best robot vacuum under 200 Rated Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robot vacuums are fantastic to keep your floors clean but they cannot replace the regular vacuum. Even the most powerful robots struggle to get into carpets and rugs. They also often get caught in socks and cords.

Being on top of routine maintenance (replacing filters, cutting tangled hair from brushes, and emptying the dust bin) can help your robot last longer.

Battery Life

The majority of robot vacuums can manage a few cleaning sessions before needing to recharge. The runner-up of our top picks, the Ecovacs Deebot Q30S Combo is that is designed to last for up to 180 minutes (3,230 square feet) of cleaning time on a single charge. That amount of runtime is enough to clean the majority of smaller homes that have the combination of hard floors and low-pile carpets or a larger house with rooms that are roughly the same size.

A longer battery life also means the robot vacuum cleaner price can spend more time cleaning and less charging on its dock. It's recommended to select models that have a self-emptying dust bin, since those models are more efficient when it comes to collecting debris and returning to the dock for recharging. It's also important to clean or replace the filter and wipe down sensors and cameras regularly so that they are able to see your home clearly.

Smart mapping technology is an important feature to look for because it allows you to program your robot to only clean certain rooms or avoid areas where it's more likely to bump into furniture or other obstacles. It's also helpful for ensuring your robot can get under and around beds, sofas and other furniture with a high height. Some cheap robovacs come with boundary strips you can use to block off certain areas. Other models of higher quality rely on cameras and sensors.

Even the best robot vacuums aren't able to replace a traditional vacuum for heavy-duty large-pile dirt and debris. It's best to keep an electric vacuum in your home for these tasks and schedule robot vacuums for light cleaning throughout the week.

Navigation

A robot should be able of traveling around your home and not getting caught or crashing into objects like metal screws or pet hair, or sand. In our tests we used a tracking device used to track the robot through an entire lab. It then analyzes its surroundings. We also check how well the robot can avoid obstacles like power cords, best robot vacuums furniture legs, and pet waste.

The best robots can create different floors and recognize landmarks like doors and windows. The most advanced ones such as the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, come with a dual-sensor navigation device which uses a LIDAR sensor to map out the room and a structured light camera on the front of the robot to detect objects in real-time. This lets the S8 to avoid common obstacles, such as power cords and furniture legs and can also store up to four different floor maps in its internal memory.

Cheaper models don't come with this kind of object detection and rely on bump sensors which aren't as precise. In my testing they cut right through cords, dog poop, and even a pair of shoes placed in the middle of the room cleaning robot. The Dreametech D10+ is the best value choice. It has excellent carpet as well as a hard floor, tangle and hair pickup. It also has an auto vacuum empty score that is near-perfect.

Another feature that is important is a large onboard dustbin that doesn't need to be manually emptied, and for the models that mop, a tank of water which can store weeks of mopping sessions. Karcher's RCV 5 is a good example of this. It has a large enough footprint to fit under furniture, but not so big that it can't fit into the nook between your bathtub and toilet.

Apps

Robot vacuums are similar to their upright counterparts and require a lot of technology to keep them up to date. The result is a pretty mature market with plenty of options. Even the most advanced models require interaction from their users especially when it comes time to schedule cleaning, make a the floor plan of your home and set up virtual barriers.

To help reduce this kind of interaction, look for a model that uses its own app to recognize the location of your home, and save these settings for the future. This will let the vacuum start where it left off on subsequent runs, without having to start the mapping process every time.

It is also recommended to look for models that provide zones or spot cleaning. You can tell the robot vacuum cleaner to focus on an area, like under the table after a large family meal. You can choose to do this using the app or by voice commands.

Many models also provide objects avoidance. It lets the robot detect objects in its path, such as the shoe box or best robot vacuums a crate filled with dog toys, and guide itself around it. This prevents it from running into objects which could harm its sensors or cause jams.

Some of the most expensive models we tested come with this feature. They rely on bump sensor technology to do this however they did not always keep things out of my test home.

Pet Hair

Choose the best vacuum cleaner specifically designed to remove pet hair. The top models feature powerful suction capabilities and a brush that is free of the tangling and an emptying mechanism that will automatically dump hair into the dust bin when it is needed. Some models are able to detect dirt levels and alter the level of cleaning. They are able to detect items that aren't part of your home's flooring, such as furniture and toys, food bowls cords, and much more.

Some robot vacuums include pet-friendly features, like a water dispenser that can be used for mopping floors and a HEPA filter that can reduce allergens such as pet dust. They may also offer an operation that is quieter, which can reduce the amount of sound generated during cleaning sessions.

Robot vacuums that include mapping capabilities are an excellent option for pet owners, since they are designed to analyze your home and create a plan of attack based on the layout and obstacles in each room. Shark Matrix Plus is a dual-purpose robot vacuum that can create a map of a room, and navigate around furniture and other obstacles by using accelerometers and gyroscope smart sensors.

Other models that are more advanced allow you to set no-go zones, which are areas that the robot is meant to avoid--like fragile items or pet feeding areas--by altering settings through an app. This feature is especially useful for families with busy schedules, since you can schedule cleaning sessions without needing to be in the room in which the vacuum is. Another excellent feature is spot cleaning, which lets you use the vacuum to clean a specific area that is particularly filthy or full of pet hair.

Dust Bin

If you're not searching for a small size, you'll want to choose an item that can hold at least a large bag of trash from one cleaning session. This is why we suggest opting for a model that has a large bin or even self-emptying bins. The former will enable you to keep track of cleaning the bin regularly enough to ensure you are on top of its performance and the latter will save you time and effort by automatically emptying its contents into an internal container every few cleans.

Regardless of the size of your house, most robots can easily climb up and around furniture, and almost all can recognize and navigate around household obstacles like shoes, loose cords, and dog urine. Make sure you choose models with smart mapping capabilities. This allows them to "learn the structure of your home and design a an efficient route.

Some models offer spot cleaning. This lets you choose a specific area of your home to be targeted for thorough cleaning. In our tests, we found that the top models are able to remove small particles like baking soda, sand orzo, metal screws, and pet hair, as well as heavier debris like oatmeal orzo, and screws made of metal.

According to the manufacturer, robots can last years and still perform well, as long as they are properly maintained. For instance cleaning hair that is tangled out of brushes and emptying dust bins after each use and wiping cameras and sensors down as needed. The best-performing robots also tend to be more modular, which makes them easier and cheaper to replace or repair parts such as wheels and batteries as they wear out.