While the best robot vacuums can get nearly every inch of your floors, there's one place they can't reach: Your couch cushions. That's why the Ecovacs Deebot T30s Combo is a great option for those who want to clean their upholstery, but don't want to buy a second vacuum just for the task.

Another nice-to-have feature, AI-powered obstacle detection helps your robot “intelligently” detect and avoid clutter (and a potential poop apocalypse if it encounters pet waste). These models use cameras (worth noting) to see objects in their path and onboard processors to “decide” how to approach them based on what they see.

O.O.P), whereby iRobot will replace any j7+ that fails to avoid solid pet waste. This robot vacuum is constantly learning with every run too, making it one of the smartest I’ve seen. We dropped some fake dog poop in its path on test, and it didn't disappoint, swerving to avoid the mess. Although it didn't recognize larger objects, such as socks, shoes and dog toys at first — it should do this with time and software updates.

However, with an average pick-up score of almost 97 percent, it's a capable vacuum on both hard floors and carpet.

In our Lab tests: The Dreame H12 Pro is an updated version of a previously tested pick with many of the same capabilities and features. We sent it out to consumer testers who confirmed it was easy and effective to use.

She has been in consumer journalism since 2020, reviewing and writing about everything from outdoor kit to mattresses and wellness gadgets, with stints on Tom's Guide and T3.

As you'd expect at this price, this robot vacuum not short on features, including its own voice assistant. It can launched via the tap of a foot (although on test this didn't always work reliably), the base station will wash and dry the mop pads, the dust cups of the robovac and the handheld vac will Automóvel-empty when docked, and the mapping is outstanding.

So, ideally you will still want to run your regular vacuum every so often, while the robot vacuum helps keep dust down in the interim. By keeping on top of the light debris, you won’t need to use your full-sized vacuum so often.

With some 2-in-1 robovacs, the mopping is a bit of an afterthought, but the Eufy X10 Pro Omni has rotating pads that press down for a more thorough clean on hard floors. On test, it had no trouble at all cleaning a dried-on sugary drink and sticky sauce, automatically choosing the right amount of water for the job.

This pint-sized but powerful robovac is perfect for small homes – and it just dropped to less than half price

Today's top-specced robovacs can generate upwards of 10,000Pa of suction. That's rare though, and you're generally looking at machines that sit in the four-figure price bracket to get that kind of power.

It has advanced mapping which our top pick overall lacks, so it can record and remember a blueprint of multiple floors of your house after Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners just a few trips; you can then label individual rooms, and tell the s9+ to clean specific rooms on specific days.

As well as these standardized tests, my reviewers integrate these robovacs into their daily cleaning setup, to get a feel for how effective and user-friendly they are in general.

To assess object avoidance, we lay out a charge cable, a sock that's a similar color to the floor, and some fake pet poop, to see if it can reliably spot and avoid them.