The 9 best robot vacuum cleaners of 2022 according to lab tests

Also available at Walmart and best buy.

Why you should get it: In tests, this robot vacuum received top marks for effectiveness on both hard floors and carpets.

Keep in mind: It doesn’t have any of the high-tech features that other robot vacuums offer.

Whether your home has hardwood floors, tile, carpet, or area rugs, it’s handy when you can find a device that’s versatile enough to clean all surface types in one fell swoop. That’s why we tested the iRobot Roomba 694 as the best robot vacuum overall – this easy-to-use machine navigated multiple floor types with ease and collected dirt and debris with ease.

On bare ground, the Roomba 694 could pick up both small particles of sand and larger debris in a single pass, including grain, pet hair, and human hair. This is thanks in part to its edge sweeping tool, which helps push nearby debris under the vacuum so it can be sucked away by the powerful brushroll.

The Roomba 694 had no trouble transitioning between the hard floor and the carpet, although our testers did notice a temporary error in dirt removal when doing so. We were particularly impressed with how well this vacuum cleaned sand deep within the fibers of the carpet and left no trace of the initial soiling after going through it.

Plus, the built-in sensors allow the robot vacuum to navigate around furniture and large obstacles (although you’ll want to make sure there are no socks, power cords, or other small objects in its path). It can even detect and avoid stairs, so you’ll never come home and find a broken Roomba at the bottom of your stairs.

The Roomba 694 uses WiFi connectivity and an easy-to-use app on your phone to complete cleaning tasks. You can name your vacuum, start a scheduled cleaning job, locate the vacuum and tell it to return to the charging station from the app, so you can keep the vacuum running even when you’re not at home.

If you’re looking for a particularly high-tech robot vacuum with features like object recognition, automatic dirt removal, or intelligent mapping, you’ll likely find the Roomba 694 to be a bit low-tech. It doesn’t offer any of the fancy features that a more expensive robot vacuum might possess, but we found this to be an incredibly reliable and effective tool for hands-free cleaning on multiple floor types.

Product Details:

• Battery Life: 90 minutes
• noise level: 77 decibels
• Object Avoidance: no