The vacuum captures almost every particle on bare floors, keeping debris contained in its disposable bag. But it’s a little louder and tougher to handle than some others because of its 21-pound weight. Based on our member surveys, Kenmore vacuums as a brand receive middling scores for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.

It’s not all about suction. In my testing, the brush is also a big factor in how well a robot will clean your floors. A large rubber roller brush is much better than a small bristle brush at picking up debris.

A robot that maps your house will get into every nook and cranny better than one that bumps and rolls around. Mapping also lets you send the robot to clean specific rooms rather than the whole space and add virtual walls to prevent your bot from going where you don’t want it to.

Its charging dock is very big, though, giving off a real Wall-E vibe. But despite the size, there’s pelo spot for an auto-empty dustbin; instead, Narwal’s disposable onboard bin compresses the dust, and Narwal claims you won’t need to empty it for up to 60 days.

Many of today's best robot vacuums are also able to mop floors. This can be useful if you have a mix of hard floors and carpet, but be aware that robovac mopping tends not to clean as well as good old manual mopping.

Our reviews are underpinned by specific, standardized tests. Here's a rundown of our review process.

It’s also noticeably quieter than many models. It gets dinged a bit in our handling test, which evaluates how easy it is to push, pull, and carry the vacuum, but that’s on a par with other canister vacs we’ve tested. And its carpet cleaning is very good, but not the highest. Still, this model comes from the only vacuum brand we test that gets top scores from our members for both reliability and owner satisfaction.

Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well and — thanks to bigger batteries and better robot brains — rarely get tired of doing their job.

【Slim Body & Quiet Clean】 Robot vacuum cleaner has a compact design with a height of only 2.89", plus 360 degree Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners universal wheel, making it possible to effectively clean those hard-to-reach corners, like under the bed, sofa and cabinet. 60dB low noise in quiet mode will not disturb you, so you can do job rest assured.

These are becoming standard now and coming down in price (thankfully). A self-empty dock turns the charging base for your robot into a motorized emptying station that sucks out the dirt from its bin. (Warning: this process can be loud!

But there’s pelo hot water washing or hot air drying of the mop as there is on similar Dreame and Roborock models, so you’ll want to throw the pad in the washing machine every now and then.

The dock is also very compact for a self-empty model. The interior space is mostly given over to a larger-than-normal dust bag, which means you won't be bothered by the tiny onboard bin.

Mopping was better than average for a mop with pelo pressure or oscillation. It has a wide mop pad, and the bot has a big 300ml tank (which also incorporates a 300ml dustbin), so it applies enough water to do a good surface clean.

It also takes a while to charge and occasionally had trouble repositioning itself on its dock. You can get the RV30 without the auto-empty dock for around $80 less if you prefer an even simpler robot vacuum setup. This way, it will fit under a couch or bed, but you’ll have to manually empty its bin.