to improve its edge-cleaning and corner-cleaning abilities. It also has four times more raw suction than the already-strong Roomba i4 EVO, i7, and j7. That helps it consistently pick up larger debris such as cat litter or yard waste better than most robots, though it still doesn’t come close to deep-cleaning dust from a rug like a traditional vacuum does. But when we tried the s9 in 2020, it was one of the clumsiest navigators we’d ever tested. We watched it stubbornly try to shove itself into spaces where it obviously couldn’t fit, roughing up some furniture in the process. This behavior would be annoying from a 400 robot, but it’s especially frustrating from a robot that can sometimes cost more than our favorite dishwasher. iRobot representatives told us that the company fixed the navigation problems via a software update following the robot’s launch, so we plan to reevaluate it in future testing.

Also great: Roborock Q5 and Q5

Super-Smart bot, great price

Super-Smart bot, empties itself

This is the Roborock Q5 packaged with a charging dock that sucks all the debris out of the robot after a cleaning session. It works well automatically and on-demand through the app.

Buying Options

While the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO is better at cleaning, the Roborock Q5 is smarter. Equipped with a superior mapping system that can store multiple maps for different levels of the home in both 2D and 3D, the Q5 also has an easy-to-use app and responds well to voice commands. It cleans admirably (though not as well as the Roomba i4 EVO, particularly on carpets), moves fast, and steers clear of larger obstacles.

Like its predecessor (and a previous Wirecutter pick), the now-discontinued Roborock S4 Max, the Q5 shines with its Smart-mapping feature. Using its laser rangefinder (lidar) and bump sensors, the Q5 learns your floor plan in a single cleaning session and creates an interactive map in the companion app. That map, which you can view in 2D or 3D, allows you to set up a bunch of cool tricks, such as targeted room cleaning and no-go zones, without having to manually move the bot or fiddle with physical barriers as you would with other robots, including our other picks. It also allows you to create and store maps for up to four levels, which is a nice perk if you want to use the bot on different floors of your home.

The Roborock app has a lot more features and control options than iRobot’s app for the Roomba i4 EVO.

Under the Settings menu are even more customization options, such as turning the robot to Do Not Disturb mode or telling it to charge during certain hours.

The Roborock app has tons of features and customizations, and it gives you more control over navigation than you can find on other robot vacs. It also provides a better user experience and works more reliably than its closest competitors’ apps.

Even setting aside the Smart maps, the Roborock Q5 is still one of the best navigators we’ve tested. The laser-nav system, combined with speedy processing, helps the Q5 plan a cleaning path where it avoids bumping into most furniture and walls, so it finishes its job noticeably faster and with less thunking around than most robots, especially non-laser navigators like the Roomba i4 EVO and even the Roomba i7. It rarely misses any accessible areas of a home, as random-navigation robots (including our budget picks) sometimes do. In our tests, even when it did bump into an object its lidar turret didn’t detect, it course-corrected more quickly and more accurately than other bots.

When you add up all those little optimizations, the Q5 saves a noticeable amount of time compared with other bots. The bigger your home, the more valuable that greater speed may be, as long as you’re willing to trade some cleaning performance. The Q5’s massive battery should power the bot through at least 1,500 square feet without having to recharge, even on the bot’s strongest suction level, whereas other popular bots, such as the i4 EVO, need to stop and repower for a while after cleaning about 1,000 square feet.

The Q5 dock can automatically empty debris from the bot into a removable bag. Photo: Michael Hession

The Roborock Q5 has a single brush roll (plus one side brush), which we found to be less effective on carpets than Roomba’s dual-roll design. Photo: Michael Hession

With the horde of copycat bots that have flooded Amazon and other retailers, the Q5 might not always be the best deal among robots of this type. But Roborock has been making quick, Smart, strong-enough robots for longer than most of those knockoff brands, and the company seems to do a better job of supporting its devices, so we’re comfortable recommending the Q5 as a standout in its class.

We also found the Roborock Q5 to be easier to use and program than other robots we tested. Roborock has one of the better apps among all the robot vacs we’ve tried, with a plethora of features that are easy to find and use, including scheduling, the option to spot-clean certain areas, and remote-control options that allow you to use on-screen buttons or a joystick. On the robot vac itself, you’ll find a power button and a home button; the latter can send the device back to the dock or tell it to spot-clean if you hold it for a few seconds. The Q5 also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri Shortcuts. We found that all three responded to voice commands very well; this was most evident in how the robot always reacted after our first request, no repeat commands necessary. And like the Roomba i4 EVO, the Q5 does allow you to ask Siri to clean specific rooms. For instance, you can say “Hey Siri, go clean the kitchen,” and the bot will do just that. As we mentioned earlier, Siri Shortcuts does not provide the ability to create Automations.

The Q5 is a good cleaner, although not quite as good as the i4 EVO. Also, the Q5 would regularly say that it had completed a job, when a quick look told us otherwise and we knew that we would have to restart the cleaning cycle.

Reliability and longevity are hard to predict, but the information we’ve gathered from suggests that Roborock bots aren’t quite as reliable as the average Roomba model over the course of a few years—but they aren’t some short-lived throwaway thing, either. Roborock does a decent job of keeping spare parts like filters and spare brushes in stock for its recent-model robots, which is an improvement over the company’s spotty stock status in past years. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether spare parts—particularly the expensive ones, like battery packs—will still be available beyond the short term (let’s call it three years), and Roborock has been noncommittal when we’ve asked for clarity on its long-term product-support strategy. Even if you can find something like a spare transmission or wheel, it’s not so easy to just swap it in using a regular screwdriver, as it is with Roomba devices. But we’re happy to report that Roborock seems to be establishing a decent reputation for product quality and support.

Like the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, the Roborock Q5 comes in two flavors: with and without a self-emptying dock. We found the Roborock Q5 to be convenient, although slightly louder than the Roomba i4 EVO during the emptying cycle.

Budget pick: iRobot Roomba 694

Smart, sturdy, and affordable

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 180.

If you need to vacuum only a few rooms at a time, and you’re looking to save a few bucks, consider the iRobot Roomba 694, or really any model from the 600 series. You can find plenty of affordable robot vacuums that can keep small spaces tidy, but for a budget pick we recommend one of these basic Roomba models because they’re more durable and repairable than other brands’ bots, and they work better on more types of rugs, especially if you need to clean up a lot of hair.

The biggest difference from our top picks is that the Roomba 600 series doesn’t have Smart mapping and navigates semi-randomly rather than following an orderly, predictable path. This was the norm for robot vacuums until a few years ago, and a lot of people were happy with that approach. But as of 2022, Smart robots are much more common and affordable—and much better at cleaning large spaces consistently and efficiently. Even so, the semi-random bots still have a place in the world, and we’ve concluded that the Roomba 600 series is a great option if you want a simple, sturdy bot for a fair price.

The 600 series comes in a few variants. We’re using the Roomba 694 as a shorthand reference to the 600 series throughout the rest of this section, but if you encounter a Roomba bot and the model number starts with a 6, everything you’re about to read applies, except that the Wi-Fi capabilities vary from model to model (more on that below).

The main thing that makes the Roomba 694 stand out from other affordable robot vacuums is that it’s more durable and easier to repair (just like other Roomba models, as we covered earlier). They generally don’t break, spare parts are always in stock, and you can swap in everything from a new filter to a new transmission with nothing more than a screwdriver. Usually you pay more for the Roomba 694 than for our other budget pick, the Eufy RoboVac 11S, or other super-cheap bots with random navigation. But the Roomba bot can easily pay off in the long run because it’ll last longer. In fact, several Wirecutter staff members have owned Roomba 600-series bots for several years and have found them to be sturdy and reliable.

Another advantage is that the Roomba 694 (like other Roomba models) has two counter-rotating brush rolls, mounted in a suspension system, whereas every other bot at this price has a single brush sitting at a fixed height. Even the cheapest bots we’ve tested do a good job of picking up the most common types of debris from bare floors and short rugs, but the Roomba 694’s design helps it work better on rugs, especially when it needs to pick up a lot of hair. The Roomba 694 also has a dirt-detection system, which helps the bot reliably clean the most obvious piles of debris as long as it encounters those piles on its semi-random travels.

The Roomba 694, like most affordable robots, is what we call a bump-and-run navigator. Basically, it bloops around semi-randomly until its battery runs low, and then it tries to get back to its dock before it completely runs out of juice (and doesn’t always succeed). It looks silly, but it’s basically effective, especially in smaller spaces. And even though it navigates with absolutely reckless abandon, we’ve found that it’s actually a lot less likely to get stuck on random hazards around the house than other bots, as it has several specific “escape” routines for common traps.

The good-enough navigation, the 90 minutes of battery life, the effective brush design, and clever features like the dirt-detection sensor all add up to a consistent clean, as long as you’re relying on the Roomba 694 to tidy up only three or four rooms at a time. Judging from our experience, it can be useful in spaces as large as 1,000 square feet, as long as you run it most days of the week as a habit and can forgive that it might not thoroughly clean every room every time that it runs. But some people don’t want to deal with unpredictable coverage, and that’s understandable. If you want a smarter robot, take a look at our top pick, the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, and our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5.

Compared with other cheap bump bots, the Roomba 694 is a little rough on furniture. It slows down but doesn’t stop short of obstacles. If all the clomping and bonking noises would be likely to bother you, or if you’re nervous about the Roomba 694 possibly knocking a priceless vase off a wobbly side table, consider a gentler bot, such as a Eufy, or a bot that tries to navigate around obstacles, like a Roborock. (You can purchase “virtual walls,” which prevent a Roomba bot from entering certain rooms or areas, for 40 apiece, but generally you’re better off just closing a door or putting up a physical barrier.)

The Roomba 694 (but not all Roomba 600-series models) can connect to your home Wi-Fi network, so you can use its smartphone app to turn it on or off even if you aren’t home, or create a cleaning schedule, or check if the filters need replacing or the sensors need cleaning. You can also control it through Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri Shortcuts, using voice commands to start and stop the bot, as well as to send it back to its docking station. As with our top pick, Rachel often had issues with Alexa and Google Assistant, where she would have to repeat commands or the Smart speaker wouldn’t understand her requests to control the Roomba 694 (although we had better luck with Siri on all of the Roomba models we tested). She will continue to monitor this feature for updates, as it’s very handy if you have your hands full, are on another floor, or have mobility or dexterity issues.

Budget pick: Eufy RoboVac 11S

Quiet, nimble, and affordable

This affordable robot vacuum is quieter and fits under more furniture than most models we’ve tested. While it works best in small spaces, it rarely gets stuck, and it does a good job on bare floors and short-pile rugs. It’s not as durable as our other budget pick, though.

Buying Options

At the time of publishing, the price was 200.

The Eufy RoboVac 11S and other Eufy bots whose model names begin with a number instead of a letter stand out as some of the quietest robot vacuums we’ve tested. They’re also some of the shortest, so they can fit beneath more pieces of furniture. Like the Roomba 694, the Eufy 11S is semi-random in its navigation, so it’s best for cleaning just a few rooms at a time. It’s not great at getting pet hair out of plush rugs, but it works fine for keeping bare floors and short rugs pretty tidy. However, the basic Eufy series isn’t as durable as Roomba models, nor is it built to be repaired.

The 11S is quiet enough that you could easily forget that it’s running if you’re home at the time. We measured the volume on the bot’s maximum suction setting and found that it was just 57 dBc, a full 5 decibels quieter than the Roomba 694—that’s a major difference. On its normal suction setting, the 11S operates at just 53 dBc, sounding more like a fan than a vacuum cleaner (traditional vacuums are often 70 dBc or louder because of their much stronger suction). And since the 11S stops short of most obstacles, it avoids creating many of the bonking impact noises that the rougher Roomba 694 makes. Other basic Eufy models have slightly stronger suction and can be a couple of decibels louder, but they are still quieter than most competitors.

Another surprisingly useful upside to the basic Eufy bots is their short body. At 2.85 inches, the 11S is almost a full inch shorter than the Roomba 694, enough for it to glide under even lower-clearance furniture, where dust and hair build up but never see the light of day. We were surprised the first time the 11S disappeared under a bed—and then more surprised when it reemerged with an unholy amount of cat hair stuffed into its bin and wrapped about the brush roll.

It may end up cleaning more of your home than other bots just because it fits beneath more stuff.

As for cleaning, we’ve found over and over again that basic Eufy bots are capable of picking up all the most common types of debris off bare floors and low-pile rugs. It’s actually kind of surprising how effective they are, since the advertised suction is so modest, and the single brush roll is small. If you have plush carpets and a lot of hair to deal with, though, you’re likely to prefer a robot with better brush action and possibly stronger suction.

In one test, the basic Eufy RoboVac 11S spent an hour picking up enough debris to fill the palm of our hand. It was mostly hair, some crumbs, some dust—a typical load. Next we ran the Neato Botvac D7 (usually 700 when it was a current model), and it picked up only enough hair to coat the filter and a bit of dust. Then we ran the iRobot Roomba s9 (usually 1,100), and it came back with barely anything in the bin. We repeated the experiment a few days later and got the same results.

The Eufy 11S doesn’t have Wi-Fi or any Smart-home connectivity, but you can still set a daily cleaning schedule with the remote control. Photo: Michael Hession

The 11S and similar Eufy models have a manual steering mode (Roomba models don’t). In that mode it’s useful for quick spot cleanings, sort of like a cheap stick vacuum.

Eufy makes several RoboVac models built on the same base as the 11S but with extra features. Those can include extra suction, which marginally improves cleaning performance; Wi-Fi connectivity and Smart-home integration, which lets you turn the bot on or off via app or voice and set detailed schedules; and compatibility with barrier tape, which is a cumbersome eyesore (if you really need barriers, buy a bot with Smart mapping, such as either of our main picks).

We’ve tried several Eufy models, including the RoboVac G30 Edge, the RoboVac G30, and the RoboVac G20. The last is the newest model, but it’s our least favorite of the trio, and none are better than our top picks. We like the G30 models best since they include very basic mapping, a 110-minute run time (versus 90 minutes on the G20), a Cleaning History in the app, and more push buttons on top. The G30 Edge package adds boundary strips to avoid certain areas, which work but are a little ugly.

The following table is a cheat sheet outlining the most popular Eufy bump bots (not a full list of all Eufy models) as of November 2022.

A tip on pricing: A representative from Eufy told us that the company puts its robots on sale so often that you really don’t need to pay full price for any of its robots if you can afford to wait.

Eufy RoboVac models are not meant to be dismantled and put back together—doing major repairs is impossible without breaking parts of the robot.

The biggest problem with the RoboVac series is that these bots don’t last as long as Roomba models do. About a year after the 11S was released, we started to hear from owners whose bots had already died. On the other hand, one staffer has had the 11S for four years, and it’s still going strong. The bigger problem is that RoboVac models can’t be fixed when they break. We dismantled an older Eufy RoboVac 30 and found that doing major repairs was impossible without breaking parts of the robot. The Roomba 694, on the other hand, was easy for us to strip down and then reassemble with just a screwdriver.

Eufy is good about honoring its warranty if a bot breaks down within the one-year window, and the company often extends a discount on purchase of a new one to customers whose bots break outside the warranty period. The company does sell some replacement parts, too, including filters, brush rollers, side brushes, brush guards, and batteries through Amazon—but no replacement wheels or brush transmissions, as iRobot does for Roomba models. Many people are likely to get years of reliable service from their Eufy bots, but the picture is starting to become clear: They won’t last like Roomba models will.

We’ve also discovered that, as of late 2021, several other brands are selling near-copies of the Eufy bots. on these clones later.

Other good robot vacuums

Roborock alternatives: Wyze, Ecovacs, Proscenic, and loads of others

We’ve tested a handful of other affordable-ish bots with quick, accurate laser-based navigation and Smart-map features—a few among dozens of similar models that we don’t have time to test, some of them from brands that appear to exist only in Amazon listings. From what we’ve seen in our own testing and what we’ve learned about the workings of the vacuum industry, these bots and their apps are pretty likely to have a lot of overlap in their hardware and software.

All of these bots have worked well, but they lack some of the polish of our top picks. The downside of some of these other bots is that you might end up having a hard time getting customer support; it won’t always be clear where you can obtain spare filters, brushes, or other consumable parts, let alone major components like battery packs, wheels, or lidar assemblies. We’ve also noticed that the lesser-known brands have not updated their robots’ software with bug fixes or new features as consistently as Roborock has.

The most noteworthy Roborock alternative is the Wyze Robot Vacuum. Wyze is known for selling good-enough and implausibly affordable Smart-home gear such as security cameras, locks, and thermostats, in addition to the laser-nav Wyze Robot Vacuum. It has consistently been one of the lowest-priced models of its ilk (around 100 cheaper than the Roborock Q5). We tested one, and it worked a lot like all the other laser-nav models. The robot itself felt relatively flimsy, but we have no clue what to expect in terms of durability, and our analysis of didn’t turn up any unusual complaints. The main reason we don’t recommend the Wyze bot is that the app can’t currently remember maps for multiple floors of a home—it learns one level, whereas Roborock bots can remember up to four levels. According to the Wyze customer support forums, a beta version of the Wyze app supports multiple maps, and it’s supposed to be released widely at some point. If that doesn’t matter to you, or if you’re willing to believe that Wyze will actually release that multi-level update soon, the Wyze robot seems like a decent-enough option.

Ecovacs is another notable brand. We’ve tested a handful of its laser-nav bots over the past few years, including the Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI (a higher-end but otherwise similar version of the N8 and N8 Pro). All of the Ecovacs models we’ve tested worked fine when they were new, but you can usually find a better bot for a lower price. Their major flaw lies in the Ecovacs app, which is glitchier than others. Also, these bots may not be as durable as those from other brands. In our analysis of for the Deebot Ozmo 920, one of Ecovacs’s most popular laser-nav bots from the past few years, we spotted a relatively high percentage of complaints about the bots breaking down within a year, due to either lidar-unit failures or batteries that no longer held a charge. Many of those reviewers also noted difficulty getting replacement parts. We can’t be sure whether other models will have similar rates of problems, though the typical owner ratings for Ecovacs laser-nav bots tend to be a few tenths of a point lower than the ratings for other brands’ models. To Ecovacs’s credit, we’ve found that its bots are a little better at traversing tall rugs and large thresholds than other brands’ bots.

We also tested the Kyvol Cybovac S31, along with its auto-emptying dock, and it was perfectly decent (at least when new). The navigation (as of late 2020, at least) was a little clumsier, and some of the details—including the translation in the app, manual, marketing materials, and even the voiceovers from the bot itself—lacked polish. It also came with a clip-on mop (fine). In. the main complaints about the bot included glitchiness, an unstable app, and poor customer service.

Based on our testing, the Eufy RoboVac X8 seemed to be a fine laser-nav robot vacuum, but it’s relatively expensive and doesn’t offer meaningful improvements over the company’s cheaper models. Its defining feature is supposed to be its strong suction, with two turbines pulling 2,000 pascals each (whereas most laser-nav bots have a single turbine and less than 2,500 pascals of suction total). That’s fine, but it’s slightly less than what you get from the slightly more affordable Roborock Q5. The older Eufy RoboVac L70 is still available, as well, but its app is not capable of permanently remembering specific rooms in a home, which makes it substantially less convenient than most current laser-nav bots.

Even Shark and Samsung joined the laser-nav bonanza (after previously releasing robots that used camera-based Smart navigation), with the Shark AI Robot Vacuum RV2000 series and the Samsung Jet Bot and Jet Bot AI, respectively. Of the three, we’ve tested only the AI, and we wouldn’t recommend it based on its cleaning abilities. We’re confident that the Shark model and the lower-end Samsung bot will work similarly to all the other laser-nav robots described in the previous few paragraphs. Their “everyday” are a bit high, but we’ve seen some pretty good deals on the version of the Shark that comes with a self-emptying dock. Since we know that laser-nav bots are all fairly similar to one another, this Shark model could be a good choice if you see it on sale.

You can find tons more laser-nav robots with largely similar specs and appearance, including bots from barely-there brands such as Tesvor, Dreametech, Viomi, and Honiture. Again, our educated guess is that they all probably work okay and are just more prone to app glitches and less likely to get useful software updates over time than models from the best brands in this category.

The only brand in this category we would be sure to steer clear of is 360. The 360 S9 worked just fine in our tests—we imagine that the cheaper S5 and S7 would, as well. But the brand’s parent company, Qihoo 360, is on the US Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List, which means it has “been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Other not-quite-as-Smart robots

Shark’s non-laser robots are reasonably priced and look great on paper but are just okay in the real world. We’ve tested a couple of iterations of the Shark IQ RV1000 series since 2019 (with self-emptying docks), as well as the Shark AI Robot VacMop hybrid, and we’ve found that they’re much more prone to app glitches and stupid navigation than bots from the best brands. They’re also pretty loud on bare floors, sounding sort of like a two-stroke lawn mower puttering in the distance. To their credit, they seem to be strong cleaners, particularly on bare floors.

Neato was a pioneering robot vacuum brand, and iRobot’s only credible competitor from about 2010 through 2015, but since then, it has continuously produced models that are mediocre at best. Vorwerk, the company that acquired Neato in 2017, announced in spring 2023 that Neato would shut down.

The Trifo Max worked fine in our tests, nothing impressive or obviously bad. suggest it gets lost pretty easily, isn’t built to last, and has poor customer service. We haven’t tested Trifo’s other models, but we would expect similar results.

Miele designs and manufactures many wonderful appliances, but the glitchy, easily confused Miele Scout RX2 isn’t one of them.

The Electrolux Pure i9 is an oddity that we want to love but can’t recommend. In our tests, the unique 3D mapping system was fantastic at helping the bot avoid obstacles, but the bot’s short battery life and tendency to waste time spinning in place meant it couldn’t reliably clean even a smallish apartment in a reasonable amount of time.

We wouldn’t recommend the Coral One robot-handheld hybrid at any price. In our tests it was uncomfortably loud—by far the noisiest vac we’d ever tested—and the nav system was not effective. It has no Wi-Fi support or barrier system. It sort of converts into a handheld vacuum, but it’s heavy, and you need to remember where you put the awkwardly shaped nozzle.

Cheaper, simpler robots: Mostly Eufy clones

Dozens of cheap bump-and-run bots are now available. We keep finding deals on bots from no-name brands like Amarey, Coredy, Goovi, and Onson, all of which present product dimensions that are barely distinguishable from those of the Eufy RoboVac 11S and similar Eufy models we recommend.

We bought one of the Goovi models, and lo and behold, we found that it was functionally identical to the 11S, with many of the same components and even the same beep and boop sounds. (We haven’t linked to any specific Goovi bot because the listings seem to come and go all the time.) After doing a little research on the robot-vacuum supply chain, we’re pretty confident that all of these brands are basically selling variations of the same robot.

The point is, if you see a robot vacuum that has the same specs as the Eufy RoboVac 11S or another Eufy model, particularly the height (give or take a few hundredths of an inch), it’ll probably work exactly the same way. Go ahead and get one if you see it at a deep discount. One caveat: Eufy has an okay reputation for customer service, whereas several of those other obscure brands barely have a believable web presence, so they may not be as quick to help if you have a problem that’s covered by the warranty.

We’ve also tested some cheap bump bots that are slightly different from the standard-issue Eufy, including the Eureka Groove. That bot was basically fine, but it couldn’t match the agility of the Eufy model (and its endless clones) or the durability of the Roomba bots we’ve tested.

What about robots that avoid poop (and other obstacles)?

Some high-end robot vacuums now include advanced obstacle recognition in their navigation systems. In theory, these systems should help the robots drive around any floor clutter they find, and even assist them in avoiding hazards like dog turds. (It’s rare, but accidents happen and smears follow.) The utopian vision is that, with this kind of so-called artificial intelligence, you’re freed from the burden of pre-tidying your home before you run the robot, and the bot will never get stuck on socks, cords, or any number of common traps.

Most robot vacs with object-recognition rely on an onboard camera, which not only identifies obstacles (such as cords and stray socks), but takes an image of the purported clutter so you can see what was avoided. It’s important that anyone using a camera-equipped robot vacuum understand that the bot may inadvertently record images that many would consider private, such as photos of people, including children, in the home. Those images may be sent to the Cloud and shared with third-party companies (such as those that analyze photos), in order to improve the vacuum’s capabilities and features.

In December 2022, an MIT Technology Review article revealed that images captured by cameras on development models of iRobot Roomba vacuums were leaked publicly by a third-party company, Scale AI, with whom iRobot had shared the data. Some of the images showed people, including children, in private settings. When reached for comment, an iRobot spokesperson clarified that the breach took place in 2020 and that the images came from research development robots that were used by paid data collectors and iRobot employees—they weren’t consumer models. Further, the spokesperson says “[iRobot] took immediate steps to alert those individuals in the leaked images, immediately stopped all work with Scale AI, and has provided notice of termination to Scale AI. We have sent a few follow-up questions to iRobot about its data practices, and will update this guide, as needed.

We will also continue to monitor reports and how and why robot vacs are using your data, but when it comes to object-recognition robots, we just don’t think they are worth your time, money, and possible privacy tradeoffs—yet. Certain models are pretty good at avoiding certain obstacles, but none of them reliably avoid every kind of common floor clutter, and some models don’t deliver on their promises at all.

The iRobot Roomba j7 (or j7) is a higher-end version of our top picks and costs a little extra. It doesn’t clean any better than our top pick, and can’t avoid all obstacles yet. (It was launched in fall 2021, and representatives from iRobot suggested to us that it will get smarter over time through software updates.) However, the one obstacle that the company does promise it will avoid—with a replacement guarantee—is poop. “You’d be surprised at how many types of poop there are,” said Hooman Shahidi, then iRobot’s vice president of product development, in a conversation with Wirecutter. He noted that the company has curated a large learning library of different “shapes and configurations” of pet waste.

We tested the claim out with a fake turd made from Nutella and oatmeal, and the j7 worked great. The j7 spotted the faux feces from a few feet away (the LED ring on the bot flashes blue for a second when it perceives an obstacle) and then methodically worked around the mess, never getting closer than about a foot. It also did a good job of staying away from a power strip, a power cord, and a USB cable. But it didn’t recognize (or at least didn’t try to avoid) our other obstacles, including toys, a sock, a shoe, and a water bowl. We like this bot for a lot of other important reasons (expected durability, cleaning power, Smart navigation), and the obstacle recognition is almost like a toss-in feature, so it isn’t a bad buy. Will it actually learn to avoid more stuff, as iRobot says it should? The company has a good history of following through on those kinds of promises, but you should expect the improvements to trickle out over several years, not months.

The Samsung Jet Bot AI worked its way around a lot of objects but still managed to knock over a few hockey sticks and a bucket of golf balls. When it avoided obstacles, it often misidentified them in the app—and all of that would be fine, if it cleaned effectively. But it doesn’t work very well on even low-pile carpet and is an absolute no for pet owners.

We also tested the Ecovacs Deebot T8 AIVI, which failed to avoid any objects. It just informed us in the app, after the session was over and the Nutella was smeared everywhere, that there were many objects on our floor and that we should pick them up.

One of the reasons robot vacuums help your home feel so tidy is that they force you to pick stuff up off the floor.

Overall, we’re not convinced that obstacle avoidance is really the holy grail of robot-vacuum technology. Yeah, avoiding the occasional accidental pet waste is valuable. But the other stuff maybe isn’t as valuable. One of the reasons robot vacuums help your home feel so tidy is that they force you to pick stuff up off the floor. Even if advanced obstacle recognition worked well enough to let you skip the pre-tidying, your home would still feel messy.

What about vacuum-mop combo robots?

Many robot vacuums can double as mops—well, more like weak Swiffers. You just clip on a water reservoir (no cleaning solution allowed with most models) and a microfiber pad behind the vacuum intake, and the bot wipes the floors while it vacuums.

We’ve tested a bunch of combo bots across a few different designs for our guide to the best robot mops. Here’s the gist: They work okay if your floors don’t get especially dirty. You can’t count on them to wipe away stuck-on grime or sticky spills, just light stains, spatters, and dust that the vacuum might miss. We don’t think “mop upgrades,” such as vibrating pads or app-enabled control over how much water the bot uses in a specific room, are worth paying extra for. None of those extras are bad things, but they don’t meaningfully improve the cleaning performance. Dedicated robot mops, such as our pick, the iRobot Braava Jet 240, work better, but if you think a vacuum-mop combo will work for you, we plan to test a few newer models in the near future.

Robot navigation is the hardest, most important thing

Many of today’s robot vacuums are great at thoroughly cleaning every room in a home without getting lost or stuck. But the industry took a while to get to this point.

Bruno Hexsel, a software engineer who worked for Neato in the early 2010s, told us that he spent a huge chunk of his time at the company developing algorithms to help robots get unstuck from common hazards. (Hexsel and other former robot-vacuum engineers have gone on to work on the navigation systems for self-driving cars, because the challenges are pretty similar to those of robot vacuums.)

So the first order of business for any successful robot vacuum is to avoid or at least escape from potential bot traps and hazards. This is important because if you set your bot to clean while you’re out of the house, but it gets stuck, say, under the dining room table within the first 10 minutes, you’ll still have dirty floors when you get home. Even if you’re home to babysit your robot and rescue it from trouble, that kind of defeats the purpose of having an automatic vacuum.

The list of potential hazards and bot traps is extensive, though the most common ones include power cords, charging cables, stray laundry (especially socks), curtains, bedsheets, floor-to-rug transitions, rug fringe and tassels, floor vents, tall thresholds, black rugs (they fool the bots’ anti-staircase sensors), and furniture with curvy legs (such as baby jumpers or rocking chairs). Some homes have more of these traps than others; most homes have at least a few.

Tons of engineering choices affect the way robot vacuums handle obstacles. Among them are the number and placement of bump sensors, the type of other obstacle-detection sensors (infrared or lidar or even cameras), how the anti-staircase sensors are calibrated, how the bot senses the tangles and jams, the brush motion, the size of the wheels, the spring tension and pivot placement in the suspension, and the software that translates the sensory information into robot actions.

We can’t pinpoint one spec or feature that helps a robot navigate well—we just have to test the bots and see how they do. Some cheap, dead-simple bots are especially nimble, while certain high-end models struggle constantly. But for the most part, modern robots are pretty good at navigation, and many models now give you the option to draw invisible boundaries around problematic areas using a smartphone app.

The next important task for a robot vacuum is to cover as much ground as possible, as efficiently as possible. Plenty of models (including our picks) can reliably clean homes, both small and large, by moving in an orderly path throughout the home and making a map of where they have or haven’t been. A typical pace is about 1,000 square feet in about an hour. Bots rarely miss patches or waste time recleaning areas that they’ve already visited. If their batteries run low before they can finish cleaning an entire level of a home, they’re Smart enough to drive back to their dock, recharge for a few hours, and then pick up where they left off.

These bots can use a handful of different technologies to make their maps. The laser rangefinder (lidar) method has become the dominant tech (the Roborock Q5 Max uses it) and is excellent at quickly learning a home’s layout. But some great robots rely instead on a camera (like the Roomba j7) or gyroscopes (the Roomba i4 EVO, for one), and they also get the job done—just a little slower, while bonking into more stuff, and with a slightly higher chance of missing areas.

Many of these robot vacuums can also pair with a smartphone app, which lets you command the bot to clean specific rooms or sections of a room while ignoring other areas. This “Smart mapping” tech is particularly convenient, and it’s one of the most compelling reasons to spend a little extra on a robot. For example, you could send the robot to vacuum your kitchen and dining room after dinner while skipping the bedrooms and den so that the bot doesn’t disturb you while you’re relaxing or studying or whatever. And then you could tell the bot to clean those rooms at a time of day when nobody is around. Another option is to set up do-not-cross lines or no-go zones, which is a great way to keep bots out of areas where they tend to get stuck or make a mess (like around pet food bowls).

The main downside to Smart mapping is that, like anything that increases the complexity of a system, it adds more opportunities for something to go wrong and disappoint you. Browse the for any robot vacuum with Smart maps, and you’ll find stories about problems with setting up the map, the map being inaccurate, the bot ignoring the zones on the map, or weird changes happening to the map over time. It’s a huge annoyance and letdown when the Smart maps don’t work. With the best models, mapping glitches don’t happen often, but problems will eventually crop up for everyone who owns one of these bots. At some point, you might have to erase your old maps and retrain the robot.

On that note, there is still a place in the world for cheaper robots that rely on semi-random navigation. (We like to call it bump-and-run navigation.) If you need to clean only a few rooms at a time (800 square feet is a comfortable upper limit), one of these models can get the job done. This simple system relies on luck and persistence—basically the bot bumps into something, spins in place to a semi-random angle, drives off, and repeats the process until its battery runs out (it’s actually a little more sophisticated, but you get the idea).

All robot vacuums need a little maintenance. In most homes, a bot is likely to stay in good shape if you do about 15 minutes of maintenance per month, maybe a bit more if the bot has a heavy workload.

Shake off the filter every few sessions.
Replace the filter every few dozen sessions. You could save some money by using third-party filters, which are extremely unlikely to harm the bot, but you may void your warranty if you happen to send in your bot for repairs with one of them in the filter slot.
Cut away any hair wrapped around the brush roll as necessary. Most bots come with a tool that can cut and then brush away the fuzz.
Clean the bearings on the brush roll, caster, and side brushes every few weeks. You might need a screwdriver for this job, but many bots let you pop out the parts with no tools.
Wipe the sensors clean as needed, according to the manufacturer’s guidelines—usually with a microfiber cloth or cotton swab with a little water or rubbing alcohol.
Keep a can of compressed air handy in case you need to blow dust out of gears or other hard-to-reach nooks in the bot.
Replace filters and side brushes a few times per year, the brush roll about once a year, and the battery as needed—probably every second year, though that depends on how often you use the bot.

If your bot breaks down outside of the warranty period, you may be able to repair it, particularly if it’s a Roomba model. Don’t chalk up the bot as a total loss until you check to see whether the broken part is available as a replacement.

What to look forward to

We plan to test several new robot vacuums soon, including the new Shark Matrix Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum, which empties itself into a bagless base and is equipped with a self-cleaning brush roll, object detection, and a recharge-and-resume function; and the new Dyson 360 Vis Nav, which has 360-degree vision and, according to the company, “two times the suction of any other robot vacuum cleaner.”

This article was edited by Courtney Schley and Grant Clauser.

Frequently asked questions

Do robot vacuums really work?

Yes. Although robot vacuums are weaker than traditional vacuums, they can reliably pick up most kinds of floor debris, and they work on most bare floors and carpets.

Do robot vacuums need Wi-Fi?

No. Although many robot vacuums do connect to Wi-Fi so that you can control them remotely via an app or receive software updates (and you need to connect your bot to Wi-Fi if you want to use features like Smart mapping or voice control), most bots also have physical controls. Some, like the Eufy RoboVac 11S, don’t include Wi-Fi capabilities at all.

How often should I run my robot vacuum?

It’s really up to you, but the advantage of a robot vacuum is that it can clean floors more often than many people are willing to vacuum. If you schedule it to run every few days, or even every day, dust and crumbs never have a chance to accumulate, leaving your floors feeling cleaner than they would without a bot.

Do any robot vacuums empty themselves?

Some do, including a version of our top pick, the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, and our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5. Self-emptying robot vacuums come with a big charging dock that sucks debris out of the robot through a trapdoor in the dustbin and stores it in a disposable bag or a bagless bin. You still have to toss the bag or empty the bin regularly, and the charging stations are big, noisy, and kind of ugly, but the system saves you from having to empty the dustbin on the robot every time you vacuum.

Sources:

https://www.gardenseeker.com/reviews/garden-machinery/best-hover–mower/
https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/lawn-care/best-cordless-lawn-mowers/
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-robot-vacuum/

Lawn Mowers best, electric, hover, mower, small

Small electric hover mower. Best Hover Mowers in the UK: Reviews of My top 5 Picks

Best Hover Mowers in the UK: Reviews of My top 5 Picks

A quick comparison

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Flymo TurboLite 260 Lightweight Hover Mower. Best Value

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Flymo Hover Vac 270 Hover Mower with Grass Box

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Flymo Glider Compact 330AX Hover Mower with Grass Box

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McGregor Hover Mower with Grass Box

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Flymo XL500 Petrol Hover Mower. Best Overall

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Why Choose a Hover Lawn Mower?

Why You Might Not Choose a Hover Mower

In Conclusion

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The Best Robot Vacuums

Best Cheap Lawn Mower UK (Best Lawn Mower under 100pounds)

What to consider

Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

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Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

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Super-Smart bot, great price

Super-Smart bot, empties itself

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Smart, sturdy, and affordable

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Quiet, nimble, and affordable

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Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

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Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

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Super-Smart bot, great price

Super-Smart bot, empties itself

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Why you should trust us

Who this is for

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Excellent cleaner, Smart enough

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Strong, Smart-ish, empties itself

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The iRobot Roomba i4 EVO, Amazon, and privacy

Flaws but not dealbreakers

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Budget pick: iRobot Roomba 694

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Other good robot vacuums

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Other not-quite-as-Smart robots

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What about robots that avoid poop (and other obstacles)?

What about vacuum-mop combo robots?

Robot navigation is the hardest, most important thing

What to look forward to