✅ You also need a manual vacuum: Most people with robovacs also have a manual vacuum. The Ecovacs takes the fuss of that out by providing you with one in the first place.

Premium, but there are very few alternatives with this roller mop system. Plus you're paying for the comprehensive dock.

Ease of use: This score is a combination of factors, such as the size of the dustbin, whether the vacuum has a handle for carrying it around your home, how easy it is to clean the brush roll, whether the vacuum scatters debris, and whether you can schedule it for routine cleaning.

The j7+ comes with a cleaning base which is hard to fault. It can hold up to 60 days of debris and looks easy on the eye compared to other bases — plus it’s more compact too.

The eufy G50 Hybrid Robot Vacuum with Mop is a straightforward and compact appliance which utilises smart tech. It offers up to 4,000 Pa of strong suction to pick up food and dust and is thin enough to slip under tight spaces.

❌ You want something that mops well: The mopping here is just dragging a wet wipe across the floor, and not worth bothering with.

This bot was previously our top pick for hard floors, thanks to hot water mopping that's more than a match for greasy spillages.

✅ You want a hands-off dock: The dock will empty dust (into a larger than usual dock dustbin), refill water, dispense detergent and even wash and dry the mop pads, so there's minimal effort required from you.

Lefant M210 robot vacuum automatically returns to the charging station when the cleaning cycle is complete or the battery gets low.

Freely switch among different modes and power levels as you want via the Vactidy App. Preset a working time to get your T6 robot to start its daily Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners routine cleaning.

Carolyn Forté, the Good Housekeeping Institute's Home Care and Cleaning Lab executive director, has over quarenta years of experience testing and writing about all kinds of vacuums. For this roundup, she oversaw all of the testing conducted by Lynn Redmile, the testing and product review analyst who conducted our Lab's last full category test of robot vacuums where three of the picks on this list came from.

The LiDAR turret quickly scanned our home's main floor plan in a single passthrough. You can use Shark's app to name rooms, set pelo-go zones, and send the robot out to spot-clean a 5x5 area just by dropping a pin on the map.

❌ You're dealing with high levels of dirt: This robovac doesn't self-empty dust, and while the onboard bin will compress dust so it can hold a surprisingly large amount, you'll still have to empty it more than you would a traditional self-empty model.

Rugs should also factor into your buying decision. You might find that lower-end models will get caught up in tassels.